... so he gave it to his mate Tom.

There was this rabbit called Tom, Who was given this huge bannana bomb,

When he saw that it was lit, He really really needed a shit,

... so he gave it to a bloke called John

I have this great mate John, in his posession - a large bannana bomb,

He knew it was lit, but did not give a shit

... cos this is the end of my song

Thank you England - Good night!!!

(rice whiskey rules!!!!)

Kinda gets you right here, doesn't it? What me? No. There's just something in my eye that's all. #Guy

- back to index

~ Beach!! -Bhav ~

Well we've reached Phuket, but what a Journey.... We arrived on our Beach Paradise no probs, although the boat was blatantly overloaded and load of water slipped into the boat. We got to our Bamboo Bungalow, and basically there was a beach, a small restaurent and loads of White sand, 3km of the stuff. There were also Hammocks..... and you'll not be surprised to hear that I had broken one of them within ten minutes of getting on it.(Stu and Marie had been on the same hammock for ages, and I can say almost for certain they had loosened the baby up for it to split on me with embarrassing consequences).

We left the Island on Sunday morning at 8am, and combined with two bus journies finally arrived in Phuket at 5.30. The buses were hot, packed with passengers and literally stopped every 30 seconds to pick up more. I had a sore arse when we finally arrived.... Anyways, had an early night last night in Phuket Town and off to one of the beaches in a minute where some cool night-life is definetely the order of the day!

Hope everyone is cool..... Lots of love Bhav

- back to index

~ Kangaroo Bar 29/11/2001 -Bhav ~

Well our time in Phuket is almost at an end.... and eventful three days it has been.

We got the friendly Mr. Chan to drive us from Phuket town to Patong beach, where Stu and I proceeded to look for suitable dwellings for three nights.... We found a hotel, 8 quid a night for all three of us, with en-suite shower, breakfast table area and Cable TV!!!!! We chilled for a while and then went into the centre of Patong for much fun and merryment, having downed the customary 80p bottle of cheap Thai Whisky before we left. Had a quick drink in a cool but quiet bar. We walked along, and saw this massive place, the "House of Horrors", so we went in. We were told we would walk through a load of scary rooms where actors were strategically placed to scare the shit out of you. At this point I shall quote my good friend Marie just before we got in

"Can't wait for this, It's gonna be so funny, Bhav's gonna shit himself"

The walk through the House of Horror should take 20 minutes. We went in at 10:35. We got to the end at 10:40, why? Cos the pansy lightweight Mrr screamed and sprinted through the building at breakneck speed. Yep, it was great being smug after the event.

After that we watched some May Thai, I got a little attached to one of the boxers, cos he was getting a pummelling, and he was in Blue, (his opponent was in Red and I can never follow anyone wearing that colour....), he got battered, but I made sure I tipped him top doller, well okay one quid! After that we headed onto the Kangeroo bar, having avoided all the strip lady boy shows and prositutes, there are loads of them in Phuket, and had a few beers to wind up the night. Tuesday was quieter, we stayed in and held a serious debate night, which lasted 5 minutes

Yesterday we actually managed to make it down to the beach. A nice beach, and I managed to join in on a game of Beach Footie with the locals. My first touch led to a goal for the others, and my record of not scoring on foriegn soil continues. Had a Curry to start of the night, a proper one and it was great. Then bar crawled around the many bars, ending back up at the Kangeroo bar. I was quite bolloxed, and then started on the Sambuca which wasn't a good move. On the way home, I had to fend of a couple of Lady Boys with a a couple of fags (all quite ironic really).

Now we have three to four days of solid travelling, all the way to Singapore to hook up with Julia. I think I will be a sweaty smelly mess when we get there.

Anyway, I think I've rabbited enough, all that left to say is Phuket is great.... and hope everyone is cool!

Lots of Love

Bhav

- back to index

~ Kuala Lumpur 04/12/2001 -Bhav ~

Full Size Version

Dear all,

Since I last wrote we have been to Kuala Lumpar and Singapore, where we are now. Our trip to Kl was horrendous though. We booked our ticket on the bus from Phuket, which left Thursday last week at 7.30pm, and then we changed near the border of Malaysia at 4am (we were told it would be 20 minute wait to change) and then direct to Kuala Lumpar to arrive at 4pm Friday.

What actually happened was that we got the border at 3am, and the next bus did not leave until 9.30am so we had to wait in the street for 6 hours. Lucklily Stu went to a hotel and they allowed us to stay in their hotel lobby until our departure. Anyway, we left at around 10am and then there was another change we were not told about in Butterworth. Again, we though it would be 20 minutes, but when we got to the travel agent he said we would not be leaving until 11.30 Friday night. If we wanted to leave earlier we would have to pay an extra 3 quid each. We payed the money, and finally arrived in KL 9pm Friday. We booked into our hotel, quite nice with a hot shower!!!!! They also have cable TV in the reception, and Internet. The moral of this story is 'Never trust a man wearing a Batman Shirt with Orange Shades' (He was the guy we booked our ticket with.)

So, we explored KL town, saw a few of the sights and stumbled across 'Flannigans', the Premier Irish Pub in KL. They even played Irish Music. Stu and I ordered a Pint of Guiness each, it was around two pounds fifty. 'Not bad', we thought, 'for center of town.', until we relealised that it was happy hour and that was half price. Having suitibly shat ourselves at the prospect of our entire travel funds being eroded in one night we hastially planned to down our pints and make a sharp exit.... until... Iwrin the barman told us the it was their 5th Anniversary Birthday Party that night and that from 8pm to 10pm all draught Lagers and Wines were free. Fools......... The rest of the night is a blur.... I remember falling arse over tit from a stool, Stu being sent mad by some song that seemed to go on for half an hour (it was the music for the Limbo competion) and me becoming emotionally attached to a balloon.

Anyways we left KL on Monday morning and arrived in Singapore in the evening. We went to a Hostel that parades as an Import Export business but is actually a cheap backpackers haven. The Singaport Govt. has tried on numerous occasions to shut it down. It's called Ali Baba's Nest to those in the know, and the secret password is "we're after a room".

Julia arrives today, so we are off to pick her from the airport soon, Stu and Mrr are still asleep the lazy buggers. Not sure what the plans are after Singapore, I think we'll head back to Kuala Lumpar to take in some of the sights we missed - I really want to go up the Trade towers and then off to a final couple of beach havens before setting off to Oz for Christmas.

Hope everyone is well, miss everyone loads.

Take care

Lots of Love

Bhav

P.S - Hopefully we'll get some piccies on here soon!

Yes, pictures. With the torrent of badly spelt mails coming from you guys and the rapidly dwindling web space left to my disposal we could really do with some pictures. I may have to start making more Tripod memberships under different names and just do sly links between the sites. Yeah, gonna be a bad ass. - Bring it on!

However, the prospect of pictures has given me the idea for a different theme for the update pages. Seedy tabloid newspaper! Woo!

Extra pic 1 Extra pic 2 Extra pic 3

- back to index

~ JULIA!! 06/12/2001 ~

Full Size Version

Hello to everyone - we are in Kuala Lumpar today which is fab.

We got up early this morning (in S'pore) and walked the 15 mins to the bus station....my first bit of actual back packing and in a 30 degree heat, carrying approx 18 kilos, it was pretty heavy stuff!! Anyway, got a local bus over the border to Malaysia, where you have to go through two immigration centres...extremely amusing stuff now, but in the blistering heat with back packs, it wasn't so funny!!! Basically, you have to get off the bus at the S'pore side, go through immigration, then catch your bus to go over the bridge that connects S'pore and Malaysia. All these people were running through and we were wondering what they were up to, until we saw the queue for the bus on the other side of the immigration office....hmmmmm!!!! Anyway, you get back on the bus to go over the bridge to Malaysia, where you get off again and then go through their immigration........and then you are slap bang in the middle of the coach station!!!!

We then got a coach (luxury (!?!) - it had reclining seats and air con) where I sustained my first two bites....think they might have been flea bites, but don't worry Mum - sure there'll be worse to come!!! The coach trip took about 5/6 hours to get to KL and when we got off the hostel we are staying in was literally directly opposite. The others stayed in this one before they travelled down to S'pore to get me and it is really nice. Proper beds and HOT showers - pure luxury!!!! We have just been into town for food (McDonald's - great...a bargain at approx 1.45 pounds for a McChicken meal) and a look round the town. China Town (where we are staying) is a fab place, very different to Singapore. The mixture of races here is much more obvious and Westerner's don't stand out quite so much as in S'pore.

Off to the Twin Towers tomorrow and to a temple that Bhav is keen to explore. He and Stuart are currently sitting outside the hostel with the Game Boy they have just bought....Stuart's haggling skills are very impressive!! Probably off to Penang later this week to do a bit of sightseeing....will keep you all posted.

It's great to hear from you, so keep the emails coming. Take care, JULIAx

So Julia is finally there. Now I think I speak for the rest of the civilised world when I say I am glad. One, because she is safely there. Two, at least we know that Stu and Bhav will always be clean and shaven, will not burp at the dinner table and there will never be a shortage of elastoplast and face wipes. How I live without her now is complete mystery. #Guy

PS: She can spell too! And let's face it, it cuts twenty minutes off getting her mails on the internet (sorry lads).

Extra pic 1 (Grub!!)

- back to index

~ 10/12/2001 -bhav ~

Full Size Version

Bhav...

Well we left Singapore to come back to Malaysia. Singapore was cool managed to do a boat ride along the Singapore river, check out some of the shops, and had a meal by the riverfront in the evening - a very River Thames Experience.... but a lot clearer. Little India was also very good, we ate Indian food every night, which was a nice change after three weeks of noodles and rice. We have found that Booze is very expensive in Singapore and Malaysia, In KL in a pub it will usually cost three quid for small beer, and even from the Off License the cost is around a quid. We did find a bar in Singapore by the river we found a bar that for around 9 quid you could drink as much as you wanted for three hours, we took them up on that offer, and I really annoyed the barman by going up to the bar every two minutes for a refill, although he did slow me down by serving up larger measures after the first few.

After Singapore we went back to to Kuala Lumpar to the same guest house as it was so friendly, cheap and nice rooms too. We went to the Twin Towers in the morning but missed all the tickets, so just looked round the shops. In trhe afternoon went to the Batu Caves. Amazingly until the day before I didn't even know they were hundu temples inside, but someone of the bus told me about the mandirs and also te 272 steps to inside the caves. Anyways it wasn't too bad, as halfway up there were a load of Monkey's to play with and feed. I actually have more photos now of Monkeys, then my friends and the sites. Inside it was awesome, with Murtee's (Statues on Hindu gods) on the Cave walls, and then a proper place to worship in the caves. I spoke to one Malay person and they said that at Thaisapium (A Hindu Malaysian festival) around a million people congreagate there and one of the rituals is for those that want to, to mutilating theriu bodies by piercing metal objects in them, looks far to painful for me though. In the evening we had a meal in a muslim curry food court where one of the things on the menu was Deep Fried Pigeon.

I loved Kuala Lumpar, probably my favourite place so far. Everyone there is so friendly, and with such a difference in religions, cultures and people everyone there mixes into together and gets on so well.

We left KL on Saturday morning to go to a beach island called Palau Pakora. It is really nice, the beach is clean as you would expect in this part of the world and the weather is great. We have tried the local fruit, Dhuram - which stinks when you open it and tastes like shit when you eat it - they make milk shakes out of the stuff, and something Ramputens, which basically taste like Lychee's. Stu has spent some the afteroon trying to teach me how to swim, but I think he has realised that that may be cause that is lost.

Anyways I have wittered on enough, we are off the Penang tomorrow (meant to be the party beach of Malaysia, and our flight to Australia is now fast approaching, (20th December)

Lots of love

Bhavnit

XX

Extra pic 1 Extra pic 2 Extra pic 3

- back to index

~ 11/12/2001 -stu ~

Full Size Version

Hello readers - how's the 9-5 treating ya?? (snigger)

After picking up Julia and completing a bit of sight seeing we got down to why we really came out here. Hard core..... drinking. We found a spot by the Singapore river where we could get all we could drink for $22 (about 9 quid) and set about putting the place out of business. Bhav had been to the bar 5 times in the first 5 minutes - not bad 4 a lightweight (in the drinking sense). The beer may have been watered down, but being the British drinking experts - we realised this and just drank twice as much.

We got back about 1am, Jools (who was jet lagged) and I caught up on some kip. Some insane laughter woke me at About 5am - I walked outside into the street to find a totally cross eyed Skippy and Bhav slumped on each other next to a bottle of vodka. An ozzy called Toby was sat there in disbelief wondering what had happened to his drink. Skippy was not even sure if I had been out at all that night (her memory is getting worse, and in some cases - like to just make things up). In case you are not sure who skippy is now, it's mer. Skippy being her knew name on account of how small Kangaroos brain is.

After Singapore we back to KL. There we did a bit of shopping, B and I picked up a gameboy advanced and some pirate games dead cheap. Playing this in our hostel a little later seemed to bring a lot of attention to me - after handing it round I got chatting to a Malay Girl who shall remain nameless for the time being.

4 hours later I had her entire life story and all opinions on the war still being fired at me. I don't really want to post up some of the stuff she said on the internet because quite honestly - it was crazy and scary. Better just leave it saying that I must have got about 5 minutes of talking in in the 4 hours, the rest was just me sitting there in a stunned silence.

Bhav finally rescued me, she seemed to stop after seeing a Hindu and myself being best buds - her views on the English must have come from seeing those football thugs making total arses of themselves on TV.

The next day we tried to make it to the twin towers to get a decent view of KL, unfortunately Bhav and I had been somewhat lazy and we missed out by a few minutes. The towers were an impressive sight none the less.

After KL we bussed and ferried over to a small island called Pankor (off of Lumut). We spent 2 nights next to a gorgeous beach and had a great hotel room with full hot shower privileges. The first night we finally decided that shit head (the card game) was being played far too much and decided that we should give poker a go. One of the hotel guys helped us figure out a version of poker we could play with matches, all attempts by B and myself to get the girls to play strip poker failed miserably - but give it a few bottle of the local brew and I'll let you all know.

The next day was a beach day - I spent most of it in the sea which was so warm it defied belief. I decided to swim right out and round some rocks to see what was on the other side - another beach, with only two people on it. If only B could swim I thought, we could make a flag, swim round and claim it as ours. The swim back took a turn for the worse however - around the rocks I was marvelling at the marine life rushing past me on the sea floor, then, looked up to see one of my worse fears staring back at me. Two, big, mean, ugly, tentically terrifying jellyfish staring back at me. I'm sure one was grinning as the other made a glugging which I'm sure is the jellyfishes way of cracking out an evil laugh.

The following amount of splashing and sheer speed I picked up shocked even me - as I overtook a jetski to get back I remember thinking one thing. THEY'RE IN MY HAIR, THEY'RE IN MY HAIR.

Anyway - it's in the past now. That night, I got thoroughly wasted, Bhav was sick and we all almost got washed out to see on some stupid, 'lets find a rock to sit on' adventure. Some pictures were taken, some memory was lost and we all had a great time.

Bhav had not been sick yet this year, on what could not have been more than 5 cans of Chang beer - he was bitterly disappointed with himself. It was like being at the union again - straight back into the glass he had just drank from, and some more. Conclusive proof that Bhav need to chew his food 5 or 6 times longer was there for all to see.

Leaving Pankor (in shame for B) we headed up to George town on the island of Penang. Staying just the one night before coming to where I am right now - Batu Ferrengi (something like that). Nice people, nice beach, good sea food.

George Town was a small, nice enough city - but with little going on. The only thing to report is Bhav conning the girls out of their room so we did not have to put up with a noisy fan. He now lives in fear of reprisal - and so he should.

The trip to my current location was interesting to say the least. If you wish to become a bus driver on this island you must undergo a new experimental operation to remove all understanding and knowledge of patience. This frees up an area of the brain giving you the added benefit of being able to do an incredible amount of thing at once. For example, you can drive, serve a customer, talk to your friends and fiddle with the money collector box at at the same time and all at a staggering 70 Kph. If there is something in the way - no need to avoid it, slow down or even blink. Simply holding down the horn will clear the path to the next bus stop - no worries.

Anyway - I'm off 4 a swim with Julia now. We met up with a swede and a couple of ozzies today - hopefully we can get them drunk tonight.

luv to the family, and anyone else in need of some.

The Chane

- back to index

~ 11/12/2001 -Julia ~

Hello all - we are now in Penang - an island of the far west coast of Malaysia. We have finally found an internet cafe that is fast enough to be able to send more than one mail in half an hour, so I thought I'd update you all.

First of all, I now have in excess of 15 bites. Suffice to say, I am not happy!! One on my back looks particularly bad and has swollen all around to make it look like some sort of graze!! Now that I've whinged, I'll move on.......

Can't remember when I last wrote, but I think it was in Kuala Lumpar. From there we travelled to a remote island called Pulau Pangkor which was lovely. The beach was fab and as soon as we arrived at 17.30hrs, we went straight into the sea. It was still warm and absolutely lovely. That night, we had a great Chinese meal and as the island is mainly Muslim, there is hardly any alcohol, so we opted for a game of poker with the hotel keeper instead. On the subject of the hotel - WOW!! Hot showers, air con, towels and just 100 metres from the beach. Fab!!

The next day was spent on the beach catching a few rays. Amazingly, I didn't burn (left that to Stuart!!) and we tried to teach Bhav to swim -it didn't work!! Stuart went swimming around the local rocks and came face to face with a monster jelly fish - he says he's never swam away from anywhere so fast!! Later that night, we found a restuarant that did sell beer so we drunk literally the entire supply. Cracking beer - 6.5% ensured that we had headaches in the morning!!! Stuart also decided to take us on a midnight exploration of the sea and rocks. Great idea until we nearly lost him down a groove in the sand. Therefore we decided it wasn't such a good idea and headed back!!!

The next day, we headed back to mainland Malaysia and then caught a bus to Butterworth which connects with Penang. The ferry across was huge and we saw the bridge that connects the island of Penang with the mainland......the biggest bridge in S/E Asia and the cars were just dots on the horizon!! We arrived in Georgetown and decided to stay there for a night - the hostel we arrived at was opposite "The Liverpool Bar" (where "you'll never drink alone"!!!) so we had to make Bhav go in (for those not in the know, Bhav is a massive Spurs fan and does not like other Premiership sides, full stop!!). Dragging him into another top league side's bar was punishment for him on account of him fooling me and Marie that the bed in our room was bigger than his and Stuart's and therefore they needed to swap. Stupidly, we fell for it, until we realised the racket that the fan made, but by then it was too late. Don't worry boys, revenge is sweet and we will get you back.

Today we travelled to Batu Ferringhe, which is on the other side of Penang. A much more happening place than Georgetown, so we'll probably stop here for a couple of days. Then it's onto Melaka (which is apparently where Malaysia 'began') for some cultural visits!! Will keep you all posted.

Take care,

JULIAx

Extra pic 1 Extra pic 2 (try and spot stu) Extra pic 3

- back to index

~ 14/12/2001 -Julia ~

Julia... 'We're back in Kuala Lumpar'

Dear all - how is everyone?? We are now back in KL, so I'll explain how we got here.

Whilst we were in Penang, we worked out a route that meant we could see a bit more of Malaysia, before we had to go back to S'pore to catch our flight to Australia on 20th December. So we decided to go to Langkawi, an island off the island of Penang. As the beaches (and especially the sea - looked like a british sea!!) were not too hot, we thought that Langkawi would offer us a bit more in terms of lazing on the beach. So we went to book our tickets, but found out that as the Muslims are about to celebrate Hari Raya (end of Ramadam) on 15/16/17 Dec, we would be stuck for both accomodation and travel. That put a bit of a spanner in the works as we then realised we needed to travel more than 500km to get to Singapore. Hari Raya is a massive festival here in Malaysia and thousands of people just flock back to remote island and family retreats, which means that all modes of transport and accomodation are fully booked.

Therefore we left Penang on the morning of 13/12/01 - getting Stuart up at 8.30am was a massive task, especially as he reckons he never agreed to that time. We have taken to playing Rock, Paper, Scissors, to decide who has to wake Stu up in the mornings!!!

The bus to Georgetown ferry (to get back to mainland Malaysia) picked us up right outside a western cafe, which was a bit of a result. Decent cups of tea and poached eggs!! However, Bhav was the first one on the bus that morning and asked for the BUS terminal, instead of the FERRY terminal (not that we realised this until the bus driver chucked us off the bus!!). So, in the blistering heat (hottest it's been so far, I reckon) we had to trek for 30 mins with our backpacks, until luckily we found a coach station shop that had coaches going to KL. This meant we didn't have to catch the ferry, and instead used the Penang bridge (largest/longest bridge in S/E Asia).

After nearly 7 hours on the coach, we got dropped at the other end of KL - they have 2 bus stations and guess which one we got dropped of at?? Yep, the wrong one!!! So finally, we made it to the hostel and thankfully they had beds!! Our evening was pretty tame, with a meal in Chinatown (where whole cooked chickens and ducks (heads included) were hanging close to our table - lovely!!).

This morning, we got up early in an effort to get to the Twin Towers and actually get up the tower (as I said in an earlier email, they only dish out 800 tickets per day). We did get tickets, but they were for a later trip, so we spent the next 1.5 hours lazing in a local cafe in the shopping centre - again, decent cups of tea and chocolate croissants!!! The Twin Towers trip was good - it only took us up to the 42nd floor where the Sky Tunnel is (connecting the two towers), but our ears popped in the lift up, as it went so fast. The views were fab, and the people on ground level looked like dots!! The rest of the building (it has offices up to the 86th floor, but goes on for some way after that) was a bit scary to look up at - didn't feel too bad on the vertigo front, but glad we didn't go any higher!!!

Not sure what we are up to this afternoon - Stuart and Marie are off to the Batu Caves (where Bhav and I went the other day), and Bhav and I might go up the tallest tower in Malaysia (slightly taller than the Twin Towers). This evening, we are hoping to catch the Monsters Inc movie - sounds quite good! We have a coach booked to Malacca tomorrow at 7pm (that's the earliest we could get because of the Hari Raya celebrations - just shows how big they are) and Malacca is apparently where Malaysia 'began' so that will be quite a cultural visit!!

On the Mosquito bite front.....only have a few more, but apparently I am allergic to them and have cream and tablets to stop them swelling up like the one on my wrist - it's double the size of my wrist and looks gross - a great repellent to all the street sellers who keep pestering us!!!

Will write again soon - hope everyone is ok.

Bye!!

JULIAx

Stuart? Difficult to get up in the morning? Surely you're talking about someone else! ... ARRGH! ... The 'Blatant Lie' Police have got me! #Guy.

AND FINALY HERE

- back to index

~ Two Aussies and a mad Sweed -Bhav ~

Full Size Version

Hello all,

Well since I last wrote we have learnt that it is not very easy to travel in Malaysia during Hara Raya (the end of Ramadam). We went to Penang last Monday and had inteneded moving on to Langawi (an Island off Penang) but were told that it would be tough for us to make our way back to Singapore in in time for our flight to Australia for the 20th. Penang was nice, but the beach was actually quite dirty, but we met some cool Australians,Sam and Ros and a Mad Swede, Jonatan, who on our first night scared us to our very core with his "Would you rather" game where we got the choice of having to shag this hungarian Dovrak, once a month (he described him in great detail) or give up sex for life... I think it would be hard to look at hungarian in the same way again.

We also played the Have you Ever game, where Stu managed to muller me by using all my embarrsing stories to humilate me in front of our new found friends... thanks Stu. But it was a cool night and we picked up some cool travel stories and got some tips for accomadtion and work in Australia. And John H, we have to go to Stolkholm mate, Jonathan has told me about some Law Uni where the quality is meant to be awesome...

Anyways we moved back from Penang to KL, where we arrived in our guest house, and the people there just laughed.... it has been the third time we have been there. It is a cool place though... as everyone there is very friendly and there is lounge where you can meet people. There is guy over from Rajeshtan working at the hostel who has been speaking to me in Gujrati.. I have held my own okay in my broken English/Gujrati, but his speach is so much quicker and more complex than mine.

We went to the Twin Towers and saw KL from a high view (yes we managed to get there in time for the ticket this time)and went to the Batu Caves as I has to feed the Monkies again.

We are now in Malaka , one of the guys said that we had to go there because it was where Malaysia started, and looking at the books there is lots of historical culture to see. We are staying at a cool guesthouse, but there is this annoying fat tosser in there who Marie and I woke up one night and since then he has just annoyed me.... classic line, Stu was telling him about the card Game Shithead and he retorted - "What a vulger name, they didn't call it that in my day" .... wanker....

Last night Me, Jules and Marie went to a light Sound and light show, but when we got there the stand was empty and there was no sounds anywhere. We took our seats in the stand and must have looked like complete idiots sitting in the stand waiting for a show that was never gonna start...

We leave Asia on Thursday for Perth having spent six wonderful weeks here. I would reccomened it to anyone, Cheap, Great People, Great Sites, and great fun Hope everyone is well, I guess back home Christmas Fever is reaching Fever Pitch, my Bruvver tells me that Only Fools is back for Christmas Day, I'm gutted I'll be missing it, but I'm sure it will be nice to be on an Aussie beach swigging cocktails and revelling in an Aussie Xmas.

Miss you all

Lots of Love

Bhav

- back to index

~ Hasi Raya Games -stu ~

OK - where did I last leave off?. Oh yes - our Ozzy and Swede palls. John the Swede, Sam and Roz the Ozzies... We found a half decent bottle of local brew that night and taught each other card games all night with some funky tunes being played out of Micky the MP3 player. All in all a good night until we moved away from the card games and got down to some serious rounds of 'I have never'.

Of course, with all the stored up knowledge of Bhavs university career and Jools 'n' Mer tucked up in bed (about 3am now) - he suffered. Bhav desperately racked his brains for a comeback on me - but being drunk could not think of anything. (Thank you Malay whiskey - I owe you one). In all fairness, I did let B off the hook by not demanding that the game continued - count yourself lucky my good man...

At some point in the game the tree started moving - and with all the dogs and cats gone, we never figured out what was up there. The next day we realised that the island was also home to plenty of monkeys, small shy ones thankfully. After another day of relaxing, and a few more crazy bus rides, we decided to move onto somewhere else - the island of Langkawi was number 1 choice. Unfortunately the Muslim holiday of Hasi Raya when imminent, and everywhere was booked out.

Hasi Raya basically marks the end of Ramadan, a 1 month fast, and the start of the New Year. We decided on Melaka as a good destination for a couple of reasons. It's a historic city (Malaysia was basically born there), with plenty to see and do and it's closer to Singapore where we have to fly out from very soon.

To get there we went back to KL to catch a connecting bus - this was a third visit to the capital and the Hostel owners could not help but laugh when they saw us again. An added bonus was John the Swede being there waiting for us - after all those goodbyes we had to do it all over again a few days later.

Making full use of the extra day in KL, we managed to get up the twin towers (tallest building in the world) and take a few pictures. Not too amazing really, just a bloody tall building. After that Bhav, Skippy, John and I went top the Batu caves - a Hindu temple set in rock and almost 300 steps to climb...

These caves were amazing - statues of Hindu gods set into the rocks and massive stalactites grip to the walls showing the age of the place. An added bonus was - MONKEYS!! - They were everywhere. I picked up some monkey nuts and set about making some new friends. Wild monkeys can get a little scary - our friend John looked terrified, more so than B!! After you get used to them though, you can quite happily hold out a few nuts and let them come up and take them from you.

Anyway - the next day we went to Melaka. We have seen numerous museums and churches, all 14-15th C. Some good eating holes and - a swimming pool!!! You can imagine my excitement - after a whole day of walking in the blazing sun, trying to get round the crowds of people generated by the Muslim holiday - a dip in the pool would be a fitting end to a very hot and sweaty day.

Closed - everything is bloody closed. arse

Still - we are in a V nice hostel and have been treated to numerous celebration cookies and some good pirate VCD films. The place is a lot quieter - but there are some characters staying there. A rather rounded English guy called Peter, who has the most incredibly posh tone about him, enjoys telling everyone about the world and places he's been. Some of it funny stuff, some of it incredibley arrogant and just plain - well, bollox.

This is probably the last Asia report going on the site from myself - so I guess it is time to folder this section off... (sniff sniff) Asia is an amazing region, and although I feel we have done a lot given the time here - we have not covered more than 10% of it.

I am definitely coming back here again - there is so much more I want to see. Although I think we are all sad to see it go, we're also very excited about Xmas in Oz - and most of all.... CAMPERVANS!!! I have so many plans for the 'Phantom Tapper' - it's going to have a paint job and full stereo system fitted even if it means working over new year (in a pub of course).

We'll see - take care all, and Merry Xmas!!

PS's.

Sam and Roz - we'll be seeing ya, don't work too hard back at uni...

John - Dovrack the big, blond, buggering Hungarian will be visiting you unless you stay in touch.

Extra pic 1

- back to index

~ 18/12/2001 -Julia ~

Full Size Version

Julia... 'Hello from Melaka'