Cape Town!!! - 33,850 miles later

The journey home to Cape Town lasted almost 2 days. 9.30am flight from Phuket left us with a 16 hour stopover in Singapore. Hmmmm, what to do? We had visions of doing a bit of Xmass shopping but after closer inspection this is NOT the city to be spending your pennies. Lets use a pair of Levi's (501's) as a gauge for what things cost in Singapore - 300 POUNDS! ....that would be Sterling!! After a few more stops in the retail world that requires platinum cards only we thought it best to do something simple - Lunch and a movie - the new Bond was on. Killed some time at the airport reading the paper and browsing through the duty free and eventually boarded the plane at 1am.

Landing in Cape Town was a really weird experience. Kimmy and I spoke at length about the mixed emotions we both felt. Sadness, Relief, Nerves, Joy.....and a lot more variations on all of those. I guess the sadness came from the realisation that our adventure was coming to an end, we were also landing for the 1st time in 7 years with no immediate plans to go back to London....this was permanent?! The nerves have to be put down to the fact that we're now gonna have to join the real world again and as Dave put it politely in an email the other day, "get used to the idea of doing some work for a change!" Mr. Meehan, that's next year's problem. We've already been back for a week but it still feels like we're traveling, all our bits and pieces are still in storage so we're still living out of our backpacks. Apparently the summer only started in Cape Town the day we arrived. Perfect timing then, the skies are BLUE, the sun is out and the Mother City is better than it used to be. The vibe is unbelievably positive, people are friendly, service is good and a drive to Theewaters to go skiing and camping is just over and hour away. Debs and Al are talking about spending a couple of weeks in Namibia next year in August so the 1st vehicle purchase is gonna have to be a 4x4 of some description. Let's hope we have jobs by then! 

We've had and amazing 7 months traveling the world, meeting people and experiencing a variety of cultures and attitudes. The dominant lesson I think we will both take from this experience is witnessing how some cultures seem satisfied and at peace with so much less. South Africans in particular are so blessed with what we have and the potential for improvement is immense. Every country you go to has its problems, ours just seem to be more publicised - maybe because the 2010 WC is around the corner.....so in summary, you could call our trip a humbling learning curve. Certainly not what we were expecting but, I think we're more appreciative of what we have and how we have been brought up.

We were originally expecting to cover about 29000 miles to Cape Town but, after closer inspection and a lot of Googling in the maps section it transpires that our meandering and fly by the seat of your pants attitude has added another few thousand yards. Almost 5000 extra miles has seen us cover 33, 850 miles across 4 continents and 10 different countries. If we had a favourite place or places to go back to then we'd have to say that the Rockies in the USA and the south coast of California would be top of the list - breathtaking scenery and chilled people. We've met a number of amazing people and families on our travels that have added to our education and it wouldn't be proper not to give them a mention:

1. The Thornton's in California, thanks again for restoring our faith in the American folk.

2. Neil, Mich, Penny and Mike - drinking tequila just won't be the same again, thank you so much for your hospitality.
3. Stef and Darren (our traveling buddies from Ireland - who are now expecting their 1st child!! Too many cocktails in Bali?!)
4. The Roach's in Auckland, thanks for the laughs, the Saffa reminiscing sessions and your constant support on Facebook and our blog.
5. Mike, Orla, Cam and Johnboy, Frazer Island just would not have been the same without you!
6. Chris, Rachel and the Irish lasses on the Raggamuffn II
7. Emma and Matti - thank you for one of the most memorably funny days of our adventure on a rainswept day in the Singapore rain forests, hope your travels are still going strong.

All of you have, in your own way made our experience that much more special - we think about you all the time and I know we've said it before but, thought it would be worth a mention again, when you guys finally make it to South Africa then please remember mi Casa su Casa. Just don't all arrive at once during the Fifa WC otherwise you're gonna be fighting for camping space in our back garden!!

One adventure is behind us now and a new one begins as we settle in Africa. Things are changing here, you can just feel it.......good things are going to happen.

Koh Phi Phi and Koh Hong (Last days of the 29000mile adventure)

Officially named Koh Phi Phi Don, this is a set of 2 small islands about and hour's ferry trip west of Phuket Town in the Andaman Bay. These two islands were completely devastated by the Tsunami 4 years ago - much has been rebuilt so it all has a newer feel than the rest of Thailand, the crowd is much younger and there is a conspicuous absence of dirty old men looking for young Thai ladies of leisure. Although the weather has been fowl again! for the reasons mentioned above, this has been my favorite part of Thailand by far. We only had 2 days in Phi Phi but if the urge ever grabs us to come back one day, this cute little piece of paradise will be high up on the list.

Our last day in Thailand was spent touring the islands around Koh Hong. The sublime scenery that greeted us in this nature reserve is best known as the scene of the ‘baddies’ den in the 1974 Bond movie, “the Man with the golden Gun” - Because we’ve been starving our faithful followers with a lack of visual material of our last few weeks we thought it best to limit the written mumbo jumbo about Koh Hong and put in some photo’s for a change. Mostly because I’m lazy but, also because I think the omniscient guy upstairs seems to have been reading our blog too. As if knowing that it was our last day of the 29000mile adventure, he parted the gloomy clouds for one last day and provided us with blue skies and a day to truly remember in Thailand.

Kata and Patong (Phuket West Coast)

Kata and Patong (Phuket West Coast)

Posts are going to be coming thick and fast now as we have generally
been about 2-3 weeks behind but, as we're almost at the end of our
journey it's time to play catchup. Can't believe how the time has
flown - we're actually back in Phuket today packing our bags for
tomorrow mornings flight to Singapore and then off to off to home
sweet home tomorrow night.

Apologies, but the last few posts are going to have to be photoless.
Thailand's 'high speed' ADSL works at the pace of milk turning to
cheese and to prevent Kimmy from developing a rash from the her close
proximity to anything electronic we have decided that the uploading of
our pics will need to take place when we get home at the end of this
week - after the jet lag.

Thailand has redeemed itself..... a little. The journey from the east
coast to the west of Phuket was a mere 30 min by bus but what a stark
difference. Busy, touristy, neon lights all over the place and for the
first time in weeks a little bit of sunshine! We spent 2 days in Kata
before moving further north to Patong. When the sun reemerged we
wasted no time in venturing off to the beach. Our days have been
filled with bats sessions, lazing on the beach chairs, Subways for
lunch and Thai for supper. Walking the streets at night is an
experience (freak show), you can't move 5 steps without being
harassed by a desperate vendor trying to sell you a 'massaaaaaaage',
rolex (uh-huh!), t-shirts or pretending to be your best mate when the
reality is that they're not in the slightest bit interested in you
more than they are in the colour of your money!

The minister of Finance tells me that our decision to come home early
(arrival in CT will now be on the 15th nov) has revived the budget. We
now suddenly have a surplus so have decided to tour some of the
islands around Phuket before we head back to Singapore for the flight
home. Koh Phi Phi Don and the islands off the Phan-Nga coast seem to
be the most scenic so we're gonna give these a bash in the next few
days - let's hope the whether holds! Watched the bokke on the weekend
against Wales in an Aussie bar, too tight for comfort but pleasing
none the less. My longstanding pick for the no.10 jersey seems to be
coming good. Lets hope sense prevails and Ruan gets an extended run
where he belongs.

Post blogging note: Off to Koh Phi Phi today - weather is looking grim
again!

Congrats to Shazzie and Kieran! Will be seeing you guys soon.

Jo: you left a comment on the blog but no return address?

Myanmar Visa Run

Because of our decision to skip Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia we were
always going to have to leave and re-enter Thailand before the 30 day
visa expired. So after arriving on the mainland from Koh Tao the next
step was to figure out which border to cross to get our extention. The
Lonely Planet guide suggested Myanmar or Malaysia but as we are closer
to the former it made sense to go that route. The backpackers in
Champon conveniently were able to arrange a 'visa run' for about
500Baht which included a minibus ride from Champon on the east coast
to Ranong on the west coast, a boat ride over the Chang River into
Myanmar and a helpful guide that directed us through all the
neccessary checkpoints. We left at 5.30am the following morning and by
10.30am we'd crossed and recrossed the border with our visa extentions
without much hassle. The plan was to make our way down the west coast
to Phuket over a couple of days but when the guide dropped us off in
Ranong it didn't take us long to make the desision to keep going south
the same day. Ranong, quite simply put, is the a*sehole of the world -
a dirty, grimmey, smelly one-horse-town ....and the horse is dead and
decaying somewhere on the main intersection.

As luck may have it, the 6 hour bus ride from Ranong to Phuket was
leaving the same day at 12.30 so we only had to wait a couple of hours
to keep moving on.

To our surprise we discovered that Phuket is actually and island
roughly 50km long. We arrive in Phuket Town around 7.30pm and walked
about half an hour to find the Phuket Backpackers, along the way
passing the On-and-On backpackers where Richard meets Daffy in the
Beach - if memory serves, the rooms looked dodgy in the movie so we
opted for another Lonely Planet recommendation.

We woke the following morning to the really surprising sound of yet
another thunderstorm and litres of water falling out of the sky. It's
probably at this point that Kimmy and I decided that spending another
month and a half in Thailand was not our idea of fun especially when
we could be lazying on Clifton, sucking on a few cold ones at Cafe del
Mar and reintroducing ourselves to our golf clubs whilst probably
spending less money! In truth, watching the Currie Cup final on tv in
our room in Koh Tao has also made us homesick so we've decided to come
home earlier than expected. Took a txi to Singapore Airways (in the
rain) and changed our flight home to the 19th November - exactly 1
month earlier than anticipated. We're genuinely excited about being
home again in the African sun but, knowing our luck, the sun will
decide to shine on Phuket and the rest of the andaman Coast in the
next few days. Hopefully it will so that we can at least take if few
pic home of that picture postcard beach that we were expecting to find
here in Thailand.

Sent from my iPod

Koh Pha-Ngan and Koh Tao - Days 151-156

Pha-Ngan is 15km north of Samui and reachable on hourly boats between
the two islands. Our timing was a little off on this one as the full
moon had passed and we would have had to wait another month to
experience the famous (or infamous - depends on which way you look at
it) Full Moon party. Having spent a couple of days on Hat Rin Noi,
(which is the beach on which all the mayhem takes place) you can sort
of understand why, under a clear full moonlit night this would be an
amazing venue. However, we can comfortably say that our raving days
are a thing of the past and on reflection after finding broken bottles
all over the beach during the day you can sort of sympathize with
those that feel the western influence seems to have devalued this
idyllic stretch of coast.

Like Leonardo di Caprio's character in the movie we tried to stay
clear of the lager lout infestation and headed west up the coast.
With no mythical map from a spaced-out dopehead to guide us to a
mystery island we once again hired a vesper and spent a few days
exploring the west side of the island between Thong Sala and Hat Rin.

Stayed in 2 different bungalows, both an underarm stones throw away
from the beach. That would all be fine an dandy if we had some beach
weather though! Like Brad pointed out to me on Facebook the other day
we seem to have arrived in Thailand during the Monsoon season and the
rain has been pelting down relentlessly since our last few days on Koh
Samui. Our days here and in Koh Tao have therefore been spent doing lots
of reading and playing cards. We're now onto Harry Potters 3rd year at
Hogwarts and the only break from Harry has been to feed and sleep -
some sun would be great around now. It's all a little confusing to us
both because the lonely planet guide says that in a week we'll be
entering the 'high season for tourism!?

Decided to spoil ourselves the other day when we found an Italian
place with a genuine Italian chef. We could not have found a better
spot for the change in diet. Kimmy claims that the bruchetta and
pizza was the best she's ever had and I'm inclined to agree with her
but not sure if our bias has been tainted by the Thai food overload
over the last few weeks - there's only so much fried noodle/rice your
body should be allowed to handle!

Hopping back to the mainland soon to get our visa's extended for
another 30 days and then off down the Andaman Coast to Phuket.

Post blogging note: the highlight on Koh Tao was that our room had a
tv with most of the DSTV Supersport channels. Watched the Currie Cup
Final on Saturday night - how cringeworthy was Breyton Paulse as a
wandering commentator? that Malmsberry brey should not be allowed on
national TV, let alone broadcast live outside the SA borders!

photies to follow, the net connection is ridiculously slow

Another Change in plans

Somewhere between Singapore and Koh Samui Kimmy and I started
discussing the possibility of not going further north than the South
of Thailand. The extended stay in Bali and unexpected expense of the
Singapore grand prix has burnt an even bigger hole in the budget. The
missed flight to Vietnam seems a little fortuitous now as travelling
north through Malaysia and Thailand has made us realise that the funds
we have left will simply allow for accommodation, feeding our ever
expanding bellys and transport/visas, not leaving a hell of a lot to
really explore these countries in any sort of detail. So, we'll spend
the rest of our time and money exploring the south of Thailand and
decide in the next few weeks on an appropriate earlier arrival date in
Cape Town.

We're both slightly disappointed that we'll be missing Vietnam, Laos
and Cambodia but agree that these are probably places we can return to
in the future.

More about Koh Pha-Ngan in the next couple of days.

Koh Samui - Days 150-155

The trip from Hat Yai to the island of Ko Samui took about 6 hours in total, firstly by by bus and and then by ferry from the mainland port of Surat Thani. Having skimmed through our lonely planet guide we agreed that the beach of Hat Chaweng sounded like a good place to be based. Arrived at Na Thon pier (Ko Samui west coast) way after dark and had to start haggling with the cab drivers for transport to the opposite coast which was at least 40minutes away. In our short stay in this part of the world we've come to realize that prices for 'westerners' are almost always double if not triple what you can get away with, so battering well is a neccessity. The intial quote was 600Baht but after 7 of us westerners ganged up on the driver the fare was whittled down to 150 Baht each.

Arrived safely in Chaweng late in the evening and booked into a bungalow on the beach. You pay a premium for aircon in your room so decided to try one with a simple fan - what a mistake! The bungalows are pretty simple but the humidity is something else! On the beach in Chaweng we've finally managed to find a set of beach bats so our days in Samui have been filled by an hour or so of bats, swimming in the sea, lying in the sun and finding a market for some cheap grub..... It's a really hard life!

Up the road from our bungalow we stumbled on restuarant with a massive banner advertising South Africa's own Supersport tv channel, the menu had boerewors rolls on it so we just couldn't resist investigating further. The owner Mike is a 45 year old Saffa who been in Thailand for eight years and after a quick introduction we'd been invited to join him for 'prawn night'. Our timely meeting coincided with mike's suppliers providing him with a surplus of gigantic prawns that he had no idea what to do with but show off his skills on the braai - all we had to do is pay for our beers all night. The festivities ended in the early hours next morning with all the guests watching the Jungle Book on the big screen, this, after another night of attempting to booze like 19 year olds - the beermonkey's visit the next morning confirmed that Kimmy I not the machine she used to be and I'm simply getting too old for 15 beers in a night!

Cabs in between villiages on these islands are expensive so Kimmy has
agreed to give the vesper thing another go. After a few days on the
back of the bike my angel has become a little more comfortable with my
driving. For 150baht/day (3 quid!) it's definately the best way to get
around the islands and see more than just the beaches and main drags geared purely for tourists and also adds to a sense of freedom as we whizz along the hilly roads with no helmets!

Hat Lamai and Bo Phut were 2 more villiages we stayed in and we even
managed a 3 hour hike to one of the many waterfalls on the island. Our
guide on this hike was free! We named him Rufus, a random dog that for
some reason saw it neccessary to show us all the way down the mountain
back to where we'd parked the vesper. True story, at first we thought
he belonged to the Chinese group who we sprinted past on our way up
but, on the return legg this mangy mut seemed to be guiding us all the
way down as he intermitantly stopped in front of us and waited for us
to catch up every time we seemed to be 'lagging behind'!

Next stop, Koh Pha-Ngan island, home to the Full Moon party.

Thai border crossing - Days 147-149

The days between Pulau Penang and Hat Yai(Thailand) were rather
uneventful. We wondered around Penang for 2 days acclimatising
ourselves to the local and Thai cuisine at the markets. We're getting
better at understanding how to order certain dishes without pointing
at pictures on a menu and as result we're saving a bucket load of
money by eating at the local markets. It's been a bit 'hit and miss'
to start with but the food is very tasty and in most cases quite
healthy. Did a book swap at a book shop - I've now started reading the
Harry Potter series- not challenging reading but entertaining none the
less.

Caught a ferry back to the mainland from Penang to Butterworth where
we waited for about 3 hours for the train that would take us over the
Thai border into a town called Hat Yai. Let it never be said that a SA
passport is good for nothing. Like all our crossings to date (barring
Vietnam which never happened) we've breezed into Malaysia and
Thailand. No visas required in either of them.

Hat Yai turns out to be quite a bit bigger than a town but, it's not the
prettiest city we've ever been to. If the city was anything to go by
then we really should not have been shocked by the dorm we'd booked on
the net. It took us about an hour and a half to find the place
wondering through the busy dodgy streets at night and when we finally
got there we we were greeted by quarters that could more closely been
compared to prison cell blocks at Polsmor! Seriously, this place was
bad - thank the Pope that we were only in there for one night! The one
solitary thing this place was good for was the travel desk at
reception that organized us a one way ticket outta there to Koh Samui.

Next stop Koh Samui, Koh Pha-Ngan and Koh Tao the three islands made
famous by the movie 'The Beach' and described by the Lonely Planet
guide as "part of backpacking folklore - a place custom made for
hammock swinging and navel gazing."

Cameron Highlands

With the transvestite backpacker at our backs we headed off to the bus
station to find transport from KL to the Cameron highlands. The bus
trip north to a town called Tannah Rata lasted about 4 hours, during
which we both managed to get through some quality reading (yes yes, I
have actually started reading novels). I was so engrossed in my book
that I probably only saw about 30 minutes of countryside. Anyone who's
read Manda Scott's 'Boudica' will understand. The drive took us into
the mountains to the highest point in Malaysia and the drop in
temperature came as welcome relief to the high 30's we've been
experiencing since leaving north Australia. It was so much cooler
infact, that I regretted sending all our warm clothes home when we
left Oz.

We stayed at a very quaint liitle hillside spot called the Father's
Inn which had beautiful 360 degree views of the town and surrounding
countryside. Spent 5 days or so on our lazy bums at the inn trying to
recoupe some funds and only on the last day did we take a tour of the
highlands. The minibus tour lasted about 5 hours and included a little
history about the area from our tour guide with stops at a local rose
garden, a strawberry farm, a honey farm and a butterfly farm. The
highlight however was the stop at the BOH tea plantation. BOH tea is
malaysia's biggest export product run by 4th generation of a Scottish
family since the early 19th century. It's a vast plantation
that spans over 6000acres of hilly country side in which the
harvesting is done manually by labourers that get about 6pounds per day for
filling their basket with 200kg of fresh tea leaves. Sounds like
exploitation but there's a bigger picture. The labourers come from all
over SE Asia to be part of the BOH family. They get free quarters,
free meals for the family, free schooling for their children and
exist as a community with 4 different religions. BOH have built a
villiage with seperate places of worship for Catholics, Hindus,
Muslims and Buddhists and it's really interesting that they are able to coexist in
complete harmony - sounds like they could teach the rest of the world
a valuable lesson? We finished the day with a strong brew of local tea
at the really cool Boh Tea Centre.

Next stop is Pulua Penang for a few days before we cross the border
into Thailand.

There's been a small change in plans - Days 140-141

7pm Changi Airport, Singapore: All packed and ready to fly to Ho Chi
Minh City but, then we hit a small snag.

We (that would be me) missed some of the small print on the Vietnamese
Visa web page that stipulates we have to apply for permision to get
our visas on arrival at the airport. So there we were, backpacks and
daypacks on our backs at the check-in counter and no where to go! Kim
was surprisingly calm during all this - I was bleak!

We were both not keen to go back to our dodgy landlord in Singapore to
negotiate another nights stay so decided the best option would be to
see if we could find a train overland through Malaysia via Bangkok.
Small detour but hey.... It's not like have to be in the office on
monday morning.

With 20kg on our backs(wearing flipflops) we raced through the
Singapore CBD to find an Internet cafe to research our options before
nightfall. As luck may have it, there was a night train leaving
Singapore for Kuala Lampur at 11pm. Having never been on a sleeper
train before we thought it best to book a private cabin in case we
both fell asleep and woke up with bags missing. �'28 bought us a 7.5
hour train ride in our own private cabin - they even woke us up with
coffee!

We'd booked a single night online in K L and what a "lovely" spot.
Walked through dodgy Chinatown at 7am and woke up the landlord to let
us in. My 'gaydar' started ring alarm bells immediately. After finally
checking in 'he' walked us up to our room and was a little surprised
to find someone already in it. He rushed to find the night duty guy
who minced his way over explaining that he had no idea who was in the
room. Eventually they knocked on the door, the first of two
individuals walked out very apologetically (Turkish looking guy) the
second, well.... At first glance this looked like a skinny oriental
girl that had just walked passed Kimmy and I but, when she opened her
mouth to sheepishly apologize it became abundantly clear that SHE used
to be a HE. Thank god they cleaned the room after these two left and
in all honesty I still was wasn't comfortable sleeping in the same bed
knowing what had been in it the night before.

KL is a 'shithole' apart from the CBD which, like Singapore, is
litterred with high tech retail outlets selling upmarket brands at
seriously cheap prices. We think we might be coming back here to do
some Xmass shopping but, there is simply NO chance of us going back to
the slimy, transvestite infested hostel.

We're off to the Cameron Highlands tomorrow which is inland and the
highest point in Malaysia. It's the centre of the tea plantation
industry. Should be interesting!

Singapore - Day 139

After the euphoria of the GP on the weekend Matti suggested that we tag along and join him for a day exploring one of the more unspoilt parts of Singapore. Matti had read a bit about an island off the north coast in the Lonely Planet guide and we agreed that it would be a nice change from the retail/hightech buzz of the city.

The 4 of us (Kimmy, Emma, Matti and me) took the train to the end of the line towards changi airport, transferred to a bus that took us to the NE coast and then caught a 'bumboat' to Padang Ubin. It's a small island off the coast that is soon to be listed as a world heritage site. Arrived at about lunchtime and took a short walk through the town before settling on a place that had the best looking photographs on their menu. We're still battling to order food in a foreign language so pointing at the picture is the only way until we learn a little Mandarin!



Lunch was great, I'm still on the stirfried noodles and Emma got the dose of greens she's been craving for days.With our bellies full, we jumped on rented bikes to tour the island. About 20 minutes into the cycle we noticed the dark clouds looming overhead but, decided to trudge on. Then someone opened a zip in the clouds and all hell broke loose! At first we thought we could deal with the downpour but at the top of the hill in the north east corner of the forest trees started collasping right in front of us! Seriously, within the space of a minute we saw 3 trees (all 50ft plus) uprooted and fall in the road not even 20 meters away. It was at this point the Kimmy started having a sense of humour failiure and promptly started barking instructions to all of us to 'get the f*ck outta here!". We were wearing shorts, teashirts and flip flops -absolutely drenched and cycling for our lives in the opposite direction trying to find the shelter we passed on the way up. Sat under the shelter for about 30 minutes as the thunder continued to clap around us and saw the funny side of our near death experience.....but there was more to come.



Already completely soaked, miles away from a hot shower we agreed to keep going and followed one of trails on a map that we picked up at the info centre. It was only an hour into phase 2 that we realized that the trail was not suitable for bikes. At one point we had to get off the bikes and push them through overhanging bushes and paths that just weren't big enough. Eventually after going on a scouting mission by foot through knee deep clay I concluded that we'd reached the end of the road. The four of us turned back after about an hour, drenched and covered in mud, to find a new trail that finally took us back to the main tarred road and thankfully the little village we'd started at.After returning the bikes (you should have seen the look on the guys face) we sat down at the local village pub, sucked on a few Tigers and giggled about the reaction we were going to get from the city folk on the public transport on the way home.Emma is a beaut and like loads of the people we've met traveling so far, we're sad that we didn't get more time with her. She's off back the Oz and we both wish her well on her continued travels - hope to see you in Cape Town one day Em. Matti is off to Vietnam and we'll be joining him as soon as Kimmy gets her emergency passport from the SA embassy here in Singapore. Next stop, Ho Chi Minh City -Vietnam.

Singapore - F1 - Days 134 - 138

A couple of days before arriving in Singapore Kimmy and I both realised that our arrival would co-incide with the inaugural F1 GP night race. Accommodation would not be easy to come by let alone cheap so when we found a spot on the web for 5 Euro a night we grabbed it. It was by no means the Massa Inn with pool and double bed but, it served its purpose and we've also added a new friend to "that list" as a result. We'd stupidly only booked one night online and when it came time to extend our stay for the weekend our host informed us that the price had gone up to 50 Euro/per night! This in itself would have been OK, however, Friday night was spent walking the track around the CBD during the practice round and after experiencing the adrenaline rush of the cars doing 290km/h towards turn 5 from outside the circuit boundary we both decided then and there that we had to get tickets for the race proper. So it looked like we were going to spend more than we bargained for in Singapore
On the way to the gates

On Saturday morning after being swindled for extra cash at the hostel we ventured into town to find a ticket tout to bargain with. Trust us to find an English larger lout with a handful of tickets around his neck. After a "good cop-bad cop" session(Kimmy was the bad cop) with the pasty Pom we managed to bargain our way from S$1000 to S$600 for a pair of general admission tickets for Race Day on Sunday - There goes the budget! We justified it by telling each other that this was a once in a life time opportunity (and I could send some pics to Meehan to make him green with envy - Sorry Dawie!) but, after race day had come and gone we both agreed that it was well worth the expense.
Kimmy and Me with our tickets for the 1st ever F1 night race in Singapore. Dawie, we highly recommend this trip buddy.

We spent Saturday walking around the CBD, which is just one massive retail haven selling top end brands. Our financial situation allowed us to window shop only and buy a few mini rolls for lunch. Back at the hostel we made a few mates in Christian, Matti and a "nutter" from Chester, Emma (more about her and Matti later). Our hostel wasn't exactly in the plush part of town so when we finished ordering the only thing that the waitress could say in English we were expecting seriously dodgy food but, were pleasantly surprised with a large plate of SPICEY SEAFOOD NOODLES - the emphasis was on Spicey and I needed at least 4 quarts of Tiger beer to extinguish the flames.

(From the left - Christian, Matti, Me, Kimmy and Christie sitting 2m away from the track at turn4)

Kimmy and I are F1 virgins but we can't imagine a better setting for a Grand Prix than Singapore by night. It's a beautiful clean city by day and is lit up like a high-tech Xmass tree by night. Matti had walked the circuit the last few days and knew a spot at turn 4 that did not seem too crowded. We walked the length of the circuit to get there and agreed that it was a perfect spot for the start of the race(check out the video below). We were 2m away from the barriers and the noise was deafening!

A few laps later we moved on to Anderson Bridge where they cross the water over the harbor after turn 17. We were lucky enough to have a guy next to us in the crowd who had hired a portable satellite TV which had interactive access to all the circuit cameras and pits. We had the best of both worlds - the track right in front of us and a tv to understand the race situation.

2 yellow flags and a 8lap sprint finish with Alonso starting from 15th on the grid taking the race honours. The perfect night was rounded off by the race itself which turned out to be corker!


(Lewis driving past us during the driver's parade just before the start of the race - Believe it or not , the sun is already down and the lights are on)

(Movie clip below: Coming out of turn 4 on lap 2 preparing to fly in between the retail buildings at 290km/h)

Bali - Indonesia Days 119-133

We're in Singapore at the moment and it's been brilliant fun but more about that from Kimmy later.

Bali has been our longest stay in any one town on our travels so far. We were in transit for about 2 days, leaving Katherine by bus on the 10th to Darwin, then a flight to Brisbane at 1am, another flight the next day to Singapore at 11pm and finally back down to Bali. Makes amockery of our carbon footprint when you consider that Bali is only about 2 hours away from Darwin!

It's our 1st time in a 3rd world country so it took some getting used but truthfully our accommodation made it a breeze. One of the recommendations from our Canadian mates we met on Fraser Island (thanks Mike) was to book into theMassa Inn in Kuta and once settled we couldn't bring our selves to move anywhere else. We had plans to visit the Gili Islands off Lombok but quite frankly we were shattered from the last 3 months of Go,Go,Go in US, NZ and Oz.

Bali is ridiculously cheap - as a result we spent our few days eating drinking, lazying by the pool and watching TV in our air conditioned room when the heat got too much. We were originally scheduled to stay 7 days but, were so chuffed at being able to do f*ck all that we thought it best to extend our stay. A quick trip to Singapore airlines at the airport did the trick. Interestingly, we found out that there was NO charge to changing our flights if we approach the airlines directly. Something thetravel agents fail to mention when they sell you a round the world trip ticket.....useful to know when you travel one day.

Bali has been the route to all evil. Apart from smoking a pack a day, eating 3 course meals 3 times a day and doing no exercise I now also find myself in the Facebook family. Kim managed to lose Stef's email and Darren (as we found out later) junked my email address because he thought some dodgy guy called "Kowalski" was trying to sell him more Viagra. So I reluctantly joined up and an within a day managed to find Darren and Stef on the other side of the Island.

They joined us at the Massa Inn by the pool for the next 10days and the only excitement we had was trying to find a new restaurant to go to to fill our belly's again!

I think we slightly regret not doing more in Bali but we needed the break from packing our backpacks every second day. It was great to spend time with Darren and Stef - They are now officially on the growing list - and we'll be commissioning Stef (she is a fine arts student) to paint her London night portrait soon.

Couple more months to go and we're running out of money FAST - Hopefully Vietnam and Co are cheaper than Singapore.

Katherine - Days 115-118

Katherine is about 300Km south of Darwin and in the weeks running up to our arrival it had been reported as the hottest town in Australia. It's a little like Riviersonderend, just bigger. Our 4 days (way too short) in K'town gave us good insight on how Mac and Gail's lives have changed since leaving the UK.

After the camping in the bush they treated us to a Fish braai - the star ingredient was Baramundi fillet, that Mac had caught earlier in the year during the wet season......Yum! Not one to be able to sit still for too long, Andrew convinced me to play a round of golf on Sunday at the the Katherine Country Club - we played 18 holes in 37 degrees but, the guy time with and old buddy more than made up for the conditions. A honourable matchplay draw was a fair result on the day - can't wait to dust off my clubs in CT!

Monday was back to school for both Mac and Gail but, Gail took and early day and took us out to another watering hole, Edith Falls. I'm still amazed at how this place manages to produce such beautiful oasis' in what seem to be incredibly dry conditions. Gail managed the short walk with us into the rocky Gorge and we spent an hour or so lazying in the water under the falls.

Back home we were treated to photo's on the laptop of their last 4 years. They done some amazing things: crossed the remote deserts in 4WDs and Andrew has even managed a 55Km, 4 day walk on his own in the bush - madman! We were also introduced to Mac new alter ego, Jean-Paul lePoep. You know those impersonations you heard over the years? Well.\, this guys is a Frenchmen who finds lots of satisfaction in pronouncing his virility to anyone that will listen. Highly amusing and I can't wait for them to put it on You Tube for the rest of the world to see.

I've always said that if I could choose someone to teach my kids then a guy like Andrew would be a dream choice. Even in trying conditions here in the Outback where indigenous families are brought up without any values and discipline - Andrew seems to want to make a difference. Although he sounds incredibly frustrated at how the system in Aus has decimated a once proud indigenous people to a society that he become dependant on "guilt" handouts from the government, he still manages to love his job - and in the Australian bush he has found an environment that he thrives in.

Mac and me at the Last Chance Saloon chatting to the locals who's primary goal was to bum free beer off us.

It's quite evident that he has spent the last 4 years embracing the indigenous culture to such and extent that they now consider him one of their own (true story!). I saw evidence of this relationship 1st hand when mac took me to the "Last chance Saloon", a pub where the locals spend their weekly wages in one day trying to get as boozed as is humanly possible. For all their misgivings, Andrew still finds time to engage in conversation with these guys and they absolutely love him him for it!

He still the same madman we've grown to love so much and Gail (bless her soul) has the patience and character to appease his "energizer bunny " lifestyle. It warms both Kimmy's and my soul to see them so happy and positive about the future. 13th of January will see a new addition to the family, leBean lePoep - I have money on him becoming the next Steve Irwin (although it may be controversial wearing a SAFFA rugby jersey on national OZ TV.

Andrew and Kimmy in Mac's pride and joy, 4.2litre Deisel1990 Toyota Land Cruiser