Days 10-15 - Tioman

Honestly there isn't much to report from here. We've had a wonderful time but mainly been relaxing. . There has been a few things we've wanted to do but factors got in the way. One day Calum wasn't very well, another we'd had a tropical storm which went on until the afternoon and by the no trips were running and today (the 31st) I've been feeling quite poorly. The island is beautiful and we've just enjoyed taking it all in. We found monkeys right in our 'back garden' there was loads of them. We've seen loads of monitor lizzards, which Calum's definitely braver getting closer to than I am. Lots of cats and little lizzards. Every morning whilst we enjoy breakfast we see little crabs scurrying along the beach and digging out holes to hide in. Our breakfast was included in the price of the room and is prepared by the 'hotel' managers mum. It's usually fried rice, pancakes, chicken nuggets and fried eggs but there is sometimes other stuff. Turns out the only cash point on the island is on a place called Tekek. which is only reachable by water taxi. Which was a weird experience but quite a cool one. The boat picked us up in the sea right outside our room and dropped us back in the same place. I was a bit scared to start but soon warmed up. We've also found a restaurant we really like called 'river side cafe' we've eaten there most days so far. They do a lovely fried rice (especially the Pattaya fried rice) which is basically egg fried rice wrapped in egg. I also usually get the chicken wings. And sometimes if we missed lunch we'll get some tomyam soup. Which is lush but a bit too spicy for Calum. Bless him. I don't want to leave this place it's so picturesque and wonderful but I am looking forward to getting out and doing some more adventuring. On Sunday however we did treat ourselves to a massage. We got a full body scrub with some coffee stuff a full body massage, a facial (which I loved) and then had some foot pampering whilst we drank some king of ginger tea and ate some kind of sponge cake. It was a lush evening and I definitely felt more relaxed (and silky smooth) afterwards. We've got one day left on this wonderful island before we move on to our next location. I'm going to miss it a lot.

Sorry the blog has been a little slack but the only Internet we have here is a hotspot from the hotel managers phone and he's not always around. So we haven't had much internet access whilst we've been here. I'll be sure to upload some photos when we have better wifi.

Day 9 - our journey to Tioman, Malaysia

This was a very loooong and tiring day! We woke up around 7 and had some breakfast. Went back to bed for a cuddle and got up around mid day and began our walk to the bus station. It was about a mile and a half away but with our heavy rucksacks and the humid heat it made it a challenge. But we got there eventually and we were on our way. Traffic was horrendous and we had to do the whole immigration and passport control thing again. Which is a bore but we got through it. Eventually we ended up in Larkin bus station. Ready to board our bus and get to mersing. Only to find out the next bus with available spaces wasn't until 9.30pm. It was currently about 3pm. So we bought our tickets and went to find somewhere to sit and get our rucksacks off. We ended up in a dunkin donuts shop and that's where we stayed most of the day occasionally buying something to eat or drink but mostly playing Pokemon go. Time went quite quickly considering and finally it was time to go and check in and get on our bus. It was only another 2 hour (or so) drive to our location and luckily Calum had managed to find and book a hotel only a 5 minute walk from where we were dropped off. Which after the long day we were both very thankful for. For some reason it was just as cheap for a room with two double beds, which is lucky because that's all they had available. So we still had the choice of separate beds. But it was nice to be in a double not single. I very much like to spread out when I sleep. However we ended up sleeping in one bed and I definitely slept a lot better. But I'm very thankful for aircon. Because the rooms get very hot. Especially if you have to share a bed with someone. The morning came around quickly and check out was at 12. So we got going to the ferry that was gonna take us to Tioman. It was an hour or so ferry journey but i think I just dozed off for most of it. It was quite a smooth ride which I was thankful for. Not a fan of choppy seas. Finally we it there and the second I stepped out of the boat my breath was taken away by one of the most beautiful places I'd ever seen in my whole life. The sea was the bluest I think I've ever seen, meeting with gorgeous golden sands and a green jungle covering most of the inner part of the island. By this point I was desperate to get to our hotel. Drop our bags and dive straight in to the water. The hotel was a short walk away but it felt like miles with the sea looking so tempting. Our hotel turned out to not be a hotel but a little hut. Made from wood. It's beautiful and cute and set almost in the jungle and just up from the beach. I think it's definitely the quickest I've got changed in my life. Once we were checked in I was changed and straight down to the water. It is shallow water for what must be at least 150 meters before it even gets up to your waist. But it's the clearest water I've ever seen. And it's so warm it's almost unbelievable. We spent an hour of so in the sea before we cane in to get dry and changed and find somewhere to have some dinner. We had dinner at a little restaurant and we both had a mix grill (lamb, squid, chicken and prawns) I only really liked the lamb but Calum seemed to enjoy it all. We went back to the hut to get some sleep it's such a cute little building! I couldn't wait for our first proper day on this paradise island.

Day 8 - Singapore (water park)

This day was allll for Calum. I'm not a massive fan of water parks but they're one of his favourites! So we took a train to sentosa and a short walk got us to the water park. Around the water park was also universal studios. Which I really wanted to go to but we couldn't afford to. There was also lots of sweet shops and resturants around. But we were headed for the water park. I was just looking forward to the lazy river to be honest. It was also just our luck that on the day we actually decide to go and do something. It decides to rain. But honestly we were gonna get wet anyway and nothing gets between Calum and his water park. He came in the lazy river with me (which went on forever) and then I stood and waited for him to do the slides he wanted to do. And then he came on the lazy river with me again... and again! We enjoyed some time in the wave pool and Calum went onto some tank which had lots of fish and had a snorkel with them. They did have a dolphin tank. But I didn't like that very much. So we didn't go to see that. We had a great day there but it had to end eventually. As i was getting changed apparently there was a massive row between a boyfriend and girlfriend and one of them ripped up the other ones passport or visa (I always miss the drama it seems) we took a little walk through the gift shop and I found an orca teddy that I loved but Calum wouldn't let me have it (meany) and we began our walk back to the train station. Where we both are some catsu curry, some Asian dessert called strawberry milk ice and strawberry sago which were actually pretty tasty! We did a little bit of shopping. Finally we caught the train back to our hostel to get some sleep. Tomorrow is time to say goodbye to Singapore :(

Day 7 - Singapore

Today was a bit of a bad one. We woke up around 7 to go have some breakfast and then Calum came to my bunk so we could have some morning cuddles, naturally we both fell asleep and didn't wake up until a bit later. Probably around mid day! We decided to find an evening activity to do so we could spend the day just resting. The heat is really really wearing us out. So we decided to go to 'Gardens by the bay' which is home to singapores famous light trees. In the evening when we got there we found there was also a flower festival and a food market. We were less interested in the flowers. More interested in all the yummy Asian cuisine around us. Calum had some 'Laksa' which is some type of soup. I wasn't so keen. I had Thai green curry meat calls and rice cakes. It was quite spicy but very tasty. We also tried some rolled ice cream. I had Oreo and Nutella. Calum had nutella and banana. It was delicious. As we were walking around we noticed a massage tent and couple resist. For 10 ringgit each (about £2) we got a shoulder and neck massage. Calum really enjoyed it. I found it rather painful and kinda felt like the lady was trying to break my skull. The end result felt good though. Don't think I've ever had so much motion in my neck. We then decided to go and actually walk around the gardens and we were lucky enough to be there to catch the Gardens by the bay light show. Where all the light trees change colour in time to music. It was amazing to see. So beautiful. We went to the gift shop and got a little singapore trinket to go with the one we got in Kuala Lumpur. To remind up of the amazing places we've seen together. Finally at around 10.30pm we got a train back to our hostel and got even more sleep, when we could finally get there still in our separate bunks.

Day 6 - Singapore (beach)

As it turns out, I was just as bad getting out the bunk bed as I was getting in it . Calum got up at 9 and went for breakfast. I missed it stuck up in my bunk. I got down maybe an hour later and ended up getting moved to a different (and bottom) bunk . We then headed down to the taxi rank to get a cab to the beach . I was so excited to have a beach day. It was very quiet at the beach which was lovely. Lovely sand, the water was a bit of a funny colour but it was okay. It was nice to finally cool down in the sea, which To be fair .Was so so warm. Even when you first went in. We ended up paddling for a bit then heading to the same to Sun bathe. Both of us fell asleep and only woke up when the waves started getting our feet. We went for another little swim and then decided to go dry off and find somewhere to eat. We ended up in some on the beach little restaurant called 'bora bora ' we both had fish and chips. Which was pretty tasty. Not very Asian though. Only a week in and I'm starting to miss home quite a lot . We started there until the sun started to go down then we got a taxi back to our hostel to plan the rest of our Singapore adventures. I really hope this jet lag wears off soon.

Day 5 - Singapore.

After not going to sleep until about four in the morning .This day was quite a lazy one .We woke up about 7 to enjoy our complementary breakfast. Which was a help your self situation of noodles and toast. I finally got half decent at using chopsticks. We then went back to bed . We were both out in different dorms which kind of sucked but it was okay. We ended up not waking up until about 3 in the afternoon and then just chilled about the hostel for a bit until we decided to catch a subway and go to some light and sound show that was recommended to us. It was pretty amazing. We were going to stop for dinner in a super hero cafe which was quite quirky but decided against it and just headed home. We ended up having dinner in some American diner . The food was fairly tasty but wow, compared to Kuala Lumpur Singapore is expensive. We came back to the hostel and extended our stay a few more nights, they also moved us to the same dorm which I was very thankful for .However they put me on a top bunk next to Calum and turns out I wasn't very good at getting up the stairs. Took me about half a hour to finally get up. Eventually I did it and fell asleep pretty damn fast.

Day 4 - Kuala Lumpur (batu)

Day 4, we decided to get up early and head down to Bath caves. And in natural fashion we slept in and ended up leaving a little later than we meant to. We took a walk down to China town and got a taxi which took us to batu .The place was amazing and in front of the caves stands a massive golden statue (picture bellow) just down the bottom of the caves were lots of monkeys. They seemed friendly enough but they had massive teeth! After a small lunch of some fried rice we took a little walk and came across the batu caves villa, which was home To a bird house, reptile house and lots of Hindu culture. The room full of Hindu gods was a sight To see. And the bird house was pretty cool. The reptile house however was horrid. The animals all seemed to be miserable or dead. So we left there pretty sharp . We then walked across a small bridge where you could get a sight of a small waterfall. Which was very pretty . To get to the batu caves you have to climb almost 300 stairs  it almost killed me off but I made it to the top eventually. Calum found it a lot easier than I did. About half way up a monkey jumped on me and stole my bug spray from my bag and held it  hostage at the top of a lamp post. It was quite funny but scared the life out of me. Unfortunately the caves were undergoing some maintenance work so we didn't get to see the full beauty of if. But it was still a very beautiful sight . On the climb back down we saw some mummy monkeys with their baby's holding  on to them. It was really cute but unfortunately Calum had our his camera away so we couldn't really get any pictures. Once we'd hit the bottom we decided to have a look and some of the small stalls and we brought some Malaysian sweets (turns out me and Cal don't like Malaysian sweets) we then had a rush back home when our taxi only took us half way and we had to walk 40 minutes the rest of the way home. Baring in mind we had just under and hour aand a half before we had to be at the bus stop to get our bus to Singapore . Luckily we got back to our hotel with about 20 minutes to go (we stopped in a cafe for a small bite as we had a 5 hour bus journey ahead of us) .We had to quickly pack our bags, check out and leg it to the monorail . We made it  just in time. And got on our bus, which had  reclining seats and lots of room, and we were in our way to Singapore. Immigration was a nightmare and baggage claim wasn't much more fun .But after almost 6 hours since we left our stop in Kuala Lumpur we made it to our second location .Then a mile and a half walk to our hotel. We were thankful when we finally arrived .

Thanks for the memories Kuala Lumpur .Singapore,let's av ya.