Welcome To The Jungle!

Well a big hello from Borneo to our blog followers.  We have arrived safely in Kuching from our week long trip in Singapore which we enjoyed but our credit card didn't!  

Kuching is the capital of East Malaysia in the state of Sarawak and is also known as the "City of Cats" however this is not because the place is littered with cats (thank god) - no one really knows the real reason why but there are varying opinions, one being Kuching translates into cat in Malay amongst others which I wont bore you with. The place has lots of cat statues scattered round and lots of cat references in shops etc but other than that I have only seen 2 real cats.

We didnt really have much of plan for Kuching, we knew that we would like to go and see the Orangutans and see some of the Jungle but that was about it - if honest, we were getting a bit travel weary so fancied some R & R (he he, we say this every other week).

Again through our trusty friend Tripadvisor we have picked up a great hotel, a place called Basaga Guesthouse just outside of the city centre.  This is definetely our best find so far on the trip, it is lush and so comfortable, it has been the perfect place to chill out and for the first time in about 5 weeks we dont have twin beds pushed together.  They even have a guest sushi chef who comes in from one of Kuching's top hotels 3 times a week and we have had a big plasma screen and sofa to watch the footy so we have been very happy and rested bunnies.

We went to Semenggoh Wildlife Centre which was established in 1975 for the rehabilitation of confiscated and surrendered wild animals. It is located about 20 km south of Kuching and is situated within the beautiful Semengoh Nature Reserve. This is a temporary home for various endangered wildlife of Sarawak, especially Orang utans that were rescued from captivity.  At the Centre, the animals are trained and conditioned to live independently in the natural environment.

It was so lovely to see the Orangutans in their own environment and not stuck in a cage, we saw 5 of them including a young baby and its mother. Apparently we were lucky to see so many as more often than not, at this time of the season they do not come for feeding as the jungle is still full of wild fruits for them to feed on

A mother and its baby, awh....



















We cant tell if he is scratching his ear, or telling us how tapped in the head we all are for paying and standing round and watching him and his mates mess around in a tree. 

I dont belive the lovely, cute organtuans could do this to anyone... 

this was a warning sign at the centre - we only saw this as we walked out

This is Andrew on the way up to watch Kick Ass, the cinema was very retro and this was the showbiz entrance, the film was great too (we thought it was much better than Alice in Wonderland which was the last film we saw in KL)

We decided that it would be fun to to do a local cookery course.  We spent the afternoon at Bumbu cookery class in Chinatown which showed us how to make a 3 course local Sarawak meal.

The first part of the class was to go to the market to shop for our produce which we would later cook with.  This is some of the fish in the market.  We purchased some wild star fruit, lemongrass and fresh coconut amongst over things.

This is Andrew with a traditional ratan jungle bag which we used to collect the produce from the market (Andrew categorically states that this is NOT a handbag, plus it helps the environment as you dont need to use plastic bags)

This is me mixing the mixture for our dessert. The 3 course meal consists of: Chicken Curry, Sambal Midin (Jungle Ferns with Sambal) and for dessert, Tako.  As you can tell from this picture the kitchen was quite hot!

This is Andrew with our teacher Elsie, she was 71  years of age and such a lovely lady, we really enjoyed her class

This is the chicken curry which we made, it was very good 

These are the puddings we made called Tako, we even made the padan leaf baskets however we were told to put tinned sweetcorn in the bottom of the coconut custard which meant it tasted it a bit weird for a westerner (as sweetcorn is classed as savoury) however you can also use strawberries which would work better we think

This is me and Andrew eating our meal which we had cooked, we felt bad as Elsie had done lots of the hard work but couldn't join us

On our last day we went to the Sarawak Cultural Village which is a living museum located at Santubong.

The Sarawak Cultural Village conserves and portrays the different cultures and customs of ethnic groups such as the Ibans, Bidayuhs, and Melanaus.

The Cultural Village is landscaped with a manmade lake at the centre surrounded by 7 authentic replicas of ethnic houses: the Bidayuh centre house and longhouse, the Iban longhouse, the Penan hut, the Orang Ulu longhouse, the Melanau Rumah Tinggi, the Malay house and the Chinese farmhouse. Displayed in each house are many artefacts made by individual dwellers. Demonstration of arts and crafts like beadworks, wood and bamboo carvings, pua weaving and straw weaving can be seen.

This is me at the Orang Ulu longhouse

Andrew using the blow pipe in one of the longhouses

Tribal man @ work

This man does have clothes on, promise, he is actually playing a tribal instrument

At the end of the tour of the cultural village, they hold a tribal dance show which lets you see the various tribes dances and rituals, this is a picture of one of performances we liked (he nearly shot the blow pipe into the audience!












We have come to the end of our time in Kuching and we are now getting ready to fly to the northern tip of Borneo to a place called Kota Kinabalu in the Sabah region.  We plan to spend two weeks there looking at beaches, national parks and even may throw in a bit of snorkelling before we head off to the Phillipines on the 9th May.  Take care folks, be in touch soon, Andrew and Sar xx








Have a look at our new world food blog website The Food Atlas.com for world food recipes and stories.
Are you interested in food recipes from around the world? Have a look at www.thefoodatlas.com
Computer speed problems? www.systemoptimizer.org

Singapore Sling

Hello from Singapore.  After a long string of passing the buck to Sarah, I thought I'd better write a post again.

We had originally planned to stay here for a few days  later this year -  before our flight  to Perth. However , whilst we were chillling out (do we ever do anything but?) in Langkawi, we both agreed that we had had enough of bus travel for the time being and that the islands off the eastern side of mainland malaysia could wait for another trip. As such we realised we had a few days to kill, so we booked a flight to Singapore.

Actually one of the things we have found during our trip is that we are better off spending a week in a place we like rather than rushing around like a pair of blue arsed flies and really seeing little more than the hotel ,road, bus station or airport. We figure that if we miss out anywhere that is worth a visit it is as good an incentive as any to come back to a country. Also it's not as if we are on some mission to consume all the sights. What is it they say? quality and not quantity. Maybe it's just the type of people we are. In some ways it's great to be so similar as we quite often work along the same lines (think snoozing till noon), but if we're tired, hot or hungry or any combination of the three, we are both a nightmare to be around. This much was evident the other day when I was pretending to know my way around Singapore and ignoring Sarah's requests to ask someone for directions.This wasn't my first time in the country and therefore male pride had taken over that I, as a near native knew exactly where to go.

But there I go again, starting at the middle.

We flew in to the Budget Terminal at Singapore's Changi airport, which is nice enough, but doesn't have the cinema, gym and swimming pool that is part of the all singing, all dancing International Terminus. Still, we didn't come to see an airport, however nice it was.

We were staying just outside the city proper in the Aqueen hotel which is a district called Lavender. The  room was small but comfy, it had an odd bathroom though as the walls were frosted plate glass (not great for privacy).

On our first night we took the MRT(tube train) to Clark Quay. The Quayside is lined with restaurants and bars and was really lively when we arrived as it was a friday.
To be honest, although it was a lively and interesting place with lots of food choices,  we couldn't help comparing it with Jalan Alor, the main hawker street we loved so much in KL. Next to all the small warung and restaurants on Jalan Alor the corparate financed slick-image atmosphere felt sterile and plastic.

We had trouble shaking off this feeling for the rest of our trip. Everywhere we went in the tourist district the streets were spotless and the transport system was faultless (the swipe card system is so easy), but the soul of the place was lacking. Maybe it's a hangover from having so many extremes in India (the chaotic roads; the rubbish; the cows, dogs and the elephants) that the order and extreme cleanliness of Singapore seems mundane by comparison.

One thing Singapore cannot be faulted on is it's food. The people here are food mad with eateries often open 24 hours, and because the country has such a rich mix of ethnic backgrounds, you can get pretty much any dish your heart desires.

We ate at a great Japanese place on Clark Quay on our first night (I forget the name).  We got to enjoy a couple of glasses of Australian Red, which is still something of a novelty after a seven month drought. We also got to try Wagyu Beef fillet(Japanese marbled beef; the cow is fed beer and vodka the lucky thing!) which is full of flavour like a fatty beef cut and still very tender. Delicious!

We took a tour down the Singapore river and took in the sights.  Alot of the dock waterfront is under heavy construction at the moment as the developers seem to be building around the new F1 night race track.

On the boat cruise. Bit of a rip off for what it was really, but better than walking!

We struck lucky by finding this food court right outside our hotel. I have to say that this was probably my favourite place to eat in Singapore,  and not just because it was cheap! (although I am becoming ever more enamoured with a good bargain as our savings dwindle).
This seemed to be mainly a local haunt made up of around thirty small stalls. There was a great atmosphere to the place at night, you could even watch the football and have a beer.

Dim Sum Central, lots of choice. Usually eaten for breakfast / brunch

Frog porridge anyone? I wanted to try this, but it smelled too much like wet dog for my liking. Great sign though.
Some of the other exotic offerings to be had were:  spine meat soup, Turtle or crocodile soup and pigs trotter, organ or tail.

I'd love to take credit for this photo, but Sarah took it. It reminds me of the film Blade Runner. Very dark and moody. It was taken on the Singapore Flyer (like the London Eye) at dusk just as a storm was rolling in.

I've just noticed the sweat patches. Nice!
Sorry but it's bloody hot in Singapore. Also I had just had a big meal so my gut was a little more rotund than normal.

View from the top of the Flyer looking over the city. Singapore is a beautiful place at night.

Raffles Hotel. We thought why not do the traditional visit to Raffles and partake in a Singapore Sling. So we both did our best and got dressed up smart. Sarah was especially looking forward to a drink in a famous hotel.
  We got to the lobby and the concierge directed us to the long bar at the back of the hotel. When we got in there Sar's face dropped. The floor and seats in the bar were covered with monkey nuts. We both thought the place was cool but definitely not what we were expecting.

'Just one is enough'

At 28 (£14) Singapore dollars plus tax I should bloody well think so!

Not a bin in sight. This was a clean patch on the floor. I have to say I made more than my fair share of mess. I had a beer instead of a Sling (Beer and Nuts just make more sense to me) and just had a sip of Sar's.

The day before we flew to Borneo, we went to the Night Safari. It was well organised and as zoos go, seemed well set out.

This was the best photo of a bad bunch. We were under strict orders not to use flash photography as it can eventually blind the animals.










Well that's it for now. We are off for a Borneo jungle adventure next, I still haven't made my mind up if I'm going to climb Mt. Kinabalu yet - 50/50 at the moment. If so Sar will be having a relaxing few days in a nice hotel. As if she was ever going to do anything else!


Take care all. Andrew and Sarah.x

Have a look at our new world food blog website The Food Atlas.com for world food recipes and stories.
Are you interested in food recipes from around the world? Have a look at www.thefoodatlas.com
Computer speed problems? www.systemoptimizer.org

Lazy Days in Lovely Langkawi

We have just spent 10 days in Langkawi where we chilled and relaxed after our hectic time in Kuala Lumpar.  We were only meant to stay 1 or 2 nights so as you can most probably tell, we enjoyed it so much that we decided to stay on.  This isnt really going to be a long blog as there is not much to write on the life of 2 people who spend their time drinking, at the beach and generally doing nowt !

Whilst on the train to the airport we managed to book a guesthouse from research we had done on tripadvisor in KL, Pondok Keladi, which was run by Dee and his partner Marc and it is in a beautiful part of Langkawi, nestled in the jungle away from the main strip.  It was so peaceful and Marc and Dee were so welcoming we immediately felt at home.  It was a fifteen minute walk to the shops and restaurants so we hired out a scooter which unfortunately turned out to be a very uncomfortable experience (in comparison to our Indian scooter) so we gave up and got a car instead to have a look around.

This is the chill out area in the guesthouse, Balinese style, we spent a lot of time here

Andrew on one of the Beaches in Langkawi - no one was on the beach as it was low season so it was so quiet and lovely

We met some lovely people whilst in Langkawi - our hosts Dee and Marc,  Felix and Ines from Germany.  We spent some good times with them during our stay in Langkawi. Thanks guys we had a wicked time.   

We (well me and Andrew) got ridiculously drunk with them one night but we blame Ines who drank only Jaigermeister (nothing else) so we were forced into joining her at 5pm after a number of beer and therefore ended up blind drunk - apologies to all of our friends who got a phone call that night!  Safe to say that we spent the whole of the next day in bed, we are rubbish at drinking these days, hangovers are just not worth it, but at least we excelled in the fact we were on a duty free Island - where no joke, beer is cheaper than water!!

This is us with Dee, Felix and Ines on the drunken night (this was before Dee threw up)

We took the car out for the day and went for a drive to the other side of the Island, we stopped off at the Four Seasons Hotel for a drink and to have a look at their beach, this is Andrew in the beautiful chill out area

This is me at the Four Seasons with my Mojito as you can most probably tell from this blog, this is a particular favourite of mine

Marc who runs the guesthouse with Dee is British, so on arrival he was showing us round and there was a communal kitchen I said.. oh thats good..I can make a roast dinner (half joking). But of course being away from home it seems to be the one thing which everyone misses so I sort of volunteered to make a roast in the 34deg heat!!  It took over six hours, it was flippin boiling hot, 6 people - 4 meat eaters and 2 vegetarians but I did it, and it actually turned out alright.    

This is a picture of Felix, Ines and Marc waiting to be served dinner.

We had such a good time in Langkawi and we didnt want to leave, we could have spent another few weeks there recharging our batteries (its a hard life on the road you know) but we had to leave as our next destination was calling but I sure that we will be back.

Well thats about it from us, the next destination is Singapore for 6 days before heading off to Borneo.

Love Sar & Andrew xx

Have a look at our new world food blog website The Food Atlas.com for world food recipes and stories.
Are you interested in food recipes from around the world? Have a look at www.thefoodatlas.com
Computer speed problems? www.systemoptimizer.org

Kuala Lumpur: Shopping, Schumacer and Street Food

Greetings from Malaysia.

Our first stop of our SE Asia tour was Kuala Lumpur. We stopped in a hotel (Citrus) just outside of the Golden Triangle, which had a superb view of the Petronas Towers, however the transport system is so easy to use in KL that we just hopped on the train and within ten minutes were we in the city centre.

Kuala Lumpur is a modern, clean and cosmopolitan city which we loved. There are malls everywhere so I was very happy to spend a good few hours shopping especially as they all have A/C which is a relief after walking on the humid streets. I even found a Marks and Spencers which was like being in heaven after being used to Indian market stalls. My mum very kindly gave us some Easter money (thanks mum) so we treated ourselves to a few things from M & S and also the Apple shop for accessories for our itouch.


This is the view from our hotel room












We got a little bit lost on the way to the Central Market but saw some lovely buildings, this is a mosque we stumbled across. We loved how although it embraces being a modern city with it s towering skyscrapers but it is scattered with beautiful Islamic buildings.










When we were in the Central Market we came across a couple who had their feet in some water, on closer inspection it was a fish spa. You put your feet in the water and the fish, called doctor fish, nibble at your feet. Me and Andrew had a go and as you can see from Andrews face here, the sensation is weird at first but then you get used to and it feels great. You can choose either little fishies or big fishies and there was another tank where you could have your hands done - we tried all 3 between us as we loved the sensation, saved me having to get a pedicure too.









This is Andrew having his hands done and this is my feet in with the big fishies.































This is the KLCC shopping plaza













We went up to the Sky Bar at Traders Hotel to have a cocktail and to see the view of the city. This is Andrew with his Mojito with the Petronas Towers in the background. A bit pricey in this hotel though due to the view - we paid £25 for two drinks!















Me in the Sky Bar, Traders Hotel

















This is Jalan Alor which is where all the street food is, the food down here was lush. As you can see from the picture it is very popular with locals and tourists alike.













Vendors on Jalan Alor, the choice of eatery ranged from proper restaurants, trucks, vans, shacks, stalls, plastic table and chairs - a variety of ways to eat


















Durian stall - this is the fruit which is also known as stink fruit - we didn't try any as the smell was repulsive so god knows what it tasted like, apparently it is meant to taste like sick... nice...we saw loads of local people eating though so it must have something going for it.









This is the some of the street food which we sampled, the fish on the left is called chicken fish - it actually tasted like chicken and it was yummy. On the right these are braised pork ribs. We are not sure if calling it street food does not do it justice as you conjure up a image of something nasty however it was some of the nicest food we have had.


























Andrew on another trip to Jalan Alor, it was the cheapest place to eat in KL


















This was our main mode of transport - the monorail













This is my first pint of Cider in seven months, we went to a Irish bar to watch the United/Chelsea game. Although Andrew had a bit of a heart attack when the bill came as it was a pricey £7 a pint! Oops, it was worth every penny though.















We ended up staying a extra 3 nights in KL as were enjoying it so much. On arrival in the city we were greeted by numerous signs for the KL Formula 1 Grand Prix which was due to be held on the Sunday in Sepang so we decided to stay on and watch that. It was very hot and noisy but we had a great day out really enjoyed it as we had never been to a Grand Prix before.










Me and Andrew on the bus on the way to the Grand Prix in Sepang











This is Hamilton, Alonso and Massa (we think).












This is Lewis Hamilton overtaking a driver from Force India












This is me and Andrew at Sepang race track, it was very well organised however you would need to be very rich to follow this round the world.








Well that's about it from our time in KL, as you can most probably tell we had a brilliant time so we were sad to leave however as we only have 5 weeks in Malaysia it was time to move on to somewhere new (plus the credit card couldn't take any more LOL). The plan was to go to the Cameron Highlands however we decided to fancied a bit of beach life so booked some flights to the island of Langkawi instead..... to be continued.

Love Andrew & Sar xxx






Have a look at our new world food blog website The Food Atlas.com for world food recipes and stories.
Are you interested in food recipes from around the world? Have a look at www.thefoodatlas.com
Computer speed problems? www.systemoptimizer.org