Singapore

Right, A mere 4 or so months after we got back... here's Singapore!

After arriving by train from Malacca, the next day we got the bus out to the botanical gardens and national orchid garden. The orchids in particular were very impressive, they were so beautiful, and it was nice and shady, and just a really pleasant place to wander around.

In the afternoon we got a combination of trains and buses out to Changi. Changi was a prisoner of war camp run by the Japanese after they captured Singapore from the British. It was a very moving and sombre place, but very interesting too.

The weather in Singapore is fairly regular - scorching heat until about 3-4pm, when it starts pouring with torrential rain. The only thing that varies is the evening - sometimes it carries on raining, sometimes it doesn't. Getting back from Changi involved lots of frantic running from cover to cover, but quite frankly we might as well have not bothered! by the time we'd crossed the road we might as well have just jumped into a bath with our clothes on! In a lot of ways it was quite nice though, as it was so hot during the day it came as a welcome relief.

One of our highlights of the trip was the food. It's hard to find a bad restaurant in Singapore, the food out there is really good. Our only mishap with food in Singapore was when we ordered Szechuan chicken... we were expecting it to have a few chillis in, but it was literally just a bowl full of dozens and dozens of dried chillis, with just a few odd bits of chicken and peanuts!

The next day we went just outside the city to the zoo. Singapore zoo has a "no cages" policy... Obviously the predators like the tigers have to be segregated from the other animals, but they do it using natural barriers like fast-flowing rivers and stuff. Things like the monkeys and orangutans have their areas where they are encouraged to stay, and have shelter and food there, but they can and do leave - so you end up with massive orangutans clambering around directly over your head. Every so often you see a zoo warden escorting an animal back to a more appropriate area of the zoo after they've strayed a bit too far! The whole thing is really well done, there's lots of space, and everything is done to match the natural environment. It was probably the best done zoo I've seen.

After that we stayed on the animal theme and went on a night-safari nearby. As well as lots of nocturnal stuff, they had quite a lot of "normal" zoo animals, but you got to see them being a bit more active at night, rather than just lounging around during the heat of the day. Once again, it poured with rain, and Craig got to wander around in a big neon-green rain poncho thingy, which as it was dark, meant he could do quite a convincing impression of the dementors from Harry Potter! :o)

Next we spent some time in the very centre of Singapore, and went and did the Singapore flyer the next morning. It's basically just like the London Eye, but bigger! It didn't seem very popular though, so we had an entire pod to ourselves. We got some nice views out across the city, also out across the harbour to sea - it's amazing how many freight ships still pass by there. They appear to have a floating football pitch too in the middle of one of the harbour bits! Went and walked across the double-helix bridge after that, then wandered around the colonial district, including the cathedral and the old Armenian church.

Then it was back to the hotel to smarten ourselves up ready for afternoon tea at Raffles! As well as the usual sandwiches, scones and cakes they also had oriental stuff like Dim Sum, and we eat far too much! After that, we went to the "Long Bar" at Raffles, which is where the Singapore Sling was invented. So obviously we had one - at £15 each! The tradition is that you eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor, so the whole floor is just absolutely covered in shells. It's about the only place in Singapore where you can throw something on the floor and not be fined!

Afterwards we went back down to the harbour area to see it all at night, including the Mer-lion statue that is the symbol of Singapore. Everything was all lit up and very pretty. Then it was off for some late-night shopping - in Singapore every other building is a giant shopping mall!

Our final day was spent largely in Chinatown, which was very busy, with loads of markets and street hawkers. We went to a temple where they claim to have one of the Buddha's teeth, and also the world's largest prayer wheel. Then on to yet more temples - a Hindu one and a Chinese taoist one, which was really busy with worhippers.

Finally we went on to the National Museum, which was really hi-tec, but a bit disappointing - there wasn't really that much in it! They did however have an exhibition on Pompeii!

Malaysia

Figured we'd better do an update before we go on our next trip, so here goes - Malaysia!

We started off in Kuala Lumpur, and after failing to get tickets for the Petronas Towers after queueing from 7.15am, we headed off to the big bird park - apparently the largest free-flying aviary in the world.

Also in the Lake-gardens complex is an orchid garden and butterfly park. The orchids weren't up to much, but the butterflies were quite impressive.

Next up was the National museum, were we go to feel slightly guilty about our colonial past! Then over to the Petronas Towers to see them all lit up at night.

We got the train out to Batu, for the caves which are a Hindu place of pilgrimage. There was a huge statue outside, but I must admit, I've forgotten who it was supposed to be of!

Back in KL we went up the KL tower - although it is slightly shorter than the Petronas Towers, it is up on a hill, so is actually higher! For no apparent reason, it also had a snake and reptile place at the bottom of the tower.

Went off to Chinatown next, which had some nice temples (including the Hindu Sri Mahariamman Hindu temple), but the markets were a bit disappointing. The food was great though!

Next it was time to try and get tickets for the Petronas Towers again, so Craig trudged across KL at 5am in the morning... but it was worth it! Not only did we get tickets for the sky-bridge, we also managed to get to go all the way up to the top. Result!

After admiring the views we went on a bit of a route-march out to the outskirts of the city for the Thean-Hou temple, which was nice and peacful after the hustle and bustle of the city centre.

The next day we got a combination of trains and taxis out to the Forest Research Institute, so we could do some trekking in the rainforest. While we were there we found a pond of the fish that nibble all the skin off your feet, so Craig had a go - it tickled!

Next up was a trip to the KL Acquarium, where you probably wouldn't want to have your feet nibbled...

That was about it for KL, so we got an overnight train up to Butterworth, and then the early morning ferry over to Penang. After a quick freshen up it was out to walk around the colonial area of Georgetown, then after the museum down into little India and Chinatown. The Khoo Kongsi Chinese assembly hall was very impressive, as were some of the old merchant houses.

Then off to Fort Cornwallis, to pretend we still rule an empire.

The next day we got a bus out to Kek Lok Si, an impressive complex of temples, including a beautiful pagoda and another giant statue. It was a huge site, and took all day - especially after we got a bit lost trying to get the bus back to Georgetown!

We went out to the Snake Temple... covered in pit vipers, apparently... well, yes, technically... But they are all doped up on all the incense fumes, so you don't really see many, and those you do may as well be dead! There was another snake house next door, where we felt rather sorry for the obviously terrified live mice that were being put in the tanks with the snakes :o(

Headed up to the north of Georgetown next for a Burmese temple, and a Thai temple with a huge reclining buddha. They had shrines for each Chinese year of birth, and if you prayed at the appropriate one you would be blessed... Sharon got "rich and famous"... Craig got "sympathetic"... Not fair!!!

After going to the house of Cheong Tze Fatt (or Mr Fatt's House as we preferred to call it) we went and found a beer before getting the ferry back to Butterworth. The trains have a tendency to be horribly delayed, so we actually spent what felt like half the night stood waiting on a platform, then missed our connection in KL and sat there for hours too, meaning we had less time in Melacca than we'd hoped.

Melacca was rather touristy, far more so than Penang. We went for a wander, and did the Maritime Museum, before heading to a rather nice old Baba-Nyonya house were we were staying.

Did the main square, with the Dutch Stadthuys, then the Porta de Santiago A'Famosa, church of Saint Paul, and Sultanate Palace.

After a lunch of chickens-foot soup (ordered accidentally!) we went around Chinatown and saw a few little temples and mosques. Then it was off to try a Cendol, one of their famous desserts. I'm sorry, I don't care where you are in the world, adding sugar and shaved ice to cold noodles and baked beans does not make a good pudding!!


The next morning it was off to Singapore... for which a separate post will follow soon!

Holland!

Holland! The land of windmills, tulips, and, ermm... well, we weren't sure really, but our friends Clare and Ian moved out there, so it gave us a good excuse to go and visit them and find out!

It was great to see Clare, Ian and the kids again, it seems like ages since they went out to Holland! Once we'd had a good catch-up, we got down to the serious business of sight-seeing!



First up was Kinderdijk. It was a bit wet and windy, but still very picturesque with all its windmills. We went inside one, and it was surprisingly spacious actually.

Hmm, thinking about it, we shouldn't have been surprised it was windy... building windmills there would have been a bit pointless otherwise...




Next was Dordrecht, a quaint old town with a nice harbour area.




Inside the cathedral. Think this was the execution of St Pancratius.

Rotterdam itself was nicer than we expected for such a big port. They did have a tendency for slightly weird architecture though...

It was about time we did something a bit more exciting for the kids, so we all took a trip to the zoo! Typically, Sharon made a bee-line for the bird show. Craig took note of this, and decided to get his own back with a route-march around the museums of Amsterdam when they got there...






...In the mean-time though, he had penguin friends to play with. If only he'd taken his prosthetic beak with him...





It was a really good zoo actually, with lots of stuff for the kids (and Craigs) to mess around with. Here's Aidan in a giant turtle egg.






After a few days with Clare and Ian it was time to move on to Amsterdam, so after a brief struggle buying a train ticket (ticket machines don't take cards, and don't take notes either... what do they take??) we were on our way.






Amsterdam was quite pretty with all its canals and old buildings... at least it was when it was dry... which wasn't often while we were there!






Rembrandt was one of the few famous Dutch people we could think of, so we thought we'd go see his house... This was his studio. Apparently he went bankrupt and all his stuff was sold, so there wasn't actually a lot to see in there, oh well!

Van Gogh was also pretty high on our list of famous Dutch people, so we went to the Van Gogh museum. Neither of us are big fans of his, but actually the museum was really good.




Then it was on to Anne Franks house. This was really good too, but in quite an upsetting way - it's really sad that after all that time and all that effort they were still captured and sent to the concentration camps.


We made the obligatory trip to the Rijksmuseum. It is currently being rennovated and half of it is closed, but actually that was quite good as it meant that they've shifted all the highlights into the bit that is still open, so you get to see all the good stuff and avoid all the dross! Like most of the museums in Amsterdam, you're not allowed to take photos which is a shame. Didn't seem to stop most people trying to sneak a shot of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" when the guards weren't looking though!


You don't have to be in Amsterdam for long before you come across an important question...




Amstel?





Or Heineken???


So we thought we'd better go to the Heineken Experience and find out!





Craig didn't really want to leave!





...and made sure Sharon learnt how to make it before she left!





We thought we'd better make the effort to go to the "New" and "Old" churches (very imaginative with their names are the Dutch... and yes, we've already forgotten the Dutch words for old and new...).




Neither church was that impressive, to be honest, so we decided to cut our losses and go for a Chinese (surprise surprise) and then a wander around the red light district. Maybe not quite as cultural, but more of an education...

On our last day, Craig spent the morning trying to do his "poor puppy dog" look until Sharon gave in and agreed that we could go to see the big Alexander the Great exhibition that was on at the Hermitage.

Then it was off to stock up on Dutch cheese before heading off to the airport and home!

Next up - Malaysia and Singapore in a month or so...

Slovenia - Finally!

Yes yes, we went in May, but we never got round to uploading any photos... so here we go.

Slovenia was a lovely country actually. Very picturesque, lots of beautiful forest, lakes, mountains etc. The people were friendly, and it was very quiet and peaceful. Best of all, you were never very far from a cafe selling big wodges of cake :o)

This is the capital, Ljubljana. As well as having a cool name, this has to be one of the most laid-back capital cities we've ever been to. And considering the competition (Tongatapu for a start...) that's quite an achievement!

There's quite a large Italian influence, so as you'd expect, it didn't take long for Sharon to find somewhere selling giant pizzas...

...While Craig rooted out the local beer fairly quickly.

The Dragon Bridge. Having recently watched "How to train your Dragon" Craig had unrealistic expectations about being able to ride them and set fire to people... As usual, it was left to Sharon to be the voice of reason (ie to tell him not to act like a little kid).

Ljubljana Castle. Even their castles are peaceful affairs.

We got the bus up to Bled, and went for some nice walks through the hills around the lake.

The lake at Bled. It looked lovely and calm, it can't be too hard to row across that...

...Umm, yes it can! At this point Craig was still smiling... Within a few minutes he was looking whistfully at the little motor-boats zipping across the water... A few minutes later and he was ready to pass-out...

As usual, Craig had picked somewhere with a castle to visit! Bled Castle was quite impressively situated at the top of a rocky outcrop.

Inside the chapel of the castle.

The view from the castle (once we had recovered from the climb and didn't look so red and out of breath).

Next up was Postojna, which has an amazing complex of caves.

You get a little train-thingy down through the caves to start with... good job neither of us are tall, as it whizzed you past stalagmites (or tites?!) just a few inches above your head.

Once you were down there you could walk for ages through huge caverns, over ricketly little bridges over chasms, and lots of other cool stuff.

Near Postojna is Predjama Castle (or Pyjama Castle as Craig liked to call it). It was built in the mouth of a cave in a hillside. This was the hide-out of the Slovenian Robin Hood - who met a sad end when a cannon-ball hit the castle toilet while he was spending a penny...

We were only there for a long weekend, but we loved it - so we're already planning to go back :o)