HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year everybody. Still not sure what I am going to do. But I thought I'd let you all know that it's 42 degrees in Melbourne today. Yes 42 Degrees! It's the hottest New Year's Eve since recordes began!! (well 1899 apparently). Might head to the beach or might just stay out of the sun. It's a bit too hot for me to do anything right now. Hope you all have a good night tonight. I'll be thinking of you all in the cold ;)

Melbourne. Finally.

Well I finally made it here. It's taken a long time and I'm not really sure what the day is. My body clock is a mess especially because it's about 7.30pm and still really light. Not much to report other than it's blisteringly hot and I am totally shattered. Happy New Year everyone!

Invisible touch

Up until now I've been pretty good. But tonight Brownie, Catherine and I made some new friends and went out and did Karaoke. Right now, I am too drunk to write this properly. We've had a good night. I have a flight to catch in some hours.

hi guys, its Catherine here. Dave has been karaoked out so i am taking over for a minute. Wish Beck was here so Dave wasnt so mean about me and Brownie. He misses you, Beck!!!, Trust me ive heard enough about it!!! Merry Christmas to all you guys in England, will see you soon! ps did an original version of Dolly Partons 9-5 tonight amonst other things!!!!

I wasn't that mean was I!? Or at least I hope I wasn't. I caught my flight though (just) and I am now waiting at Singapore for my connecting flight to Melbourne. I don't think I'm going to make a habit of 4 hour Karaoke marathons and then getting up 4 hours later to spend 20 hours flying. Will put some photos up when I (finally) get to Australia.

Happy Horridays, especially to Catherine!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! I know it's a couple of days late, but the sentiment is still there. Thanks to everyone who sent a comment to say Merry Christmas, it's really appreciated, it's nice to know you are all thinking about us. A lot has happened, so let me fill you in. Firstly Catherine arrived a few days ago and we have all been hanging out together (I'm in trouble for not mentioning this sooner, so I thought I better say it first). The 3 of us spent Christmas day with Si and Kez who are also from England. It's a bit odd celebrating Christmas in a place where they don't really care about it. Apparently it's treated like Valentine's day over here, very coupley (sulky face). We did manage a Christmas dinner of sorts, warm roast lamb and salad. It was more funny than anything else. We had Cheesecake crepes for desert which made up for it though. Not exactly 'WORST CHRISTMAS EVER!', but certainly different to what I'm used to. We also took a wander down to Harajuku where all the kids dress up like Manga characters and wierd goth things on Sundays. It's pretty wrong to see 14 year olds dressed up like they were. Very Japanese!

After our pretty low key Christmas day, we went a little over the top on Boxing day and went to Tokyo Disneyland (pronounced Disernyraaando). I totally felt like a little kid again! We went on all the cool rides, Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain (lots of mountains). My personal Highlight was (geekily enough) the Star Wars ride. I found it so funny that we blasted to "RIIIGHTO-SPEEEEEEDO" I took a video. Will try and upload at some point. The haunted house ride was decked out from The Nightmare Before Christmas which was cool, even though I haven't seen it. Disney more than made up for Christmas day, despite it being so cold that we all nearly died. All that is set to change for me however, as tomorrow morning I fly off to Melbourne where it is 34 degrees! Sayanora!

Happy Birthday Emperor Akihito

Have seen the more traditional side of Japan in the last 2 days, yesterday we went to Kamakura which is a small town about an hour away from Tokyo. There's a lot of temples and shrines out there. We went on a hike through the countryside and visited the country's 3rd biggest Buddha. It's a beautiful area, the countryside is beautiful and really peaceful. They town is a little touristy, but it wasn't too busy so it was ok.

Today was even stranger, I got up early and went down to the Imperial Palace to celebrate the Emperor's Birthday. It was one of his 2 public appearances a year (his Birthday and New Year's). It was really odd, no pushing, no shoving, just patient waiting for the family to appear. When they did, everyone waved the Japan flags they gave out and shouted "BANZAI" (really!). He spoke for a bit and then they all calmly filed off back in to the city. Photos tomorrow.

Sushi? Nah, not for me.

So the last few days have been pretty cool. We've seen some nice gardens and some crazy big temples! The picture here is the garden near Ginza. The ropes are tied to the trees to stop the branches breaking when it snows. The park is very peaceful and beautiful, a real change from the hussling Tokyo just a few hundred metres away. We tried to book tickets to Kyoto, but we couldn't get the right bus or train back in time. It's a bit disapointing, but there is a little town just outside of Tokyo that is apparently like a little Kyoto. However, we have missed out on the Sword Museum which is closed for the holiday, which is a shame.

After our disapointment we went down to the Bay Area to check out the Sega Joypolis. It was ok, probably not as good as all the other arcades that seem to be in every other 6 floor building in downtown Tokyo. There was a good view of the rest of the city and this picture doesn't really do it justice, but I thought it'd be interesting. Yes that is a mock Statue of Liberty, no, I don't know why it's there.

Today we got up at before 6am to get down to the Tsukiji Fish Market. It's where there is a huge fish auction every morning and it is nuts! It's absolutely huge and you can probably get any kind of fish you want or need. It's odd to see these guys driving around massive Tuna fish on little motorised carts. Certainly an experience worth getting up really early for!

After this we went to get Sushi for breakfast. Yes. I ate raw fish. It was ok for a while, but by the end I wasn't feeling too sure about it. I didn't really like it all that much, but I'm not much of a fish person. If you like the fishy flavour, you'll probably like it more than me! We spent the rest of the day wandering around the Tokyo National Museum It's pretty cool, but I still wish we'd have got to see the Sword Museum, but I'll have to do it next time I'm here. We've booked our Disney tickets, but the 25th was sold out so we are going on Boxing day. Now we have to find an English pub serving Turkey and all the trimmings

"Gas Gas Panic is dead tonight. Let me hook you up"

We've spent the last few days exploring Tokyo and it is a truly awesome place. We've managed to get the hang of the Subway and I have learned the Kanji for cheese and potato. We took some time to wander around the Shinjuku area of the city which is full of flashing signs and adverts that mean nothing to us. We've been in to some of the video arcades and they are everything I thought they would be. We watched some guy play a drum game on the hardest setting and he was like a machine. Brownie has a video we'll upload it if we can.

Yesterday we wandered around Hagoita ichi which is a traditional fair around a temple to commemorate the year. It was really cool, there was loads of stuff I wanted to buy, but couldn't because I can't carry it around with me. Brownie and I got our fortunes, I got "Good Fortune" but apparently I'll get it after a sustained period of illness. Brownie got "Bad Fortune" telling him that he had many rivers to cross, far and wide, but that he wouldn't make it. To fix his bad fortune he had to tie the paper to some kind of rack. So his fortune is fixed, but I still have to suffer a nasty disease, great!

This morning we decided that because it was such a clear day, we would go up the Roppongi Hills Tower which is one of the largest buildings in Tokyo. The view was incredible. We could see all of Tokyo and, because it was so clear, all the way to Mt Fuji. We also wandered around the Art Museum that was showing a Hiroshi Sugimoto exhibition some of his photos were quite good, however I am such a cynic when it comes to these things that I felt most of it was quite pretensious. Brownie however can see past this and I think he got more out of it than I did.

With our art craving satisfied we decided to head to Yokohama to see if we could get tickets for the Liverpool game. By the time we had got there, the ticket office had sold out of the cheapest tickets for ¥9000 (¥200 - £1). All they had left was the ¥22000 and ¥30000 tickets. Neither of us could afford to spend £150 to watch a football match so we had pretty much decided to give up. When a tout offered 2 ¥17000 tickets for ¥15000 each, we haggled with him and managed to get them for ¥18000 for the pair and off we went. The seats were good and the stadium is the massive 70,000 seat Yokohama Nissan Stadium, venue for the 2002 World Cup Final. Not a bad game, Liverpool were robbed 1 - 0 after having 3 goals disallowed and hitting the bar twice. Tomorrow, we're planning on doing things that are much cheaper, like gardens and temples, so expect more photos.

Japan... just.

Hello all, this is going to be quite a long one, as it's been a hectic few days. So if you're all sitting comfortably then I'll begin...

Wednesday started as a good day, after drinking in a crazy bar in Ipoh with Tom and kevin on Tuesday night, Tom and I headed back down towards KL. We stopped at some caves that were really impressive, really... well, cavenous. I've never seen anything like it. Photos don't really do it justice, so I you'll have to trust me when I say they are huge! We got on our way again and stopped at a service station for about 15 minutes, for a bite to eat and a toilet break. When we got back to the car we found that it had been broken in to.

This of course is never a good thing. What made it worse is that the theiving scallywags (swear filter on) had nicked ALL my travel documents and my passport and Tom's bag with all his smart clothes and his work laptop in. Now of course you are all going to say "WHY DID YOU LEAVE THEM IN THE CAR!?" and in response I'll say "Leave me alone, if that's your attitude go read this instead and stop bullying me". When the police finally turned up they escorted us to the nearest police station (about 30 mins away) with their nee naws on.

I could go into to detail about how inept they were and how infuriating it is to spent 2 hours in one police station, just to be told you have to go to another and do the same thing, then come back tomorrow. I could whine about how it took them 2 hours to write a 3 paragraph report but I won't, that would be boring.

So I woke up at 6.45am on the Thursday morning, after about 2 hours sleep, with a flight booked for 21.45 and no passport and no tickets (deja vu anyone?). I won't go in to too much detail, other than to say that I am indebted to my parents, Beck, Tom's girlfriend Mae and the British Embassy all of whom have bent over backwards to help me in the last 2 days.

Needless to say, I got a new passport and my tickets reprinted just in time and I am now safe and sound in a city where I can't read any of the signs or menus and noone speaks the same language as me. Still having a great time.

Oh yeah, s'pose I'd better mention that Brownie is here with me too, he's having a little rest at the moment because it's been a long day for him poor little love. But he's all safe and sound. We plan to go and see the Hagoita ichi and maybe go to to Yokohama to watch Liverpool on Sunday.

More Jungle.

More jungle stuff to write about. We went looking for more roosts, but got no good information. Drove around for ages and ended up swimming in the waterfall in the picture below. I did see Tom's bats in the Taiping Zoo and they were cool. Saw loads of animals there, but I'm not sure they count

Today has been good. I won a game of bowling and Tom took me to the Buddhist temple that is in a cave. It's amazing. More later

The Jungle is massive...

Today was an interesting day. Went out into the Malaysian jungle to look for bats. It was pretty much spent driving around local towns and Karim asking people if they had seen any bats. Tom got some good information and we trapsed out looking for a roost. We didn't find any bats, but we did manage to get ourselves knee deep in a river.

It was good fun, got some great photos (forgot my camera again, will update this post when I have it). I also mananged to acquire some little bloodsucking friends. When we got back to the car I found I had 4 fat leeches feasting upon my leg flesh. They are nasty little bastards and they freaked me out a little bit. The bleeding has stopped now, but it went on for a few hours. I ended up with my calves looking like a casualty patient!

One last thing before I tootle off for a well deserved beer, what the f*ck was the World Cup Draw about!! I stayed up until 4.30am local time watching some prancing magician and a series of ageing German footballers try and kick a ball at a camera. By the time "Ballero" was on, I was nearly crying. I just wanted to see the draw! Anyway, not a bad group, the world cup will be good. :) Will add pictures later if I can.

Photos... finally

Right as promised here are some photos for you all. You can click on them to make them bigger, should you so wish.

This is a sunflower in the Changi Airport Sunflower garden. Not particularly exciting, but I like it.

This is the view from my room at the Hilton. Not amazing, but the bed was comfortable. It's a hard life...

The Petronas Twin Towers. They are 451.9 Metres high. That's pretty damn high. Very cool at night.

This is me looking fat and gormless on the skybridge across the 2 towers. That's 170 metres high, not even halfway up, but still a long way!

No photos again

Just a quick post today, I am in a little rush. We have driven up to Ipoh and are staying in Tom's flat. It's nice. Eating well, lots of lovely local food. Have to run off to get more stuff as we are heading in to the jungle (or swamp, grrrreat)tomorrow. Will put more up when I know what we are doing, but I think we are going to look for some bat roosts to help Tom with his job... which is catching bats.

A lot of you have been hassling me to put some photos on here and I've got a good excuse why I haven't. I forgot my camera. I know, I know. We may be coming back later so I will do it then, otherwise it'll be after the weekend when we get back from our adventures.

Time to KL

I finally made it to KL about 6 hours late. Not too bad, but Tom was worrying about me. It's a pretty crazy place, there is a shopping mall which has 10 floors of shops and a rollercoaster in it. I was wandering around and kept hearing screaming wondering wtf was going on!

Later on, Tom and I went for a couple of beers and got a lift home from his girlfriend Mae. We were soon pulled over and Mae was breathalysed, she'd drunk less than half a pint, she 'failed'. Basically this meant that the policeman knew she was ok to drive, but decided that he was going to be git. After about 15 minutes of talking Mae got out of the car (they tested her in the car with the engine running) and wandered off with the policeman. She came back and we drove off. Apparently it costs 50RM (less than a tenner) to bribe a KL police officer.

I've been staying here for a couple of nights, so you can see that I'm really roughing it! This is set to change however, as we are heading on up to Ipoh in a few hours. Have some pictures to put up but I will do this later.

The more they stay the same

Still here. 3 hours goes so slowly when you have nothing to do. I feel like Tom Hanks in that movie The Terminal, despite our situations being entirely different. Still a fair old while til I can board my plane. As you can guess I'm pretty bored right now, there's only so many times you can visit the Sunflower Garden, pretty as it is. I'm even bored of going into the Duty Free Hugo Boss shop and openly laughing at the price of the clothes (over 200 pound for a pair of trainers!!). Reckon I've been awake over 22 hours now and it's not even lunchtime! More sleep deprived ramblings later...

The more things Changi...

Well hello everyone. I certainly didn't expect to get the time to update this site so soon, but thanks to the "World's Busiest Airport" I am sitting delayed in Singapore Airport. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, there are worse places I could be, but I expected to be tucked up in bed by now getting serious jet lag!

Anyway, was a pretty good flight, I got to be totally surrounded by crying babies for 13 hours. Although when people tell you the service on Singapore Airlines is good, they aren't lying. I got my own little TV with a choice of movies (Dukes of Hazzard is shit by the way) and the food was nice enough (everyone loves aeroplane food). Highlight of the flight? Seeing a thunderstorm from above the clouds, that was cool! Also looking down over the border from Pakistan to India in the dark. Cities look cool from 30,000 feet at night!

Right I'm off to see how work out the best way to kill 3 hours in a massive airport without spending any money. I always forget how crazy these places are. Missing you all already and barring anymore hiccups I should be in Malaysia in about 5 hours.