Okay so I've been a rubbish blogger recently and since the last time I posted we have been to Kuala Lumpur and had an amazing time with my friends Hannah and Josh, moved onto Melaka, a small historical town similar to George Town, Penang, and visited Josh again in JB. I will post a blog about that time in a few days but I want to fill you in on the recent events that occurred in Singapore and Bali.
So Heidi and I decided to go on a 2 day juice diet after Josh over-fed us on the amazing food from Johor Bahru (Malaysia). Well, I say that Heidi and I decided, but in reality Heidi coaxed me into it during a moment of pain from indigestion and it then became a matter of pride as Matt did not believe I could do it. Day one of the juice diet equalled day one of Singapore and we were met with some of the most delicious looking food that we had experienced so far. Sod's law. I had been craving mashed potato for the entirety of our stay in Kuala Lumpur and of course the 7 Eleven shops in Singapore sold hot mashed potato and gravy for about a quid. What made it worse was that Nathan loves mashed potato too, and fizzy drinks, and chocolate, all of which I had to enviously watch him eat while I sipped on a freshly squeezed orange juice. On the second day of the diet we went to a shopping mall and a stall selling my favourite foods, pasta and hot dogs, was ironically situated next to a stall selling Heidi's favourite food, toast and coffee. It was difficult but we did it and felt better for it!
Anyway, Singapore itself was very very clean and also very modern. We went to the main street where the shopping malls were which consisted of topshop, h&m and Abercrombie & Fitch. The prices in the shops were the same as in England which we were disappointed about. Overall it was pretty expensive in Singapore so we tried to spend as little as possible especially as we are returning there before we go to Australia. Singapore reminded me a lot of London because it is a built up city and when we left at 5 a.m. to catch our flight to Bali, the early morning fog settling on the city was breathtaking and gave me flashbacks of winter mornings in England which I never thought I would miss.
Singapore is very strict in its cleanliness and safety. For instance, chewing gum is not allowed into Singapore and you can only smoke next to green bins which are spread out on the streets. You also cannot take cigarettes into Singapore unless you pay extra tax on them and our passports were stamped with "death for drug smugglers" as a reminder of the punishment. These rules all seem a little OTT but make sense and encourage a clean and healthy city. However, the signs on the back of the toilet doors telling you how and how not to sit on the toilet, and the video playingon repeat about being safe on the escalators in the train station were a bit too much. Plus the fact that you cannot eat and drink on the street. Matt nearly got arrested as he took a photo of the customs building as we entered Singapore right next to the sign that said no photographs (items containing any photographs would be permanently confiscated and disposed of) and Nathan thankfully hit him pretty hard to stop him just as the security guard started running over.
Ironically, although Singapore was very clean and modern, our hostel was disgusting. We stayed in a 22 bed dorm and shared it with some vile people. Although they were nice and greeted us with smiles, the constant burping and farting was very off putting, especially when I already felt a little sick from lack of food! The smell in the room where all 22 of us slept was also not very nice and I was very glad to leave after 2 nights.
Singapore airport was hassle free and actually a pleasure to be in. Once we got to Bali we were surprised to see how organised the taxi rank was. We went up to a counter, told them where we wanted to go and they provided us with the number of the taxi we were to get in which was waiting for us in the carpark with the taxi driver standing next to it. This was a complete change to the chaos that met us in Thailand where open backed baht buses would be waiting in a heap and we would be shoved on with 9 other people not knowing if the driver was even aware of our intended destination.
We stayed in Kuta for the first 5 nights and spent every day on the beautiful beach. Nathan and Matt surfed while Heidi sunbathed and I bodyboarded. One day I got shouted at by a surfing instructor telling me that I was using a baby board which was then followed by a collection of different strangers laughing at me in the sea. This made me determined to learn how to surf and so I hunted down the best looking, most tattooed Indonesian surfing teacher and got him to give me lessons. Of course I was rubbish and Ramon (the teacher) told me that I didn't have enough "power". He found it very funny that we had spent 2 and a half ours in the sea and I still couldn't stand up for longer than 3 seconds. This was more irritating because nearing the end of my lesson my attention was drawn to a toddler who was surfing with no problem at all - how come a 3 year old can do it and I can't?! Naturally I got sunburnt after spending so much time in the morning sun getting frustrated with the surf board whilst trying to look cool in front of Ramon and ended up getting sunstroke which I am now paying for! This, however, did not put off Ramon as he invited us 4 out with him that night and took us to his local pubs. On the night out Heidi and I were harassed by 2 Chinese Malaysian women who wanted multiple photographs of the 2 of us. We felt like celebrities but it was very strange. Every time we thought we were free to enjoy the night and dance we would feel a tap on our shoulder and a polite "excuse me miss, just one more?" Ramon said it was because we look so different to the other people on the island so people think we're pretty. I was still looking extremely red at this point which was probably why I looked so different!
I am finding it hard to get the hang of the Indonesian money as everything seems to be so much money but actually isn't. I withdrew 2 million rupiah from the cash machine which is actually about £100 and £1 is roughly 18000 rupiah. I'm so bad with the money that when I was hiring a surf board the man had to take my purse and show me what notes to use as I was taking so long to figure it out. The sad thing is that Ramon and one of his friends told us that they haven't been able to see their families in over 8 years because they live on an island 5 hours from Bali. The cost to get home and back would be 4 million rupiah which actually only equals to not much more than £200 and yet they cannot afford to go home for Christmas. Hearing this made me even more grateful that my parents are coming out to Australia and made me think about how lucky we are.
Bali is where Eat, Pray, Love is set and we are just about to make our way to the cafe that was in the film. As promised I will add a blog about Malaysia soon. x
