Tales of Visitors...Part 3

After the hideously long term we just had (sorry non-teachers) I was more than ready for the next holiday, especially as it bought me my next visitors – the wonderful Claire (best-friend-from-college!) and her boyfriend Lee and, a little later, the one and only Miss Laura Dixon!!

I was very excited about Claire and Lee coming, not only to see their lovely faces but also because one of the reasons they were coming out here now was to come with me to the Malaysian F1!! My first F1 EVER. I only started caring about F1 a couple of years ago and am still a bit of an amateur fan, but that didn’t stop me studying the programme until I could recognize at least the top 10 from qualifiers. It was a great race could’ve been more exciting but considering beautiful Mr Button came in 2nd I would count it as successful! Unfortunately Hamilton didn’t have the same luck, coming in 8th. Really enjoyed the weekend and can’t wait for the next race I get to see!

Then came the arrival of Laura at the hideously early hour of 5:00 a.m!! I managed to get out of bed and get myself to the train station (no, not the airport and yes, that does make me a terrible friend!) to pick her up! Luckily for me, having had a relatively late night the night before, Laura was pretty jet-lagged so a lot of the day was spent napping!

That evening I wisked her off on the night bus to Perhentian Islands (where I visited in September) to meet Claire and Lee, who had left the day before. Perentian = beautiful. I think Laura agreed! Lots of chilling on the beach and I got in 4 dives, the most exciting thing being that I needed 2 less weights than usual thanks to the recent weight loss! A fact I didn’t take into consideration on my first dive, donning the same number of weights as pre-weight loss, jumping into the water and sinking like a stone, desperately trying to equalize and get air into the BCD as I fell!

Luckily for Claire, she got to spend her birthday with us on one of the most beautiful places EVER. They did a Discover Diving course during the day, and we generally practiced lying still on a beach a lot more, then in the evening we had a delicious beach BBQ courtesy of our cute little chalet restaurant, Cocohut (I would recommend this place for food and accommodation!!) followed by an intense game of Who’s In The Bag! It was a lovely, relaxed evening!

Back to KL for a day, where we said a sad goodbye to Claire and Lee, who were going to spend their last week exploring KL and around. Laura and I left for Cambodia the next morning! An early flight, but we got into Phnom Penh at 9:00 a.m, with the whole day ahead of us! We toured the city, taking in the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, Wat Phnom, Central Market and the Killing Fields and S-21, where thousands of Cambodians were killed under the Pol Pot regime in the 70’s. These last two were really horrible but worthwhile experiences, and I learnt an awful lot about the terrible things Cambodia went through. Phonm Penh itself is ok, but pretty crazy! Lots of nice sights and friendly people (who admittedly do have a tendency to point and laugh at westerners, particularly Laura!).

After the relatively harrowing experience of being in Phonm Penh we had a thoroughly enjoyable 6 hour coach ride to Siem Reap (don’t panic, they played Cambodian karaoke videos for the whole journey to keep us entertained), a fantastic town from which you can explore Angkor and the Tonle Sap Lake. I LOVED exploring the temples of Angkor, particularly Ta Phrom, the one used in the Lara Croft movie (with all the trees growing over the temple). I think Laura was a little less captivated, but she made a sterling effort of putting up with my Jenny Tours commentary! We tried to catch both a sunrise and a sunset during our time there, but were thwarted on both counts by clouds! Well, I could bang on for hours about what we saw at the temples but think it best I only talk about them to people who ask, as I know that I could very easily bore the socks off most people!

Whilst at Siem Reap we also experienced a cookery course, meandered through markets and had a few lovely (some might say painful) massages. We also visited a floating village on the Tonle Sap, which we both really enjoyed! They had floating EVERYTHING in this village! It was crazy to see a man punting a little boat full of chocolate, crisps and other snacks for sale along the ‘alleyways’ between the ‘houses’! These people were really proud of their houses and we glimpsed some lovely gardens and even some husbandry, with the odd goose house or pigpen attached by ropes to the houses! There was also a floating school for orphans, which we visited – kids skipping and playing marbles on what was essentially a large floating bit of wood was an unusual sight!

We definitely made the most of our holiday, but these things have to end and we headed back to KL for a couple of day’s rest before – groan – back to school! Luckily for me (and my school) I had the pleasure of Miss Laura Dixon accompanying me for the week!! Laura wanted to come in to see the similarities and differences between our schools. I know that we all really appreciated all her help throughout the week! Thanks Laura! ☺

At the end of the week I was very sad to be saying goodbye to another of my bestest friends, but I didn’t have much time to think about is as my friend Jenny and I were off to Kota Kinabalu (capital of the state of Sabah, on Malaysian Borneo) for the long weekend! Jenny was running her first ever 10K (which she did in 58 minutes – much respect!) and I was going along for the fun of it. We did a day of diving – not the most amazing diving ever but had a lot of fun practicing with Jenny’s underwater camera – and then spent a day in Kinabalu Park (Kinabalu by the way is a big mountain) and the Poring (read BORING) Hot Springs. Was nice enough, we were just excited to see the mountain as we’re planning on climbing it next year!

Phew, then back to school for (thankfully) a 4 day week! Having not really stopped for a while I was looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend, which I definitely had, but for various reasons (mostly my fantastic and extremely funny friends) it was one of the funniest weekends ever!

Until the next time, adieu!

Tales of Visitors...Part 2

February!

So a quick run-through of some interesting things that happened... I went to a Hindu festival called Thaipusam at a place called the Batu Caves. Basically the Hindu's remember the sacrifices their God made by piercing their skin with hooks, often attached by ropes to heavy idols, which they then pull about. Others carry heavy idols on their shoulders - they're like giant photo-frames with images of the gods in. It's all about recognising the burdens the gods carried for the good of mankind. It was pretty hard to see actually, but an amazing experience.

Then there was Chinese New Year, loads of cool dragon and lion dances going on, and people giving each other mandarin oranges left, right and centre. I got about 50 oranges at school!!

Chinese New Year holidays bought the arrival of one Kenneth A Legg, my next visitor from the UK! I took him to Langkawi too (just too good to miss), but not before a quick trip to Melaka where I introduced him to The Most Amazing Tandoori Chicken Restaurant Ever. He liked it. Funnily enough, when Kenny arrived it rained for 3 days solid...and it NEVER does that here. It's all about relief rain - it gets so humid that it all builds up and has to just rain at about 4 p.m. However, not this time! Lucky Ken. Langkawi was great, lots of sunburn and relaxing, as well as a little bit of sightseeing and a go on the cable car up the mountain. It was labelled something like THE Biggest Cable Car in Malaysia, or THE Steepest Cable Car This Side of Langkawi Island or THE longest Cable Car Track In This Immediate Vicinity or something as un-awe-inspiring, but it was amazing! SOME of us got scared but not I!

Back down this neck of the woods we headed to a nearby Elephant sanctuary (pretty smelly, but cute) then down to a place called Kuala Selangor, which is a little river town famous for it's fireflies. You go on this little boat ride at night time and there are all these little fairy lights in the bushes. I literally thought they were fairy lights, and that someone was having us on, but then they started to move and they actually were fireflies!! It was crazy. It rained by the way.

Think Kenny enjoyed himself - it was great to see him and I was sad to see him go, but once again I had to get back to work for the longest term of my life (sorry to all you non-teachers but to the teachers out there we worked for like 9 weeks solid!!).

March

As there are 5 of us out here with birthdays in the same month and for a break from the world's longest term we decided to go on a girly weekend away to The Genting Highlands, which is like Malaysia's attempt (and I use the word loosely) at Vegas. It was great fun, an entire city which is essentially a giant theme park (and not a very good one) up in the mountains - excellent for the cheeseyness of the whole thing and we all laughed a LOT! It was pretty rainy and even cold up there! Nice to be cold for a change though!

Nearly caught up to the present day!

I am officially rubbish and have been told enough times to get me back into writing this - Here's Tales of Visitors Part 1!

So, December!!!

December was the month I really started to get homesick. Everyone was talking about going home for Christmas and even though my parents were coming out, I was really jealous and desperate to come back (can I just say that that feeling passed after Christmas holidays!!!).

I had about a week off school before the 'rents arrived, so me and a friend from work went to explore Pangkor Island (close to KL off the west coast) - we stayed on the backpacker beach, it was rank. It rained. We left the next day!! We drove instead to Melaka, the old capital of Malaysia. The Chinese took it, the Portugese took it, the Dutch took it, then the English took it! Obviously now Malaysia is independent (31st August 1956 fyi) but there's still loads of evidence of the different colonies who have controlled the port. It's a very interesting place, great food, great shopping!!

The 'rents finally arrived (I cried, and I'd like to mention here that they did not!!). It was very good to see them, but not long before we were arguing like usual! I took them to Langkawi, an Island close to Thai border on West Coast. It's a beautiful island, proper tropical stuff, and I think they enjoyed it! We were there for Christmas day. Chilling on the beach, a bit of swimming, some canoeing, then a curry for xmas dinner!! Next we went on to Penang, an amazing place, really culturally diverse and full of temples, mansions and interesting places to visit! We loved it!<

Back in KL and New Year's Eve party at the Luna Bar, with a view of the towers - an excellent evening - lots and lots of fun! My parents mingled with the friends and had a great time, and as a Christmas present I bought them a night in the same hotel so they could relax there the next day as well.

Back to work for me - the 'rents headed off to Singapore and Melaka on their way back. Think we were all relieved with the break! But then, when it came time for them to leave, and I was sick on their last evening which they ended up spending stuck in my apartment with a take away, listening to me sniffling and sneezing, I REALLY didn't want them to go!!

However I quickly got back into the swing of things with school - a mammoth term ahead!!