We have taken some yes only some of our pictures and added them as slide shows at the side of the blog. Double click on them and they should become larger. Comments welcome..
if they slow everything down let me know and We will find another way of showing the pictures.
Captions will come in time..
Note;- this post has been added by Dwight so will not be up to the normal high standard we have come to expect.
Loong will be writing an article for a local magazine and we are going to see be interviewed by Asia one on Monday.
Happy Birthaday Lewis his birthday party is tomorrow. Loong has been cake making.. there is another story.
Happy Birthday ling our most loyal follower and commentator.
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Thursday, 20 November 2008
how we crossed the singaporean border
We crossed the first part of the border and the bridge from Johor to Singapore with no difficulties after being told not to take photographs.
Our problems arose during the second part of the border crossing.
We were told that we were supposed to be in possession of a special paper disk for our car that the RAC had not told us about. They said that we would not be able to cross into Singapore without it and would therefore have to drive Larry and Wilma back to Malaysia and cross on foot to go to the AA office in Singapore.
After we, naturally, refused and asked if we could leave the car in place while a couple of us went to get the disk the fun really started.
They said that we were not allowed to do that, even if someone stayed with the car, and if we did they would tow it away. Daddy replied that that would be fine so long as they told us where they would tow it to so we could pick it up from there. Complications etc... ensued.
In the end they agreed to let us leave the car where it was so long as they could keep daddy as a hostage and confiscate his passport and the keys. They seriously thought that this would bring us back.
Tessie and I had to rush off to get the disk with a police escort in and out of the compound.
We managed to get the disk just in time, preventing daddy having a most amusing night.
The people had actually treated daddy really well and, as we didn't leave him any money and he didn't think to get any from the unlocked car, even bought him food and drink.
We have now been safely in Singapore for a couple of weeks and have spent most of our time traipsing after Tessie when she goes to see her family and friends.
I have also spent a week with her family.
We have also been frequenting the cinemas. The new James Bond is our favourite film.
We would also like to say thank you for all the comments (record number- says daddy)
Most appreciated although it is plain to see that you are all fair weather friends and only wish to associated with us when we are on a high, not when we are stuck in a ditch.
Our problems arose during the second part of the border crossing.
We were told that we were supposed to be in possession of a special paper disk for our car that the RAC had not told us about. They said that we would not be able to cross into Singapore without it and would therefore have to drive Larry and Wilma back to Malaysia and cross on foot to go to the AA office in Singapore.
After we, naturally, refused and asked if we could leave the car in place while a couple of us went to get the disk the fun really started.
They said that we were not allowed to do that, even if someone stayed with the car, and if we did they would tow it away. Daddy replied that that would be fine so long as they told us where they would tow it to so we could pick it up from there. Complications etc... ensued.
In the end they agreed to let us leave the car where it was so long as they could keep daddy as a hostage and confiscate his passport and the keys. They seriously thought that this would bring us back.
Tessie and I had to rush off to get the disk with a police escort in and out of the compound.
We managed to get the disk just in time, preventing daddy having a most amusing night.
The people had actually treated daddy really well and, as we didn't leave him any money and he didn't think to get any from the unlocked car, even bought him food and drink.
We have now been safely in Singapore for a couple of weeks and have spent most of our time traipsing after Tessie when she goes to see her family and friends.
I have also spent a week with her family.
We have also been frequenting the cinemas. The new James Bond is our favourite film.
We would also like to say thank you for all the comments (record number- says daddy)
Most appreciated although it is plain to see that you are all fair weather friends and only wish to associated with us when we are on a high, not when we are stuck in a ditch.
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
Monday, 3 November 2008
So close
Are nearly in Singapore now although we all feel as though we should not count out chickens before they have hatched.
Last night in KL was most enjoyable as Alison, Gahni and Adrian (a Malaysian couple with son who are driving all around the world) took us to a friend's house just outside KL. We didn't realise before hand but we were actually being invited to a religious family and friend feast. Alison, Gahni, Adrian and our hosts couldn't have been nicer nor more hospitable; we left the friend's house completely stuffed but only left Alison and Gahni's home at 02:15. They had a pretty good Internet and coffee but kept trying to make us buy one of their tour t-shirts that apparently all their friends are buying. we were not falling for that one.
We also like to think we inspired many of their friends- at least when they saw larry and wilma they started talking and smiling a lot.
Now in the town of Malacca and looked into many of the antiques shops that are here.
We will cross the border either tonight or tomorrow.
When we get to Singapore we will really get in there with the photographs.
Just hang on in there- we would never, as some people might think (greg), abandon the blog.
At least I couldn't even if I tried.
Last night in KL was most enjoyable as Alison, Gahni and Adrian (a Malaysian couple with son who are driving all around the world) took us to a friend's house just outside KL. We didn't realise before hand but we were actually being invited to a religious family and friend feast. Alison, Gahni, Adrian and our hosts couldn't have been nicer nor more hospitable; we left the friend's house completely stuffed but only left Alison and Gahni's home at 02:15. They had a pretty good Internet and coffee but kept trying to make us buy one of their tour t-shirts that apparently all their friends are buying. we were not falling for that one.
We also like to think we inspired many of their friends- at least when they saw larry and wilma they started talking and smiling a lot.
Now in the town of Malacca and looked into many of the antiques shops that are here.
We will cross the border either tonight or tomorrow.
When we get to Singapore we will really get in there with the photographs.
Just hang on in there- we would never, as some people might think (greg), abandon the blog.
At least I couldn't even if I tried.
Sunday, 2 November 2008
Big lights of the big city- have been eating coconut rice and everything
All getting very excited as we have made it to KL and this means we are only 200 miles from Singapore.
We have been lax in the posting on the blog stakes recently as the internet cafes that we have found have been highly unsatisfactory. The internet cafes have either have really slow connections or have logged us off for seemingly no apparent reason. We are ok now though so don't worry.
We have managed, in the last couple of blogless days, to meet even more interesting people on the road- a photograph will follow in the 'people we meet on route' album where appropriate.
The two most noteworthy people are a couple of Sony engineers that traipsed all around Butterworth (mainland side of Penang) to find a pulley for Wilma's engine. We discovered that the pulley for the alternator belt had jammed and that was why the belt kept wearing out and eventually broke when in George Town.
The Sony engineers also helped us to discover that it is neigh impossible to get a car part for a diesel part for a Citroen ZX in Malaysia; they ran around for 4 hours helping daddy and Tessie get the 100 pound part (1/3 of what we paid for car).
After daddy worked very hard at fixing the pulley- a job that, according to the Haynes manual only has a difficulty rating of 2 spanners out of 5- we set off for the Cameron Highlands in search of a respite from the heat. We managed to camp twice in the Highlands and worked our way through all of the free attractions: a honey bee farm, a cactus centre, a tea plantation and a rose garden that we paid for as we had not yet got into the swing of things.
The BOH tea plantation taught us the wonder and global influence of BOH tea and was one of our favourite activities of the day, especially as they had a tea shop with tea.
Drove up the highest road in peninsular Malaysia (2000 meters) and very nearly didn't make it. Even with Tessie and me walking, Wilma was coughing smoke.
In the Highlands, as we were going though the tourist guide, we decided to go to the ye olde englishe Smokehouse Hotel for the recommended cream tea. We decided to splash out and order one Devonshire Cream Tea for 25 ringets and one Smokehouse Cream Tea for 33 ringets because it included a slice of fruit cake. Suffice to say that there was an incident where daddy was forced to write an angry letter, due to the absence of a manager, bemoaning the size of the 2cm x 2cm x 2cm slice of fruit cake. The scones and tea were most satisfactory.
During the evening of our second day in the Cameron Highlands we accidental walked into a jungle adventure. We got a little lost in a park-like area -having just spoken to the park manager who told us that is was impossible to get lost- and decided to take what we thought was a path. I thought the path was most definitely there but it was covered over with the vegetation of the rainforest and as the torrential rain fell Tessie began to doubt my judgement.
There were scratches, scrabbling muddy hills, logs, bogs and a river.
When we were safely camped once more we all decided it had been a wonderful adventure.
We have just come back from watching High School Musical 3 (quite possibly the best film ever made) in the Patronus Towers where we tried to get a taxi from the official taxi stand. By the taxi stand was a sign telling us not accept taxi touts when none of them would let us use the meter. Instead we walked back in the rain. For the record daddy talks about 'jobsworths' with alarming frequency and not a day goes by without him mumbling something or other under him breath.
Dinner with a husband and wife we know through Graham who are going to drive through Africa. Off to see a factory for work on Monday before we make our way down to Singapore, perhaps via Malacca.
We have been lax in the posting on the blog stakes recently as the internet cafes that we have found have been highly unsatisfactory. The internet cafes have either have really slow connections or have logged us off for seemingly no apparent reason. We are ok now though so don't worry.
We have managed, in the last couple of blogless days, to meet even more interesting people on the road- a photograph will follow in the 'people we meet on route' album where appropriate.
The two most noteworthy people are a couple of Sony engineers that traipsed all around Butterworth (mainland side of Penang) to find a pulley for Wilma's engine. We discovered that the pulley for the alternator belt had jammed and that was why the belt kept wearing out and eventually broke when in George Town.
The Sony engineers also helped us to discover that it is neigh impossible to get a car part for a diesel part for a Citroen ZX in Malaysia; they ran around for 4 hours helping daddy and Tessie get the 100 pound part (1/3 of what we paid for car).
After daddy worked very hard at fixing the pulley- a job that, according to the Haynes manual only has a difficulty rating of 2 spanners out of 5- we set off for the Cameron Highlands in search of a respite from the heat. We managed to camp twice in the Highlands and worked our way through all of the free attractions: a honey bee farm, a cactus centre, a tea plantation and a rose garden that we paid for as we had not yet got into the swing of things.
The BOH tea plantation taught us the wonder and global influence of BOH tea and was one of our favourite activities of the day, especially as they had a tea shop with tea.
Drove up the highest road in peninsular Malaysia (2000 meters) and very nearly didn't make it. Even with Tessie and me walking, Wilma was coughing smoke.
In the Highlands, as we were going though the tourist guide, we decided to go to the ye olde englishe Smokehouse Hotel for the recommended cream tea. We decided to splash out and order one Devonshire Cream Tea for 25 ringets and one Smokehouse Cream Tea for 33 ringets because it included a slice of fruit cake. Suffice to say that there was an incident where daddy was forced to write an angry letter, due to the absence of a manager, bemoaning the size of the 2cm x 2cm x 2cm slice of fruit cake. The scones and tea were most satisfactory.
During the evening of our second day in the Cameron Highlands we accidental walked into a jungle adventure. We got a little lost in a park-like area -having just spoken to the park manager who told us that is was impossible to get lost- and decided to take what we thought was a path. I thought the path was most definitely there but it was covered over with the vegetation of the rainforest and as the torrential rain fell Tessie began to doubt my judgement.
There were scratches, scrabbling muddy hills, logs, bogs and a river.
When we were safely camped once more we all decided it had been a wonderful adventure.
We have just come back from watching High School Musical 3 (quite possibly the best film ever made) in the Patronus Towers where we tried to get a taxi from the official taxi stand. By the taxi stand was a sign telling us not accept taxi touts when none of them would let us use the meter. Instead we walked back in the rain. For the record daddy talks about 'jobsworths' with alarming frequency and not a day goes by without him mumbling something or other under him breath.
Dinner with a husband and wife we know through Graham who are going to drive through Africa. Off to see a factory for work on Monday before we make our way down to Singapore, perhaps via Malacca.
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
OUR LAST FEW POSTS HAVE BEEN REVISED- PLEASE VIEW AGAIN
Welcome to our blog (am really clutching at straws when looking for new way to open posts)
We are now in penang staying in an newly refurbished hotel with wifi that does not work. We are pleased with our lot this night as it is our first reasonably priced accommodation at 55 ringets for a family room. It is at this point we realised we have been completely ripped off everywhere else.
The view from the middle station of the funicular railway was pretty good but we are well aware that it could have been a lot better if we had been able to get to the upper station which was closed today because of the broken train.
We were lucky to make it to the railway, at penang hill, anyway as several of the people we asked for directions tried to put us off the scent and one taxi driver even told us that the railway was not longer in use. other than that we have found the malaysian popluation very helpful.
They are also just as friendly and laid back here as they are in thailand.
The whole wood camp is now most excited about going to the cameron highlands tomorrow as the average temperature is 16- 21 degrees C. This will be a lovely cool respite for us. We hear the weather in England is lovely. We are also hoping to be able to find a scenic camping spot where we can stay for a couple of nights whilst exploring the strawberry and tea fields and generally soaking up the English-village-in-malaysia feel.
Have been taking some pretty scenic routes already and see many rice fields that are mechanised, unlike in china.
A View from Our Side of the Bridge- the tale of a man, his car, his trailer and a bridge:
The longest bridge in asia runs from the mainland to penang and is 13 km.
We thought it would be nice to go on it to say we had done it.
The sign said it would be 7 ringets.
We got to the counter.
The man asked for 45 ringets.
Chaos ensued.
Upon principle we refused to pay, that and the fact they were trying to charge us the price for a car with a boat on the back.
Much manovering took place as daddy turned wilma and larry around.
The queue had to be backed up and people had to wait ages for us to get off the major section of the road.
Daddy continued to argue with the bridge manager (that he had called for) and even lifted up larry muscle-man style to show that he should not be charged 45 ringets.
We got the ferry for 7 ringets.
Congratulations to daddy, who gets upset that I don't compliment him enough on a public forum. Does he even know that he's my hero?
We are now in penang staying in an newly refurbished hotel with wifi that does not work. We are pleased with our lot this night as it is our first reasonably priced accommodation at 55 ringets for a family room. It is at this point we realised we have been completely ripped off everywhere else.
The view from the middle station of the funicular railway was pretty good but we are well aware that it could have been a lot better if we had been able to get to the upper station which was closed today because of the broken train.
We were lucky to make it to the railway, at penang hill, anyway as several of the people we asked for directions tried to put us off the scent and one taxi driver even told us that the railway was not longer in use. other than that we have found the malaysian popluation very helpful.
They are also just as friendly and laid back here as they are in thailand.
The whole wood camp is now most excited about going to the cameron highlands tomorrow as the average temperature is 16- 21 degrees C. This will be a lovely cool respite for us. We hear the weather in England is lovely. We are also hoping to be able to find a scenic camping spot where we can stay for a couple of nights whilst exploring the strawberry and tea fields and generally soaking up the English-village-in-malaysia feel.
Have been taking some pretty scenic routes already and see many rice fields that are mechanised, unlike in china.
A View from Our Side of the Bridge- the tale of a man, his car, his trailer and a bridge:
The longest bridge in asia runs from the mainland to penang and is 13 km.
We thought it would be nice to go on it to say we had done it.
The sign said it would be 7 ringets.
We got to the counter.
The man asked for 45 ringets.
Chaos ensued.
Upon principle we refused to pay, that and the fact they were trying to charge us the price for a car with a boat on the back.
Much manovering took place as daddy turned wilma and larry around.
The queue had to be backed up and people had to wait ages for us to get off the major section of the road.
Daddy continued to argue with the bridge manager (that he had called for) and even lifted up larry muscle-man style to show that he should not be charged 45 ringets.
We got the ferry for 7 ringets.
Congratulations to daddy, who gets upset that I don't compliment him enough on a public forum. Does he even know that he's my hero?
Tuesday, 28 October 2008
the internet cafe closed an hour ago so this is not very detailed/ good- outstaying our welcome
Hai! (we have been assured that this is how to say hi in malay by a malaysian man)
The first thing we would like to do today is say thank you to graham and family, tim and family and our new spam fan- goooooood girl.
We would like to say thank you to these people as they have heeded our vague threats and posted a comment on the blog thus making as feel as though this exercise is bring a little bit of light into some people's lives.
At lunch time we got back from the island of Lankawi where we stayed in an over priced hotel as the ferry we took to the island left an hour late and we only arrived in the main town at 21:30.
however, we did stay in a full sized family room and rent a sick-green air-coned car for 50 bahts- oooooo, ahhhhhh.
did manage to swim a little bit but the beach was average although there was an amusing man who prevented us from parking under a coconut tree for fear of concusion.
tonight we 'landed on our feet' (as daddy loves to say) yet again as, although we did not managed to find an non-silted up beach we are staying in an entire house for 100 ringets (20 pounds). actually above our budget but really rather cheap for a whole, massive three bedroom house all to ourselves.
We are currently been unable to properly arange the photographs that have been displayed recently as the computers in malaysia only show the photographs on blogger when you have actually loaded them. At all other times the the photographs merely take the form of a series of words, dots, dashes and slashes that are only intelligible to computer geeks or other like-minded people.
The first thing we would like to do today is say thank you to graham and family, tim and family and our new spam fan- goooooood girl.
We would like to say thank you to these people as they have heeded our vague threats and posted a comment on the blog thus making as feel as though this exercise is bring a little bit of light into some people's lives.
At lunch time we got back from the island of Lankawi where we stayed in an over priced hotel as the ferry we took to the island left an hour late and we only arrived in the main town at 21:30.
however, we did stay in a full sized family room and rent a sick-green air-coned car for 50 bahts- oooooo, ahhhhhh.
did manage to swim a little bit but the beach was average although there was an amusing man who prevented us from parking under a coconut tree for fear of concusion.
tonight we 'landed on our feet' (as daddy loves to say) yet again as, although we did not managed to find an non-silted up beach we are staying in an entire house for 100 ringets (20 pounds). actually above our budget but really rather cheap for a whole, massive three bedroom house all to ourselves.
We are currently been unable to properly arange the photographs that have been displayed recently as the computers in malaysia only show the photographs on blogger when you have actually loaded them. At all other times the the photographs merely take the form of a series of words, dots, dashes and slashes that are only intelligible to computer geeks or other like-minded people.
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