Singapore

Hi All!!

After a great few days in Kuala Lumpur, we flew down to Singapore; our last stop in South East Asia. First impressions weren't as good as KL. The day we arrived, it lashed. But then again, it is rainy season here. It's a very mixed culture in Singapore, with a lot of Indians and Chinese living here.

The day after we arrived we decided to spend the day out in Sentosa Island, which is an island just off Singapore, but theres a bridge over to it. We did the Sky Tower, then onto the Butterfly and Insect Park, then onto the Sentosa Luge and the Merlion, and lastly to the 4D Cinema. The Butterfly and Insect Park was surprisingly good. Disgusting with all the insects, but good all the same. The Sentosa Luge is a kind of free flowing karting thing, but it's not mechanical. You just go flying down a slope in a kart type thing, with nothing but a break. It was so much fun though, you got good speeds on it. The Merlion was also cool, it's a mixture of a Lion and Mermaid. It's a Singapore symbol. Oh and before we left we went to a pink Dolphin show. We nominated Alice to go up in front of everyone to help out the trainers :) She got a kiss from the dolphin and all :) Then myself and Gillian went up after the show to get our photo taken with one of the dolphins. They were so cute!!

While on the island we also went over to the 'Southernmost part of Continental Asia' and put our footprints in the sand :p

Our last full day in Singapore then we decided to split up. Myself and Gillian went to do some cool sports stuff, while the other 5 went to do the bus tour of the city. They did say it was good, and would recommend it. But myself and Gillian didn't really have time then on our last day to do it. But we got to see most of the city anyway the day before. We started the day by going to Snow City and went taboganing. Then went and checked out some sites, and Raffles Hotel, where of course we had our Singapore Sling in the Long Bar :) Then we checked out the markets, and Little India. There's a festival of lights on there at the moment, so the streets are all lit up for it. Then on our way back home, we did the coolest thing so far. We went on the G-Max and the GX5!! The G-Max is a kind of group bungee jump. You're strapped into seats, and then when you least expect it, you get hurled into the air at 200km an hour! And just go flying up and down for a few minutes. Mental!! So scary! Then the GX5 was similar, but it was a swing, rather then going up and down. You're brought back slowly to a height of about 50m and then go flying forward at a speed of 120km/hr over the canal!! And then just swing back and forth like a pendalum. This was the more enjoyable ride by far. Definitely recommend doing it! The other was just scary!!

Anyway, we're waiting now for our flight over to Melbourne, and Sydney (Donal) I think we're all definitely looking forward to being settled for a while!!

Catch ya later,

Cathy x x

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

Hey!!

We've spent 4 days down in Kuala Lumpur, and it's an AMAZING city! There's just so much to do. The skyline is fantastic, and they have the 4th highest building in the world here in the KL Tower (Communications Tower). The markets all have cool fakes, and theres so many shopping malls, you literally shop til you drop.

OK I'll start with the tourist things. We went to the Petronus Towers which are twin towers with a bridge in between them for crossing. So we went up to the bridge to look down. This wasn't even half way up the buildings, but the view down was amazing. Then we did the KL Tower, and went right to the top of this. I thought the Empire State Building in NY was tall, but the KL tower beats it hands over. You should see it at night especially, it lights up in purple, and the dome part at the top is starkling purple all night long. Fantastic to see. But the Petronus Towers at night is equally impressive, all lit up. On the last day, Emma, Sarah and Alice went to the Auquarium. It's the biggest one in the world. They were well impressed with it. They said you could see shark and everything swimming overhead as they walked through a glass tunnel.

OK so besides the previous paragraph, all we basically did was shop! We went down to Petaling Street in China Town which is famous for its markets with all the fakes. We also spent a day in Times Square shopping mall, which by the way has a theme park on its 5th floor!!!! It covers a few floors, but has a rollercoaster going through a few floors of the mall!! Naturally we had to spend a few hours in the theme park too :)

The shopping in KL is amazing though. Other malls we went to were Lot 10, and to the Petronas Mall. These would both have proper shops, no fakes or anything, so you're paying similar prices to at home, but they've an unreal selection.

We had a few drinks here too. One night we went to Luna Chill Out Bar, which is on the top floor (33rd floor) of one of the buildings, so we had a great view of the city skyline at night. And got to see the KL Tower all lit up purple, it was amazing to see.

Seriously, the shopping is brilliant here. And on the last day, myself and Gillian even treated ourselves to the most cutest 8.9" laptops :)

We're flying down to Singapore in a few hours, so until next time....

Cathy x x

Phnom Penh & Siem Reap - Cambodia

Hi Again!

Our next stop was Cambodia. We got a bus from Ho Chi Minh City, over to Phnom Penh. We had heard horror stories about this trip, and we even contemplated paying $200 for a flight over instead. But we went for the $10 bus , and it was amazing! The people giving out about this journey must have gone on public buses or something. It was a bit of a trek alright as it was 6 hours, but went very smoothly.

As soon as we got to Phnom Penh we checked into an Aussie Hostel. The owner is from Melbourne but his parents were Cambodian and left for Oz during the time of the Khmer Rouge. It's called 'Me Mates Place' I'd definitely recommend it if any of you ever come to Cambodia. We decided to go visit an orphange after we had checked in. They recommend you buy them rice when you visit because if you give them money, well theres no guarantee the owners will even put it towards the kids. So we got 50KG of rice and off we went. And I must say it was the most thrilling thing we've probably done since leaving Ireland. We only stayed there about 40 minutes but the kids were unbelievable. They were so friendly and were getting us to play games with them. They all spoke fluent English and Khmer (Cambodian) and could also speak French and Japanese. I think we might just have been lucky in the orphange we visited. They were definitely well looked after kids.

The next day we did all the tourist things. Well we started with go-karting, just cuz it's so much fun :) But then we went to do the harsh stuff. We first visited the Killing Fields, and then went onto the S21 Prison. I'm not sure how aware you are of the Khmer Rouge's reign, but it lasted from roughly 1975-1979. In that time over 2 million people were killed. They mostly killed anyone who had any chinese or vietnamese background, as well as anyone who was educated - lawyers, doctors etc and any of their relations. Their plan was to have 2 classes - the working class (worked in factories) and the peasants. They used bring people to the S21 prison (which used be a high-school before the Khmer Rouge regime, as all education was abolished) they would torture them here for information, and then they'd bring them in trucks to the killing fields and then beat them to death. The killing fields we visited (Choeng Ek) has already uncovered 20,000 skulls. But there's still a lake there yet to be excavated. Words can't describe how you feel walking around the fields and the prison. It's just shocking how evil these Khmer Rouge people were.

We had one more day left in Phnom Penh so we spent it wisely, and just chilled out and then went to all the markets.

Next day we got the bus north to Siem Reap. Theres not much to do in Siem Reap really, except for Angkor Wat. So the next day we got up and headed out to Angkor to see the sunrise (people had recommended we do this, we're not usually in the habit of getting up at 5am!!! ) So we got to see Angkor Wat, Bayon, Angkot Thon, and temple of Ta Prohm. These were all built around the 12th century, but some were only uncovered recently enough. The temple of Ta Prohm actually has trees rooted in the middle of it! So no-one knew the temple was there until they started cutting down some trees and uncovered it. Some of these temples were the ones used in the Tomb Raider film. And they were destroyed a bit during the time of the Khmer Rouge, because they were Buddhist temples, and the Khmer Rouge didn't believe in Buddhism. It was all cool to see, but by 11 o'clock I think we were all templed out.. So it was off to town for some more shopping :)

Next morning it was a flight down to Kuala Lumpur and back to westernisation!!

Cathy x x

Nha Trang & Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam

Hi again!

Our next stop in Vietnam was the beach resort of Nha Trang. We all had high hopes for this place after the disappointment of Hanoi, and well it didn't start great. The first evening, some of us went for a walk only to come across loads of rats! The beach didn't seem upto much, and there was still loads of filth and rubbish on all the streets. But we stumbled across a cool bar called 'The Sailing Club' and stayed there for the night.

The next few days then for myself and Emma were connected up to a drip in a kind of small hospital. Emma had an ear infection and acute tonsilitis & I had a bad dose of Tonsilitis. So well our Nha Trang experience wasn't the best. But the others had a great time. They went to a waterpark/themepark one day, on a small island, called Vinpearl. But well they said it was like a ghost town. The people there would turn on the rides especially for them!

Then they found a sort of paradise in Nha Trang - a place called Louisianna. It was a bar/restaurant with a pool and it's own private beach. So basically they just lived there until me and Emma were better, before we headed onto Ho Chi Minh City. Gillian did a wake-boarding lesson there one day and loved it!

Then it was onto Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam's second biggest city. We got an overnight bus for this, and we were well impressed with it, a proper sleeper bus. Then our first impressions of Ho Chi Minh (aka Saigon) were all good! It restored a bit of hope after Hanoi was such a let down. Here we checked out the markets. There were cool stuff here, but it's just so annoying how they all shout at you to buy stuff and they're in your face the whole time.

Then we did the Independence Palace, where the Vietnam War officially ended. It was where the President's office used be. And they had an underground kind of shelter for when they were attacked there. It's just so fascinating learning about the wars in Vietnam, mainly because they were just so recent. Our last stop this day was to the army museum. This was class. It had loads of war vehicles (fighter jets, army tanks) just like the one in Hanoi. And inside, it told the story of the war and when the Americans attacked. Also it told and showed of the devastation of when the Americans dropped Agent Orange on the Vietnamese people.

Our next day in Ho Chi Minh, we did a day trip. First stop was to the Cao Dai order. This is a religious group in Vietnam. They worship and pray according to most religions including Budhism, Catholicism and Hinduism. They pray everyday 4 times a day - 6am, 12 noon, 6pm and 12 midnight. We watched their noon ceremony. Was cool to see, but well it was kind of boring to be honest.. They just sat legs crossed and reflected to themselves, while some children sang and there was a kind of orchestra with guitars and banjo type instruments.

After this, it was onto the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is where Guerillas fighting for north vietnam against the Americans were camped. They were camped in tunnels a few feet under the ground. It was unbelievable how small these tunnels actually were. They'd literally crawl through them. But they were totally well hidden and disguised. They also told us how the Cu Chi Guerilla's used hunt down the Americans and the tools they used (as well as using guns of course)

Well next stop is Cambodia. Until next time...

Cathy x x