Lazy Day in Edinburgh!

Today was supposed to be a day spent exploring Edinburgh! We did do that to some extent but probably not enough to do it justice! We got up and were both feeling in need of a rest day of sorts so we decided to take it easy. We had a dodgy breakky at the Little Chef restaurant adjacent to our Travelodge to start the day. Di got pancakes with mushrooms and a hash brown and I ordered a sausage, egg and mushroom roll. The servings however came out small and poorly cooked and I got bacon instead of eggs! On top of that we paid almost 8 pounds for it (AUD20)!!!

We set off for Glenkinchie distillery, about a 30min drive south east of our Travelodge in Musselburgh. We drove through rolling Scottish hills and quaint little villages before we arrived in Pencaitland, East Lothian where the distillery was! We got our tickets and were just in time to join a tour of the distillery with another couple. We learnt the process of making a single malt scotch whiskey - malting, mashing, fermentation, distillation, and maturation. Can’t exactly remember what each of those words means now but an interesting fact was that to be called Scotch whiskey, a whiskey has to be matured for at least 3 years by law. At the end of the tour we got to sample the whiskey! Now we’re not really whiskey drinkers and Di especially found it difficult to appreciate. I thought it was quite nice, although I couldn’t take too much each sip for fear of feeling as if I had drunk pure metho! We bought some bottles as gifts, took some photos of the distillery grounds with Floppy and then headed off!

We next visited Livingston Outlet Shopping centre on the south west outskirts of Edinburgh. Here we found lots of brand name outlet stores such as Levis, Gap, Sketchers etc. We managed to find a cool travel adapter there but only later realised that it only took 2 pronged Aussie plugs, not the 3rd earthing pin! We had lunch at the pub there around 2pm - a burger deal and afternoon fish and chips deal for 8 pounds all up! Then it was time to hit the shops! Di bought a top from Selects for 4.99 pounds, and at a store called Donnays, we picked up 5 pairs of anklet socks for 2 pounds, 2 umbrellas for 5 and 2 pounds, and a light hooded jacket for me for 10 pounds. It was nearing closing time and Di picked up a Levi hooded jacket for 14 pounds in a bout of last minute shopping.

We left Livingston and feeling guilty for not having seen the Scottish capital at all, headed into Edinburgh town centre itself. We parked near Edinburgh castle and went for a walk around the castle, some of the churches and museums, and the nearby gardens. It was really really pretty and we wished we could’ve gone inside the castle, churches and museums! I guess that’s something for next time we visit!

We had dinner at a small Italian restaurant near the castle after deciding we needed a change from all the pub food! We had hearty minestrone soup and penne boscaiola. Yum! We then returned to our Travelodge to get some much needed rest before our drive south tomorrow!

Braveheart Land aye!

I am under a time limit for this entry as I left our power converter in our last room!

Ben and I celebrated our 1 month anniversary driving around Scotland. Beginning in Glasgow we saw Loch Lomond, the Trassach’s, the town and Castle of Stirling and finished in the capital, Edinburgh. From the towns surrounding Loch Lomond, being Balloch and Luss we really enjoyed the scenery. It’s a beautiful place, however the view in Ballach was tainted by rubbish scattered on the banks of the inlet.

At Luss we stopped for another bowl of soup and scones. They were good. The soup was a traditional Scottish soup (called Scotch broth) which included lamb, oats and a collection of vegetables. The scone was a large one with double cream and strawberry jam. Yum!

After Luss we headed off to the Trassach’s which according to the information booklet would be considered the soul of Scotland. It was a nice drive through the winding roads, rolling hills and various Loch’s. However, the view was marred slightly when the information booklet stated that a lot of the land had been felled for its timber and no piece of land has been untouched by man. Evidence of this was everywhere including a large pile of felled logs up upon a hill.

Still, the views were nice, however I think the Lake District was better in terms of colours and the stone walls running all over the mountain sides and along the road.

We pushed on to Stirling where we visited Stirling Castle. We arrived at about 3pm and spent about 2.5 hours there! The castle sits on top of a hill and is still under renovation and restoration. However, we did get to see the Great Hall which has been restored to what it would have looked like around the time of King James VI (we think). The tour guide of the castle was a quirky man, telling us fibs such as the castle being haunted.

There were a few interesting pieces in the castle, including the ancient kitchen, but one to note was the Unicorn Tapestry which the original is in New York. They are recreating these for the Queen’s chamber once it’s restored. There were 5 scenes to this tapestry, all to be recreated on tapestry by the people working on the castle. Explained by the exhibit, the unicorn was a symbol representing Christ, the men representing his enemies. The scenes were:

One: The men heading out to capture the unicorn. These men represented Christ’s enemies.
Two: The unicorn purifying water for the other animals to drink from which symbolized Christ’s death for our sin.
Three: The unicorn being captured although it tried to escape through a river.
Four: The unicorn being brought to the King. The unicorn had a crown of thorns.
Five: The unicorn alive within a circular fencing. This was to symbolize Christ’s conquering death.

Interesting, I thought, but it took me some time to get my head around the link between a unicorn and Christ!

As it was about 6pm when we left the castle we headed into town for dinner.

We found a bar which charged around £5 per meal. When we were inside we discovered that dinner would be £12 for both of us. We could choose anything on the menu and there were a limited selection of alcohol we could choose from. Dinner was good!

I had a coke along with the Manhattan burger (very Scottish!) which was a beef patty with cheese & mushrooms. Ben had the scampi with chips together with a class of house white. I was starving after only sharing soup and a scone all day so dinner was very satisfying!

Now, here we are in Edinburgh. Ben is watching the soccer whilst I type this entry. Our room looks exactly the same as the other two except; the chair, the kettle and the bathroom taps. Convenient eh?

Lakes District!

Woke up to a frosty Scottish morning! Went over to the Marks and Spencer mini-store and got a chocolate croissant and snail for breakky! Then it was time to head off to explore the Lake District! We drove south, took the Junction 40 exit and were soon entering the north lakes region. The road became windy and we enjoyed the scenic countryside, with its splendid array of springtime colours and many sheep dotting it. To Di’s delight, we spotted many spring lambs, taking their first steps and playing alongside their mothers in the fields.

We stopped by at Ullswater Lake and found a little outdoors/camping store where we got a sleeping bag liner for 10 pounds. We then continued driving south, further into the Lake District. Soon we reached the township of Windermere, a quaint little town adjacent to Lake Windermere. We found a parking and then walked around the town centre, which was having major roadworks done. We spotted a nice café and seeking refuge from the chill, we headed inside for a bite! We enjoyed a hearty zucchini soup with focaccia bread, and some onion rings as we read the local papers.

After we finished, we left the shop to discover it was pouring rain! We ran from shelter to shelter as we headed back to the car and ended up like 2 drowned rats in the sanctuary of Chee Yuan’s car! We headed down to the Lake itself but seeing as it was raining, we decided to head on to the next town. We headed up to Keswick and by then the rain had stopped and the sun had come out! We parked in the town square and walked to a nearby park by a river to have our own made lunch of turkey and cream cheese rolls. During lunch we were joined by a cute chubby chirping bird so small it could fit in the palm of your hand! It enjoyed the bits of cream cheese that fell on the floor, happily pecking away!

We spent the rest of our parking meter time wandering the streets and shops of Keswick. We visited an art museum, random craft shops, and a tea pottery to name some. We left at 2:30pm and drove back towards Carlisle, past our Travelodge, and on towards Glasgow. We hit some traffic on the motorway at the outskirts of Glasgow and got lost near our next Travelodge when the GPS gave us wrong directions! We found the Paisley Road Travelodge in the end and checked in around 6pm!

Glasgow appeared to be much bigger than expected and on the map it indeed is bigger than Edinburgh! We headed out for dinner to the nearby quay and after walking around the shops twice, settled on Mexican food over the Nandos, Burger King, an American Italian chain restaurant, and the expensive casino restaurant. We had fajitas buy one get one free (to my delight!) as it was a Monday night special! The chicken and steak fajitas arrived on sizzling hot plates atop loads of onion and capsicum with sides of cheese, sour cream, and salsa. We made our tortilla rolls and mmmmmm it hit the spot, curing our hunger pangs!

After dinner we retired to our room and watched iRobot, halfway through which I fell asleep! Nite!

London to Carlisle!

As I sit here in bed on the laptop, Ben is watching ‘Underworld’. I think one thing that I’ve learnt about Ben during our Honeymoon is that he is actually a normal guy. Often when we watch TV in our room he flicks to the soccer or some other non-girly channel. Don’t worry, I think Love Actually is still his favourite though.

Well, here we are in a place called Carlisle. It is north of London, Birmingham and the Lakes District. I believe we are on the northern side of Britain and we will cross the boarder into Scotland tomorrow. It took us about 6 hours to get here from London and we shall be seeing the Lakes District tomorrow before we head for the land of Kilts and the Loch Ness. We had initially planned to do this today but we spent the morning sleeping at my cousin’s place, having a big breakfast, watching Scrubs (Season 7!) and shopping for lunch and fruit at Tesco.

It was a nice drive up, although a bit long for my liking. Once you get out of London the driving is much better as there aren’t as many cars and three lane motorways.

We stopped for lunch at the ‘Poplar’ rest stop at about 3pm. We made sandwiches from smoked salmon, cream cheese and some bread rolls.

We reached our Travelodge at about 6:30pm and I was pleasantly surprised at the state of the rooms. There wasn’t an unpleasant smell and everything appeared clean. Perhaps I have been in south east asia for too long, but I was very happy. The last time I stayed in a Travelodge was with my parents in October 2007 and I remember one of our rooms had a strange smell (I thought it was urine) and we found a large black spider near my luggage.

The only downside about this place is that when you’re outside you’re surrounded by a strong stench which I think is either manure or vomit. You get the idea? Really gross.

Early night tonight, another day of driving tomorrow!

Hastings and Brighton!

The sun was shining (surprisingly for the UK!) through the window as we arose at 10am and had a nice cheese on toast breakky with Uncle Alex and Aunty Clem. Seeing as how it was such a good day, we decided to head to Hastings and Brighton, both towns on the southern coast of the UK. We drove towards Hastings (as in the famous Battle of Hastings), about a 1 hr 20 min drive south east from Dartford. On the way we stopped by a small town called Battle where there was a historic fort.

Hastings was full of people coming out for the weekend to enjoy the sun and sand! Except that there wasn’t any sand - it was a pebble beach. And although there was plenty of sun, it was still quite cool so everyone on the ‘beach’ were all dressed which looked somewhat odd! Reminded me of the bus loads of Asians who go to Bondi Beach fully dressed, line up on the beach, take their photo, then get back on the bus!

We grabbed some fish and chips from the asian run fish and chips store that Uncle Alex and Aunty Clem always go to! Then we took it to the beach to sit on the pebbles and eat! Mmm…man it was good after not having fish and chips for at least a month! After lunch we checked out the Fisherman’s Museum and then off we went again!

The drive to Brighton took about an hour! We checked out the apparently world famous Brighton Pier that extends quite far out to sea! On top is a small amusement park! We grabbed icecreams and walked around the carnival. After a quick look we headed over to Cheng Yee’s place! She and her flatmate Tammy were in and it was nice seeing her after so many years! We caught up briefly for 15mins or so and then it was time to go cos we had to meet Di’s cousins in central London for dinner.

We left Brighton around 6:15pm and dinner was supposed to be at 6:45pm! The traffic into London was awful and 6:45pm rolled around, then 7:45pm, and we felt sooo bad for making Fiona and Chee Yen wait! We found the nearest tube at Brixton and Uncle Alex and Aunty Clem dropped us off there! By the time we met up with Fiona at Bond St it was 8:30pm and we were almost 2hrs late for dinner!!! We hurried to the restaurant on Marylebone Lane, a French one picked by Chee Yen called Le Relais de Venise. People were queuing up outside!!! Chee Yen and his girlfriend Alice met us shortly after and we apologised profusely!!! We didn’t have to wait too long to get in. Dinner was a set menu of a French mustard salad for entrée and steak and fries for mains. It was quite good but I was still full from our late lunch and the icecream so probably didn’t enjoy it as much as I otherwise would’ve if I was ravenous!

It was nice meeting Chee Yen and Alice and getting to know them! Fiona was her chatty self! After dinner we got Chee Yen’s car and we used his GPS to find our way to Fiona’s place in Ealing Broadway. She lives in a smalls studio atop a 3 storey terrace house converted into 4 apartments. And here we are! We head for Scotland tomorrow!

HK to London!

Our alarm woke us up around 6:30am and we quickly got changed, checked out and caught the MTR to Hong Kong Station. We checked in there with 5 mins to spare and then caught the Airport Express to HKIA for our flight at 8:45am! At the airport we grabbed a muffin from the food court (all we could afford with what little HKD we had left!) and then headed for the departure gate.

The flight was 13hrs but actually not too bad! I watched 4 movies - Batman Begins, PS I Love You, Lions for Lambs, and I can’t remember the last one! Managed to shut my eyes for a bit and only felt slightly airsick at the very beginning of the flight. Again the food was great! Got Haagen Daas cookies and cream icecream this time!

We reached London 30 mins later than our scheduled arrival time of 2:35pm and by the time we got our baggage and all, it was around 3:45pm. Immigration took a while to clear because the customs officers asked us sooooo many questions! “How long are you staying?”, “Where in Europe will you be going to?”, “How are you 2 related?”, “How much money do you have?”, “Where are you going after UK?” and on and on! We thought it might’ve been cos of Di’s Malaysian passport. Apparently people traffic humans into the UK under the pretext of being married.

Uncle Alex arrived only a few mins after we got out. He had come straight from work and was slightly late because of traffic. The same traffic meant our drive back to Dartford took over an hour on the M25! We got to Uncle Alex’s place at around 5:15pm. Aunty Clem was already home and preparing a roast dinner! The place looked the same and memories from my last trip here in 2004 came flooding back!

We unpacked and had showers before going to fetch Beng Kiet koko from the railway station, as he was coming over for dinner! It was nice catching up and showing him photos! Dinner was a yummy affair and just the solution for 3 weeks of greasy asian food! We had roast pork and roast lamb with veges. Can’t forget the wine as well! After all that we were so buggered as we had been up almost 20 over hours so it was time for bed!

More shopping in HK!

There are so many people in Hong Kong. One barely has enough room to stretch out your arm without coming into contact with another person. So as you can imagine, getting from A to B is quite a task, you literally need to push your way through the hundreds of window shopping girls, the guys talking on their mobile and meandering along the street and the thousands of people who simply change their mind in which direction to go to! Meanwhile, you have others who are pushing their way through to get from C to D.

I think it’s the being shoved that gets to me most. Whilst in the MTR (HK train) I have flashes of scenes of me pushing a tiny honkie girl out the train just because she nudged me on her way out. ‘You want to get out fast?! Let me help you!’ Fortunately (for Ben that is), I find some will within me to control myself and restrain from the temptation.

I think it’s the ‘me first’ attitude that pervades Honkie society. Another example, whilst at the airport, waiting for our express train to come, an old man had left his luggage right in front of where the train doors were to open (these areas are marked in this country). He was no where to be seen, but his luggage was to represent his space in the pecking order. Me first.

In comparison to Thailand the marketing strategy is slightly different but similarly irritating. Not so much do they try and lure you in. You enter the store on your own accord, but once they see that you’re in their store, they’ll begin following you like a puppy needing a home. If you see an item they’ll quickly rattle something to you in Cantonese about how you can buy 10 and get 1 free eco bag. I personally don’t like being followed. I feel watched and it’s kinda creepy.

Our day today was another of shopping. We were going to go to Disneyland but I wasn’t feeling too good so I wanted another ‘rest’ day. Waking up at midday we found a busy restaurant in Quarry Bay. We walked in although there was no sign of an English menu. All we saw was hanging meat, Roast pork and soya sauce chicken. Once inside we breathed a sigh of relief when the waiter said there was an English menu. We ate roast duck leg, soya sauce chicken, roast pork and BBQ pork with rice. Thank you hanging meat.

We then headed back to Tsim Sha Tsui for round 2 of shopping. We were in Ocean Terminal/Harbour City following the recommendation of Ben’s friend. Not having much luck as I married a tight arse who doesn’t spend more than AU20 on a pair of shorts. For those who don’t know the shopping centre, level 1 was lined with stores such as Zara, Prada, Versace and Burberry. We promptly looked for the nearest escalator. This floor had stores like Levi’s, Polo Sport, FCUK & United Colors of Benetton. We were starting to feel disappointed with this shopping centre until we found G2000. However, since we had inspected most of their stores in Hong Kong, Malaysia AND Singapore we weren’t too excited.

Tired from our disappointment we found a dessert place. I’m such a western when it comes to desserts so I settled for the mixed fruit and vanilla ice-cream. The ice-cream was not vanilla! What’s wrong with these people?! Ben had a strawberry Sago pudding. However all the excitement and Honkie air was starting to get to him as he felt queasy mid-dessert. His pre-mature diagnosis was that his lifelong problem of not being able to burp was causing a build up in gases in his stomach which wanted to head north. Failing an alternative, he headed to the bathroom for some relief. It didn’t help much so we bailed on the restaurant before things got worse.

He seemed to recover ok, far away from his Strawberry sago. We found a pair of shorts at Bossini, another one of Ben’s favourites. As it was getting late we headed back home via MTR. It was packed. So packed that you needn’t worry that you weren’t holding on to a hand rail. The person next to you will hold you as the train trusted forward. However, either the gases mentioned before made a come back or being packed like sardines didn’t agree with Ben as he started feeling nauseous again. So we quickly exited at Causeway Bay and headed for Victoria Park. Unfortunately we didn’t see much of the park as it was fenced off. However, it gave Ben a chance to catch his breath, let out some gas… whatever he needed to do.

With Ben feeling better, we grabbed dinner at Ajisen Ramen. We had done enough toying with Honkie food for Ben’s body. Ben had ramen with corn, egg and pork while I had ramen with katsu don (snitchzel pork basically).

All in all, another day of shopping in Hong Kong. I was quite happy with our choice of lunch today, I enjoyed the rice! However, without knowing the language I think that puts us at a great disadvantage in getting the better food that is out here. Also I must commend Hong Kong’s great transport system with trains coming every 2 minutes and really helpful signage in their stations. There are entrances to these stations practically everywhere with at least 4 different ways to enter and exit the station and everything is clearly marked!

One question though. Why do people walk up the stairs on the left but stand on the right of escalators?

Shopping in HK!

Slept in until midday today!!! Woke up to an overcast day, not too hot, not too cold. We caught the MTR to Causeway Bay and started looking for a place to eat lunch, having missed breakky! We got out from the station at Sogo department store and, not knowing in particular where to eat, walked towards Times Square in the hope of finding something. There was no food court at Times Square so we headed back towards Sogo and randomly went down a street that seemed to have a lot of restaurants.

We couldn’t read the Chinese menus of many places but we eventually settled on one that had an English menu. It was a typical HK eatery filled with Honkies so we supposed it should be ok, even if the menu contained an unusual mix of Chinese, Italian, and Jap food! We ordered steamed chicken with ginger and shallots and deep fried salt and pepper squid. It was alright, similar I guess to the food you’d get at one of the Kingsford restaurants back home.

After lunch it was time to begin our shopping! Up until now we had said “Yeah we can get it in HK” so now that we were here, we supposedly had heaps to get! Unfortunately there weren’t many sales on but I picked up some business shirts at my favourite store G2000 for between HKD99-220, and a pair of jeans at Bossini for HKD180 including alteration for leg length. Di was a bit pickier regarding the fashion here and only found a cool stretchable belt at a travel store in Times Square.

We grabbed some drinks at Pacific Coffee in Times Square and used their internet before deciding to return to our hotel for a rest! We got our new room and were pleased that it was indeed non-smoking and harbour facing, even if you could only see a sliver of harbour between the 2 skyscrapers before us! Di was buggered for some reason and slept soundly!

We ate dinner at a place called Café de Coral. Now you Honkies are probably laughing at us right now, but we had to try it! During lunch time the place near our hotel was loaded with people! Ben had the Chicken katsu with rice and Japanese curry and I had bolognaise sauce on rice with an egg on top. It wasn’t too bad, and it was cheap. However, I wouldn’t recommend that place in a hurry!

We went shopping after dinner in Shim Sha Tsui. Ben found a couple of shirts while I bought a few more things including shoes and swimmers! We spent the majority of our time in Esprit!

Phuket to Singapore to HK!

Our alarm woke us up way too early at 5 something in the morning cos Di hadn’t adjusted her phone’s time to local Thai time! Got up around 7am and had a quick breakky before checking out of our wonderful Burasari Resort and catching our pre-booked taxi to Phuket International Airport! We checked in our bags - 3kg overweight cos of AirAsia’s stingy 15kg/person baggage allowance! I only realised after we had paid the excess baggage fee of THB495 that 1.2kg of that overweight baggage was the water I had taken from the resort and packed into our luggage! Darn it! My asianness got the better of me! Airport security about not being able to take water on planes is also to blame!

Anyhow, guzzled down my ice lemon tea I had taken from the resort’s free minibar (hehehe) and then passed through immigration. The flight to Singapore was pretty full but thankfully brief, only taking 1hr 20mins. There we were greeted by Mama Leo, Uncle Hin, Aunty Ge-mite, and James. We checked in our baggage for our Jetstar flight to HK and then went to the airport staff canteen to have some lunch!

Couldn’t decide what to have there so ended up having Chow Kuay Teow and ice tea. We sat around and chatted for an hour or so before Jennifer rocked up with Jeremy! They had dropped by just to say hi! Around 3pm it was time to go to the departure gate so we said farewell!

The flight to HK was uncomfortable due to the dodgy Jetstar seats and took about 3hrs 30mins. We caught the airport express to HK station, then the MTR from Central to Quarry Bay. Harbour Point Hotel was easy to find, being directly opposite the MTR station! We checked in and were given a basic city view smoking room as there were no other rooms available in the hotel. They promised to transfer us to a non-smoking harbour view room tomorrow.

Not being bothered to go too far to find dinner, we resorted to dinner at the nearby Maccas we had spotted on the way to the hotel. After dinner we returned to our hotel to watch some National Geographic Channel and how our planet has been screwed up by human existence! Just a reminder about the fall of man I suppose and how we fail to rule ourselves or the world properly.

Awesome Blossum Body Scrub!

Another leisurely day in laid back Phuket!

Woke up 9:30am, snoozed till 10am before realising we’d better get up before missing breakky!

After breakky, we caught a taxi (after bargaining the fare from THB400 to 300!) to Central Shopping Centre, about a 20min drive inland from Patong beach. This shopping centre and department store was recommended by Di’s cousin Janet. This was our first venture out of Patong beach! We probably shouldn’t have bothered!

The shopping centre was modern and the airconditioning welcoming on this particularly humid day. Many brand name stores were there but few had sales on. We checked out Central Department store itself and Di managed to pick out some shorts for about THB575 (~AUD20) Other than that, we couldn’t find any other bargains despite having plenty of thai baht to spend (ie, get rid of!).

We had a late lunch at a Thai fast food chain called Yum Saap. We had mama instant noodle tom yum soup and mama instant noodle minced pork soup. Not bad for only THB160 (~AUD5.50). After lunch we walked around a bit more before deciding to just return to the resort!

We spent the afternoon napping and woke up around 7pm for dinner! We head down the road to the same area we had dinner last night. We tried the next restaurant down this time - More Ma Seafood Restaurant. We had deep fried sweet and sour whole fish, green curry chicken, and deep fried squid. All not bad but we agreed the first night’s dinner was still the best! I guess you get what you pay for and tonight we only paid THB600.

Of note though, our dinner was somewhat disturbed by a group of Aussie bogans at a neighbouring table. They were loud, obnoxious towards the waiting staff, and had singlets with greasy slicked back hair and full on beer guts. They not only acted like a bunch of dim witted blockheads, they put the Aussie character and spirit to shame!

After dinner we hurried back to the resort for our body scrub at 9pm! We had the Orange Blossum 60min Body Scrub. This was rather interesting being my first massage/body scrub experience! Pleasant wafts of citrus and flowery fragrances filled the air as soothing music played in the background! The scrub was kinda like a light massage but still nice! I kinda almost fell asleep during it! 60mins later we left feeling relaxed and with smoother skin!

We returned to our room to pack for an early start tomorrow! We fly to Singapore, then to HK! G’nite!

"Yes, halo! Massage?! Massage?!"

(In a Thai accent)
‘Halo, I’ve seen you before, is it Singapore? Malaysia?’
‘Halo, massage?’
‘Halo, Taxi?’
‘Halo, Seafood? Ho Sec, Ho Sec’

If you can last 5 minutes in Patong Beach without being asked one of the above I applaud you. They are everywhere and pinching on my last nerve. ‘No, I don’t want a massage, if I did, I’d come to you!’ There’s a shirt we found at the shops which reads something along the lines of:

‘No I don’t want a f**
Shirt
Tuk Tuk
Suit
Or
Massage’

If it wasn’t so vulgar I would seriously consider buying one as it reflect my sentiments exactly. I really don’t understand how these people see this method as an effective marketing strategy!

Our day today was much like yesterday except we went for a swim in one of Burasari’s pools and managed to see Patong Beach by daylight. The beach was covered with deck chairs and people. As with everywhere else in Patong Beach there were people selling hair braiding services, massages and parasailing rides. For some reason I expected a bit better, you know, like in the postcards. I was disappointed.

The day was hot, so we headed back to the resort plus the dark grey storm clouds were looming. The slogan of Burasari is actually, ‘feel at home’ and I will grant them that. I feel very comfortable in our resort room. Air-conditioning, it’s quiet and clean! We were supposed to head out to a shopping centre my cousins had recommended… but we ended up staying in again and sleeping until 5pm.

Dinner was at Keaw Restaurant which had the appearance of a slightly more upmarket hawker centre but wasn’t quite the touristy dining which lined the main streets. We had Tom Yum, Chicken Satay and Pad Thai. The first and last were recommended by our waitress. My favourite was the tom yum, the others were ordinary and Ben and I wondered if they were altered for the tourist taste buds. In terms of cost, it was a little bit more than half the price of the meal we had last night at around AU$17. So, pretty ordinary.

We had Swenson’s again tonight. We were actually going to try Haagen Dazs but it was overpriced and there weren’t many flavours.

One special mention has got to go to the guy who served us at Carrefour last night. This guy had foundation, eye shadow and lipstick on! I kid you not! We had lined up to buy some fruit called Mango-Steins. When it was our turn, he took our bag and placed it under the counter without saying a word to us. Ben and I were confused as we had planned to buy it, not give it to him for his supper. We decided to leave it, but as we walked out we realized that we needed to have it weighed and tagged before going to the check out. But our check-out dude was funny.

Bumming in Phuket!

Slept in until about 9am and decided to go down for our buffet breakfast! We enjoyed bacon, sausages, eggs, and fruit at the Terrace Restaurant adjacent to ponds with waterfalls! Man it was nice! After breakfast we walked around the resort a bit and then headed back to our room! This was our chill out, do nothing day!!!

We watched some tv and then slept all afternoon! By the time we woke up it was 7pm! We waited for the evening rain to stop then headed out to explore Patong Beach!

The nightlife was happening everywhere and it was so touristy! We walked almost all the way to the north end of Patong passing by numerous restaurants, displaying their fresh seafood by the roadside! There these massive Phuket lobsters and prawns that would've given Tanjung Tualang's in Malaysia a running for its money! We eventually decided to have dinner at Tantawan Restaurant, attached to the Thara Patong Beach Resort. We had yummy deep fried sweet and sour Garoupa whole fish, a thai lemon/chicken soup and rice! It was similar to the thai food we get back in Sydney but slightly cheaper. I guess we were paying tourist prices but we didn’t mind as long as we didn’t get sick from it!

After dinner we walked around the block, passing night clubs, bars, plenty of massage parlours, tour desks, and a few street stores! We visited Jungceylon shopping mall and did some window shopping before having a banana split hot fudge at Swensens Icecream Parlour!

We head back to the resort exhausted from our night out and watched some tv and used the wifi internet and here we are, up to date!

Penang to Phuket!

Got up at a lazy 9am and packed before Aunty Chooi Ee and Rachel came to pick us up from the apartment. They took us to Tanjung Bunga for breakfast - Char Kway Teow and Wan Tan Mee! We also tried the Chee Cheong Fun! After breakfast, we went to Aunty Chooi Gnoh’s place to meet up with Uncle Alex and co. After Uncle Alex and Di enjoyed a freshly cracked open durian, we evacuated the house and drove to Komtar shopping centre to do a spot of shopping before Uncle Alex and co. were to return to KL. I got some meds at the local pharmacy there before dropping off some wedding photos to get developed.

We returned to Pulau Tikus and said farewell to Uncle Alex, Paul, Helene and Denise. Didn’t get to see Aunty Clem the whole time they were in Penang as she was spending time with her sisters. They left at around 12:30pm or so and then we went for lunch at Gurney Drive with Aunties Chooi Gnoh, Janette, and Chooi Ee plus Rachel! We had 3 kinds of noodles - char hor fun, fried mee, and oyster noodles. Then we went to the nearby Gurney Plaza again to do some last minute shopping in Penang!

Around 2:30pm we went back to Komtar to collect our photos which turned out pretty nice! Then we returned to Pulau Tikus to relax for a bit! Had some fruit and some shut eye before it was time to head south to avoid the peak hour traffic. We said farewell to Aunties Chooi Gnoh and Janette and left with Aunty Chooi Ee and Rachel. It was only 4:30pm or so, so we went to Sunshine Mall to have some curry fish head before we were to fly off! Di also got some jeans at the department store there for around AUD25 tailored and all!

At 6pm or so we head on over to Penang International Airport for our flight to Phuket. We checked in only to be told that our flight had been delayed!!! We were told that due to mechanical problems, our flight was now at 11pm instead of 7:40pm! We decided to check in our bags anyway and we went back with Aunty Chooi Ee and Rachel to their place in Sungai Ara to wait for our flight.

Uncle Karsar was home and we met Rachel’s dog Princess who was currently having her period and hence in ‘heat’! We went for a walk around the block and it was funny how all the male dogs in the neighbourhood barked at her non-stop was we walked by! Got back to their place and watched some tv and had a lie down in Jonathan Khoo’s old room.

10pm rolled around and the Khoos took us to the airport for the second time! We said farewell and then head on through the departure gates. Our flight ended up leaving at 11:45pm or so on a Berjaya Air plane, probably chartered by Firefly. The flight was only 1hr 15mins or so and we napped on the plane.

We reached Phuket International Airport around 12:15am local time, quickly got our luggage and easily got a taxi to our hotel. The drive from the airport to the hotel was about 40mins. Burasari Resort was so nice in comparison to the places we had stayed at till now! Di couldn’t stop smiling but I was just exhausted I think!

So what are some last thoughts on our time in Malaysia? Really enjoyed the food, especially the char kway teow! Overate way too many times but thankfully didn't get sick! It was great catching up with people and particularly great to see Popo so happy! The wedding dinner went well and from what I can tell, most people seemed to enjoy themselves. We did heaps in the 1 week we were in Malaysia and looking forward to a real break in Phuket!