Spring Break = No Readers = No Posts
Well, lets try this again....
Welcome back from Spring Break 2007. Sorry that we have not posted in a while, but we figured that there wasn't much point since most TTWAM readers were on trips of their own. But, we have a lot to catch you up on now.
The last time you heard from us we were in Ko Phi Phi, Thailand. From there we headed to the Palau Perhentian Islands off the northern coast of Malaysia. Getting there was quite a chore. First, we took a 2 hour boat ride back to Phuket from Phi Phi. Next was a flight from Phuket to Kuala Lumpur and then from KL to Kota Bahru. We had to spend the night in Kota Bahru because we got in so late. Early the next morning we took a taxi to Kuala Besut, the jetty town about an hour south of Kota Bahru. Finally, we took a 30 minute (very bumpy) boat ride out to Palau Perhentian Kecil. Over 29 hours after we left Phi Phi we had finally arrived at our next destination.
The island more than made up for the travel it took to get there. It was really paradise. We stayed on the smaller of the two Perhentians and on the smaller beach of the two on the island. Our beach consisted of our hotel along with a few others, three small beach-front restaurants, and two dive shops. All of the hotels were full to capacity but the beach was still almost deserted.
Our room was basic at best (with sandy sheets and a leaky toilet) and the island did not have power so the hotel ran a generator from 7pm to 7am. This lead to some early mornings because the room got really hot only a few minutes after the air con stopped. But, again, our surroundings more than made up for the shotty accommodations.
Once we got our stuff put away in our room we decided to head straight to the beach and check out the dive shops. 20 minutes later we had arranged a dive trip for that afternoon and two more dives for the next day. The diving was OK but not great. It was still quite early in the season--the monsoons just ended in February. In fact, the island closes from November until mid February as the weather is too bad. So, the seas were still pretty rough which meant that the visibility was not that great. Not nearly as good as the 25 meters we had in Phuket; however, we still saw a shark, some blue spotted sting rays, and other interesting marine life. The most exciting part of the dives involved some very aggressive Titan Triggerfish. On two occasions our dive master was attacked out of no where by some massive triggers. One time, the fish even knocked his regulator out of his mouth and took a chunk out of it with his massive teeth. Pretty scary stuff.
Other than the diving, we pretty much just read on the beach and watched the amazing sunsets. Luckily, we had some vodka that we bought at duty free because Muslims don't sell alcohol so there was only one place that had beer--the guy obviously took advantage of the low supply and high demand, he charged almost $4 for a luke warm Tiger. We took our vodka around the beach in a water bottle and made our own drinks to enjoy with the sunset. We also had some great BBQ seafood dinners on the beach. All three of the restaurants had grills they fired up at night and offered fresh catches of the day including: shark, sting ray, barracuda, prawns, lobster, etc. The meals included a baked potato, salad, fruit, and desert; all for only about $5.
Other than the diving, we pretty much just read on the beach and watched the amazing sunsets. Luckily, we had some vodka that we bought at duty free because Muslims don't sell alcohol so there was only one place that had beer--the guy obviously took advantage of the low supply and high demand, he charged almost $4 for a luke warm Tiger. We took our vodka around the beach in a water bottle and made our own drinks to enjoy with the sunset. We also had some great BBQ seafood dinners on the beach. All three of the restaurants had grills they fired up at night and offered fresh catches of the day including: shark, sting ray, barracuda, prawns, lobster, etc. The meals included a baked potato, salad, fruit, and desert; all for only about $5.
Reluctantly, we left the Perhentians for KL where we pretty much just hung out in our hotel and recovered from the hectic travel of the past week. There really wasn't all that much to see but we did get out to Chinatown and Little India where Kendall started looking for some Saris to wear when we get to India in a few weeks.
From KL we took the bus for 6 hours to Singapore where we celebrated our 2 year anniversary. It's amazing that after 2 years, and 2 1/2 months of traveling together we are still on speaking terms. I guess you still call it "speaking" if you only talk to argue...I'm kidding. Anyway, we decided to get a nice hotel to celebrate. When we got to The Oriental they did not have any of the basic, harbor view rooms that we had booked so they gave us a club level suite with a city view. The place was enormous--separate living room with office, 2 bathrooms, whole suite surround sound system, the works. We went out to a nice dinner at Indochine, a restaurant recommended to us by our INSEAD friends that we met back in Halong Bay, Vietnam. The restaurant was right on the Singapore river and we decided to walk back to the hotel to take in the views of the Singapore skyline.
From KL we took the bus for 6 hours to Singapore where we celebrated our 2 year anniversary. It's amazing that after 2 years, and 2 1/2 months of traveling together we are still on speaking terms. I guess you still call it "speaking" if you only talk to argue...I'm kidding. Anyway, we decided to get a nice hotel to celebrate. When we got to The Oriental they did not have any of the basic, harbor view rooms that we had booked so they gave us a club level suite with a city view. The place was enormous--separate living room with office, 2 bathrooms, whole suite surround sound system, the works. We went out to a nice dinner at Indochine, a restaurant recommended to us by our INSEAD friends that we met back in Halong Bay, Vietnam. The restaurant was right on the Singapore river and we decided to walk back to the hotel to take in the views of the Singapore skyline.
The next morning, we went on a boat tour of the river. We got to see the famous Singapore Merlion (I link because you probably wouldn't believe it was actually called a Merlion if I didn't), a bridge with my name, and the sky line in the day.
After lunch, we went to see the worlds largest fountain.
Then, it was back to the hotel to pack up before heading to the airport to catch our flight to Jakarta. Our flight was on Emirates, an airline I had been excited to get to fly on. They did not disappoint. We flew a 777 the short 500 miles from Singapore to Jakarta and although the decor was not that great, it was decked out with all sorts of gadgets. The personal TV in each seat had on demand movies, video games, and Email and SMS capability. My personal favorite however, was the live camera feed on the nose of the plane. In flight, its not that great--just a bunch of clouds--but you can watch taxi, take off, and landing live from the pilot's point of view. Pretty cool.
We got to our hotel late last night. The security is really amazing. Every car has to pass through a security check like they are entering the Capitol complex in DC. Two armed guards use mirrors to check underneath while two others check the passengers and luggage. To get into the lobby you have to go through a metal detector. Initially, we thought someone important might be staying here, but it turns out it is just standard operating procedure. Anyway, there is not much to see here either so I am in the room writing this while Kendall is laying out by the pool. We are going to go do a little exploring this afternoon when we go out for lunch.
This evening, its back to the airport to head to Denpasar on the Indonesian island of Bali. If you are keeping up with our itinerary, you will notice we had not planned to go to Bali until next week and were supposed to visit some more cities here on Java. But, after Angkor Wat and Bagan, we are a little tired of the temples and ruins so we decided to book a 5 night scuba package on Bali instead. So, we will be doing 9 dives around the island over the next few days. We are really excited to do our first wreck dive and first night dive. I will post some more information as well as our new itinerary soon.
You are now officially caught up. Hope every one's Spring Break was fun, and safe. To the minority of our faithful TTWAM readers who were not on SB2007 over the last week, sorry for the lack of posts--we will try to be better in our last few weeks.
We got to our hotel late last night. The security is really amazing. Every car has to pass through a security check like they are entering the Capitol complex in DC. Two armed guards use mirrors to check underneath while two others check the passengers and luggage. To get into the lobby you have to go through a metal detector. Initially, we thought someone important might be staying here, but it turns out it is just standard operating procedure. Anyway, there is not much to see here either so I am in the room writing this while Kendall is laying out by the pool. We are going to go do a little exploring this afternoon when we go out for lunch.
This evening, its back to the airport to head to Denpasar on the Indonesian island of Bali. If you are keeping up with our itinerary, you will notice we had not planned to go to Bali until next week and were supposed to visit some more cities here on Java. But, after Angkor Wat and Bagan, we are a little tired of the temples and ruins so we decided to book a 5 night scuba package on Bali instead. So, we will be doing 9 dives around the island over the next few days. We are really excited to do our first wreck dive and first night dive. I will post some more information as well as our new itinerary soon.
You are now officially caught up. Hope every one's Spring Break was fun, and safe. To the minority of our faithful TTWAM readers who were not on SB2007 over the last week, sorry for the lack of posts--we will try to be better in our last few weeks.
4 comments:
As usual, great pix & reports. Grandma & I have been together 60 years now, married 58 come Jun 17, & I can tell you the way it works for us is, Grandma talks, I read. If she says something I need to hear she will repeat it. I have an automatic spam filter that only passes repeats, especially with raised voice. Luckily, both of us have rather poor hearing, so it's usually quite peaceful, except when she argues with herself - she fills in what I might have said. Works for us.
First of all, Kendall's Grandpa's last post is officially the best post so far. Smalley is going to need to make a surprise appeareance to top that.
Secondly, the world's largest water fountain...and they call American's "conspicous consumers"
Will, first of all you are a huge nerd. "Live camera on the tip of the plane. Pretty Cool!!" You sound like a second grader waiting for final fantasy 25 to come out. Also, do you think there is such thing as scuba addiction? How many dives have you gone on? And do you think you could stop using the metric system, if you don't remember, we all live in the U.S. We don't use the metric system.
I think your blog was great, I'm going to Bali and appreciate the intro you gave of it. I hope my misses and I look as good together as you two do. Great effort. Hope to see more.
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