The Hotel we checked into was meant to have views of the Petronas towers, I guess it would have if there wasn't another building in the way!!
We headed out to the town - there was a really long table with food on, so we had a try! I think the forst mouthful was shredded ginger and really hot, so didn't go much on it!!
Walked around a bit more and saw a dragon dance!
We went into an Irish bar to have a drink and try the Guinness out - big mistake! It tasted like it was from a tin and cost about 4.50 pounds!!! So wont be having another one of them.

Managed to see the Petronas towers in the nighttime, but we left the camera in the hotel!

March 4
Up for the free breakfast at the hotel and checked out by midday into a guest house about 100m down the road! Spent time uploading photos and catching up with internet stuff - whilst we waited for the rain as James not wanting to go outside in the sun because its poisonous!!

When the rain came we went outside with our umbrellas!We bought a new SIM card for the phone as the one we've got doesn't seem to be working! This seemed to take ages cos the woman we bought it off didn't speak english and we needed to register it with her so had to wait with her whilst this happened!
We could then phone people and book stuff! We booked an elephant sanctuary tour and 3 days diving on a tiny Island that isn't even on the map in the lonely planet book!!

We finished the day off going into town and having a couple of pizzas.

March 5
Had our free breakfast - only toast and tea this morning.
Our plan for today was meant to be going up the Petronas Towers, but we found out from the guy at the guesthouse that it isn't open on Mondays! So instead we still walked to the towers, and kept on going to find the perfect spot for a picture without other skyscrapers blocking the view - there are so many of them here. And boy we walked for ages in the sweltering heat.

Petronas Towers

Searching for somewhere to upload photos in this city is also a bit of a nightmare, but we finally found somewhere after the 3rd place of asking.
Trace (me) had hair cut at a place for RM12, plus got a free comb - the woman didn't speak any english but kinda got the gist - although I now think her vision was a bit off as the right side is slightly longer than the left, oh well what do you expect for 2 quid!
After the thunderstorm which went on whilst we were in internet cafe we decided to go for something to eat -then realised it was midnight - no wonder we were hungry! But it didn't matter all the restaurants are still serving food and busy. We had Shark fin and crab soup for starter - a local delicacy and delicious!

March 6
We were met early by our guide for today - Winston. He took us by a/c van to a set of caves with a temple in - Batu caves. Took lots of photos of monkeys as they were all over the place. Trace had a coconut to drink.

Winston took us to a little village for a chinese lunch, where we had pigs trotters, wild boar, steamed egg all served with rice and chinese tea.
Next stop was the elephant sanctuary. We had to watch a video for half an hour about them saving elephants, before we could actually meet the real ones! All the ones we saw were orphans and we met 6 of them, plus 3 babies. They had a shower as they were all dusty. We then got to feed them melon, papaya and banana all with skins on - either by giving it to their trunk or placing it into their mouth - which was really slimy!

Elephant dunking us in the river

March 7
It was an early start (for us) leaving the guesthouse at 7.30am and walking to Petronas Towers to get tickets for the sky bridge. When we got there a few more people had the same idea. We had to queue for about 1 hour, then wait around until we were called to watch a video and go up to the 41st floor (took 40 seconds in the lift!). We were then allowed on the sky bridge for 10 minutes - good job we didn't pay, cos after all that waiting we only had 10 minutes!! But we still managed to take a few more piccies.
We spent the rest of the day - afternoon and early evening travelling by bus once again from the west coast of Malaysia to the east coast - Kuala Dungun.

written by  James & Tracey on March 3, 2007 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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The resort we are staying at is amazing! Little chalets with 4 poster bed and views of the rainforests! The room is around 20quid per night and includes dinner and breakfast!

Dinner was served on the veranda - A tapas style dinner and lots of it. Felt awful because we ate loads at lunch and looked as though we left lots of it! But there was a table for 6 full of food!
We played table tennis, table football and cards (James won at all of them!)

No wonder she lost!

March 2
Up early for breakfast - which was rice and fish things! (again far too much food!)
We walked the 3km to the waterfalls. We swam in the lower waterfall, but the upper waterfall was closed for swimming so only took photos! The pressure of the waterfall was enough to try and take my swim suit bottoms off!

Under water fall in Kota Tinggi

We went to the town to try and get the internet, only to find there is no internet access there at all!!

Dinner was served, again extreme portions. We had the broth thing again, but with loads more food to put in it! This time it had burning coals through the centre of the broth with flames coming out of the top, which made the lid very hot!

written by  James & Tracey on March 1, 2007 from Kota Tinggi, Malaysia
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Getting to our hotel was a lot less complicated than previous adventures. The taxi driver actually knew where he was going! The Hotel room is a lot nicer than the previous room, plus we are right around the corner from Raffles - Maybe a Singapore Sling before bedtime in the Long Bar yet?!!

Feb 26
After a bit of a lie in, we headed out to the humidity of the streets. Went on underground to Orchard Road. James got the spending off to a good start with buying a new watch, then some swim shorts, a new camera lens, and Then I bought a new watch too! Oh, and we also had to invest in a couple of umbrellas as we forgot about the unpredictability of the weather and terrential downpours!!
We walked to the Botanic gardens (in the rain!), as it was free to get in and we'd done enough spending! Looked around the Orchid gardens too.

Orchids in the botanic gardens

The greatest!!

On the way home we stopped off for a drink and was horrified to find out the beer has gone up from 50pence in Goa to 4 pounds 50 p here!! We finally arrived back at the hotel at around 8pm.

We went for a quick drink around the corner from the hotel, which was as expensive as earlier, then decided to buy a couple of cans from the 7/11 store to take back to the hotel room!

Below our hotel room are 24 hour restaurants. We were amazed to see many people still eating when we went to bed at 1.30am!

Feb 27
After the late night we had a late start! Went back to orchard road so James could get the camera lens sorted.
We then headed back to the river and to the Esplanade and theatre building. We had lunch by the river (lunchtime special 1 for 1). Drinks still Capital city prices.
After another long walk around we headed back to the hotel for a rest .

In the evening we headed for Lau Pa Sat, a little place to eat! We had satay on the street, followed by dinner in a market type place.

Satay in a Chinese food market

Feb 28
Started the day off well with no rain, but it didn't last! We walked to a place called Bugis street - little market thing a bit like Dewsbury market!! James bought more things!
We had lunch at a food hall. James tried the local delicacies (didn't know what they were) and didn't finish them as they were gross!!

We went up a cable car to Mount Faber and then across to Sentosa Island.

The two of us on Mount Faber

Shark up close and personal

For dinner we happened to stumble upon a restaurant, and ordered something we didn't have a clue about, but it all turned out well in the end. It was a broth on gas stove, half with spicy broth and half with chinese thing! We just added our food to let it cook, although we didn't know what most of the food we were adding was!!

written by  James & Tracey on February 25, 2007 from Singapore, Singapore
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Another nightmare getting from the airport. Once the taxi driver said he knew where we were staying, we got in the cab, he drove out of the airport, then asked where we were staying!!! After a couple of wrong turns and the meter continuously going up he stopped to ask another taxi driver where he was going!

We finally arrived at the Red Shield House hostel (Salvation Army). It is right next to the Taj Palace and Tower hotel (THE place to be!). James refused to pay the full price (Rs895) of the taxi as the meter had only said Rs750!! After a brief arguement the taxi driver gave in!! We decided not to have a drink in the Taj Palace after Kevin and Megans experience ( www.blogabond.com/megankevin ) for having 2 drinks for about Rs2700!!

The room is very basic but we do have our own loo and shower. But for Rs600 (7.50 pounds) per night cant really expect much more!!

We had a brief walk round to look at the Gateway to India. It was closed to a concert! But next door was the Mumbai International Boat Show - with a stagering 3 boats on one jetty!!! But still drawing a massive crowd - not quite up to Southamptons standards yet but you gotta start somewhere! There were a couple of mid size bayliners but no 4 million sunseekers!

Swami Vivekananda statue

We had dinner at a chinese and headed back to the hot hostel room!

Feb 24
Had a lie in as both of us didn't get much sleep due to the fact the hostel window was none existent so heard the honking of the cars for most of the night and boiling hot because the fan didn't work properly!
Had a productive morning though by booking up some more of the trip ahead!!

Then took a walk around. Tried to get on a boat trip but then missed the boat! But we found a nice little sports bar to have a bite to eat in and a few drinks instead.
Went to the cinema in Bollywood!! (Sorry Megan not to see another bollywood movie!) But watched Ghost Rider. Had good seats in the gallery that cost a little extra but worth all Rs300 (about 3.50 pounds!)
Back to the sports bar after witha few more drinks to watch Man U vs Fulham!
Played pool for Rs100 per game! (1.20 - well expensive) Trace potted the black ball too early, as usual, but really liked it as the ball came out the end like the white, so didn't completely ruin the game - Hoorah!!

written by  James & Tracey on February 23, 2007 from Mumbai, India
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Feb 20
I (James) got up and walked straight to the travel agent in town to sort out the mess with our booked accomadation last night and to get our money back. I had set off at 9am and the walk had taken 20mins along the beach by the time I got there I was soaked through, man this place is hot.
I managed to get all the money back after speaking to umpteen people and on phone to Dehli office for ages.

We spent the rest of the day chilling on the beach and wondering around the local area.

The beach is gorgeous palm tree lined sand and about a half of a mile long. The sea is very warm but not very clear a touch green in colour but still very inviting

My drink of choice here is a large bottle (650ml or 2 standard 330ml bottles e.g bud) of Kingfisher (lager) which costs a bargain price of 30-50 rupees (83 rupees to the pound) and thats in the resturaunts - quality.

We finished the day by going to see a live band on the beach. Their music of choice was r&b, regga and hip hop (Indian style). Kingfisher a whopping 80rs here!

Sunset over beach in Goa

Feb 21
First thing in the morning we had to catch a boat which we had organised to pick us up. We had about a 30 second walk across the beach to the boat. We were going dolphin watching!
We got out of the bay to find 4 or 5 other little boats doing the same. A fishing boat was going past towing its nets followed by about 5-6 dolphins then these dolphin spotting boats so we joined in the chase.
Our boat drivers took us to butterfly beach but this was not as good as following the dolphins so we turned straight back around.

We had breakie followed by a session of dipping in the sea and sun bathing.

As we are trying to get close to local life it only seemed right if we then had a siesta for a couple of hours!!

Dinner was set on the beach and had a seafood sizzler!!

Feb 22
Had quite a Lazy start to the day, Trace did a bit of washing!
Had a leisurely swim and did a bit of gentle sunbathing. The entertainment on the beach today was a little girl doing a tight rope walk on a rope, her mum had set up using 4 sticks and 2 tent pegs, rope 8ft off the ground. Going up and down to the beat of her mum playing the drums!!

Went for a short walk into the main part of the village and on the way back stopped off at a bar that actually sold Malibu!! Listening to house music and drinking in the sun whiled away the afternoon.

When the sun was setting James swam out to a rock and I took a photo of him holding the sun!!

James balancing the sun on his head!

Both of us shared a seafood platter - with jumbo prawns (I mean jumbo!), red snapper and king fish - All for less than a tenner for 2 people!! Cocktails were drank in the moon light. What a good day!!

Who is reading this blog? If you are please leave a comment with your name to let us know.

written by  James & Tracey on February 19, 2007 from Goa, India
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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Sunset from roof at Roopangarh Fort

Feb 15

After a rocky start this morning we were 10 minutes late for the jeepss. According to my watch though we were 20 minutes early, but watch was half an hour slow!

We had about an hour jeep ride to get to Pushkar. We left our luggage at the hotel and headed into the town for a look around and a spot of lunch.
James had an Israeli pizza - it was all abit wrong as it had a puff pastry base!

Walked around the lake and around the ghats, over a bridge and there they were - the camels!!!

Camels were chosen at random for us. "Lean back" was the advice of the guides. We rode into the desert for about 2 1/2 hours until we got to the site to make camp. James' camel had kept sticking its tongue out of the side of its mouth and making grunting noises - pleasant. Mine was a lot more chilled and mostly my guide let go of the lead and chatted to the others on the ground!

Yet another sunset, just different scenery! James got an amzing photo of the camel sillouette with sunset behind (got advised to put it in for the intrepid competition!) When we looked at it a little later realised the camel looked as though it only had 3 legs!!

Camel in Sunset in Pushkar Desert

We all sat round a fire that had been made from dried camel dung - surprisingly it didn't smell! Dinner was served in the dark, but wasn't that great - bit too spicy for me!

We all slept under one tent (all 13 of us!)

Feb 16
Don't think many of us had a very good sleep, as there were a few snoreres amongst the group!
We set off at 7.30am for a gentle hike up a hill next to the camp (7 of us). When we rested shailendra took us to the next peak, then the next and the next!! When we could see the camp was a mere speck in the distance we turned round and headed down again!

As we were nearing the camp we saw camels coming towards us, one was James' camel. The camel guides decided to pack up camp and set off without us!! At this point we hadn't had any breakfast, water, or, more importantly, any suncream. As you can imagine I was not a happy bunny!!
But, back on the camels we went! It was only an hour trek this morning back to our hotel. The only snag was that because we set off so early we were 2 hours early to check in. We all had to sit in the sunshine, by the pool with no swimming bathers - gutted!

We were finally allowed access to our luggage and swim suits cam straight out. James was the first in the pool - It was freezing cold! I was next in. Had to keep trying to swim up and down but it was so hard to breathe cos it was that cold. Only 2 of the aussie ladies made it in for a couple of lengths.

Had a hot shower to try and warm up. James then went into shut down mode - shivering and trying to get warm. I left him in his sleeping bag with blanket and 2 duvet things on him!! I then went in to town shopping!!!

Pushkar is a very modest town and the only place with a Brahma Hindu temple. I managed to get myself a skirt, top and scarf all for the same price as 3 kingfisher beers (Rs370 - about 4 ponud 30p!)

When I got back to James I had to get him out of the sodden sleeping bag and get him warm again.

We had our last dinner as the whole group (except James as he was in bed) by the lake in Pushkar at the sun set restaurant.

written by  James & Tracey on February 14, 2007 from Pushkar, India
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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For dinner ordered a chicken tikka masala - didn't look anythnkgf like it does at home and was a lot hotter!!

We got a cycle rickshaw back to the hotel and felt really sorry for the cyclist as he was huffing and sweating a lot!!

Feb 13
In the morning we went to a place called Ladli - an organisation set up for street children to help them with hygiene, schooling, housing and jobs if needed. All of the children there were great - they had all made things for us to buy if we wanted - jewellery, shawls, bags etc..
We got a few gifts, bag and shawl!!

Amber Fort in Jaipur. Set upon a hill so had a bit of a walk to get there! Elephants were walking in the street too!! Another experienced guide showed us around the fort.

Our India group photo at Amber Fort

In the evening we went to see a Bollywood movie!! "Shaleem-e-ishq" James was thoroughly bored throughout the film as most of it was in Hindi and no subtitles!

written by  James & Tracey on February 12, 2007 from Jaipur, India
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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On the way down to meet the group I (Trace) slipped down the stairs (marble of course!) and now have an amazing black bruise on my bum!

A new experience of an electric rickshaw to get to the Red Fort. We were shown around by a man who knew everything about the red fort - he'd been doing the same job for about 40 years! The fort was massive and we were only allowed to see half of it as the army still used the other half. There were a lot of optical illusions made into some of the works around the fort - a persian carpet that is actually marble fountain!

Next stop after lunch was the Taj Mahal. We were searched before going in and could only take the minimal amount in. Didn't look anything like the picture with lady Diana in - there were thousands more people in our photos!!
Don't think words can actually describe it - spectacular, maybe? It was huge! The Marble glistened in the light.

Taj Mahal

On the way back from the Taj we stopped off at a 5 star hotel to have drinks on their terrace with an amazing view of the Taj. Really wish we'd been staying there - they had a pool and gorgeous toilets - The simple things in life! James had 5 beers and I had a pina colada!

Cheers Guys

Dinner at a lovely restaurant. James had his food ordered for him, courtesy of our guide and was gorgeous!
On the way back to the hotel, James, Shailendra and Matt all had a drive of the autorickshaw! None of them actually asked how to use the thing before they went so ended up pushing it as they couldn't find reverse to turn it round!

written by  James & Tracey on February 11, 2007 from Agra, India
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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We landed on the river bank next to one of the ghats. A short walk to our hotel and finally a shower - except it was cold! Varanasi had a power cut and lots of rain therefore nothing to heat the water with. Don't think any of us cared much as it was wet and we were clean!

We got on Auto rickshaws to the main part of the town - the streets were narrow and manic, with loads of cows and their dung! We took a walk along the ghats as far as the burning Ghat. This is where most hindi's come to from all over India to be cremated. There is a fire inside that has been burning for hundreds of years. This ghat is open 24 hours a day! The towers above it are all tarred black with the smoke.

There were some locals playing cricket on one of the ghats by the side of the ganges so James and Matt joined them. They were pretty good, as think they have had many hours practising how to bowl fast!
James got bowled out after 4 bowls! But did very well considering he was the only English player against the Indians and Aussies!

Cricket on the banks of the Ganges against the Indians - great!!

We spent the first part of the evening in the Austrains' room having some alcohol - technically we aren't allowed any alcohol in Varanasi, but our guide had showed some of us where to buy some and joined us in the room too!!
Dinner was in the hotel - a Thali (veg of course!)

Feb 9
Morning shower was another cold affair!
Our morning was quite chilled - we just pottered around the hotel and street around the hotel until we met the others at 2pm.

2pm was the date at the Tailors! The owner and Tailor explained to us how cotton was made and how the different dyes work, different patterns, different examples of cloth, and so on and so on!
Finally got measured up. James ordered pair of linen trousers and shirt, I ordered pair of trousers and 2 tops - all for the grand price of less then 40 quid!!

Getting back to the hotel was a bit of a manic rush as we'd spent too long at the tailors! We managed to get back in a speedy rickshaw in 9 minutes (normally takes 20!!)
We walked down to the river and got on a boat. A Sitar player and Tabla player (bongo type drum) joined us and played music while we drifted. We had a flower ceremony - flowers in a leaf cup with a candle lit in the middle. For each one you put in you have a wish and if the candle stays alight enough to flow down the river your wish will come true.
My (Trace) first candle went in the river, because my arm wasn't long enought to reach the water from the boat!!

Candle wishes on the Ganges

Shailendra took us all to a Nepalese restaurant for dinner - except they also served everything else. James and I went half and half on Chicken Enchillada and some Nepali dish - Had Buffalo in, tasty!!

Feb 10
This morning we finally had a hot shower!! Bliss!
We went down to the main Ghats with Megan and Kevin. We wanted to go around the burning Ghat as you're not allowed to walk through it. We all ended up going through these mad little alleyways and took it in turns to take the lead! We finally ended up by the river again and near to the end of the ghats. It was great to see all the locals having their washes in the river and doing their washing (all of the men washed the clothes!) and leaving the clothes to dry on the side of the river.
The walk back was a lot easier and we found there was an easier route to get round the burning Ghat (but wasn't as fun!)

Headed off to the train station in autorickshaws for the next part of the journey.

written by  James & Tracey on February 8, 2007 from Varanasi, India
from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour
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