week five

for lack of an adapter, i have had to conserve battery power and take fewer pictures. i intend to rectify this soon.

Oct 1st.

mistaken for a couple, danielle and i had been upgraded to our own cabin which made it all-too-tempting to sleep in. finally rented bikes before noon and spent the afternoon rideing around french island in search of danielle's first wild koala. wound up seeing 3 of the cuddlies and one echnida (look it up).

Oct 2nd.

learning from past mistakes, we caught the proper bus and were back in melbourne by the early afternoon. our packs weighed down with beer and some extra food, we found ourselves hiking all over the fitroy region of melbourne in search of accomodation. eventually found "the nunnery" and called it a night after a late dinner at blue chillies of singapore mee hoon and a veggie dish named gado gado.

Oct 3rd.

day of debacles. failed to find an internet place to upload pictures. misread showtimes for an art show. was unable to locate an entire venue for another show. bought tickets to a show where a guy was strumming his guitar with a doll and a woman screeching as if the apocalypse was upon us (separate acts of course). we took off and capped the night with a pitcher at another bar.

Oct 4th.

lazy morning. grabbed our free breakfast and headed out to run a few errands prior to our flight at 3:30, which would of course, be delayed by an hour. some 6 hours later, the humidity of singapore hit us right in the lungs. our home for two days would be a cheap hostel in little india while we suss out a route through malaysia.

Oct 5th.

day of decisions. spent the morning trying to sort out issues with danielle's cash flow and me updating my blog. the afternoon was spent choosing a route through malaysia based on our travel book and some great advise from a friendly young british couple.

had my first taste of nestle's milo (on ice), which, as a chocolate fiend, i would highly recommend.

the air outside is so thick here, it sticks to you like that film from an ocean swim. it stifled our lungs and drained our energy in no time at all.

Oct 6th.

travelling to an ancient spice trade city named melacca on our way through to some islands. we have been promised incredible beaches and a backpacker's paradise, so we're eager to move along.

in melacca we snap pictures of a few historic relics and grab a bottle of thai spice song (33%) before our second authentic indian meal. when our food comes, the waiter watches us to see whether we need forks, or if we eat with only our right hand like normal people.

toilets are interesting as well. plumbing is either a plastic or porcelain basin in the floor sometimes with a flush and a hose for your ass (no TP).

Oct 7th.

9:30am. we slide onto the white sand beach in a water taxi. the kilometre long bay is lightly littered with tropical debris and evidence of partying. it has been a hard night on the bus from across the country with full force A/C chilling us to the bone. it staves us off from the steaming heat but is no more comfortable in shorts & tshirt.

in a stroll out on the edge of the beach i climb across a rock outcrop and find some crabs and a white-sand camoflauged fish in pools of water from the south china sea. the sand here is so fine and soft that the forgotten sandals outnumber the starfish. while in the water, it's not clear whether its warmer or colder in the air.

Oct 8th.

day of snorkel. danielle and i caught a small boat (think bass boat) with 4 other backpackers that took us around the island to spots that were very aptly named turtle point, shark point, coral bay, etc. our guide was smiley and helpful keeping us on pace for our hard earned rest on what he called "romantic beach" which left us speechless. we viewed millions of tiny fish in the nearby coral and and lounged in the shallows chatting with our comrades.

in the process, danielle and a few others battled their fear of being surrounded by fish and our guide seemed pitiless, tossing bread at our heads to make them swarm into one collective beast devouring the food.

many varieties of coral and colourful fish were on display and the guide had to pull me back when i tried to go ahead of him to take a better look at a barracuda. (oops.)

that night we met up again with roy, an aussie from perth and had a good yarn on the last night of our malaysian island getaway. tomorrow we head for the jungle.