erehpsimeh nrehtuos

I arrived safely in Bangkok to start the next leg of my journey to Singapore. I decided to this part as a semi organized tour with a company called intrepid. Intrepid arranged accommodation and travel from place to place. The trip from Bangkok to Singapore took 15 days. I thought that it would be busy at this time of year with lots of students and backpackers in a similar position to myself. How wrong i was. I walked into my room on the first day to discover i was sharing with an elderly Italian gentleman and that there was only 3 other people taking that tour. My 78 year old room mate didn't speak English too well so we didn't spend a lot of time together. When we did, i had to hold myself back from asking questions about the war and what things used to be like in the good old days.

The tour went to national parks, beaches, islands and big cities in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. The border crossing from Thailand into Malaysia went smoothly and offered an opportunity to see the largest insect i have seen in my life. It was some sort of grasshopper and it was sat just above the window for immigration. It was roughly the length from my elbow to the tips of my fingers. Fortunately it didn't move very much but it did make for some tourists a little more nervous looking than they should have been at a border crossing.

Once in Malaysia i visited Penang. I was feeling a tad ill and after sitting at a disgusting (but cheap!) roadside cafe and not getting served i thought i would go over the road to a 5 star hotel which were doing a lunchtime buffet. It cost GBP10.50 which was a fortune for the area and they told me the buffet was only on for another 15 minutes. I said this was ok and got 2 large plates straight away and ate my way through the food whilst reading. When it came time to pay the manager said it was ok, i hadnt eaten much and the food was going to waste anyway so i didnt have to pay. Who said there is no such thing as a free lunch!?

After reaching Singapore i got on a short flight, crossed the equator and arrived in busy Jakarta, Indonesia. I have had a few days surfing in southern Java which has been lots of fun if very painful at times. Yesterday i got up at 7am and went surfing on my own on a beach that was almost deserted other than some fisherman. Im travelling east across Java to the island of Bali where i am meeting a couple of friends and spending about 10 days on the beach. It will be good to spend more than 3 days in one place as i havent done that in around 2 months. After Bali im off to Australia where im looking forward to cereal and cheese which i havent seen much, if any of, in a long time.