23/11/11-28/11/11
After a hard night’s sleep on a wooden bench I was finally able to check-in my pack and jump on my flight to Hobart. After just an hour we had touched down in Tasmania, I was now under down under. By the time I had got to the hostel it was only just 9 in the morning so while I waited for my room to be ready I popped down to the shops to gather some supplies. In the afternoon I explored around the town and visited the history museum which is in the middle of restoration works. With the day dragging along due to my early start I had an early night to recharge my batteries.
With the sun shining (while storms where occurring on the mainland) I followed the suggested walking tour in my lonely planet guide. This took me through the centre of town, down by the docks and along to the homes of Battery Point. In the afternoon I went to the penitentiary chapel which is owned by the local natural trust to take part in the tour through this former chapel, prison and law courts.
With the weather still holding I decided to jump on a local bus and make my way to Fern Tree to the starting point of the tracks that lead up Mount Wellington. After picking up a map from the local store I set out to tackle the steep climb to the top. It was not easy going, most of the paths where rocky tracks where the surface was very uneven, to your side the ground fell away. After several stops along the way and much puffing and panting I was relieved to reach the summit. It was worth the climb for the views which stretched on for miles, you could see all the way around. I had my lunch at the top before once again setting off to retrace my steps back down to where I started. Of course for those who want the easier route a road leads right up to the summit – but where’s the challenge it that? Not surprisingly I was certainly worn out that evening.
On a wet and cold day I had my first Oz tour to the convict settlement of Port Arthur to take part in the evening ghost tour. Along the way we stopped off at Richmond, a quiet little town which is home to the oldest continually used bridge in Australia. We also visited several sights of natural wonder, including sea caves and blowholes. On arriving at Port Arthur we had a few hours during the afternoon to do a quick tour of the site in the day light before we joined our ghost tour that evening. On the tour we were led by our story teller who lead us to varies sights in the grounds where ghosts had been spotted before telling us the experiences who those who have seen them. Our only light came from three lanterns that where held by varies members of our group. Each ghost he told us about had been reported seen by three different people in the same location three times. It was an engaging experience and you are certainly drawn in by the stories you are told, unfortunately though we didn’t experience anything that night but I really enjoyed myself, would definitely do something like that again.
After several days rushing round I decided to just take it easy so had a rest day, the only I did venture out for was to visit the Botanical Gardens to read my kindle in the sun for a few hours.
On my last full day in Hobart I spent the morning sorting out several issues such as transport for future trips. I had received the good news that I had been offered accommodation in Sydney for Christmas and New Year’s so I now know roughly where I was going to be for the rest of my time in Oz, this was especially useful with school holidays fast approaching, and I could now make sure I had everything sorted. In the afternoon I popped into town to visit the maritime museum and took a walk along to Sandy Bay where people have their yachts moored.
30/11/2011
Overland
21/11/11-22/11/11
An early start as I made my way to the train station to board the Overland to Melbourne. The journey would take 10 hours so I mainly spent the time on board either reading or having a snooze. It was a different landscape we passed compared to the outback I had travelled through on the Indian Pacific, here farmers’ fields stretched out into the distance. My hostel in Melbourne was just 5 minutes from the train station so after settling in for my one night’s stay I took a quick stroll to the centre of the city before feeling the weight of the days travels I returned to bed.
My flight to Hobart the next day was in the early morning so tonight I would be sleeping at the airport. I mainly filled the time by doing laundry, visiting some of the sights of the city including Federation Square and doing the last preparation to send birthday and Christmas cards home. I tried not to see too much as I knew I would be coming back to Melbourne to explore it probably in a few weeks’ time. After delaying for as long as possible I made my way to the airport where I soon settled in for the night to try and catch some sleep if it was at all possible.
An early start as I made my way to the train station to board the Overland to Melbourne. The journey would take 10 hours so I mainly spent the time on board either reading or having a snooze. It was a different landscape we passed compared to the outback I had travelled through on the Indian Pacific, here farmers’ fields stretched out into the distance. My hostel in Melbourne was just 5 minutes from the train station so after settling in for my one night’s stay I took a quick stroll to the centre of the city before feeling the weight of the days travels I returned to bed.
My flight to Hobart the next day was in the early morning so tonight I would be sleeping at the airport. I mainly filled the time by doing laundry, visiting some of the sights of the city including Federation Square and doing the last preparation to send birthday and Christmas cards home. I tried not to see too much as I knew I would be coming back to Melbourne to explore it probably in a few weeks’ time. After delaying for as long as possible I made my way to the airport where I soon settled in for the night to try and catch some sleep if it was at all possible.
22/11/2011
Adelaide
16/11/11-20/11/11
On my first full day in Adelaide I carried on from where I kicked off yesterday by visiting the migration museum in the morning. While I was in there a group of Australians were also looking round at the same time, it was interesting to listen to the stories of how their families came to be down under – most certainly seemed proud to have convicts in their families! During the afternoon I strolled to the Oval cricket ground before enjoying the sun while wondering next to the river, following its course till it took me to the botanical gardens while I stopped off to read my book in the afternoon sun.
The next day I jumped on the tram and rode it till the end of the line to Glenelg, which is situated right on the western coast. Whilst there I took a stroll along the beach, after the warm seas I experienced in Asia its back to the cold ones unfortunately. Glenelg turned out to be quite beautiful, it was I shame I hadn’t brought a towel along to enjoy the beach further.
Another day another location as I went to visit Port Adelaide, despite being a heritage zone almost no money has unfortunately been spent on the area, though finally the local government is starting to invest in the area. Although the area is full of historic buildings there really wasn’t a lot to see, so after visiting the maritime museum and climbing the lighthouse I decided to head back to the city centre.
Saturday turned out to be a shopping day. I spent most of the morning in and out of the shops along Rundle Mall and those inside the Central Market. I treated myself to an early Christmas present – a Kindle. As with everything in Oz book prices are almost three times the price of the UK, even second hand books cost more than brand new ones back home. Added that selections in hostels are poor I just wanted to be able to read something that I would enjoy hence purchasing a Kindle – plus saves me having to carry bulky books around! In the afternoon with the weather being slightly cooler I decided to take a proper hike along the river. With one eye on Taz and New Zealand I need to start getting ready for doing some tramping, so I blew a few cobwebs out of the system by challenging myself to walk at my usual fast pace. I was happy to find out that I was still up to pace.
My last full day in Adelaide turned out to be sunny but with a cold breeze. With it being a Sunday I took it easy and just visited some of the areas I hadn’t seen before whilst stopping off to relax in different locations. Tomorrow I would be jumping on the Overland to make the 10 hour trip to Melbourne. Unfortunately due to there being no availability on the Ghan for two weeks I couldn’t head immediately up to Alice Springs as I had planned to. Rather than wasting time waiting for the train in Adelaide I instead booked flights to visit Tasmania from Melbourne during the gap. This would mean I would have to head south before heading north to once again head south – not ideal but with an unlimited rain pass I was stuck with what was available with that company. One thing was for sure I would be clocking up the miles over the next three weeks.
On my first full day in Adelaide I carried on from where I kicked off yesterday by visiting the migration museum in the morning. While I was in there a group of Australians were also looking round at the same time, it was interesting to listen to the stories of how their families came to be down under – most certainly seemed proud to have convicts in their families! During the afternoon I strolled to the Oval cricket ground before enjoying the sun while wondering next to the river, following its course till it took me to the botanical gardens while I stopped off to read my book in the afternoon sun.
The next day I jumped on the tram and rode it till the end of the line to Glenelg, which is situated right on the western coast. Whilst there I took a stroll along the beach, after the warm seas I experienced in Asia its back to the cold ones unfortunately. Glenelg turned out to be quite beautiful, it was I shame I hadn’t brought a towel along to enjoy the beach further.
Another day another location as I went to visit Port Adelaide, despite being a heritage zone almost no money has unfortunately been spent on the area, though finally the local government is starting to invest in the area. Although the area is full of historic buildings there really wasn’t a lot to see, so after visiting the maritime museum and climbing the lighthouse I decided to head back to the city centre.
Saturday turned out to be a shopping day. I spent most of the morning in and out of the shops along Rundle Mall and those inside the Central Market. I treated myself to an early Christmas present – a Kindle. As with everything in Oz book prices are almost three times the price of the UK, even second hand books cost more than brand new ones back home. Added that selections in hostels are poor I just wanted to be able to read something that I would enjoy hence purchasing a Kindle – plus saves me having to carry bulky books around! In the afternoon with the weather being slightly cooler I decided to take a proper hike along the river. With one eye on Taz and New Zealand I need to start getting ready for doing some tramping, so I blew a few cobwebs out of the system by challenging myself to walk at my usual fast pace. I was happy to find out that I was still up to pace.
My last full day in Adelaide turned out to be sunny but with a cold breeze. With it being a Sunday I took it easy and just visited some of the areas I hadn’t seen before whilst stopping off to relax in different locations. Tomorrow I would be jumping on the Overland to make the 10 hour trip to Melbourne. Unfortunately due to there being no availability on the Ghan for two weeks I couldn’t head immediately up to Alice Springs as I had planned to. Rather than wasting time waiting for the train in Adelaide I instead booked flights to visit Tasmania from Melbourne during the gap. This would mean I would have to head south before heading north to once again head south – not ideal but with an unlimited rain pass I was stuck with what was available with that company. One thing was for sure I would be clocking up the miles over the next three weeks.
17/11/2011
Indian Pacific
13/11/11-15/11/11
It was time to leave the West coast behind as I began my 41 hour train journey to Adelaide in South Australia. The journey would take me through one of the harshest environments in the world, the great Australian outback. We had several stop-offs along the way, the first was the gold town of Kalgoorlie that evening. Arriving near to mid-night on Sunday, the town was eerily quiet as everyone was safely tucked up in bed. After a brief walk round I ventured back to the train to try and get some sleep. My seat and bed for the journey was a reclining seat which wasn’t too uncomfortable, the only problem was I had to have my feet on the floor so there was aching joints in the morning.
The next day as we passed through the outback a variety of wildlife could be seen including emus, eagles, kangaroos and camels. Surprising it was quite green outside due to the recent fall of rain, usually the orange sand and rock dominates the landscape. Our stop off today to refuel was at a town called Cook, literally in the middle of nowhere. With the privatisation of the railway the town as slowly shrink with only 4 people now living there. Here the price of water per litre is the same price as fuel due to the remote location. We were allowed to wonder round the ruins of the town which once had a school and hospital. After half an hour we were back on the way to Adelaide, that day we officially passed from the West to the South.
Our trip officially came to an end the next day when we pulled into Adelaide woodland railway station in the early morning. Jumping on the express bus I was soon at my new hostel just off King William Street. I first needed to find supplies including a new towel as I discovered I left my mine at the last hostel – no way was I going back for that! In the afternoon I popped into the SA Museum and the art gallery before making my way back to the hostel to cook dinner and grab some needed sleep.
It was time to leave the West coast behind as I began my 41 hour train journey to Adelaide in South Australia. The journey would take me through one of the harshest environments in the world, the great Australian outback. We had several stop-offs along the way, the first was the gold town of Kalgoorlie that evening. Arriving near to mid-night on Sunday, the town was eerily quiet as everyone was safely tucked up in bed. After a brief walk round I ventured back to the train to try and get some sleep. My seat and bed for the journey was a reclining seat which wasn’t too uncomfortable, the only problem was I had to have my feet on the floor so there was aching joints in the morning.
The next day as we passed through the outback a variety of wildlife could be seen including emus, eagles, kangaroos and camels. Surprising it was quite green outside due to the recent fall of rain, usually the orange sand and rock dominates the landscape. Our stop off today to refuel was at a town called Cook, literally in the middle of nowhere. With the privatisation of the railway the town as slowly shrink with only 4 people now living there. Here the price of water per litre is the same price as fuel due to the remote location. We were allowed to wonder round the ruins of the town which once had a school and hospital. After half an hour we were back on the way to Adelaide, that day we officially passed from the West to the South.
Our trip officially came to an end the next day when we pulled into Adelaide woodland railway station in the early morning. Jumping on the express bus I was soon at my new hostel just off King William Street. I first needed to find supplies including a new towel as I discovered I left my mine at the last hostel – no way was I going back for that! In the afternoon I popped into the SA Museum and the art gallery before making my way back to the hostel to cook dinner and grab some needed sleep.
16/11/2011
Freo
09/11/11 – 12/11/11
Leaving the main city behind I jump on the train to make the short journey to Fremantle or ‘Freo’ as it is known to the locals. Located nearer to the Indian Ocean, Freo is the main port along the coast in this part of Western Australia. When I arrived my hostel wasn’t ready yet so I dropped off my pack before going to grab a snack for lunch. Later after checking in I made a quick visit to the Army Museum of Western Australia to have a look at the exhibits there. While travelling across Asia I visited many sites and countries where Australian Commonwealth troops had fought and died so it was interesting to learn some of the history behind the conflicts and special operations. This was also the first day in Oz that I went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies to cook my own food, that nights meal was simply pasta in sauce.
The next day there were two main places of interest I want to visit the first being the WA Maritime Museum which contained the American cup winning sail boat, Elizabeth II. The main reason for my visit was to go inside the HMAS Ovens, a post second world war submarine which is in dry dock behind the main museum building. I think I had already been inside this class of submarine before at Chatham dockyards but it was interesting to hear tales from a guide who had actually worked in the sub when it was active. After I made my way across town to do some time behind bars as I entered Fremantle Prison, a convict built prison that was still in use up to 1991 before it was closed down due to the lack of conditions deeded suitable for prisons human rights. This was due to the prison have no plumbed toilets in its cells so prisoners had to use buckets, although this is still common in most prisons in England. That night before dinner I made a quick visit to the nearby beach to watch the sunset on the horizon.
Remembrance Day – In the morning I paid a quick visit to the war memorial on top of the hill looking over Fremantle to see the preparations for a ceronmery later that morning to remember those who had fought to save their and others countries. At 11 o’clock the last post was played as a single jet fighter flew overhead. In the afternoon I popped in to see the Shipwreck Museum which houses artefacts from a series of Dutch trading ships which met their end off the coast of Perth. Nearby was the Roundhouse, the first convict built structure in Freo. Later I visited the local markets before venturing to the park to read my book to the afternoon sun.
On my last full day in Western Australia I took things easy as I got prepared for my long train journey to Adelaide, I basically repeated my afternoon from the previous day as I visited the local markets once again before heading to the park to relax on the sloped grass.
Leaving the main city behind I jump on the train to make the short journey to Fremantle or ‘Freo’ as it is known to the locals. Located nearer to the Indian Ocean, Freo is the main port along the coast in this part of Western Australia. When I arrived my hostel wasn’t ready yet so I dropped off my pack before going to grab a snack for lunch. Later after checking in I made a quick visit to the Army Museum of Western Australia to have a look at the exhibits there. While travelling across Asia I visited many sites and countries where Australian Commonwealth troops had fought and died so it was interesting to learn some of the history behind the conflicts and special operations. This was also the first day in Oz that I went to the supermarket to stock up on supplies to cook my own food, that nights meal was simply pasta in sauce.
The next day there were two main places of interest I want to visit the first being the WA Maritime Museum which contained the American cup winning sail boat, Elizabeth II. The main reason for my visit was to go inside the HMAS Ovens, a post second world war submarine which is in dry dock behind the main museum building. I think I had already been inside this class of submarine before at Chatham dockyards but it was interesting to hear tales from a guide who had actually worked in the sub when it was active. After I made my way across town to do some time behind bars as I entered Fremantle Prison, a convict built prison that was still in use up to 1991 before it was closed down due to the lack of conditions deeded suitable for prisons human rights. This was due to the prison have no plumbed toilets in its cells so prisoners had to use buckets, although this is still common in most prisons in England. That night before dinner I made a quick visit to the nearby beach to watch the sunset on the horizon.
Remembrance Day – In the morning I paid a quick visit to the war memorial on top of the hill looking over Fremantle to see the preparations for a ceronmery later that morning to remember those who had fought to save their and others countries. At 11 o’clock the last post was played as a single jet fighter flew overhead. In the afternoon I popped in to see the Shipwreck Museum which houses artefacts from a series of Dutch trading ships which met their end off the coast of Perth. Nearby was the Roundhouse, the first convict built structure in Freo. Later I visited the local markets before venturing to the park to read my book to the afternoon sun.
On my last full day in Western Australia I took things easy as I got prepared for my long train journey to Adelaide, I basically repeated my afternoon from the previous day as I visited the local markets once again before heading to the park to relax on the sloped grass.
12/11/2011
Land down under
06/11/11 – 08/11/11
After an overnight stay at Bangkok airport where I slept on the marble floor of departures, I boarded my Thai Airways flight to Perth. I was in for a shock when I landed. After seven weeks backpacking around Asia I had got use to hostel life out there, going out and buying all your meals, having someone do your laundry for you etc. Out in Australia this is all different of course as prices are more in line with what we pay at home due to the low exchange rate. Also the major difference out here is that people come to Oz to work so for them hostels are there homes for months at a time rather than for a few days. With hardly any sleep in over a 24 hours period the realisation of this hit me almost straight away when I walked through the hostel door in Perth. My first week was going to be a hard lesson in learning to change my routine.
After a well needed night’s sleep I ventured out the next day to explore the city at large sticking to the walking route suggested in my Lonely Planet guidebook. This led me up to King’s Park, a large series of gardens located on a bluff near to the city centre; from here I had great panoramic views of the surrounding country. Later that evening I met up with two of the people who had been on my Indochina Tour as they had just landed in Perth that day, to get into the Oz spirit we went out in the rain to buy some goon (boxed wine – traveller’s cheap drink) and catch up on what had happened since we last saw each over.
With a slight hangover the next day I once again when to explore the city, first I ventured into the National Western Australia Museum which surprisingly had an exhibition from the British Museum on at the time. It featured objects from around the world which told stories of our past, almost all of them where rare finds such as the old object ever found – a simply hand tool. With mixed weather I read that a nearby island had Joey’s on it so I went to explore not expecting to see much as rain was moving in, but luckily I did manage to catch a glimpse of two sheltering in nearby bushes.
One of the biggest shocks I have found out is that in some hostels you have to pay for the internet including wireless. So needing to hit the web I visited Peterpan’s, a travel agency which caters for backpackers where you can surf the internet for free. Here I bought an unlimited rail card on the three main train routes which cross the country as my means to travel rather than flying everywhere and missing out on seeing the local scenery. I decided that on the coming Sunday I would make my first journey to Adelaide to set myself up for a trip to see Ayres rock.
After an overnight stay at Bangkok airport where I slept on the marble floor of departures, I boarded my Thai Airways flight to Perth. I was in for a shock when I landed. After seven weeks backpacking around Asia I had got use to hostel life out there, going out and buying all your meals, having someone do your laundry for you etc. Out in Australia this is all different of course as prices are more in line with what we pay at home due to the low exchange rate. Also the major difference out here is that people come to Oz to work so for them hostels are there homes for months at a time rather than for a few days. With hardly any sleep in over a 24 hours period the realisation of this hit me almost straight away when I walked through the hostel door in Perth. My first week was going to be a hard lesson in learning to change my routine.
After a well needed night’s sleep I ventured out the next day to explore the city at large sticking to the walking route suggested in my Lonely Planet guidebook. This led me up to King’s Park, a large series of gardens located on a bluff near to the city centre; from here I had great panoramic views of the surrounding country. Later that evening I met up with two of the people who had been on my Indochina Tour as they had just landed in Perth that day, to get into the Oz spirit we went out in the rain to buy some goon (boxed wine – traveller’s cheap drink) and catch up on what had happened since we last saw each over.
With a slight hangover the next day I once again when to explore the city, first I ventured into the National Western Australia Museum which surprisingly had an exhibition from the British Museum on at the time. It featured objects from around the world which told stories of our past, almost all of them where rare finds such as the old object ever found – a simply hand tool. With mixed weather I read that a nearby island had Joey’s on it so I went to explore not expecting to see much as rain was moving in, but luckily I did manage to catch a glimpse of two sheltering in nearby bushes.
One of the biggest shocks I have found out is that in some hostels you have to pay for the internet including wireless. So needing to hit the web I visited Peterpan’s, a travel agency which caters for backpackers where you can surf the internet for free. Here I bought an unlimited rail card on the three main train routes which cross the country as my means to travel rather than flying everywhere and missing out on seeing the local scenery. I decided that on the coming Sunday I would make my first journey to Adelaide to set myself up for a trip to see Ayres rock.
Singapore - Goodbye Asia
04/11/11
Today I decided to spend the day learning about the history of the island, mainly involving the events that occurred during the Second World War when the British surrendered to the opposing Japanese forces in 1942. I first headed to the Battle Box in Fort Canning Park; this underground bunker system was the primary headquarters for all the operations in the Malaya area. It was here where the notion of surrender was first brought up. Next I headed south to visit Fort Siloso which saw action during the conflict. To round off my day I lastly went to visit Kranji war memorial and war graves which is the final resting place for many serving soldiers and volunteers who lost their lives during that period. With this being my only full day in Singapore in the evening I decided to take a stroll along the quay side to see the skyline lit up. While wondering along a discovered an Indian dance festival was taking place.
05/11/11
This was to be my last full day in Asia before I move onto Australia. I think this is now my new favourite part of the world – great food, friendly people and stunning scenery. With a flight back to Bangkok in the evening I went to visit the Quay side again to grab some photos and explore more of the surrounding area. I discovered a 7 side international rugby event was happening on the cricket green. Moving back towards the direction of my hostel I stumbled upon the National Museum to find out it had an exhibition of paintings from the Musee D’Orsay Paris on show including Van Gogh’s Starry Night, it worth it just for that painting.
Asian Favourites
Below is a list of some of my favourites in Asia:
• Favourite country: In the end little Laos stole my heart; I’m so surprised this country isn’t more widely known.
• Favourite food: Hard to choose but for me Vietnam just came out on top.
• Favourite capital city: Has to be Hanoi, the mixture of new and old and the general pace of the city.
• Favourite scenery: Look no further than Laos with its topical forests and mountains which burst out of the ground like razors.
• Favourite people: The people of Cambodia take this easily - Always smiling, polite and super friendly. Never in a bad mood.
• Favourite place: Georgetown, Penang. A world heritage protected area and you can see why they would want to preserve it, like taking a step back in time.
• Least favourite country: Thailand I’m afraid – just too plain old dirty for me. Didn’t feel like it had its own identity.
Today I decided to spend the day learning about the history of the island, mainly involving the events that occurred during the Second World War when the British surrendered to the opposing Japanese forces in 1942. I first headed to the Battle Box in Fort Canning Park; this underground bunker system was the primary headquarters for all the operations in the Malaya area. It was here where the notion of surrender was first brought up. Next I headed south to visit Fort Siloso which saw action during the conflict. To round off my day I lastly went to visit Kranji war memorial and war graves which is the final resting place for many serving soldiers and volunteers who lost their lives during that period. With this being my only full day in Singapore in the evening I decided to take a stroll along the quay side to see the skyline lit up. While wondering along a discovered an Indian dance festival was taking place.
05/11/11
This was to be my last full day in Asia before I move onto Australia. I think this is now my new favourite part of the world – great food, friendly people and stunning scenery. With a flight back to Bangkok in the evening I went to visit the Quay side again to grab some photos and explore more of the surrounding area. I discovered a 7 side international rugby event was happening on the cricket green. Moving back towards the direction of my hostel I stumbled upon the National Museum to find out it had an exhibition of paintings from the Musee D’Orsay Paris on show including Van Gogh’s Starry Night, it worth it just for that painting.
Asian Favourites
Below is a list of some of my favourites in Asia:
• Favourite country: In the end little Laos stole my heart; I’m so surprised this country isn’t more widely known.
• Favourite food: Hard to choose but for me Vietnam just came out on top.
• Favourite capital city: Has to be Hanoi, the mixture of new and old and the general pace of the city.
• Favourite scenery: Look no further than Laos with its topical forests and mountains which burst out of the ground like razors.
• Favourite people: The people of Cambodia take this easily - Always smiling, polite and super friendly. Never in a bad mood.
• Favourite place: Georgetown, Penang. A world heritage protected area and you can see why they would want to preserve it, like taking a step back in time.
• Least favourite country: Thailand I’m afraid – just too plain old dirty for me. Didn’t feel like it had its own identity.
07/11/2011
Malaysia
30/10/11 – 02/11/11
After my unexpected overnight stay in Hat Yai I finally made it to Penang in Malaysia. Arriving in the afternoon I tried to Skype back home completely forgetting that the clocks had gone back an hour where as I had gone an hour ahead. That evening I went for a stroll around the town in the rain after grabbing some dinner from the huge shopping complex under the Komtar Tower.
The next day I went on my own walking tour of Georgetown, a protected world heritage site. Here is a list of some of the sites I visited:
• Town/city hall
• Fort Comwallis
• Queen Victoria clock tower
• Penang state museum
• Goddess of Mercy temple
• Mahamarianman temple
• Cheah Kongsi
• Khoo Kongsi
• Little India
That afternoon I caught a bus to the bottom of Penang hill before taking the hill train to the top to get some panoramic views of the island and city.
With me liking Penang so much I decided to stay an extra day to see some more sights in the area including Wat Chayamang Kalarm, the Burmese temple and the Botanic gardens (where I attempted to climb up to see the waterfalls but gave up after 40 minutes).
The next day I jumped on a coach to Kuala Lumpar, with me staying an extra day in Penang I only had the afternoon to do a bit of sightseeing in the city so I headed to the KL Tower to get some raised views of the city. There I bumped into a fellow Brit who I arrived to meet that evening to grab some dinner in the China Town area.
03/11/11 – 04/11/11
Another day another coach journey as I made my way to Singapore, the last new country I would be visiting in Asia on my RTW trip. Everything was going fine until I got to Singapore immigration where we had to disembark our coach to get checked into the country. At this point there were only 3 passengers left on the coach including myself. I filled out my immigration card before going to see the custom official to get check in. After I had to put my backpack through an x-ray machine before I quickly went to the loo before the final leg of our journey to Lavender Hill bus station. But on arriving in the coach parking area I couldn’t see my transport anywhere, I run up and down the platform checking to see if it was there – no sign of it. Asking another bus operator I was simply told that the coach had already left; cue an outburst of swearing from me. After waiting half hour to see if it hadn’t got simply held up in customs I knew it was true it had already left.
The main problem was I had no local currency on me due to having only just entered the country so my first mission was to find an ATM. After talking to a security guard I was pointed towards a shopping complex nearby so I quickly dashed over to find a series of ATM machines – relief! With money in my hand I boarded a local bus to the nearest metro station, not the stress I was expecting to find that day.
After my unexpected overnight stay in Hat Yai I finally made it to Penang in Malaysia. Arriving in the afternoon I tried to Skype back home completely forgetting that the clocks had gone back an hour where as I had gone an hour ahead. That evening I went for a stroll around the town in the rain after grabbing some dinner from the huge shopping complex under the Komtar Tower.
The next day I went on my own walking tour of Georgetown, a protected world heritage site. Here is a list of some of the sites I visited:
• Town/city hall
• Fort Comwallis
• Queen Victoria clock tower
• Penang state museum
• Goddess of Mercy temple
• Mahamarianman temple
• Cheah Kongsi
• Khoo Kongsi
• Little India
That afternoon I caught a bus to the bottom of Penang hill before taking the hill train to the top to get some panoramic views of the island and city.
With me liking Penang so much I decided to stay an extra day to see some more sights in the area including Wat Chayamang Kalarm, the Burmese temple and the Botanic gardens (where I attempted to climb up to see the waterfalls but gave up after 40 minutes).
The next day I jumped on a coach to Kuala Lumpar, with me staying an extra day in Penang I only had the afternoon to do a bit of sightseeing in the city so I headed to the KL Tower to get some raised views of the city. There I bumped into a fellow Brit who I arrived to meet that evening to grab some dinner in the China Town area.
03/11/11 – 04/11/11
Another day another coach journey as I made my way to Singapore, the last new country I would be visiting in Asia on my RTW trip. Everything was going fine until I got to Singapore immigration where we had to disembark our coach to get checked into the country. At this point there were only 3 passengers left on the coach including myself. I filled out my immigration card before going to see the custom official to get check in. After I had to put my backpack through an x-ray machine before I quickly went to the loo before the final leg of our journey to Lavender Hill bus station. But on arriving in the coach parking area I couldn’t see my transport anywhere, I run up and down the platform checking to see if it was there – no sign of it. Asking another bus operator I was simply told that the coach had already left; cue an outburst of swearing from me. After waiting half hour to see if it hadn’t got simply held up in customs I knew it was true it had already left.
The main problem was I had no local currency on me due to having only just entered the country so my first mission was to find an ATM. After talking to a security guard I was pointed towards a shopping complex nearby so I quickly dashed over to find a series of ATM machines – relief! With money in my hand I boarded a local bus to the nearest metro station, not the stress I was expecting to find that day.
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