Jungle men, the Great Singapore sale and vending machine haircuts

Hello!!!

We are so so overdue for a nice informative blog. Forgive us, as we have been on many flights and buses and malls and movie theatres... Ahem.. So where did we leave off? Ah yes, Uncle Tan..... but first, some pix from Semporna:



We signed up for a 3d/2n jungle tour, where we would be doing treks and river cruises and staying in little huts. We left Uncle Tan's ops base after visiting the over hyped Orang-utan centre down the road, and ventured off for 2 hours of minivans and 4x4 through acres and acres of palm oil plantations. Side note- we had no idea how prevalent palm oil is in every day products. The demand for palm oil has increased so much over the past few years that most of the rainforest in Borneo has been cut down to make room to the trees. This has GOT to stop!! Look on your labels- food, home, body products, and say NO!! Anyways, we rode on towards the wilderness, and then hopped on a boat to cross the river and head on to camp after a quick little boat tour, where we saw proboscis monkeys, lots of birds, and lots of muddy water. Mmmm.




We spent the evening dining on delicious local cuisine that appeared outta nowhere, and then had a night river cruise, where we saw the likes of owls, sleepy kingfishers, and tired monkeys. We fell asleep to the roar of cicadas outside out hut, and the flopping of frogs in the swamp below.

The next day we arose at 6:30 for our early morning boat cruise, where we saw lots of Orang-utans!!! Lucky us. We also spied on the elusive silver leaf monkeys, saw lots of macaques, birds, blahblah, good times! Returned for some breakfast consisting of maggi noodles, fried bananas, and french toast. Then we headed out on our jungle trek. We were slightly unprepared for the muddy conditions, but enjoyed every minute of trudging around, looking for tiny creepy crawlies and the frogs that feed on them. Somehow our awesome guide found one of the smallest frogs in the world- as small as your pinkie nail!!

Back to camp for nap time in the hammocks, then an afternoon cruise where we again spotted an array of monkeys, birds, and this time huge flying foxes!! Dinner and then back out in the jungle, where I got bit by 2 fire ants, pooped on by what I can only assume was a bird, and photographed a sleeping butterfly.

We had one last boat cruise on our last day, where we saw a whole lotta nothin, and then jumped on board another 4x4 for the lovely tour of the palm oil plantations. Back to ops base for lunch and then the bus to Kota Kinabalu for our last night in Borneo.



Five hours later, we arrived at the bus station, hopped on a local bus, and got dumped in the touristy bit. We found a few beds in the hostel and then ventured out for some much needed cold beers and experienced some very passionate British karaoke. Not something I would like to witness again, but he did give Robbie Williams a run for his money.

We flew back to Singapore for the umpteenth time, and finally visited! We took the MRT to the backpackerish area, and found that our hostel had been removed to make way for a large construction site. Moved on to another place, where we paid far too much for the last dorm beds in the place, with very very shoddy a/c. If you're gonna have it, make it work!!! We toured Bugis street markets, and some of the local malls, where we found that we were just in time for the Great Singapore Sale!! A month long celebration where everything is on sale and people shop more than other times of the year. That being said, shopping is the main sport and hobby in Singapore as it is. We window shopped, and then decided to go and see Angels & Demons. It was just as expected, decent enough, though we want to reread the books to see how much things have changed. We headed to bed after that, prepared to delve into the shopping scene in the am.

We headed to Orchard Road the next day, eating much needed Subway for lunch, and then stumbling across a huge Marc Jacobs sale where we made out like bandits for a lump sum of $30. A bit more roaming, and then off to find the Tiger Beer Factory. Upon arrival we found it had been converted into 9 nightclubs, which is sad for us. We headed to another mall where we found the coolest store yet- National Geographic, one of the 2 shops in the world. Job! We spent lots of time roaming around, looking at all their cool antiques, maps, and luggage, and then Oli found himself buying a $S25 journal. We hopped back on the MRT and decided to go and see Night at the Museum 2. About 10 minutes in we realized why we never even liked the first one. We stuck it through till the end, where we spied on the credits that the Jonas Brothers were indeed the angels in the movie, and had provided the only LOL moment. Oh Dear. We went to grab our belongings, and found that the noisy hot date couple next to us must have nicked Oli's new journal! I stayed behind to comb the theatre, just in case, and Oli went to the lobby in search of someone looking confused with a bright yellow NatGeo bag. No luck! Oli checked in the bathroom and low and behold, the empty bag was sitting on the rubbish bin. Now lets think about this people- how sad has your life become when you get your kicks by stealing journals in the darkness of Night at the Museum 2? Oh lord. We were saddened to think that our first experience with direct crime against us was in Singapore, accompanied by the Jonas Brothers. Not exactly the rough and tumble tale you want to tell the folks back home.

The next morning we checked out some dive shops, wandered around, went back to the mall to replace Oli's journal and to buy ourselves a very nice duffel bag. We spent the day wandering, and just to keep up tradition, decided to go to another movie- Terminator 4. I was shocked to find this was my favorite of the 3 we've seen! We were also very happy to see Charlie Bartlett in the film. Cool!!!

We decided to depart Singapore the next day and head to Malaka, the Malaysian western port city. It took an hour to get to the edge of Singapore, and then 5 more hours to get to our destination! Hopped on a local bus to head the 9km into town, checked into our 16 bed dorm room for $3 each, and grabbed an English Breakfast for dinner. We discovered we were in Malaka on fireworks night, and Chinatown was bustling with a street market. We mosied around and then bought some overpriced Tiger beers, then some more, and then off to bed in the dorm that strangely reminds me of the convents in which Madeline lived.

The next day we slept in for the first time in a long time, then checked out the town. Crazy busy everywhere!! We headed over to the People's Museum (aka the worst museum in the world according to Oli) and looked at their Kite exhibit, and then their body mutilation exhibit. Fun times!!! We then went to the most confusing mall in the world and found ourselves sitting in the theatre watching Star Trek. It was a pleasure. You may wonder why we have been spending so much time in the movies over the past 4 days, and the answer is simple- a/c. It is delightful, and the cheapest option for evening entertainment since drinks are prohibitively expensive and we aren't very creative. Anyway, the movie rocked.

I then made a very bad decision. My love of frugality overcame logic, and I had put 12 ringgit in a vending machine before I knew any better. I then received the worst haircut known to man. I am not sure how it was possible to litter the floor with SO MUCH of my hair, it looked like more than I ever had.. in the end, I looked like Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic, with a bit of Ellen spice thrown in. Oh dear. Oli had to help me out with his nail scissors when we got back to at least even the cut out. Never again.

Back to Chinatown to buy some chopsticks (we are determined to learn how to roll sushi back in the states) and have a few more drinks to attempt to numb the image of myself in the mirror. All in all, a productive and memorable day.

Here are the pics from Singapore & Melaka



This morning we checked out of our hotel, grabbed lunch, roamed a bit, then hopped on the bus to Kuala Lumpur. We have arrived and are about to head out in search of our home for the next 3 days. We are going to be couch surfing for the first time ever, with a guy named Mo. Wish us luck!!!!!!!

PS- Cali in 4 days!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!? In-N-Out, fear us.