So......back home and the trip is all finished!It's amazing to think how far we have come and how much we have experienced.I can't say I appreciated everything along the way but looking back now I realise how it has enriched my life and me to have completed this journey.
I have visited and experience
Estonia
Russia
Mongolia
China
Laos
Cambodia
Vietnam
Thailand
Malaysia
Singapore
Indonesia
Myanmar
Sri Lanka
Oman
I've travelled using
Car
Bus
Minibus
Train
Plane
Tuk Tuk
Beemo
Metro
Tractor Tyre
Ox Cart
Boat
Ferry
Bike
I've used the following curriencies
Euro
Ruble
Togrog
Yuan
Kip
Dollar US
Riel
Dong
Baht
Ringgit
Singapore Dollar
Rupiah
Kyat
Rupee
Rial
I've learnt what I can do when I put my mind to it....and what I can get throught too!
I've met some amazing people and I've rediscovered just how amazing people I already knew are...in particular Mr Moonface....Thank you for sharing this with me and helping me to see how amazing the world is. I wouldnt have wanted to experience that with anyone else!!!
When we arrived in Colombo airport we were picked up by our hotel owner for free and taken to our villa. We had decided to treat ourselves for the last few days but a mix up with the bookings meant that we ended up in even bigger accomodation than we expected...basically a whole house!!The owner of the property we were renting was really nice- he introduced us to his family and we had a very enjoyable night getting to know him and discussing Sri Lanka.
We only had two days here...our families though we would be spending a week and a bit here but as a suprise we were actually flying home on an earlier date.So we decided to get out and explore the beach on the first day of arriving.
It wasnt the best beach we had ever seen but definately most populated by locals. A group of locals were making their own music right by our restuarant it was really funny to watch!
It seemed like no time at all and the two days were over and it was time to go home!
Sri Lanka seemed a really cool place to be....definately would like to go back there and explore properly.
Our journey back to Yangon wasn't the most comfortable experience of my life!Seems to be a recurring theme in Myanmar. Especially when at a toilet stop Charlie decides to fall down a sewage hole and hurt his leg.
We finally get to our hotel after a little walk and discover that once again we are paying way to much money for the quality of our room.We are both so exhausted we couldn't really care at that point though.
Next day we decided to go on a little walk around the local area.This is much more local Yangon than the last place we stayed. We walk down to the port and what we see pretty much sums up Myanmar for us. The local boats in the port have seen better days (to be polite) and the government yacht was brand spanking new and shiny....typical!
The next day we did a city walk around the town.Taking in Little India and Chinatown.We went to the top floor of a posh office block to see the views over Yangon (and paid £2 each for a bottle of water for the privalige) but it was worth it!The views were amazing!
Myanmar is a really interesting place!Especially as at the moment there is a big shake up in the government. Myanmar is opening up to the rest of the world...we even saw a cash point.Really glad we came here before things change....the change will be for the better of the Myanmar people but to experience the old country is far more interesting!
The bus to Inlay Lake was a long,bumpy slightly uncomfortable journey....but we got there eventually. We had been recommended a hotel by one of the receptionists at our previous hotel in Bagan. We were picked up from the bus station (otherwise known as a junction) and taken to the hotel. We had to pay to enter the Inlay lake area which we were not too impressed about (as it goes directly to the government). The hotel was ok- it seems that in Myanmar you never get what you pay for.Rooms are very expensive and where as in other countries you would get extra things like air con or a t.v you dont in Myanmar.
We went out for some lunch and on the walk back to the hotel we stumbled upon some sort of celebration-although no one in the hotel could really explain exactly what it was for. Was interesting to see anyway.
Charlie went off to see the lake-I wasnt feeling the love. But ended up getting really lost thanks to a lying Tuk-Tuk driver. We decided to go out and have a drink (drown our sorrows for travelling all this way to see a lake we couldnt even find properly!) So a few small bottles of whiskey later (each costing something rediculous like £2) we had had a very good night.
However a bet gone horribly wrong resulted in me eating a whole chilli. I still dont understand how people enjoy the feeling of you whole mouth feeling like its on fire,then the numbness and your dribbling because you cant feel half your mouth.How is that enjoyable....
Bagan was born when King Anawrahta took the thrown in 1044.The Bagan archaeological zone stretches 42 square km.During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over
10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in
the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and
pagodas still survive to the present day.
Bagan is not yet a UNESCO World Heritage Site (which is a travesty in my opinion) it is easily one of the most spectacular sights in SE Asia!!
We decided to get up and cycle to the sight before sunrise (early start and hard ride but well worth the effort) even if I did nearly get attacked by 5 dogs! Although the architecture of the temples at Bagan are not as intricate as those at Angkor the amount of temples takes your breath away (they are everywhere you look and stretch further than you can see) and for this reason Bagan impressed me far more! I would even go as far to say that Bagan should hold 'Wonder' status.
Unfortunately
because of the situation in Myanmar and the difficulty in organising a
trip here (mainly no ATM's and the need for crisp, new US Dollars) not
enough people visit Myanmar and are unaware of Bagan so no one votes it as a 'Wonder'!! All I can
say is if you can be bothered to make the effort it's well worth it.The only negative thing about Bagan is that you have to pay 10 US Dollars to enter the Bagan archaeological zone...this goes directly to the government (although it is claimed it is used for preservation and restoration).
If you don't know about the situation in Myanmar and the reason why I wouldn't want to give any money to the government let me explain.
Myanmar is ruled by an oppressive military regime by giving money it can be seen to legitimise the government and most definitely contributes to it's piggy bank!
Anyway,thankfully we had
left early enough that we managed to get back to our hotel before the full heat of
the day had kicked in (100oF) or we would have melted in our bike seats.
The flight from KL was slightly bumpy but as usual Air Asia did us proud! We arrived in Myanmar and the first thing that happened followed the exact dialogue of 'The Inbetweeners'.....
'It's hot'
'It's fu**in hot!'
'Might be too hot!'
We grabbed a taxi (our driver was very smiley!) and drove (very speedily) to our hotel! The hotel was very posh.....maybe a bit too posh for us lol but the inside did remind me of the hotel from 'The Shining'!
After a great nights sleep we got up and headed out to see Shwedagon Paya. The bible otherwise known as the Lonely Planet says....
If you only see one stupa on your whole trip through SE Asia,
make sure it's the glorious gilded spire of Shwedagon Paya!
It is the defining image of Yangon and a symbol of Burmese
identity for 2500 years.
Every good Buddhist in Myanmar tries to make at least one pilgrimage here in their lifetime and I can see why the place is absolutely breathtaking (not just because it's so hot there that my flip-flops start to melt!). The compound includes the main Zedi and 82 other buildings. The paya ('holy one' a religious monument) is said to be built upon a hill where Buddha relics have been enshrined, including eight hairs of the Buddha.
In the 15th century one of the Queens gilded the paya with her own weight in gold leaf.Then her son-in-law offered four times his own weight and that of his wife's. Since then the zedi has grown to 98m tall and has accumulated more than 53 metric tonnes of gold leaf, more than 5000 diamonds and 2000 other stones. I think you can imagine how amazing that looks!
When you enter the compound you have to remove your shoes...this might seem all lovely and respectful which usually I am all for but when its 40o and your walking barefoot its not fun...it's like slowly cooking your feet. However, this did cause some laughs as even the locals could be seen running across the compound shouting 'ouchhh...oww...oww' or carefully trying to walk around keeping on the shaded parts of the floor (as was my tactic!).
The whole place is really beautiful definitely worth the effort!
Time to save a bit of money!A few days to spare! So we decided to head back to Melaka in Malaysia as we had been there before and really like the place.
Melaka is very multi-cultural and demographics suggests it is made up of the following:
Malays: 57%;
Chinese: 32%
Indians a sizeable minority;
Kristang, people with partial Portuguese ancestry: a small community;
Dutch Eurasians, Eurasians with Dutch ancestry: a minority within the Malacca Eurasian community.
The city center has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 7 July 2008 and is very beautiful!
The cuisine
is a fusion of Chinese (mostly southern Hokkien or Fujian influence),
Portuguese, Dutch, Indian, British and Malay cooking with most dishes
being spicy in nature. It includes dishes like Itik Tim (a soup
containing duck and salted vegetables), Ayam Pong Teh (chicken casserole
with salted brown-bean sauce usually served with potatoes) as well as
the famous Chicken Rice Ball.
While we were here we met up with our old friends Candice and Dan (who we met in Vietnam)! It was really great seeing them and we had lots of fun as usual! Dan and Candice treated us to the cinema (Avengers is a very good film)! Thanks guys for an awesome few days see you back in Essex xxx
THE DEMONSTRATIONS
While we were in Melaka there were peaceful demonstrations regarding the right to fair voting in Malaysia. It appears the demonstrations in KL were not so peaceful. The video (appears to) show a high ranking police officer deliberately hitting protestors. He is then beaten up by unhurt people nearby.The media in Malaysia failed to mention that 1 of the people hit was killed and 5 others injured but did report on the police officers injuries...hmmmm!
Singapore Zoo is a ecological adventure (yeh I know I sound geeky but I seriously couldn't care less!). It has over 3,000 animals inhabiting real, lush tropical rainforest!! It takes up roughly 28 hectares of rainforest and was built at a cost of 9 million Singapore $ (granted by the Government of Singapore). It was opened on 27 June 1973 and is operated by Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
There are about 315 species of animal in the zoo, of which some 16% are
considered threatened species. The zoo attracts about 1.6 million
visitors each year.
From the beginning, Singapore Zoo followed the modern trend of
displaying animals in naturalistic, 'open' exhibits with moats instead of glass between the animals and visitors.Animals are kept in spacious, landscaped enclosures separated from the visitors by either dry or wet moats. The moats are concealed with vegetation or dropped below the line of vision.
The Wildlife Healthcare & Research Center was opened in March
2006 as part of the zoo's efforts in wildlife conservation. The center
further underscores Singapore Zoo's commitment to
conservation research, providing the infrastructure for the parks and
overseas zoological partners to better execute their research
programmes. For example Singapore Zoo is the first zoo in the world to breed a polar bear in the tropics. Inuka was conceived on 26 December 1990.
The zoo also embarked on various rescue and conservation efforts to protect wildlife. Steve Irwin admired the Singapore Zoo greatly, adopting it as the 'sister zoo' to the Australia Zoo. He was at the Singapore Zoo in 2006 to officiate the opening of the Australian Outback exhibit. Anyway that's enough background information!
TREETOPS TRAIL
So basically you walk over suspended bridges and can see lots of
birds.....at first I think well I like birds as much as the next person
but I had more interesting animals in mind! Then I looked down and I saw
these Monsters!
FOREST LODGE
So as I walked through Forest Lodge the first animal I saw was the Tapir. I couldn't believe how big the enclosure was for one animal and how healthy he looked! So much better than Beijing Zoo so far!
Next I came to the Pygmy Hippo enclosure. This was really cool. A tank filled with fish....I could even see the Hippo but as I was walking away I saw all the fish dart to one side and watched as one of the Hippo's walked along the bottom of the water...pretty cool!!
Next the White Tiger! The enclosure was amazing! It had a natural river.....rocks and lots of trees for the tigers to shade in! The tigers are separated by a moat below eye level full of vegetation and I'm assuming some other pro cautions but it feels like your hardly separated at all! It was amazing to be that close to them and see how massive they really are.What was even better was that the animals didn't look caged!
AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK
I walked through an exhibition on the bone structure of a kangaroo through some wooden doors and along a dirt track which turned a corner to come face to face with this(no zoom on camera used people):
I won't like I jumped a little! I had no idea how big Kangaroo's were....they pretty awesome animals! And having them jump all around you is a pretty surreal experience. But yet again Singapore Zoo has shown that you don't have to keep animals locked up behind glass in small enclosures...as long as you left them alone the Kangaroos were more than happy to hop around you!
PRIMATE KINGDOM
Singapore Zoo holds the world's first free ranging monkey habitat!!Well I was majorly impressed!And on a number of occasions I was being followed around by some nosey monkeys!
ELEPHANTS OF ASIA
Again the Elephants have huge enclosures with lots of access to water and vegetation. They looked in really good condition too!I stayed to watch the 'Elephant Bath Time' which was amazing and even though your about 20meters away you still end up getting soaked.
RAINFOREST FIGHTS BACK SHOW
You are introduced to a spectrum of animals, close to 15
species comprising both mammals and birds, as they ‘fight’ back to
restore their rainforest home to its full splendour when its serenity is
disturbed by a man dressed in a hard hat holding a chain saw.The rainforest comes alive right from the moment you set foot in the
newly renovated 1600-seat Shaw Foundation Amphitheatre, which overlooks
the scenic Upper Seletar Reservoir and includes a cascading waterfall. Monkeys climb above your head collecting fruit, birds fly around you and otters dive in and out of the water! It's really cool!
The photos don't explain it well so here's a you tube clip from someone else!
CAT COUNTRY
Next I went to see the Lion enclosure with my fingers crossed that it was as good as the Tiger enclosure.If anything it was better...they had a bit more space but the set up was the same.You are separated by a moat and some vegetation below eye level! I even saw them being fed,Watching them jump up with those massive claws to catch the meat and then let out a massive raw when they are finished was immense. The Meerkat's next door looked a bit scared though lol!
WILD AFRICA
This is the area where I was running around...on my own looking most like a loon! Everywhere you looked was animals!Giraffe's, Rhino's, Zebra's, Warthogs, Hunting Dogs and Eland's. It was really cool. The Giraffe's come over really close to you and are really interested in trying to eat your camera.Also you could spot the hunting dogs attempting to creep up on the Warthog's....shame there is a massive moat in between hey guys!Lol! Again the enclosures were open, vast and full of vegetation! So impressive!
The most amazing Zoo!! I can't imagine another ever beating it! I would highly, highly recommend people to visit it...the more money it gets the better because it is clear that profits get used in a positive way here!
