Home

The journey home was relatively uneventful and very pleasant. Spending all the extra for business class was truly worth every penny, and it meant that I slept for a full six hours from Bangkok to London, and felt I had had a night’s sleep by the time I got back to Petworth! It was wonderful to see the children and Sara and share a couple of days with them. I was jumped on when they collected me, so I think they were happy to see me !

I had a live

Y lunch with Mark and the children as well and then drove to Littlebeck for an overnight stop. It is always great to stay with Julia and John, old friends and a singing partner for many many years ! They are always so kind and make my stay peaceful and comfortable! On my way to them my brakes were very dodgy and very noisy, so on Thursday morning John took my car to the garage and replaced pads and discs !! It was a bit of a shock to hear the grinding and banging for the last 30 minutes of the journey........but once again, the Weeks saved the day ! 

I finally arrived home by 11pm ish having not left until lunchtime, and managed to unpack half the car and then headed off to my own bed. It has been a once in a lifetime journey, and I am so glad I did it.

Skye, fire on, a wind blowing and some sun. Doesn’t get better than that !

Final Day of the Adventure .....

I sat in the foyer after lunch and the bus taking me to the tour arrived on the dot of 2pm, and we then proceeded to two other hotels where other folks were being picked up for the same tour. Five of us eventually got to the Gardens by the Marine Bay which was humming with tourists waiting for trips. There was a 15 minute wait and we heard thunder just grizzling in the background and the clouds were darkening by the minute. That should have been my first warning !

We boarded our bus which had about 25 people in a coach for 52, so it was very comfortable, and very cool. Our first stop was in Little India, which was colourful, vibrant and much how imagine it must be in Goa, or a holiday destination in India ! We were told we had  15 minutes to mooch around, which was fine as it was not a large area, and I enjoyed a fresh coconut water, the top being cut off the young green fruit by an expert and his machete ! It was quite a different experience than mainstream Singapore, they expected bargaining, which in the swish Singaporean shops and markets was a definite no no ! 

Sights of Little India

Back on the bus we drove around the colonial centre to look at the many beautiful buildings to which I had already been. I did see some others though, especially the beautiful City Hall and Victoria Concert Hall, gorgeous in their ‘Raffles’ white and green colours. There is, if you can believe it, an MTR underground station directly under the City Hall,  bet that took some shoring up when it was being built !! 

City Hall and the darkening clouds.....

We wandered to see the Merlion statue at this stop as well, and learnt about the story of the man who, a very long time ago, and possibly even a legend, was drifting at sea sure of his inevitable death by drowning but found himself on a beach of this as yet unnamed island. He wandered inland and found a lion. In his culture ( can’t quite remember which that was.....) a lion signified a very good omen so he decided on the spot to call it Singa ( lion) Pure ( city or town, or possibly village !) and so Lioncity was born, long before any colonists arrived !

The Merlion

We got back in the bus and rain drops the size of chocolate drops began to fall.......we did not alight at Chinatown as it was a positive monsoon, but by the time we got to the wonderful Botanical and Orchid Gardens it had more or less ceased. Ha ! Confidently wandering around the gorgeous tropical garden was amazing, the rain had made the fragrance of the orchids so strong, and the succulent leaves dripping and sparkling with the rain. We arrived at the building which was a museum of orchid growing and happily read the information. Within 10 seconds the sky unloaded a downfall the like of which I have never seen, even living on Skye. 

A few of the glorious exhibits at the Orchid Garden

This is how I felt when the rain came down !

Post monsoon......

The drops were the size of golf balls. Of course we were then half a km from the bus. Not much in the great scheme of things. Try it in a monsoon ! I was drenched through to my skeleton in around three minutes or less and then gave up trying to hurry as it was not going to make the slightest bit of difference - my dress and blouse were already fully soaked and dripping. It was almost funny, but not quite........the thought of sitting in the bus for 30 minutes was less than cheery ! We all made it back and I wondered what the collective noun for a group of wet through tourists is - a ‘shower’ is probably the best ! I leave you all to imagine how uncomfortable and sticky the journey back was. I am sitting in my hotel now, about three hours later, and my hair is still wet........hope the clothes dry before they have to go in the suitcase for tomorrow’s flight home, otherwise I may be growing my own penicillin by the time I get to Petworth !

Dinner maybe hotel room service tonight.....more carbs -  Agh !!!

Goodbye Singapore and the Lotus Flower Arts and Science Museum

Singapore is lovely, great architecture, wonderful food ( well not really for me but.....) but a bit too equatorial and today’s monsoon rains made me glad that I live in a temperate climate !  I am ready to come home now, have a bit of cool weather and get life back to normal. I have lived the whole thing and once again thanks to all the folks who have been wonderful with Gretel the dog, looked after the house and helped me recover from pneumonia to make it all possible.

Blighty here I come ! 

A few more pictures......

See what I am up against !

The crucifix behind the cathedral pulpit made with nails from the bombed Coventry Cathedral

Igloo......

Singapore Day

I arrived at my beautiful Singapore hotel called the Naumi Hotel, shortly after 9.45am hoping against hope that I would be able to get into my room even though it was far ahead of check in time ! A charming young lady wearing a smart uniform immediately came to the taxi door, opened it and proceeded to take my luggage and even my small bags ! At the reception desk I was assured my room was ready and waiting for me and within a nano second I was in a cool, clean lined and delightful room and flopped onto the bed !

The life saving coffee machine !

I had done my research and although not cheap, the price was not that of the Raffles or Goodwood colonial hotels, but I did want a little comfort to finish my trip and boy I got it. Raffles Hotel is on the other side of the street, and sadly at the moment is being totally restored so the one time in my life I will come to Singapore the most iconic place is firmly shut. Never mind, my hotel is gorgeous so I am not complaining even a little.

The finished back half of Raffles

The famous facade of Raffles wrapped up like a parcel.

I had a shower and changed before making a coffee with my in room espresso machine ( hurrah !) and sat for an hour relaxing before venturing outdoors into what I knew was hot hot hot. A second strong coffee later and I was ready to face it. ‘Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the Midday Sun’ and I was one of those as by now it was 12.30pm and temperatures had soared to the middle 30’s. I walked slowly around Raffles until I saw the large mall called Raffles City and made my way into the cool air con to find some lunch. Of course shopping malls are the same world wide, all the recognisable shops one sees in Edinburgh, London and New York, but these were intermingled with some interesting Asian shops and restaurants. 

I found a restaurant on the lower food court floor and decided upon this Singaporean and Japanese fusion place and in I went. All instructions and menus are in English first, perhaps because it is such a cosmopolitan place and English is the common language, so that was lucky ! I ordered a Curry Set, I thought it was just a chicken curry and rice, but turned out to be soup, rice, curry, Dim Sum dumplings and prawn tails........ for $25 which is about £12 it was a feast indeed and I couldn’t finish it. A great introduction to Singapore cuisine.

The Chinese Set

Prawn Tails - Yum

I wandered a bit further and found a lovely supermarket which provided me with some provisions for my stay - by now I knew that low carb was going to be more difficult than me completing a tough mudder course. It was surprisingly expensive, but if I am honest it was quite upmarket perhaps the M&S foodhall or Waitrose of the east ! I loaded up with some apples, cheese, water, yogurt and nuts and wended my slightly dripping way back to the Naumi Hotel. 

Later, after something of a cool down and a flop into the easy chair in my room I decided I needed to keep going and venture out again. So off I went to see some sights, which are quite close to be honest, thank the Lord, so I went to what was the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus and was used as many of the filming locations for Tenko in the 80’s. Now it is a wonderfully restored set of buildings, painted gleaming white and a plethora of eating places ! I wonder what the girls in the old Convent school would have thought about having a Costa next door to the Physics Lab ! I found a small and interesting place called ‘ Toast’ made a mental note for the next day lunch !

The Convent of the Holy Jesus - now a restaurant planet !

I returned on Saturday to have my lunch in Toast ! Actually it served other food too, so instead of door steps of bread with - wait for it - egg and peanut butter, jam and curried fruits, ham with lemon curd......it was reminiscent of Stanley Market in HK 30 years ago where you could buy, Tea, Coffee or Tea and Coffee mix !!! I avoided the dodgy toast toppings and went for a chicken curry and rice. The bowl of curry was large and the chicken was almost completely chicken skin with potatoes, meat I saw nothing of, so I ate the white rice ( numbers soaring you understand) with the some spoonfuls of the curry sauce. Not the greatest meal on my trip so far, but you win some and you lose some !

After lunch and a good look around these lovely buildings I went one block further to St Andrew’s Cathedral in the very centre of Singapore city. It looks like a miniature version of a large church, but that is entirely because the skyscrapers around diminish its size ! It was built with the money of the Episcopalian Scots in 1859 after the original building was burned down, hence it being St Andrew, and inside the colours are an attractive blue and white. The flag which flies is a blue and white cross, not exactly a saltire but close. It was a haven of cool and peaceful in the centre of a bustling Asian world and along with others, I enjoyed the quiet for 10 minutes. There was a deep fish pond with gigantic goldfish who all came to the surface, hopefully looking for food I imagine, when I took a photograph. They clearly associated humans with calories !

St Andrew’s Cathedral - it’s windows open for a small breeze.

I went to the cathedral cafe for a coffee and cake ( absolutely nothing else.......I kid you not) and basked in the air con so as to brace myself for the walk home. I know a good few lovely folk who either come from, or have lived in equatorial climes ! I take my sun hat off to you, I have no idea at all how any human being can function in such uncomfortable conditions. I constantly feel as if I am slowly melting into pavements, which are in actuality, disguised grills enjoying the act of slowly cooking northern hemisphere tourists !

Back home........

I then flowed back at my igloo in Seah St and glugged down lots of water whilst watching a movie on the enormous tv. I had to regroup a bit. Do I stay indoors for 75% of my stay, which seems a waste, or do I book an official city sight seeing coach trip in a cool bus ? Yes, I booked it, and I leave in an hour. Phew..........!

Back tomorrow with a tour update !

Kuala Lumpur Day

We docked at Port Kelang, the port for the city of Kuala Lumpur about 9 am, a little earlier than the captain has said, he must have really put his marine foot down with a vengeance to make up a couple of hours which had been the last update the night before ! The heat was simmering into a hot soup by the time Green 1 coach party was called ! Our guide was a Mrs Julie Chang who was so concerned about our welfare she gave us each a card with her personal mobile number incase of emergencies, and asked us politely not to ring her in the evening whilst she was cooking dinner ! Either this says something about KL or about her care and control over the party of 33 , I suspect the latter.

The caring Julie !

The posh bus !

I had chosen the simplest of all the ship tours, and the cheapest - I spent my budget on the elephant tour, so this was simply the highlights of Kuala Lumpur. As it turned out it was as long and as I exhausting as the more expensive one, but obviously more citified !

We drove for an hour from the port to the city centre and our first stop was the National Museum. How beautifully done was this new building which was built on the sight of the colonial building from 1907 after a fire razed it to the ground after Independence. There was much mention by Julie in the coach of the British in Malaya and KL, all with a sense of affection which surprised me a little, and later when I asked her if the Malays dislike the British due to the colonisation she replied, definitely not, ‘the British brought everything’, ‘the people dislike the Chinese because of the Communist emergency after the war’. The Malays, it seems, never wanted to become a  communist country post war. After Independence, this left the country open to the Muslim growth and eventually after the King converted the people had to follow. However she told us that nowadays all three religions, Islam, Christianity and Buddhism largely live harmoniously together.......I have no idea if that is true. She was very clear about not wanting to use the title Islam State for Malaysia.

The National Museum

An early British Governer’s Rolls Royce

On a lighter, but hotter note, she told us we were just 1 degree from the equator and thus the temperature was about 28/30 degrees C the whole year round and only in the mountains did it reduce to about 25. Given the proximity to that centre line we none of us were surprised by that information! The economy is now no longer based on rubber as it was when the British were there, it is mostly Palm Oil, Petrol and a mix of IT and Finance. The rows of rubber trees were still to be seen in lots of the rural areas, and I felt quite strongly a sense of the life and landscape into which our dear Penny was born and lived, albeit in next door Burma.

The Rubber Tree Tappers, Penny must have seen this all year round.

Our second stop was the national gardens around Independence Square, again, like Bali, heaving with gorgeous palm trees and tropical flowers. I wondered what happened with the flowers - if it is constantly ‘summer’ do they ever stop flowering, or just go on ? The delicate, butterfly plants were my favourite, their long petal strands were just like the wings of tropical butterflies, quite exquisite.

The butterfly plants

Independence Square

The next stop was at the Selangor Cricket Club, complete with cricket field protected by their own  pretty awnings..... now that’s devotion I reckon, and shows how they value their cricket ! The buildings all around this area were colonial style and very beautiful, I had not expected this, I thought they may have been pulled down for modern skyscrapers but no, we were informed that they value all these beautiful parts of our history !! I loved the Cricket Clubhouse, it was reminiscent of every Far East prewar drama you could imagine - gin on the verandah anyone ?

Anyone for a Gin

The gun toting army ship (note the front gun, and there were more) docked directly next to us at Port Kelang !?!

Back on board it really was packing time, and although I had done most of it, there were all the last minute bits to do and then plonk my cases outside the cabin door for collection and leaving at the correct colour coded area. I decided to watch a film after I had finished and tonight it was Victoria and Abdul. Watch it if you get the chance, I’ve no idea about the accuracy, but Judi Dench is stellar and the film is a triumph of a wonderful period drama, combined with a moving storyline.

I went to bed, knowing I would wake up in one of the most, if not THE most sparkling, crime free and clean cities in the world, Singapore. The port gave away nothing of its beauty, but the taxi ride to my fabulous ‘boutique ‘ hotel certainly did.

It was a wonderful cruise, made all the more exciting because of swelling seas, salsa dancing winds and tropical temperatures. I will probably never do it again, but I really felt as if I more than just touched the Southern Hemisphere between Australia and Singapore. What a wonderful opportunity.

Elephant Day

After the long and wondrous drive we finally arrived in the active volcano mountain area where the Elephant Reserve was located. The landscape was suddenly more forest and shrubs and a little cooler - not really cool you realise but very bearable by comparison with the lower flatlands by the sea. 

We turned into a large parking area to be almost immediately faced with a slow and gracefully swaying Sumatran elephant with a Howdah on its broad back walking nonchalantly across the road complete with a lady mahoot and one passenger. It was quite a breathtaking introduction to the place I can tell you.

We walked through the entrance with dear Laku making sure we all had the opportunity to visit ‘the happy room’ - I’m sure you can work that one out ! An official then gave us orders for the visit. These were rescued elephants from Sumatra here to be conserved and bred from and some eventually to be sent back to the wild. They are ‘very very friendly and will steal from you if they think you have anything interesting or edible’ he went on to say with a smile. Be prepared to be stroked, pushed, asked for treats with a curling trunk and to be sprayed with water if they felt like it !

No fence just you and me !

Elephant fruit salad !

I’m flippin starving, can’t you see ? The fences here are because they are so greedy they would chase you for the fruit ! 

WORLD OF COFFEE 14

My  restorative coconut drink and Balinese Coffee, thick and stronger than any I have tasted before.....Mmmmm

The first walk was simply to acclimatise us to the forest trail and to meet some of the inhabitants both man and beast. Then we watched some playing in the water pool, no chains, no ropes, no fences in essence no anything between us, they were as happy as Larry and I suspect would have been whether we were there or not ! They had all been rescued at some point and transported by heavy truck for 4 days to this rescue park started by an Australian chap called Mason. 

Next we went to the feeding area. You could just feed them cut bamboo, but for 50,000 rupiah £2 that is, one could buy a basket of fruit for them. I bought the fruit basket and as it was being chopped up for me, the girl handed me a papaya and said, ‘ here have a try it is very good !’ So I did, and juicy and sweet it was ! I made my way over to a couple of girl elephants and was immediately swamped by strong pushing trunks, desperate to get their mouths around the delectable stuff. The were very strong and insatiable, but they looked me straight in the eye and smiled, I am sure. These beasts were badly treated and some nearly died, yet now after a few short years these sensitive and highly intelligent animals saw me as a friend with grub, not the tiniest bit afraid and very greedy ! It was an really amazing experience, they were tame but unfettered and still free to go ( probably where the vittels were I imagine !) anywhere they wished. 

We were then taken to a rustic but beautiful restaurant for a buffet lunch. Often these excursion lunches are quite poor, but this was a magnificent Balinese banquet full of Chicken Satay, Bali Curries, scrumptious vegetables cooked with ginger and lemon grass, and all sorts of coconut dishes - I was in cuisine Heaven ! The only desserts were fresh melons, mangoes and papayas - I admit I tried something of everything and to hell with the carbs, but it was all in moderation, and such clean native food, I loved it. All served on banana leaves.

The highlight of the day was then to come. We queued to have our own ride on these gorgeous beasts and after a few minutes mine arrived. My mahoot was a very nice chap who told me he came with Niki who was 32 years old, from Sumatra, leaving his wife and children for most of the year. He was one of the rescue party and as such was given one elephant to look after for life, and Niki was his. He told me she had a husband Seewar, whom we saw on our travels, and a baby whom we also saw called Risky !!! This baby was born at the reserve as part of the breeding programme, and he doesn’t and won’t be trained to give rides and may eventually go back to Sumatra when he is old enough. 

It was such a surprise that he told me to put my feet on her back, she likes to feel the person up high, and to go with the movement as if I were trotting on a horse, but in slow motion. That is exactly what it felt like - and it was a hard wood Howdah, nothing fancy or touristy, and quite a painful slow bumping on the spine ! I was alone in my seat so had to hang on for dear life, especially when we got to a water hole and she wanted to go in, I thought I was going to be well and truly dunked - and I wouldn’t have cared at all ! The elephants only gave four rides each day, I was the fourth of Niki’s day and she clearly knew this, hence the water treatment, the mahoot said that when I disembarked she would be in the river and cooling down and having a great time. They were not exploited or overworked at all, in fact quite the reverse, and rightly so !

Not very flattering but taken by my mahoot.

The ride was a good half hour long so we chatted a lot, he asked where I was from and when I said the U.K. he kept repeating ‘Ah, UK very very good, very good, I like the U.K. ‘ of course he had never been, and on his $370 US dollars a month I am pretty sure he will never be able to go anywhere, let alone the U.K. It was exhilarating and almost a little spiritual to be on one’s own with such a majestic beast and the man who lives and breathes with it. They were very much at one, a touch of the bare foot or a scrape of an ear and Niki responded with a curled trunk around his leg or arm. They were in love ! The mahoot will go home for his every two year leave for one month in July and Niki will have his assistant to look after her, but she will pine for him until he comes back. Of course these elephants will never go back to the wild, but their offspring will hopefully build the stocks of the endangered Sumatran elephant population. 

There was, of course, a small shop and I tried to spend as much as I could, but it was tough. Beautiful stuff seemed so cheap, but I have only limited space in my cases, but I did want to contribute to the fund so came away with some souvenirs, none of which came close to the experience I had, but they served the purpose.

The drive home was just as lovely, all the same peaceful life happening undisturbed, as we zipped by in our bus. It was a small tour, so only about 20 people, but one I suspect most of us will remember for a long time. 

We said goodbye to Laku and Choc at the port and they bowed with thanks so gracefully, I hope we all tipped generously !!

A Bali Day part 1

It will take me two posts to describe the cornucopia of experiences which was Bali. I have been to Hong Kong many times, and I suppose I expected something vaguely similar, but I was quite wrong. This ‘stand alone’ island not too much bigger than Skye was a slow moving, peaceful and happy place and did not resemble the frenzy and bustle of commercial HK in any way at all.

As we left the ship and walked into a thick woolly blanket of heat and humidity we were greeted by a Gamelan orchestra ! The sort of thing that as a school music teacher I taught about for GCSE Music, and it was never anything other than a text book topic. This was beautiful, sensitive and ringingly resonant in the most peaceful way, and full of sunny warmth. I was actually on a ship excursion to the Taro Elephant Reserve so we were being a bit herded and hurried to the bus, but I still insisted on stopping for a few moments to listen and video what I knew would be a once in a lifetime experience.  On reaching the outside after a cursory glance from the the smiling customs man, we were by this time already dripping with perspiration - definitely more than a ‘glow’ ! A relentlessly cheerful guide ( somewhat like Gretel really) called Laku greeted us and led us to Brown 1 Bus. He was constantly aware of the heat and asking if we were ok, I found this very reassuring ! The bus was a haven of cool, possibly even cold, which flowed over our hot bodies like manna from heaven. He told us the trip to Taro was about 2 hours long, and under normal excursion circumstances I may have had a small groan, NOT TODAY however, the thought of being in a temperature lower than anywhere on the ship was pure bliss !

Gamelan Orchestra

Balinese dancers

The wonderfully cheery Laku

The drive was so different from anything I had seen before. To many things to describe, but we learnt that in this Hindu country every home had its own temple, hence the saying that this small island is the ‘island of a thousand temples’ in fact it has about 20,000 temples or more. Every home, no matter how rich or how poor there is one, two, three or more temple buildings, larger than the homes themselves many times. Each female in the home makes a small basket of flowers to offer to the God of the temple three times each day. The men worship and offer these gorgeous little bouquets in baskets, but the girls make them, new each day. We had one in the bus as Laku had worshipped for a happy day for us, inside the bus before we boarded. It definitely worked !

Offerings at the temple door

Offerings outside the temple

Bali has stood fast in its Hinduism, against the whole of Indonesia which is a Muslim country. For all it’s peaceful, easygoing ambience it must be resolute in its determination not to bow to Islam. Laku had no problem whatsoever in telling us this fact with pride and certainty.

Tropical forests, terraced paddy fields of rice, ladies offering up flowers in their national costumes of peacock coloured sarongs and sashes, and skyscraper high palm trees, burgeoning with fat green and ripe coconuts flashed by and I tried to take photos.........some were successful and some not ! Outside of the port of Benoa the roads fined down to small winding lanes, supposedly with two way lanes, but in truth a bus spanned from one side of palm trees to another, touching the palm fronds many times. The people almost to a man ride small motorcycles and scooters so I think the two lanes were built for that rather than cars and busses !! There were a couple of near misses with scooters, heavily laden with a driver, a child clinging on to the handle bars, a teenager on the back, two large bags of coconuts and Uncle Tom Cobley and All ! We all winced and squeaked whenever such a two wheeled burden scraped by our bus. Laku told us that the accident rate was very low..........

Paddy fields - rice takes 90 days from sowing to harvest, so three harvests each year !

Coconuts !

I had to stop myself from photographing coconut palm trees ! I was mesmerised by the abundance of them and of lime trees, mango trees and papaya trees. It seemed like a film set of South Pacific, which is clearly very stupid since we are in the Indian Ocean !! You know what I mean.......