A Grand Day Out To Australia

Welcome to my Australian Internet journal (re-published from original HTML into a blog format, but otherwise unchanged).

Herein lies the diary from my 2 month backpacking trip around Australia and Malaysia. It contains lots of information, some of which may be useful if you are planning a trip to the region. Comments about any of the places I have visited, or questions about my trip, are welcome, and may even be added. In addition, if you fancy writing a travel journal about your trip I may be persuaded to host it on my page. All you'd need to do would be to send me journal entries from Cyber Cafes, and I'd do the rest. Fun eh?

Note: The information on these pages is a personal diary of my trip containing my personal views and documenting a few stories I collected along the way. Neither my employer or my internet service provider have any control over what is documented here. It may, or may not be correct, and I take no responsible for what you do with the information.

The flight out

Left a cold day in London, at 9:15pm on Malaysian Airlines. The food was good, in fact it was the best airplane meal I have ever had. Malaysian Chicken Korma in fact. I met one girl from England who was going out to Sydney, and doing the opposite route to myself. She said that Bankok was great, even though everyone goes through the same attractions. I must climb Wat Arun to get a goodview of the city. She reckoned I should spend 3 days there. Stopped in Dubai forrefuelling, and a look at the duty free. It seemed rather good value. It was 30 degreesC at 9:30 in the morning, and was already very hot.

Darwin

Friday: Well, made it to Darwin at last, and was picked up by a bus from Elke's backpackers hostel. Elke's is good - it is a small friendly backpackers, although they do have a limit of 5 nights during the busy season. Price is A$13.50 per night with a VIP card. Another good hostel is the YHA in town, but it is rather big, with a great pool. Met a couple of very nice young nurses, Helen and Becky who have been travelling for a month or so. They have been in Hong Kong for 1 week, and Thailand for a month. Hong Kong was really busy, and Thailand was really cheap. My impressions of Darwin: a kind of small city, where the bush man meets the city man. There are a number of clubs in the place, but the one that all the backpackers go to is Rattle and Hum. They have a number of silly events on every night, and lots of cheap beer. The food is good as well, with a meal and beer for A$5. There is also an internet access point in the club, but it is rather expensive at A$6 for 15 minutes. Another club I frequented was Time, playing dance stuff.

I booked up on a tour out to see Kakadu which was pretty cool. We spent 3 days touring round the outback, saw Twin Falls, Jim Jim Falls, plenty of crocodiles, and lots of wild life. We also sucked the bums off green ants, took many photographs, got up at 6am, and then sat around the camp fire before going to bed in the evening. The swim up to Twin was excellent. The falls are only accessible by a 1km swim, but there are plenty of rest points along the way. You need to take a hat, and plenty of mossie stuff (especially the stuff with a high proportion of DEET - like Bushman). The tour company I went with, Hunter Safaris was great. Even the tour guide, Mal was cool, and he makes a mean meal. I would really recommend Hunter. In fact, I'm planning tomeet up with Steve and Ken when I get up to Cairns, to on a day trip up into the forest. They are planning to go on an Open Water course, so that they can pop over to Whitsunday at some point and hire out some equipment.

I have booked up on the Rum Runner, to go out and do some diving in the Coral Sea on Friday, which should be really cool. It comes highly recommended. Went to Darwin museum as well - for a good bit of Aboriginal Art, and a great bit on Hurricane Tracy. Since this is my last night in Darwin, we are planning to cook a meal round Dan's, then go off to Rattle & Hum for some beers. I just hope I can get up tomorrow morning to catch that flight to Cairns.

Last night in Darwin - cooked a roast chicken up in Dan's flat. It was great food, if I don't say so myself (Helen, Becky and Angela helped out). Afterwards we went down to Rattle and Hum, and consumed lots of beer. This was not a particularly good idea, as when I caught the flight the next morning I was still under the influence. Never again. I had the worst travel sickness that I'd ever had.
At the moment, I am sitting in the ONLY internet cafe in the Northern Territory - The Cyclone Cafe, at 8 Urquhart Street, Parap - you need to catch a Number 10 bus out from town toget here.

Contact details
Hunter Safaris: (089) 81 2720
Elke's: (089) 81 8399, or free on 1800 808 365
The Cyclone Cafe: cyclone@topend.com.au

Cairns

As I was booking into Parkview Hostel, Steve and Ken popped up and said hello. They had been at Parkview for a few days prior to my arrival, and had booked up a trip to Cape Tribulation. We went up with Jungle Tours to a hostel by the beach called PK's. The brochure for Jungle Tours implied an organised safari tour of sorts, where it was really just a glorified bus with a cheerful, knowledgeable and sexy driver, (cheers Em.) I would recommend them, but you have to read the brochure carefully to see that the breakfast stop requires you to buy breakfast. We got to PK's at about lunchtime, and I tried to book up one of the many optional excursions, only to find that the ones I wanted to do were either not running, or were already booked up. They were not very organised. It pays to phone ahead and pre book for this one. Anyway - we spent the afternoon on the beach (which was almost empty, and an amazing beach), the evening in the bar (as our slab of VB had been confiscated), and then a few hours watching the stars from the beach. There was no moon, so there was a lot of them. The next day, we went on a half day jungle walk, which was very good. This one comes highly recommended at about $21 or $23. 2 nights at PK's would have been better, then we could have gone out on a diving trip for the day, but Steve and Ken had to get back to start a Pro-Dive open-water course.

Back in Cairns I booked up on the Run Runner to go out to Holmes reef and see some sharks, but that was not till Tuesday. A few days before, Steve and Ken had hired a car to go and see the Tablelands, and Kuranda. This sounded like a good idea, but only if there are a few of you together. As I was on my own, I chose to go up to Kuranda on the Skyway (rainforest cablecar type thinggy), and return on the scenic railway. (Well - my auntie said it was a good idea.) The whole exercise involved standing in queues for ages, then sitting in cars/coaches looking at some great scenery, all for about $60. Great for your grannie or auntie, but if you are a backpacker - I wouldn't bother. If I'd had the time I would have loved to go on an extended Jungle Tours trip up to Cape York, but then again I've already done Kakadu, so decided against it.

Nightclubs in Cairns are rather prolific, with 3 main backpacker haunts.

• End of the World: Food not particularly good, and the night-club is rather tacky, although they do try hard. They had a foam party last Sunday which was good fun, but don't take good clothes, or leather belts etc. My wallet will never recover.


• The Wool Shed: Great value food and beer, but only has a very small dance floor.


• Samuels: Great value food again (with a flyer from your hostel), but can get very busy, and you can't get into the night-club proper unless you are wearing some seriously smart clothes.

I met a friend of Steve's at Samuels - A young lass called Clare who he had 'allegedly' got stuck in a bathroom with at a party in Sydney. It is a small world. Anyway - her friend - a girl called Sarah was studying Production Engineering, or something similar at Nottingham University, and had heard of my Dad's company - Dunlop Cox. Small world again. The next night we went to the foam party, but Sarah and Clare left early, but I steamed straight into the foam. The night after, Ken & I met up with Jo and Nick from Darwin and went to Samuels again. More food, more beer, more hangovers.

The Rum Runner

This was my first real diving after my Open Water course back in England, and was excellent. I reckon that I have been completely spoilt for diving now, and probably will not dive again in the UK. The boat I went out on went out to the Coral Sea, to Holmes reef, way beyond the Great Barrier Reef. From comparisons I have heard made with the Great Barrier reef, the Coral Sea is equal to, or better than some of the best sites on the Great Barrier Reef. The visibility was in excess of 30-40 most of the time; the coral was amazing; and the fish life abundant. I made 9 dives on the trip, and upgraded my Open Water to an Advanced Open Water ticket with a deep (35m) dive, a night dive (with torches) and a drift dive at the Abyss (a 1km drop of the outer edge of the reef) and the usual few others. The shark feed was pretty cool - they sat us down on the bottom, behind an imaginary shark cage, and threw a skewer of meat from the boat in front of us. Many fish dived in, and then about a dozen sharks had a go as well. We only saw white tips, and grey sharks, up to about 2m in length, but apparently they usually get some bigger beasts. I wasn't disappointed. Once the white tips had grabbed a chunk of meat, they usually wanted to get into the bommie (large mound of coral with many passages or swim throughs) behind us. This meant that they swam straight for us - gave us a nasty stare, and then swam round. I can only recommend that you don't miss this one. I don't have time to go into the details here, but if anyone is interested, feel free to email me and I will expand. I met quite a few people here including a bearded Paul, a couple from Sydney (Neville and Ali), a backpacker (Abi) and her dad, and a lass from Melbourne called Kate. The crew were all friendly - with Greg (Skipper), Phil (Instructor) Andie (Divemaster & unpaid) and Jane (Cookie). Great food Jane - and I would have loved the Thai curry.

Update 2009: When I visited my parents this Christmas, I discovered that they'd captured the video-tape from the trip, so I re-encoded it, and uploaded to vimeo.  Apologies for the low-quality - but it was a pretty old VCR tape... 

Rum Runner from Andy Bryant on Vimeo.

The plan for the next week or so

Well - I've just booked upon the Greyhound for 8:45 tomorrow morning - to go to Townsville and then across to Magnetic Island for a couple of days. On Tuesday I'm going out with Mike Ball to the S. S. Yongala wreck. This is supposed to be one of the best dive spots anywhere, so I can't really miss it, can I. After that, the rough plan is Airlie Beach for Sailing around the Whitsundays, Hervey Bay and Fraser Island for the whale watching, perhaps Surfers Paradise, Byron Bay, and then I hope to get to Sydney on about the 12th of August.

This entry was made on a computer in a motel in Cairns. Adobe Motel - 191 Sheridan Street, open 7am - midnight, 7 days a week. You could hardly call it an internet cafe, more a computer in a motel cafe, but then again, who cares. It will do.

Townsville - Magnetic Island

Arrived in Townsville and hopped straight across to Magnetic Island on the ferry. I was told that there was nothing much worth seeing in Townsville*, apart from perhaps the Aquarium. I stayed in Geoff's Place for a couple of nights, and enjoyed both of them. Accommodation consists of collection of chalets and a space for tents. They also had a bar, and ran party/drinking games in the evening. (Well, there's not a lot else to do on Magnetic Island.) The beaches are amazing, and the sun seemed never ending. The cheapest to stay there was to buy ferry ticket and several days accommodation from MB travel at the bus station.

The first night I was there, they had a casino night, and then Damper Sculpting on the second. The next day, I went for a walk to Florence Bay, and went snorkelling off the beach. I saw loads of coral and fish, and I even saw a baby ray, just 100 yards off the beach. Cool. I didn't get time to go on the Koala walk, because I met Shona on the beach, and couldn't drag myself away till it was too late.

Later that day I also met Lucinda and Claire, (a couple of twins you may remember from the wet t-shirt competition at Magnums, Airlie Beach.) Anyway, when I got back to my room at Geoff's Place, I open the door, and Steve is standing there.

Steve was on my course in Southampton, and I knew he was coming to Australia, but I didn't know where or when. It's a small world. That evening, after the bar closed, we went down the beach, had a camp fire, and went swimming. Cool. That evening, I also met the cousin of the chap who owns the village shop back at home. He recognised me !!! The next day, I booked into the Mike Ball Shop for my second dive trip, onto the Yongala.

Townsville - S.S. Yongala

My second dive trip of this summer was to the wreck of the Yongala, aboard the Mike Ball Watersport. We did 3 dives the first day, a night dive, and then two more dives the next day. My dive buddy was Simone from Switzerland, and sometimes Tripp from New York tagged along. The wreck was pretty awe inspiring with lots of coral, and plenty of fish. Many parts of the vessel are still intact, and you can swim the length of it, looking in to see things like a toilet still in place. On my third dive of the day, the current had really picked up, and all the big fish from the surrounding area converged on the wreck for shelter. I swam round the bow, and looked down on a huge (2m across) Bull Ray. Tripp then tapped me on the arm and pointed up, just as this 2m shark swam by. Simone was trying to find a place to hide, and I just sat there staring. Later that same dive we saw about 15 Eagle Rays 'flying' over the wreck, in formation. That was cool.

I went back up to Magnetic Island for the night, and we went down the beach again, before catching the bus to Airlie the next day.

I'm typing this bit of the log in a Café in Byron Bay, but it is really sunny outside, and I'm just off to do some real surfing... So I'll finish this later. Perhaps much later...

* Newsflash (Dec 1997): I just received am email from a disgruntled Townsville resident. It would seem that Townsville has more to offer than I gave it credit for. I guess that perhaps their Tourist Information facility can't be working too hard, or else I just got bad information from a fellow traveller. If anyone has any better information on what there is to do in Townsville, please send me the URL and I will provide a link to it. Anyway - I suggest you take a look, and see what you think for yourself.

Airlie Beach

Well, the sun has gone away, so I'll type a bit more. Airlie Beach was kinda fun, and it was also kinda quiet. There are two backpackers that have bars attached (Magnums and Beaches), and these can be good fun. I also managed to meet more people that I had already met further up the coast in Airlie than anywhere else. Just walking along the main road I must have said it is a small world about three times. I also stumbled across a night-club with a rather good Nirvana cover band playing. Nobody there seemed that impressed with them, but I thought they were cool.

I met Paul again, from the Rum Runner trip. He was planning to charter a boat and go sailing. I wonder how he got on. The second day there I went out on a free trip to Bait reef for a bit of snorkelling on the Pro-Diver. This was included as a free trip when I booked the sailing trip on Soverign. The visibility was only about 10m, and the coral wasn't great. Pro-Dive didn't seem very organised either, but I did one last dive just to bring my dive log to 20. I stayed at the Bush Village Resort, which was very nice, if a bit quiet.

Sailing around the Whitsundays

The Whitsundays are a group of remote islands just out from Airlie. They were named by Captain Cook as he sailed past them on Whitsunday. (Or so he thought, but he had forgotten to take account of the international date line he had just crossed.) We arrived on the sailing boat Soverign, and motored out to sea. It was as calm as a mill pond. Well, not quite, but there was not enough wind to use the sails except for once on the second day, so we used the engines for the whole 2 1/2 days. Never mind - the scenery made up for it. The sun was beaming down all the time, and there was little more to do on deck than sit in the sun and chat, so my sun tan improved dramatically.

We stopped at a few snorkelling places where the coral was pretty good, but the visibility was really bad because we were close to land. Whitehaven beach has to be one of the best in the world. It is certainly the best I have ever seen, and thankfully, no sign of development anywhere close. It is one of those places that looks better in real life than on the postcards. We returned on the third day at 10am.

You have to read the small print on all of these 3 day sailing trips. They are almost all 2 and a bit day trips. Talking to the others on the trip, I discovered that some paid under $200, but most paid the quoted $200 and received a free meal or free night from the hostel. I paid the $200 to Bush Village and they didn't give me anything free. It pays to shop around. And it is essential to book through a hostel in Airlie beach, even if you do it by phone. They are much friendlier to you if you do that - and provide free baggage storage and lifts to the Marina.

I got the overnight (12 hour) bus down to Hervey Bay. This wasn't a bad idea as it saved one nights accommodation, but I didn't manage to get much sleep. I should really have taken a sleeping bag, or a pillow or something.

Hervey Bay

I booked into Beaches on the reputation of the one at Airlie, but it wasn't very similar. The rooms were nice with en-suite bathrooms, but there wasn't much life to the place. There is almost bugger all to do in Hervey Bay in the evening. In two weeks time it may improve dramatically because they are opening a bar, so it may turn into a party hostel then. The only hostel worth a bar at the moment is Koala's which seemed good from the outside. The only good bar in the place was Shennanigans on a Thursday, when they have a backpacker night. Other nights I suspect it would be a bit of a wine bar.

I went whale watching with Mimi MacPherson on the first day, but didn't get to see any whales. The ticket is still valid for a month, until I get a sighting, but I really don't have time. We saw lots of dolphins though, and I think I got a few good shots of them jumping up out of the water.

Nearly there, but the cafe is closing, and I need to catch the bus to Sydney tonight. (I'm in Byron at the moment) I may catch up with this in Sydney, but I reckon I'm going to be fairly busy so this might be the last update for a bit. Don't worry - I will finish it off eventually though...

Fraser Island

I went along to the meeting organised by Beaches at 3pm, to join a self drive 4WD trip to Fraser Island. The 'team' were Anita (or Holland), Anita, Nikki, Chantel, Cheyenne, Nick and Marie (or Irish). We were given the introductory talk by one of the staff from the hostel, then Chantel and Cheyenne went shopping for the food. The next day we got the ferry across to Wonggoolba Creek, drove to Central Station, and then across to Eurong and onto the main highway. For those of you that don't know - Fraser island is the largest sand island in the world. That means it is all sand. The only way to get from one end of the island to the other is to drive up the beach on the east coast. This is only possible a few hours either side of low tide. Due to the timing of the tides we decided to bomb it up to the Waddy Point campsite for the first night. Some of the sand dunes near the camp site were just huge. Walking up one of them we spotted a dingo at the top. Later that night, we met a bunch of Aussie fishermen, and spent the evening supping 4X & singing songs around their camp fire. Three of our party actually managed to get lost on the way back from the fire to our tents - a long trek of about 15 minutes up the beach - and they waited until dawn before managing to find the tents...

The next day we sat on top of Indian Point (one of the only rocky outcrops on Fraser), and looked out to sea, but didn't see anything. We drove past the Pinnacles, and the Cathedral, and looked at the coloured sand formations on the way south, (wow). We drove down to Lake Wabby, as recommended, and set up camp in a secluded spot a few yards back from the beach. After walking up to lake Wabby, we attempted to slide down the sand dune on a VB carton - again, as recommended by the chaps in the hostel, but it didn't work. We cooked the pasta on the camp fire & Anita, Nick and I then slept out by the fire.

On the third day, we drove / walked down to Lake McKenzie, and sat on the beach for an hour or so. It was rather cold, but the beach was nice. Finally, we got the freey back to the mainland, dropped off the 4WD, got a few beers in, then caught the bus to Byron Bay.

I discovered, just as I was leaving Hervey Bay that there was indeed a Cyber Café, called Polymetrics, at 63 Old Maryborough Road, Ph 244050, but I didn’t get a chance to visit it.

Byron Bay

It was a long journey to Byron, and I arrived at about 11 in the morning at the Arts Factory. As the bus rolled up, some surfer dude was playing Crosstown Traffic on his electric guitar. How cool is that. Anyway - the Arts Factory has a sorta strange reputation as a place for wannabe cool, alternative travellers to hang out. It is attached to the Piggery, a vege cafe which used to be a music venue a few years ago. I just thought it was a rather cool, friendly place to relax for a while. Yes - there were some rather strange people there, but that is Byron Bay for you. I liked it. Byron itself was a small town, with a nice beach, (and the occasional chap practising nude yoga on the beach.)

I tried a half day learn to surf course through the Byron Surf Shop - which was great fun. I managed to get the basics, and nearly stood up. With a bit more practice it shouldn't be too hard. Cool fun anyway. Oh yea, and the day I got off the bus I went for a floatation tank and massage session. The massage was really good, but the floatation tank was rather dull. I didn't get in contact with my inner soul, but it did feel rather strange, like I was floating freely across a huge expanse of water. Hmm - perhaps I should have been taking hallucinogenic drugs at the time ...

Next was an overnight bus to Sydney

Sydney

I was only in Sydney for a short while, so it was difficult to form an impression of the place. Most of the backpackers that I have spoken to, loved the place. My first thoughts were that bits of it were like small parts of London, and that the Opera House and bridge were smaller than I had expected. One of the days I was there was taken up by an Oz Trek day trip to the Blue Mountains. I'd have liked to have spent a week there, but had spent far too much time coming down the coast. The blue colour comes from gasses given off by the Eucalyptus trees. In the evening we went out to the King Henry 9th pub, then the Kings Cross Hotel (24 hours of music and beer a day !), then the top floor of the Kings Cross Hotel building (very weird ambient trance sorta stuff), and finally the Underground just up the road (more my style) till 4 am.

The cheapest way to see the bay from a boat was the return trip to Manly on the slow ferry. I also did an afternoon trip to Bondi beach, but it was rather cloudy, and the surf wasn't that good there anyway. I went up Sydney Tower just to see the view, and climbed one end of the bridge. The aquarium was also pretty good, with a large open water predator tank. I stayed in Glebe Village Backpackers - which was pretty friendly, and cheap, and clean. It was also away from the noise.

The second night, I went out for a meal with Neville and Ali, from the Rum Runner trip, and then went up to an area called the Rocks for a few beers. It was nice to see Nev, and Ali again, but the Rocks was a bit expensive, and a touch yuppiefied. Another area in town contains all the best night-clubs, and all of the seedy sex joints - as it's name suggests; Kings Cross. I even found one called Porkies, believe it or not.

I found a great cyber cafe in Glebe, on Glebe Point Road, called Well Connected, but I didn't have time to update this page.

Malaysia

Well, this document is titled a Grand Day Out To Australia, but here is a section on Malaysia. Why? - I made an 8 day stopover on the way back to England in Malaysia, to get a taste of South East Asia. I was planning to make it a slightly longer trip, and take a quick look at Thailand as well, but I spent too much time in Australia, and the airline had technical problems on the way from Sydney to KL, delaying us by a further day

My first stop in Malaysia was KL, or Kuala Lumpar, but after Sydney I found KL unbearably hot. I got out of the airport, left most of my cold weather clothing in left luggage, and got in a taxi to Chinatown. McDonalds beckoned, and I sat down to read my Lonely Planet. 20 minutes later, I got on a bus to the Cameron Highlands.

Malaysia - Cameron Highlands

I got the bus to Tapah for 10 RM (one pound is worth about 3.7 RM), and then an expensive taxi to Tanah Rata, and the Twin Pines Hostel. The first people I met were Nicola and Owen, both from my year at Southampton Uni. We went out for a meal, then watched a really dodgy video of Mission Impossible, a la camcorder in cinema style. The next day, we got a bus up to the Boh Tea plantation, then down to Brinchang. I attempted to do one of the walks marked on the tourist map (2 then 3), but got lost at several stages. The maps are not only 'not to scale', but they are completely inadequate for some of the paths. It took us about an hour to find what might have been the start of the track, through the back of a monk's garden, up a very slippery and muddy slope. We trekked up hill, down hill, down stream, up stream, and through forest. Anyway we found the road about an hour before sunset, and walked back to Brinchang in about 20 minutes. We had been trekking through the jungle for about 3 hours.

That night I went out with Nicola and Owen for a steamboat at 12RM per person. A steamboat is rather like a fondue, with the oil replaced by a stock. You wait for the water/stock to boil, then cook the food yourself. It was fun, and highly recommended, as long as you cook the chicken properly.

Malaysia - Penang Island

We got a direct bus to Penang / Georgetown and arrived at about 3pm. We found a reasonable hotel on Lebuh Chulia called the Sky Hotel. We ate, then climbed Penang Hill for a good view of dusk over the city. There was a great cooling breeze at the top. The next day, we say Mosques, Temples and Churches from about every denomination in Malaysia. We wondered into Little India for lunch, Briani or something for 3 RM - rice, meat and veg all eaten off a leaf with the fingers. Great. We wondered around town some more - Georgetown really is a great place to get lost in, had dinner on the Esplanade, then Owen and Nicola caught a bus to KL

My plan for the next few days was to visit the Perhentian Islands. I tried to book a bus ticket, but due to the school or university holidays, everything was booked up for about 3 days. Eventually I tried Malaysian Airlines, and they suggested flying, but all the flights were booked up. Eventually, after much scouring of the Lonely Planet, I decided to fly to Tioman island the next morning. It cost me 250 RM, but I thought - what the heck. You'd pay that for a train ticket back home, and I've only got a few days left. I got up the next morning at 4am for the flight to KL. There was almost no-one in the streets, just a few old men sleeping in trishaws, and the rats scurrying across the road. Occasionally a motorbike passed at a distance, and finally I managed to find a taxi, just as it started raining.

Malaysia - Tioman Island

The connecting flight from KL to Tioman was a tiny plane run by Pelangi air, with only about a dozen places on board. We flew into Tekek, the main village on the volcanic island, and I thought there was too many people, so I caught the water taxi to Salang - a small village further up the island. It was a little nicer, but all the rooms had already been booked up in advance - so I got a dorm room for 10 RM a night, with fan and shower. The room was clean enough, but the path to it crossed a stagnant pool, used for all the waste from the village. Still, it wasn't much different from the rest of Malaysia. The beach was pretty nice, and the rain-forest came right down to the edge in places. I booked up a 2 dive trip with Ben's diving centre. They seemed both friendly and professional. It cost 110 RM for 2 dives. The rock formations were good, and there was lots of soft coral, and some huge Georgian fans. We saw a single turtle on one of the dives - a green turtle I think. The snorkelling from the beach at Salang was also good, but there was a huge number of sea urchins. I did try to do a night dive, but the weather was no good - there was too much ocean swell.

The next day, I walked over the hill to Monkey Bay and must have sweat about 4 litres of water. The beach was nice, and deserted - one Malay chap had built a shack there, and I only saw one other couple on the beach all day. The beach itself sloped gradually for quite a distance until dropping off to some pretty good coral. There was an abundance of coral fish there, which all seemed to come out and follow me round as I was snorkelling. Perhaps the locals had been bringing many tourists here, who then fed the fish. I tried dragging a half rotten leaf down from the surface, and the fish almost ripped it out of my hand. Even the cleaner wrasse had a go, but he was more interested in my hand.
It started to get late, so I tried to get a water taxi back, but the only one I saw wanted 20RM, so I waited, and waited, and eventually had to walk. It rained, and I got wet.

A quick mention for some of the people at B&J's dive shop - Ben, who is half German and half Malay, not as quoted in the Lonely Planet, and JC run the place. Edwina did her Open Water course there, and decided she would rather live on a tropical island and dive, than do a day job in London. Who can blame her. If anyone reads this, and then goes to Salang - say hi from Andy.

The day before my international flight out from KL to London, I thought, perhaps I'd better get back to KL. I went standby at the airport on Tioman, and caught the second flight out. If I'd taken the ferry and bus, it would have taken me all day, and I wanted to look round KL.

Malaysia - KL

KL wasn't as worrying as I'd thought it was when I first arrived. In fact I found it pretty interesting. I got into the Travellers Moon Hotel, in China town for 8 RM a night, then did most of the usual tourist sites. The tower gave a pretty good view, although it was rather cloudy. The central market was a bit like a shopping mall, rather than a market. Chinatown's evening market was much better. I got lunch at a street stall in Little India - it was the best Chicken Curry I'd had in ages. That night I met up with Owen and Nicola again - they had chosen the same hostel by chance. Finally I made it back to the airport the next day and got the 6 hours to Dubai, followed by the 7 hours to London.

This last entry was typed at home, just before I trek down to Harlow to start work on Monday. Oh joy. See ya next time...