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| See all photos(19) |
| Other countries GEORDIEandVIRGINIA visited in Gullibles_Travels |
| Denmark (1) |
| France (2) |
| Germany (1) |
| Indonesia (3) |
| Singapore (1) |
| Spain (1) |
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| Well what an eventful few weeks us two have had! We are currently in humid Singapore, staying at a small hostel in Chinatown - it's very nice and clean. On Tuesday night we are flying out to Amsterdam and the cold - but as of 8 hours ago we weren't so sure we were going at all. To give a quick run down of what has been happening since our last diary entry: Geordie recovered from his Bali belly and I got my own bout of it which lasted a bit longer. We left Sanur for a few nights of blissful, sun drenched, oversized swimming pool luxury at the Westin after which we finally made it up to Ubud where we planned to spend a week. Ubud is full of arts and crafts which is right up my alley. We spent a day wandering the shops, found a few trinkets to bargin with the locals on and also discovered some delicious places to feast at! One of which was on the main road called Three Monkeys - organic food and not much Indonesian influence at all! Their flourless orange cake was quite a hit with us. {G - Have found both Singapore and Bali people to be very pleasant and helpful. At one stage in Bali when our driver was lost he pulled over to the side of the road and asked a group of men for directions. They all talked amoungst themselves trying to figure out where this hotel was. They called some more people out of the shop nearby and before we knew it some 20 people were standing there on the side of the street discussing our destination. As luck would have it someone's mother's cousin's freind's had heard of it and they sent us on our way.} Now Geordie, being the animal lover that he is (he would do you proud Nick!!) decided to adopt the skinniest dog in Ubud (Christened Oscar!!!). I swear this dog was on it's last legs - it hardly moved, and I'm surprised that it had the energy to stand up. Nevertheless, one night Geordie went and brought it a small piece of chicken for it to feed on. It didn't actually recognise that it was food for a minute or two. For a second, I thought that G was going to get down on all fours and show the dog what he was supposed to do with this blob of meat in front of it!!! Thankfully instincts kicked in (the dog's) and the food disappeared. The next morning more food was dutifully brought but no dog could be found, so G went in search of mutt and discovered it down the side alley with its owners. As he tipped the small bag of chicken out onto the ground he noticed that the family was staring at the chicken on the floor and dribbling a bit more than the dog that it was intended for. And they were about as skinny. Another day in Ubud was spent visiting the Monkey Forest, temples, rice paddy fields and waterfalls. My birthday was one like no other so far. Elephant Safari Park visit complete with half hour Elephant ride and big elephant cuddles. Then on the drive back to Noosa Dua we trawled the silver stores so that I could find a braclet. Perfect prize in hand we arrived back at the Westin for 3 more days of sun, sleep and food. The local 4 piece was arranged to come and sing a few songs at my table for my birthday along with deliverance of a huge cheesecake that we got to take back to our room and munch on for the remaining days! The quartet was great - 4 instruments - bongos, 2 guitars, a bass and three great voices. {G - It was a relief that the night went well. We had spent the day and most of the afternoon at the silver women-traps looking for bracelets and earrings so I only just managed to organise the cake and band and table. The band went well, they had great voices and instead of just coming out and singing happy birthday they sung "Every breath you take" by Sting.} On our final night at the Westin we were awoken at about 2am with an earthquake. Bed moved, glasses shook and thankfull it didn't last too long! {G- packing up at the Westin was hard - Virginia found it very difficult to fit everything into her pack and I took the opportunity to remind her of the 5kg hand weights she had planned to bring with her before going back to the problem of how to fit my tennis racket into my own overstuffed bag. It was paradise there - the pool and the sea were so warm. We went for a Jet ski as well - I even convinced Virginia to come along on the back. I promised to go slow but before she knew it we were zooming along at some 50km an hour! Oh and we also went to the Monkey forest. I bought a bunch of bananas to share out but the first monkey I ran into ripped off the entire bunch. Cheeky monkey! One of the guides at the forest explained to us that monkeys are much like humans - the older they are the grumpier they are. We tried to stick with the juniors. He also said that 2 people had already been bitten that day. (It was only 10am) After listening to his explanations of monkey culture and its relevance to Bali life we found ourselves up the back and behind one of the local temples where he promptly pulled out his stash of artwork - for sale. Well the guy was talented and is was his way to earn a bit of extra cash so we handed over $150,000 rupiah for 2 of his paintings.} Saturday we flew to Singapore and spent the night in the malls with the rest of the Singaporeans, shopping, as you do when you are in Singapore - it is their national sport. {G- leaving Bali airport was another excersie in humor. We were going through the customs part to be confronted by a desk labeled "Fiscal Check". I asked the tired bored looking man at the desk what that meant and he just shrugged and said "I don't know". Singapore airport was great. Large, spacious, clean and air conditioned. Everything is automatic -open, shut and flush. We were served by a lady at customs called Mrs Yap. Boy did I have to bite my lip and leave that one alone.} Sunday Geordie got to indulge himself by spending the afternoon at Funan the IT Mall. It is about 5 levels of computer stores.... thrilling. However fair's fair - I spent the night before looking at sparkly jewellery! After the IT hit, we went and had a wonderful few hours at the Singapore Zoo and did the night safari ride which is excellent - all the animals actually look happy! About 15 minutes after we arrived home, Georide started complaing of extreme pain in his tummy on the right hand side. An hour later we were at the Singapore hospital A&E. I swear that he is just keen to try out the local hospital in each country that we visit! After I got kicked out of the A&E bit (no worried partners allowed) the doc cam to give me the run down. He was given loads of painkiller and was happily zonked out. He wasn't sure if it was an infection, appendicitis or stones. We would have to wait for the blood results. They came through at about 4am, of which they decided to send us down to Urology in the morning at nine. After a I caught a few hours of extremely comfy sleep on a slippery pink plastic chair in the nurses area, we trudged down to Urology where he got an ultra sound and then as that showed up nothing, they wanted to do a CAT scan. Well after the $800 CAT scan also showed nothing - he was declared fit for flying tonight. They think it was stones and that they have probably passed through already. Thank god - I really didn't want to face anything else! Yay for medical insurance, (as long as they cough up already!!!) {G - let me just say that Singapore General Hospital was a good one but nobody wants to be there no matter how many stars or how good the room service is. The pain was awful and it felt like it took ages for the doctor to see me. It was reassuring to look up and see my Angel Virginia peeking through the doors at me. At one stage she loudy asked why a doctor hadn't seen me yet gawd bless her. I think he was busy with the car crash guy next to me. I remember an enourmous number of people hacking and coughing. The nurses were great and once the doctor gave me some pain killer everyingthing improved. At one stage I remember not giving a stuff about anything. For a moment I even stopped worrying about Oscar who I left behind in Bali. I did ask Virginia if we had room to pack a small animal but that didn't go down to well, and anyway I'm 1 tennis racket, 3 books and 10 cd's over the limit already} {G- The food here in Singapore is soooo much better than Bali. Indonesian food is very plain and rather tasteless. Some of the seafood dishes look interesting but apart from that it is baby chow. I know Sue tried to warn me but I couldn't believe it. Lots of good eating places near where we are staying in Chinatown. Just around the corner there is Uncle Hoe's. The food is great and I am sure Aunty is very well respected.} Miss you all, Geordie and Virginia | ||||||||||||
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| 4 Apr 2004 : Bali - Indonesia | 6 May 2004 : Colonge - Germany | |||||||||||
| Little Lilipution Morsels - gone off | Into the land of the giants | |||||||||||