Bout of the Bali Belly!

Lack of updates are due to me being bed bound for a few days after falling victim to the "Bali Belly" and I'm still fighting it off 6 days later!! I reckon it was this "Frosted Algae" stuff I tried while being adventurous and have regretted it since.

Bali So Far...

So we left the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur and jetted off to Bali making our first stop in Kuta. We were a little surprised how commercialised it all was, a surfers paradise however. The beach was lovely during the times I wasn't pestered by hawkers, old crinkly masseurs or guys trying to sell bow and arrows no less. After a couple of days chilling out at the beach and around the pool we made our way over to the other side of the island.

Once at Sanur we instantly noticed it had a more chilled out vibe and the beach was less overcrowded. People trying to sell us transport are in abundance and the constant pipping of horns does start to grate. Despite this we have had a lovely day on the beach where we began to plan our tour of Bali.

Yesterday we began the day by watching a Balinese Barong and Keris Dance. An hour long performance involving dance and music (I reckon they could have condensed it into about half this time as I felt it did drag on a bit.) We then returned to the car + driver we hired to taxi us about for the day where he proceeded to take us onto the elephant cave. It was here I adorned a fetching sarong and could't help but feel a little disappointed by the temple as it was pretty small and hard to discover. It was then onto Kawi Agung - a shrine created at the bottom of a deep valley. It was ok to get down to, but a mission to climb up from trying at the same time to refrain from the persistant hawkers.

Wayan our driver guided us onto an amazing view of the volcano Mt. Batur where we sat and had some drinks and admired the view. As we headed back down the island we stopped off at some padi fields to admire their distinctive formations within the landscape. It was then through Ubud the arts and crafts capital before we were introduced to the Monkey Forest. The forest is home to many Macaques and three temples. This is where we ended the day and slumped back into our room exhausted.

Today we headed down the beach to the Sanur Village Festival. It took a little longer than expected (1 hour) but on our arrival were welcomed by the sight of hundreds of spectacular flying kites. The arena beckoned us where we saw a bonsai tree competition, many international food delights and a big decorated events stage.

The walk back presented an unexpected sight in the form of a spikey starfish that I picked up with my flip flops and saved as it appeared beached. We're off for another adventure tommorow exploring the rest of the island.

Malaysian Mischief

Last night we topped off our day at the "old china cafe" which was recommended by the guy from our hostel. This place retained it's original prewar structure and decoration despite the local government trying to get rid of old businesses. The philosophy of the cafe believed in maintaining the old Chinese community spirit and strives the keep the place open, which I'm glad they do as the food was lovely!

We started off with some spring rolls that I reckon had something in that didn't agree with me as I immediately got a sore throat. Fortunately it didn't last and I was ok for our second starter which was fried anchovies with a chilli dip, yum! I then went for the most expensive thing on the menu, a whole seabass in a gorgeous chilli sauce and it was only about 6 pounds.

Today we set off for the KL lake gardens and first stumbled upon the butterfly park. Here we found an array of dancing butterflies and snapping turtles. Also an unlikely snake with two little fellas that were clearly his lunch. After a giant beetle exhibition on exit of the park we went onto the KL bird park.

This place was the largest walk through aviary in the world and housed many varieties of birds, a particular favourite was the this little white and yellow nervous bird of which i forget the name. I did manage to get a snap of him when he was off guard however. After a thorough trounce around we ended up at the bird show featuring five Macaws. Stunts observed included scooter and bike racing, a tight rope unicycle ride and puzzle solving.

It was then time for a bite to eat so we proceeded to the Hornbill Cafe where we got stuck into a plate of "Nasi Goreng". This consisted of chicken satay, fried chicken, fried egg, prawn crackers and a special spicy rice all served on a banana leaf.

We then perused the orchid garden for free as it only had an hour left until it closed, which was a bonus as we only stayed in there for a bout 30 mins before making the trek back to our hostel.

It's an early get up tomorrow as the departure time for our flight to Bali is 9:30am and I need to sort out the weight distribution between my suitcase and hand luggage to avoid incurring a fine.

Kuala Lumpur

I managed to get us some extra leg room on the flights but it meant that we ended up next to a lady with a baby who repeatedly sang the same annoying songs even when the baby was asleep. The best bit was when she kept clapping and saying "shush......shush" when the baby wasn't making a sound!!!

Anyway after a 12 hour flight, hardly any sleep and also tipping my dinner tray on the floor during the flight we made a quick change at Singapore before arriving at Kuala Lumpur Airport, where we got on the train to a station which is right next to our accommodation. By this time it was getting on to about 10pm after we had dumped our stuff, so went for a quick walk around Chinatown market which is just around the corner.

On our first full day here we got a bus out to the northern suburb of the city to visit the Batu Caves, which was a huge cave system complete with hindu statues and mischevious monkeys with the odd chicken making an appearance. After going up and down 279 steps we grabbed a coconut to guzzle as although the weather is completely overcast it is still really hot.

It took a bit of a trek to get the return bus back to the city as we couldn't find the bus stop but managed to hail one down in the end, which we jumped off once we saw the KL Tower as this was our next destination. Unfortunately it looked closer than it was and due to the detour and bad directions we got, we eventually got there 2 hours later after doing a lap around the tower and forest to find the entrance.

The view from the top of the tower would have been great if it wasn't for all the clouds blocking most of the view. We did get included in our ticket a trip around this animal zoo park thing and a "Formula 1 Simulation" which was basically a computer hooked up to a screen and some speakers put inside a racing car frame...we both came last.

It was then on to the Petronas Towers which were close by, but futher dissapointment was afoot as on our arrival we found out that all the allocated tickets for today were gone :( hopefully we'll get tickets for tomorrow but it will mean having to drag ourselves out of bed early to make sure we bag some.

It's nearly dinner time so we're going to try and find some Malaysian treats!