Travel plans, a baby naming ceremony and an anniversary

Sorry for the accidental blog hiatus... I actually meant to upload this post two or three weeks ago! The picture goes some way in explaining what we have been occupying ourselves with. We'll write more about that in another post, but in the mean time, here's a very belated update!

'Melaka', no 'Melacca', no 'Malacca'.....trip up to a port town in Malaysia

We had heard lots of good things about 'Melaka' (multiple different spellings about!) so decided to scope it out for ourselves with a trip of our own up the coast to have an explore. We decided to head out on a Friday evening after work to make the most of our weekend - a stop over at Muar for Friday night and then on to Melaka Saturday morning; good plan. Two bars of petrol, "that's plenty to get us going!" I stated, "there's bound to be a petrol station on the way". Well, it turns out that in Malaysia petrol stations aren't quite as convenient as they are back home.

Smoggy smog smog

SMOG. This is the word of the moment.

"It's a bit smoggy today" we said, at the start of September.

"Ooh, isn't this smog hanging around?" a week later.

"Erm, the smog is still here..." after another week.

Celebrations in Singapore

Singapore is sometimes referred to as the 'Jewel of Asia' but people's opinions on it are somewhat divided. Some argue that it's dull and draconian, with too many rules and not enough charm, whereas others see the luxury and glamour as standards to which other Asian countries should be aspiring to.

Quirks of living in Malaysia...

So, we have only been living in Malaysia for about 7 weeks now but in this short time we have learnt quite a few things about typical life in Malaysia. Some of these make perfect sense, like walking that little bit slower around town so as not to soak your freshly ironed shirt with sweat; but others, not so much. Here are just a few of the more quirky things about this country (these are in no way criticisms, just observations):

Our first proper Malaysian adventure: Pulau Tioman

I thought it was about time that I got involved in this blogging game, so here is my (this is Dan by the way) first post about our trip to Tioman Island (or Pulau Tioman as the locals call it).

The island of Tioman is just off the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia, in the South China Sea, so no plane needed for our first Malaysian adventure – just a car and a boat! We set off bright and early on Thursday 27^th August with our two backpacks, camera, drinking water and snacks, all bundled into our trusty Malaysian-made 1.3 powerhouse of a Proton Saga….and what a machine it is.

Getting settled in Malaysia and a mini tour of our apartment...

At the end of July we returned to Malaysia after an amazing three weeks in Indonesia. By this point it had been six weeks since either of us had been at work, as we used up the last of our annual leave so we could finish on June 18th, giving us time to see family and friends before we left. Although it's quite easy to get used to being on one long holiday, it was finally time to start our new jobs!

Honeymoon Part 4 - Final Instalment! Relaxing on Gili Meno

After our ordeal up Mount Rinjani some serious R&R was in order. Luckily we'd anticipated this, so we'd booked six days of doing nothing at all on the tiny island of Gili Meno. It's the smallest of the three Gili Islands and, like the others, there are no roads or cars. Gili Meno is often billed as a 'honeymoon island' and when we arrived we could see why.

Honeymoon Part 3 - Climbing Gunung Rinjani

When we were looking for ideas of what to do on this trip, I came across an itinerary for Bali and the Gili islands on a website somewhere that included a trek up Gunung Rinjani on the island of Lombok. We did a bit of googling and decided that it sounded like something we'd enjoy. Gunung Rinjani - Gunung means 'Mount' in Indonesian - is technically an active volcano with a summit of 3,726m. What better way to spend four days of your honeymoon than climbing the second highest mountain in Indonesia and the 38th highest peak in the world?!

Honeymoon Part 2 - Scuba diving in Gili Trewangan

We took one of the fast boats from Bali to Gili Trewangan. Made had done the booking for us, but there was a bit of a miscommunication about the time that the minibus was leaving to take us to the port at Padang Bai. We very nearly missed it and the minibus driver was eager to make up the time he'd lost waiting for us! The ferry port was pretty crazy but we managed to get on the correct boat. The crossing was quite rough and not particularly pleasant - the water between Bali and Lombok is some of the deepest in South East Asia, and as such there is often a lot of swell. But with the help of some travel sickness tablets we made it to Gili Trewangan with our breakfasts still in our bellies!

Our (second) honeymoon in West Nusa Tenggaru - Part 1 (Ubud)

I didn't know where West Nusa Tenggaru was, but this is apparently where we went on our honeymoon. If I were being less awkward I would just say that we went to Bali, but we were only actually there for 4 days, and I like to be specific :-) WNB is an area of Indonesia that incorporates Bali, Lombok and the Gili Islands (as well as the island of Sumbawa, but we didn't go there). We planned the whole trip ourselves and made all the accommodation, transfer and activity bookings independently. This was partly to save money, and partly because I love planning things!

Welcome to our blog!

Hello!

This is where we will be documenting all of our adventures over the coming months (and years) as we embark upon our move to South East Asia. You'll need to bear with us to begin with - when we arrive we'll need to find somewhere to live, and then we'll be spending three weeks travelling around Bali and the Gili Islands (it's tough, but someone's got to do it). We'll finally be settling in Malaysia on 29th July and starting our shiny new jobs on 3rd August.