Hello dear friends and family, My apologies for not getting on here sooner. So what's been happening? Well Aurelie and I are still on 'holiday' - she doesn't start work until Saturday, and I'm still looking for work. I have two interviews sort of arranged for the coming days, so I'm hopeful something will happen soon on that front. I played football again on Sunday, a little better than the previous 2 times. It helped that I found a school playing field a little way from here that I can get on to, where I can run around and kick a football. An autonomous training regime, you might call it. And today, I went down to the botanical gardens and ran past the monkeys.
Tomorrow morning, we have to get up bright and early because we're going to Singapore to renew our tourist visas. The plane leaves from the airport at 8.50, so we've arranged to have a taxi pick us up here at 6.30 am. Then we stay there till the afternoon of the following day, when we catch the train to KL. Stay there one night (to get our large suitcase), then travel back here on Thursday. I'm going to try and enjoy the trip as much as possible, despite its functional nature.
Aurelie and I are both rather preoccupied with the cost of the trip, and our imagination of a hot concrete jungle. But I'll try and be positive about the experience, and help Aurelie to be so too. I hear the hotel (YMCA actually) has a large pool though, so I'm looking forward to that. There seem to be 3 YMCAs in Singapore, in fact, all new, gleaming and very expensive - weird...
Well, it was my intention to post some photos this evening...but again time has flown. We have lots of time at the moment, but there always seems to be something to gobble it up. For example, I just read a book entitled 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian', and I enjoyed it a lot. Also, posting photos does take a lot of time - I have to select the best ones, then resize them, then upload them. Anyway, no whinging Ben! I enjoy doing it in fact...it's just one of those things that seems to be unappealing until you actually sit down to do it, but I always have had a lazy streak.
Let me try one...
OK, that didn't take too long. So the pictures start a long way back, in KL afterwe got back from a month on the beach. Aurelie is holding a worrying looking fruit called Rambutan which is in fact of course delicious and a bit of a national pride here, much like chips in the UK. They are similar in taste to Lychees, but smoother and richer.
On the next one, you can see what it looks like inside.
And here is a close-up of the wonderfully shaped and coloured fruit.
So,we then left KL for the rather cooler climes of the Cameron Highlands. This is a photo of a mock-tudor building, quite common around the region. This was in a botanical research station near to the main town.
Next we have a waterfall, located half an hours trek away through the jungle.
Here, Aurelie gave me her best smile (guess she was a bit pissed off at all the walking...)
Next day, we hired a motorbike to see the area with greater ease, and because I found it exciting. The bike is a Honda EX-5, with a semi-automatic gearbox (no clutch). They are absolutely everywhere here in Malaysia, easily the most popular bike.
First stop was the 'BOH' tea plantation. Here is a nice view...
Then, here is me and her together, at the tea plantation tea house. And the tea was really good! In fact I buy the same brand here. We were on a kind of over-hanging balcony, with splendid views of the whole plantation.
Then, here is a great photo (I think) of my girl.
And here's one more for tonight...and then I'd better go to bed. Aurelie smiling at me making a fool of myself probably. We were in the tea factory, on their tour. Pretty interesting in fact, especially if you like tea!
OK - a couple more! I'm enjoying myself...here are some girls, obviously not posing for me, but I couldn't resist!
So I have a few more from the Cam. Highlands, but I'll post those next time. I thought you might like to see me again, so here I am feeding a monkey at the botanical gardens here. I'm the one on the left, before you ask! :-D
Ok, good night all, more in a few days upon our return from Singapore!
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