June Holidays Report

We are all just back at work and school after the June break where we had not one but two visits from family in Australia and a trip to peninsular Malaysia. Here's a brief run down of events



We finished the term after exams and reports at the end of May. The boys both faced their first round of exams and given they had only been in this system for one term, did surprisingly well. On the first Saturday of the holidays Merry & Ian (Felicity's sister & hubby) arrived from Sydney. We spent a week with them in Singapore visiting Chinatown, Pierce Reservoir, Little India, museums, galleries and a few hawker stalls and markets in our local area. Felicity & I had a few days on deck at work which we tried to alternate and by Friday we were ready to head off to Malaysia.

Of course, I wanted to explore the local route into Malaysia, so we caught a bus from the back gate to the MRT, jumped on the train to Kranji station then took the 160 bus over the causeway and through immigration in to Malaysia. The only slight hiccup we had was not re-finding the bus after we checked out of Singapore. We ended up nearly walking across the causeway, until we realised we had actually gone too far and there was the bus flying past us. We had to do an about turn head back into Singers explain to the police we had taken a wrong turn, luckily we did not have to check into Singapore and out again the y politely escorted us across a corridor after double checking our passports. From there it was back onto the 160 and on to Larkin bus terminal to find a bus to Mersing.

From Mersing, we boarded the ferry to Tioman Island about 2.5 hours away. We disembarked at Tekek and were collected by a four wheel drive and headed up over the mountains to Juara a quiet village on the other side. The road was excitingly steep as we climbed up at dusk, me Xave and Jordy riding in the open back of the veichle. We stayed at Juara for 5 night at River side chalets, as pictureskew as you could imagine. The place run by an English guy and his Malay wife was set between a little river and the beach. Our cabins faced straight out onto the clear blue water - very comfortable and laid back.

We were there during the Malaysian school holidays, which were reputedly even busier this year due to the H1N1 scare - lots of people not travelling through airports but having more local holidays instead. Apparently the other side of the island was buzzing, But Juara was a blissfully peaceful haven. We did quite a bit of snorkel ling, some kayaking and jungle walking and ate at these very simple Malay restaurants on the beach.

There was a reasonable patch of coral not too far off shore right in front of where we were staying and we swam out to it a few times, lots of interesting fish and some good (but not great) coral. We also did a snorkeling trip to coral island, spending a great day on a boat cruising round the north face of the island and stopping off at some good snorkeling spots. Meredith suffered the only real setback of the trip, when she got bitten by sand flies and the bites swelled up into blisters for which she eventually needed to take some antibiotics.

From Tioman we ferried back to Mersing and had to arrange a 6-seater van to Jeruntut up in the middle of Pahang state - all the buses were booked out with local holiday travel. we spent one night in Jeruntut, a provincial town with many traditional wooden houses with Daoist shrines out the front of them. We stayed at a nice hotel and the owner took us round to a great local Chinese restaurant for dinner. The next morning it was on to the pier at Kuala Tembling and into a long low boat for a 2.5 hour trip up the Sungei Tembling to Kuala Tahan, the entry point to Taman Negara National Park.

The first hitch - accommodation was not up to standard and I had paid for it in advance. This necessitated a trip back down to the jetty to haggle and argue with the tour operator we came up with. We then set off in the heat to walk around town to find other digs. We eventually settled at Rainforest Lodge which was of a much better standard.

Whilst the jungle at Taman Negara was utterly spectacular with massive trees with huge buttress roots and a dense understory, it was hot and very, very humid, so the walking was sweaty to say the least. We did a night jungle walk, the tree top (very bouncy) canopy walk, a rapids cruise and I ventured through the jungle one afternoon to a hide where people sit and watch for birds and animals. I think the other were in an air con hotel room playing cards.

From here we went to Kuala Lipis, for a night before training it back to Singapore and getting set up for Felicity's parents to arrive. Shirley and Roy came over for 10 days, and had an excellent time. Roy had worked in Singers year ago and was amazed at the changes. We spent the last week with them going to the Museum, eating at Kopitiams and venturing out on manageable excursions. Our condo even put on a Sunday tour out through the Singapore Farms, which we all went on. We saw a goat farm, Frog farm, fish farm and some veggie farms where we could buy fresh produce. The frog and fish farms were a little on the depressing side but the goat farm was OK.

So that was June 2009 in Singapore. For now its back to work for the second half of the year, and the next installment of life over here.