Triathlon Training

The BRW Sprint Triathlon is now only 1 week away...

I have to say a big thanks to Dimi for the big improvement in my swimming stroke; I have now doubled how far I can go without having to take a break!!!

Thanks to all you that have donated to the Starlight Foundation and for those who haven't done yet, Tennille has offered to double whatever we raise so please donate kindly... thanks, Stephen

Kuala Lumpur - Traders

so, for our last 2/3 days of our big trip, we decided to glam it and stay at Traders overlooking KLCC.
It's a lovely hotel, with great views of the Petronas Towers from the rooms as well as the Sky Bar / Pool. We met up with Nick Smith here for a few beers on our last night.
We disposed of all the old, travelled clothes and shopped a wee bit ready for our job hunt in Brisbane...\
Next stop, Queensland...

Malaka

After leaving SG, we took the bus up to Malaka.
We didn't know what to expect from Malaka but it was so good we stayed an extra day. Malaka's history is as rich or more than Singapores. We stayed at Sunny's Inn, which was a great place to stay with friendly staff.
The Roti Chania's were great opposite Sunny's and we took in a couple of movies, a bit of shopping and the local museums. We also had a great couple of nights in Chinatown, getting home on the rickshaw's.
So, we had a great time in Malaka and then we headed for KL knowing our holiday was almost over...

Singapore

We had a wonderful time in Singapore with Darina and Thomas.
We entered Singapore on the bus from Johor Bahru on the way to meet Darina, funnily enough a stones throw away from the DHL office in SG. Darina and Thomas live in the CBD district in a great appartment that includes the use of tennis courts and swimming pools, so we definitely made the most of our stay, swimming, playing tennis (Tennille winning again but this time it was pretty close with 2 very long games that could've tipped it my way - one day!!!) enjoying great hawker food and walk around the city.
Singapore has a wonderful history and the asian cultural museum is definitely worth a visit...

Tioman Island

We arrived at Mersing and took the busy ferry over to Tioman Island.
Our homework had told us that Selang, the last stop and 2 and a half hours away, had most of the reasonably priced places to stay.
Selang has a real surfy feel with no surf and we had a good time, with some great food and lots of friendly locals.
However, the local sand flies were a pain and the massive lizards kept Tennille on her constant guard.
Lots of cats though reminded her she'd see Barney in a weeks time...

Kuantan

We arrived in Kuantan determined to take in the Elephant Sanctuary. To our dismay it was actually 3 hours away - my fault for not doing enough homework on this one. To make matters worse the buses to Tioman were fully booked for the next 2 days so we went ahead and booked for the day after and sought a hotel.
We stayed near the bus station trying 2 different places over the 2 nights.
Kuantan has a really nice, clean beach, which is 5 or 6k away and this gave us a good walk.
It's also got a wonderful mosque, great local markets and we stopped at one restaurant to watch the Manchester derby and were rewarded with some tremendous dishes - pork, prawns and chicken - mmmm....

Taman Negara

We took the high speed boat from Bubbles back to Kuala Besut then boarded the bus to Taman Negara.
Taman Negara is a rainforest in central Malaysia reported to be 130m years old and it is teaming with life.
From our porch at the cheap-and-cheerful Park Lodge hotel we saw a tribe of at least 25 monkeys moving through the trees with more than a few taking great interest in us sitting there watching them.
The jungle itself is across a little river crossing, which is all very cute.
We headed for the canopy walk firstly - the largest appeal to TN and rightly so. It is the longest in the world and at 25m up it's pretty cool.
We also took a few short treks through the jungle getting lost at one point.
We had a great 2 days...