Old & Lost

31 March 2018 – Singapore – Day 2 – How Did We Do So Much in One Day?

Published on March 31, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

We had a great sleep and enjoyed our breakfast that was included. They had a good selection of food I would eat, which is always a bonus, as you never know what the breakfast options are going to be. Coffee was okay also.

We were fed and out before 10:30 which was great as we wanted to do the river cruise.

Just down the street from our hotel was this temple. Not sure what they had lit, but they looked like giant firecrackers to me. Believe it or not, we did NOT stop to check it out.

We crossed over the river to book a river cruise.

Tickets in hand we went in search of washrooms before the cruise tour began. Always seem to be searching for washrooms. Our dollar is almost on par with the Singapore dollar, which makes it great for conversion in my mind.

Headed right back and boarding was just about to begin. We headed to the back of the boat to sit outside. Hoping we would get great views of everything. Thankfully today was a little overcast and we shouldn’t be fried, like we often are.

The River Cruise would take us from Clarkes Quay to the Marina Bay and back.

The sky was starting to clear and the sun was trying to come out

We got back to the dock and decided to wander around riverside area checking out menus of the cafes and pubs. We thought we might come back one evening. That never did happen, but if we ever go back, we will make it happen.

Doug’s favorite wine, Shiraz. YUCK!

By now it was afternoon, as in after 1200 hrs, and we were getting tired and thirsty. Only so much water a person can drink, right? So we looked at a few menus and found a place we could afford. This place looked nice and had cheap beer for Singapore.

We relaxed and enjoyed a couple of cold beers on the riverside.

Wandered up the side streets to see what was around.

Some streets were better than others. Came across this cool vending machine. Can’t say we have ever seen a Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice vending machine before.

We found a Starbucks, but not only was it a Starbucks, it was also where the Canadian Embassy is. Okay Paden, we have found the place for you to get a job so we can visit.

Here is a picture of the old with the new architecture.

We had ended up in Chinatown again and yes, there was a temple that was calling our names.

This was the Sri Mariamman Temple. A Hindu temple and looked very similar to the temple that we had visited in Kuala Lumpur a few days ago. After a while, all these temples start to look a like.

We headed back to the hotel and had an early dinner at the little cafe, the baker & cook, again. I had the same as last night, quiche and salad. Doug also had the same tonight. Did some laundry, as they had laundry facilities, which is always exciting, and chatted with an Aussie couple in the laundry room. It was some nice down time. Then back to the room to relax for a while, but not for long!!!

We were heading to the Gardens by the Bay for the night time light show that was in the Supertree Grove.

We were going to take the MRT there. Unfortunately, but fortunately, we got off at the wrong stop and felt totally lost. Fortunate thing was, apparently a lot of people got off at the wrong stop, so we just followed the crowds. We were on the wrong side of the river and had to cross over the Helix Bridge that is pictured above. As we were crossing over, the light show on the Art Science Museum started. It was awesome. I only got a few photos though as we were walking across the bridge and still a little ways away.

The music and light show was INCREDIBLE. Here are just a few photos that I took. The first one shows the Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

You could pay to go up onto the walkway that you can see in the photo below. I would love to to do this some time, but Doug won’t do it. I really hope to get back here one day.

This is my most favorite photo of the night

We followed the crowds and found the correct MRT stop to get back to the hotel. Of course you had to cut through a shopping mall to get to the MRT, but talk about a cool shopping mall.

If it hadn’t of been for following the crowds, we still may be wandering around looking for the MRT stop. We managed to find the right train line and get off at the correct stop! We should be proud of ourselves, especially after a long day. 15,468 steps to be exact, but who has been counting? Here is what we saw walking back to the hotel from the MRT stop.

Once we got back to the hotel, we sat in outdoor lounging area, and Doug enjoyed a pint of very expensive draught beer. He said “it was worth it!” I must have been very tired, as I have no pictures of it or the bill! Called it a night!

30 March 2018 – Travel Day Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Singapore – Day 1

Published on March 30, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

It was yet another travel day for us. We’re excited about seeing Singapore.

For our two flights from KL, Malaysia to Singapore on Air Asia, with luggage paid, the cost was Cdn $144.79 Sounds okay to me. We already know not to expect great things from Air Asia, but they get the job done for us.

I am guessing that these washrooms were not for our use.

We departed at 12:30 from Kuala Lumpur and would arrive in Singapore around 1340 hrs. Nice quick, easy flight. However, we didn’t arrive in Singapore until 1400 hrs, but still a good flight as we did make it.

They have fancy taxis in Singapore.

It was a beautiful drive to the hotel. The foliage around here is out of this world. Just like many of the places we have been so far. We got all checked into our hotel. We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express Singapore Clarke Quay, 2 Magazine Road, Clarke Quay. Singapore is NOT CHEAP!! Thankfully we booked a room which includes breakfast.

Paden loves hippos and I love Romero Britto’s work. Great combo of both, were in the lobby of our hotel. #HolidayInnExpressCQ

Turns out for us, we have a great location. Away from the busy center of things, but close enough to walk to many places. Also, the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) is only a couple blocks away. Seems like you can get just about anywhere on their MRT.

We needed to get money. Before we left home, we got approximately Cdn $100 of each currency that we would need. Figured this would get us at least to the hotels and then we could find a bank machine locally. The front desk told us there were bank machines at the Chinese Central Market that was only a few blocks away. Saw some amazing buildings on the way. This is apparently a hotel. The Royal Park Hotel. I am guessing out of our price range, but still gorgeous from the outside.

Once we found the mall, we still had to ask a couple of times where the bank machines were. Nothing is ever easy. I always get nervous when trying new bank machines in new countries. You never know if they will work and actually give you money. Had a big issue with this at times in Vietnam. Money in hand, we were happy again. The money in Singapore is nice and colorful, like Canadian money.

Saw this amazing bakery and couldn’t resist making a purchase. At least, we would have a great dessert, if nothing else. Doug had the Crispy Chocolate cake and I had the White Zebra. There were so MANY layers to that cake.

Eggs anyone? They don’t keep their eggs refrigerated over here. Seems to be a Western thing to refrigerator the eggs.

On way back to hotel we stopped at the 7 Eleven and picked up some water, Cheetos and Shiraz for Doug. It was almost next door to this cafe, Central Perk, which reminded me of the show Friends.

When we were in Los Angeles a few years back, well many years back, we actually visited the set from the show Friends. That was pretty cool. Here are a few of the 2009 photos from the actual set.

We headed back to the hotel, as we would eat at the little cafe, baker & cook, they had. Doug had a meat pie with pasta salad and I had quiche with pasta salad. It was delicious. Dessert later in our room. Those cakes were also delicious!

1700 hours and we were both ready to crash back in our room.

29 March 2018 – Kuala Lumpur – Day 5 – Batu Caves

Published on March 29, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

I was up early and out on our balcony, looking around. Thought I would take some pictures that shows what I saw, the not so nice/clean areas. Our hotel, the Ramada Suites by Wyndham, was amazing and two streets over was Changkat Butik Bintang, the street with all the bars, clubs and restaurants.

Garbage collection at it’s finest. Didn’t empty the green bin and left piles of garbage on the ground

Since our Hop On/Hop Off bus tickets were good for 24 hours we were able to utilize it again this morning to get to the KL Sentral Bus Terminal. Yes, we did get the Hop On/Hop Off bus from the stop that was much closer to our hotel. In fact, it was right by the McDonalds that we ate at last night. From the KL Sentral Bus terminal, they bussed us to Sentul to catch the KTM line which took us to the Batu Caves in the mountains. Took us a while to figure out how to get there and where to go. Have to say, that we kind of surprised ourselves that we made it, with no issues or without getting lost.

A very short walk from the station and we were there. Quite a spectacular sight to see, I might say, even with all the maintenance scaffolding around. The staircase up to the entrance of the largest cave, Cathedral Cave aka Temple Cave and a 140 foot tall gold painted statue of Lord Murugan.

At the bottom of the stairs, there is a sign asking visitors to help out by carrying a brick or pail of sand to the top. I don’t think they were talking about me. We were still trying to figure out whether or not we, or I, would even make it up the 272 steps to the Hindu Shrine inside the huge cave in the mountain. We had to do the stairs in segments and take a rest in between. I have no idea how some of these people managed to get up here.

There were so many monkeys, actually, they are macaques, but none of them entered any of the caves. It was surprising, so we wondered if they had some kind of electronic device set up to keep the monkeys out.

One of the monkey’s tried to grab our Gatorade out of Doug’s hand. But Doug held on tight and won. We had been warned about the monkeys from Paden. You had to keep everything put away or it was fair game to the monkeys.

Once inside the cave it was so cool…..but so HOT & HUMID. The sweat was just dripping off me.

But the scenery was great. Too bad there were so much refurbishment going on though. It was huge inside!

Never fear, there were more stairs!

Time to head back down now.

Dark Cave. Ah shucks! Advance booking required. We did NOT do this cave and tour. After reading the sign, there was NO WAY in hell I would do that tour!!!!. “The highlight of the trip will be our infamous Crawl Passage and viewing the trapdoor spider in their natural habitats. There will be elements of climbing, sliding and of course, the epic crawl! Expect to get wet and dirty.” DEFINITELY NO WAY!!!!

I did take a few pictures in the entrance way, as the rock colours were amazing.

It was apparently cruise ship day today and we saw lots of people from the cruise ships. Chatted with one guy as he was asking if we thought they had time to go to the top and back. They had something like 30 minutes there. Crazy short amount of time to see such an amazing place. Really happy we weren’t doing this on a cruise ship excursion.

We wanted to see the Ramayana Cave also, but had to wait a bit for the ticket sales office to open.

While we were waiting we got to watch this guy for a bit. He was pretty big!

Once inside the cave, it was so different from the Cathedral Cave. It was so vibrant and all but filled with fluorescent lighting, Almost freakish. But never fear, this cave also came with more steps inside. Yes, we did go up them. There weren’t too many people inside here. I guess they just didn’t want to pay to go in.

I feel like these are an optical illusion. Are they going up or are they going down? I know the answer!

Getting the subway back was easy peasy now. We were subway pros and managed to get back to The Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur.
We decided to eat at Quivo, a restaurant in the Pavilion Mall, that I had seen people eating scrumptious looking onion rings at. We ordered a couple pints of draft and onion rings, to be followed by fajitas, that we shared. Onions rings looked a lot better than they tasted, but were still good. Fajitas were average, but what did I really expect?

For dessert we headed to Cold Stone Creamery and Doug got ice cream. Yum Yum Yum For some odd reason I decided to get a pretzel and took no pictures of my pretzel.

We headed back to hotel to pack for our flights to Singapore tomorrow. But, for one last time we just had to pass through rat alley where there about 5 rats scurrying around. GOODBYE RATS!!!

P.S. Saw this guy on the way to the bus this morning!

28 March 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Day 4 – Petronas Twin Towers & KL Bird Park

Published on March 28, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

Originally we had only booked for 3 nights here. Lucky for us, we hadn’t planned out or booked anything past these 3 days. Since there was so much to do here, and we hadn’t yet seen the Petronas Twin Towers, we booked another 2 nights stay. We still had to check out and then back in for the other 2 nights.

We walked to Petronas Twin Towers and purchased our tickets, one Senior Citizen and one Adult. Senior Citizen was almost half the price of an Adult ticket! Our tour time was 11:30 am and it was 10:45 am now. So, not a bad wait at all, but gave us some time to browse around the lobby area. As I mentioned the other day, these are the world’s tallest twin towers at 88 stories each, with 5 underground levels.

We use to collect these Press A Coins from every where we went. We have so many now, especially from the Disney Parks, but did not get these ones. Have to stop sometime.

The elevators were super fast and super smooth. Sure is a good thing, since I am not fond of small spaces or heights. The first stop was the Skybridge at level 41/42. Apparently the bridge is not fully attached to the towers, to allow for movement due to winds and other unpleasant weather.

I certainly wouldn’t want this guys job! Scary just watching him.

From the Skybridge level we caught another elevator up to the Observation Deck – LEVEL 86! Spent quite a while taking lots of pictures up here. Didn’t want to mess up, as I doubt we will ever be back here again. The views were spectacular and the skies were quite clear, which was great for viewing. Great birds eye view of the cemetery.

The above photo is where we took pictures the first day. You know, where I succumbed to the sales pitch of the iPhone lens guy. It was a great purchase though IMHO.

Thought it was really cool how they made amazing designs out of all the solar panels.

We came back later tonight to see the fountains all lit up.

It was now 12:30 and we caught the Hop on/Hop off city tour bus just outside the towers (Stop 23) as we were heading for the KL Bird Park (world’s largest free-flight walk-in Avery) at Stop 15. We knew this tour bus went there and we had no idea how else to get there. Of course, we never even looked into other ways. We did, however, see so much of the city. If we ever come back, we would need to do this Hop on/Hop off tour again, but actually get off at the different stops. But, today was all about getting to the KL Bird Park.
It was a double-decker bus with half of the top open air. We sat at the very front of the open-air section. Thought we would like to get a little sun. Boy were we fools! The sun was a killer!

It took us approximately 1 1/2 hours to get there. This park has so many natural surroundings for the birds and is just great. I don’t think I have ever seen such an amazing variety of birds. It was like paradise.

Guess we were there at feeding time, but then again, feeding time is probably all day with so many birds around.

Of course we had to have some birds who were strutting their stuff to show off.

Our favorites were all of these guys. We could have chatted with them and watched them for hours. So comical.

We had one last area in the bird park to see, the Waterfall Aviary. It was quite the hike though, as we were getting tired.

They don’t kid about smoking. Too bad they didn’t actually enforce it, as we did see a smoker not too far from this sign.

We had been touring the bird park for at least 2 1/2 hours, but could have easily spent longer there. However we were tired and knew it would take a while to get back. We must have waited a good 30 minutes before the Hop on/Hop off bus showed up. This one was completely enclosed up top. Again sat in the front seats and had the sun still glaring on us, but through the glass this time! Still HOT!

We again got a great tour of the city. This time, totally different areas than the route to the KL Bird Park. The architecture here is amazing, both old and new.

We disembarked at the Towers to walk back to our hotel. I have no idea why we didn’t just stay on the bus and get off at a stop closer to our hotel. Yes, there was one closer.
Since we had to go through the mall, we decided to get some Gatorade, as we really needed some electrolytes. It had been so hot today, especially up on those bus tops. Will we ever learn that it is hot over here, in the sun? It doesn’t seem like it. We headed back to hotel to change, and just as we reached hotel, the sky opened up to a big thunder and lightening rainstorm. We sure timed that right for once. We were really hoping that the rain would stop as I really, really wanted to go back to the towers to get some night photos. It was torrential downpours for an hour or so, but did finally clear up, so we were off again. Back to the Petronas Towers.

The KLCC Lake Gardens at night. They put on a beautiful light and fountain show.

The Golden Arches are everywhere. MacDonald’s for dinner tonight. 9.50 RM = Cdn $3.00 That is for the full meal

Ended our exhausting, amazing day with doing some hand laundry. There is always laundry to do!!!

Fitbit tally for the day; 20,353 steps, 15.37km and 30 floors. A new record in steps for me.

27 March 2018 – Kuala Lumpur – Day 3 – Central Market

Published on March 27, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

Kuala Lumpur has so many places to see. Where to start? We wanted to see the Central Market and I had a list of a few temples. We decided we would walk. Good old maps.me in use again. I swear that maps.me always takes us the longest and most touristy routes. Today’s route took us through Chinatown. We even saw a license plate with Canada on it. The red spikey fruit is rambutan. Very similar to a lychee nut once peeled. We had had them in Vietnam last year.

After what seemed like hours, but in reality wasn’t, we finally made it to the Central Market.

Saw some interesting things, but couldn’t buy anything as we only have our backpacks. No room for many souvenirs. Some items are expensive, but the hair and nail studio prices were cheap compared to Canadian prices. For a gel manicure it was RM 60.00 = Cdn $18.79 A cut/wash/iron, really iron? Hope they mean curling iron, was RM45.00 = Cdn $14.09

And then there are those stores where they really should hire someone to proofread their work. Picture is a little blurry but I had to include it. Guess I was laughing to much to keep the camera steady.

Doug decided to make lunch for us. LOL We did have lunch here, but again I have no pictures of it for some reason. It was a large food court with lots of ‘strange’ foods. Always hard for me to find food to eat, as I am such a picky eater.

You have to pay to use the washrooms, .50 RM = $ Cdn $0.16 Not much to us, but I guess it adds up for them.

Our bellies full, we headed out to find the temples. According to maps.me they shouldn’t be too far , but we all know how that goes at times. On our way we found this pedestrian shopping mall. There was a lot of stuff there! Apparently it is a great place to purchase knock off labeled merchandise. We’re not interested in that stuff.

We finally found one of the temples on my list. Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, which is the oldest Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, dating back to 1873. However, this is a new structure that was build in 1968.

Just our luck. The temple was closed. Thank goodness it was 3:50 pm and we only had 10 minutes to wait. That is 10 minutes Malaysian time!

Once we were admitted, and I don’t mean to the loony bin, I have to say that this place was beautiful. I just love the colours of this temple. A lot of interesting information can be found on this temple. Too much to include in this blog.

The 5-tiered gopuram (tower) on the gates is the tallest structure in the temple and is a 75 feet high pyramid-shaped gate tower that is decorated with depictions of Hindu gods.

On to the next temple, which turned out to be just down the street.

It still amazes me as to how there are old temples surrounded by new architecture.

Walked a little ways, and came across Petaling Street, which we decided to go down and take a look.

We decided to walk back. What were we thinking? Not only hazardous, a lot of it was uphill. Even these small inclines seem mountainous at this point in the day.

After resting up for a while, we headed out again to find some dinner. We ended up back at the Pavilion Mall and this time discovered a huge food court on level l, which was actually down one level from the entrances to the mall. There were all my favorites; Cold Stone Creamery, Pizza Hut, Krispy Kream, to name a few and Asian food. We WILL be back! SPAM is everywhere! I think it must be as popular as Oreos are.

While out searching for dinner, we came upon this alley/street. Yesterday there had been 2 people painting it. It looks finished now. I have noticed there are a lot of items painted here. Lots of staircases and even escalators.

So we decided on chicken shawarma sandwiches again for dinner tonight. Told you all that I am not too adventurous in the food department. We did try a new place though. They were good, but still not as tasty as what I get back home. We took them back to our room again to eat and called it a night. We were exhausted. I had put 14,020 steps on my Fitbit today.

26 March 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – Day 2 – West Virginia Everywhere!

Published on March 26, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

We slept in this morning and took our time as we were tired from our day traveling yesterday. On my list of attractions to see while in Kuala Lumpur was the Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest twin buildings in the world. It turns out our hotel is located within walking distance of the towers, so that was a bonus. We don’t have to worry about trying to figure out transportation to get there.

Love that once you get into the city center, all the buildings seem to be connected with bridges or covered walkways. You don’t have to go outside if the weather is crappy.

On our way to the Petronas Towers we found a Johnny Rockets in the mall, just like in America!

We didn’t spend any time looking at much as we wanted to get to the Petronas Towers. This was our first view of the towers. It is pretty spectacular. The weather today was great. Not a thousand degrees, yet!

Just our luck…closed on Mondays! And yes, you guessed right. Today is Monday! We really wanted to go up in them, as you can go up to the bridge and walk on it, so change of plans.

Like most tourist spots there are people trying to sell you everything, everywhere. However!!!! This time something really caught my ‘eye’. They were selling the fish’eye’ lens for the phones. Cool right? Yup, you guessed it. I bought one after the vendor took a few photos of us with it.

The fisheye lens distorts the picture a bit, but you get so much more in the frame. To bad it didn’t thin out the bottom portion of the photo instead of the opposite.

We wandered back around to the other side of the towers where there is TAMAN KLCC (KLCC PARK) and the beautiful Tasik Simfoni (Lake Symphony Fountain). Spent quite a bit of time taking photos. Who me take photos? Yup!

After this photo session, we headed into the Suria KLCC shopping mall. Apparently one of Malaysia’s premier upscale shopping malls due to its location. It was pretty spectacular.

We spied a Marks & Spencer store. Oh, how I loved that store’s food when we had them in Canada. Of course we had to go in and do some shopping. We bought a bunch of snacks and Doug got himself an expensive bottle of Shiraz. It was double to triple the prices back home. Alcohol is very expensive here, guessing maybe because it is a Muslim majority country.

Found some really nice jeans at a bargain price….NOT! 789 MYR RM (Malaysian Ringgit) = Cdn $248.61 That is right! For one pair of jeans

We decided to head back to hotel, but first we had to, yes, just had to stop for dessert and Ice Caps at Starbucks. Starbucks is everywhere! On our way through the mall to Starbucks I spied this sign. Guess what! SPAM is also everywhere, but not at Starbucks. Have to mention here that it seems like most of Kuala Lumpur are smokers. Tried to sit in the non-smoking section of Starbucks, but the smokers just take over the whole place. Lots of those Hookah, not hooker, places here also. Really have no idea about hookers, so could be lots of them also.

We decided to take a different street on the way back to the hotel. Completely different view on this street, which was only one street over. This person decided they weren’t going to park on the street, but right on the sidewalk. Good thing they stopped!

Back at the hotel we decided to check it out a little. There was a beautiful roof top pool AND LAUNDRY facilities. Always exciting when we find laundry facilities. Sure beats hand washing our clothing all the time.

Yesterday, while looking out our hotel room window I spotted a party street a block over, so tonight we went to check it out on our way back from picking up a couple of shawarmas for dinner. Up at the corner on one of the main streets, we saw an older homeless type guy sitting, strumming and singing “West Virginia Mountain Momma!” The John Denver, Take Me Home, Country Roads song. We couldn’t believe our ears and immediately thought of our cruise friends, Karen and Will who live in West Virginia. Guess I was in such shock that I forgot to take a picture of him.

We had to cut through an alley to get back to our hotel. At least that was the only way we could figure it out. OH GROSS!!! Rats in the alley scurrying everywhere. Oh course I was screaming and the construction guys were all laughing at me. These construction guys start early in the morning and work until late at night. Exhausting!
Back at hotel – ate shawarmas and Doug enjoyed a glass of wine.

25 March 2018 – Travel Day – Koh Rong Sanloem to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Day 1

Published on March 25, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

When we bought our tickets to come over to Koh Rong Sanloem, we purchased return tickets. However, we later discovered that the ferry wasn’t all that reliable and could be late or even not show. Since we had a flight to catch, it was a little nerve wracking. Not far from our resort was another ferry and it had one scheduled that was a good hour earlier than what we had already booked with the other company. We decided to get a new ferry ticket. Not only was it earlier, it was a lot closer to our resort.

We got up and enjoyed our last breakfast at the Sara Resort and settled up our bill with the front desk. We had been given a credit of $80 due to the fact that our room had been advertised as having a refrigerator in it and it did not. We still owed a good chunk of change as the meals were not cheap here.

We grabbed our stuff and headed down to catch the ferry. This was a very frustrating experience, as the ferry was late showing up by almost an hour. We actually saw our original ferry booking arrive, and depart, before ours showed up.

Once everyone was loaded, the driver really booted it, but came to an abrupt stop. They pulled the engines up out of the water and checked them. I guess everything was okay as they lowered the engines back into the water and we were off full speed again. It was really hard to get any pictures as we were really going fast and it was bumpy and wavy. Banging across waves. No comfort on this ride. We didn’t end up docking at the port we were supposed to be at and where we had a taxi driver waiting, that the girl from the hotel had arranged for us. I felt really bad about this, but there wasn’t much we could do about it. Apparently, because the ferry had been so late there was no room for them to dock at the intended dock. We did get to see a couple of cruise ships in port as this is where they dock when stopping here in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.

Getting a ride to the airport wouldn’t be an issue as there were Tuk-Tuk drivers offering rides left, right and center. We asked one guy how much to the airport. He replied with $US50. I replied “no’. I offered $US20, which I already knew was the going rate. We had checked this out before we left our hotel in Sihanoukville. I always like to have an idea of what taxis should cost. The Tuk-Tuk driver agreed to the US$20 and we were on our way.

Had a short stop for gas on the way, but we still had plenty of time. Turned out this port was quite a bit closer to the airport than the original port was.

We had booked with Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It took a little time to get checked in, as there were people who had not prepaid for luggage, and were arguing with the agents that they wanted to carry their large & heavy backpacks onboard and not check them. It was so much cheaper to prepay for your luggage than it is to pay once you get to the airport. I don’t know what happened, as they were still there when we had finished checking in.

Flight was uneventful with the tiny seats. Guess you get what you pay for. Took us some time clearing customs, but had no issues. I always get nervous when having to go through customs. Not sure why.

We purchased a pre-paid taxi voucher as that seemed to be the best method of getting to our hotel. We had booked the Ramada for three nights. The first 2 drivers refused to take us and this was getting a little concerning. Turns out that our hotel was over an hour drive and I guess these taxi drivers wanted shorter distances for the same amount of money.

The drive was really quite pleasant and there were thousands of palm trees along the highways. Our driver was friendly, spoke passable English and we were able to carry on a conversation.

By the time we arrived at our hotel there was a heavy rain coming down. We checked in and went to our room. It was really quite nice with what turned out to be a view of the bar area street.

Once the rain let up, we headed out to look around and get something to eat. Found a large shopping mall that even had an indoor basketball court.

It had been a long day and we called it a night.

24 March 2018 – Koh Rong Sanloem – Day 3 – Survivor Beach – Sok San Beach on Koh Rong

Published on March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

Our private excursion was booked to depart at 1000 hours and was to take 1 1/2 hours to get to Sok San Beach. We were going on a long tail boat, which is not the most comfortable mode of transportation in my opinion. We made our way down the beach to the kiosk after breakfast. Turns out we weren’t going to have the tour guide that we had booked, as he and his wife had an emergency with their dog, and were going to have to take it to the vet on the mainland. So we were given a local. This was disappointing as his English was not good at all.

There was lots of great scenery on the way and we saw what looked like many resorts along the beaches.

Bottom Left is the Sara Resort, where we are staying

Passed a boat with what looked like a typical excursion group onboard. So happy we booked a private one.

The dock that they usually tie up to was kind of out of order and so we were dropped off at the next dock. Unfortunately, our guide could not stay there and would come back for us. We arranged a time to meet up and headed on our way to hopefully find the Survivor beach.

We appeared to be in a local village and proceeded to ask a few locals if they knew where Survivor had taken place. Most did not speak English and had no idea what we were talking about, even when we mentioned Survivor. This wasn’t looking to good. Were we even in the right place?

We found a path off to the left and took it. Ended up at a dried up waterfall and so turned around and headed back to the village.

We came across this place and went in to ask if they knew where Survivor had taken place. He mentioned that there were the remains of one challenge set up between a couple of buildings and set us off in that direction.

We SCORED and felt like a couple of kids in a candy shop, so excited to have found one of the challenges. Apparently, Julia had won this immunity challenge from Season 32, Episode 9 “It’s Psychological Warfare” which aired April 13, 2016.

We still really wanted to find the flags that Paden and Christine had found when they were here last year and so set off back down the beach to find the little bar where they had seen the flags. They had also found another challenge that had been set up on the beach. There was this set up and spoke to the person working on it, hoping he knew if this was another Survivor challenge. He told us that they had taken away the Survivor challenges and were setting up some games as the Prince or King of Cambodia was visiting the following week.

Have I mentioned lately how HOT and HUMID it is here? The beach was long and wide open with no shade. It was just spectacular fine white HOT sand. We walked for what seemed like hours and hours, but in reality was probably around 1 km. We were pretty disappointed as we came across no such bar so finally gave in and turned back.

We decided to take a hidden road that we had seen back as walking in the hot sand was difficult and we were tired from both the heat and the walking.

We came across the large resort near the end of the road and we were cutting through the bar area when I looked over to my right…OMG there they were!!! Survivor Flags!!! They had been moved to behind the check-in desk of the resort. We tried taking a few selfies, but finally asked one of the ladies to take a picture of us both with the flags. Our day had been made.

Headed back to the dock to be picked up by our guide and we were off to snorkel. Snorkeling was just okay and it was difficult to climb in and out of the long boat, so we only did one stop. Doug wasn’t snorkeling anyways. Plus we were tired from the long trek along the beach in the HOT sun.

Enjoyed the ride back to our resort on Koh Rong Sanloem and spent the rest of the afternoon lounging around on the beach enjoying a beverage or two or three. I enjoyed Sex on the Sara, while Doug had one of his usual favorites, Mojito.

We stayed on the beach until it got dark as we were just too tired to bother to move. Finally got up and had dinner at the resort, as we apparently don’t tend to venture out far to eat.

Total tally for today’s Fitbit count is 15,052 steps and the equivalent of 42 floors. That was all the up and down on the beach in the sand. No wonder we were tired.

Tomorrow is another travel day. One day I would like to go back to this island and hope to experience the beautiful beaches and crystal clear waters without all the jungle debris from the storms.

23 March 2018 – Koh Rong Sanloem, Cambodia – Day 2 – Mr Montreal (poor guy)

Published on March 23, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

We slept in today, as we had no plans, and woke up to a cloudy, dismal day. Doug had left his shoes out on the porch and had to pour water of them. I had brought my shoes inside last night. Over a late breakfast we decided to explore the beach area to the right of the hotel.

Saw a cool insect and LOTS of small holes in the sand.After chatting with the girl who worked the front desk, we were able to book a private excursion for tomorrow as we want to go to Koh Rong, Sok San Beach to see if we can find the beach that Season 32 of Survivor: Kaoh Rong was filmed on. Turned out it was the girl’s Dad who would be taking us. We also booked another High Speed Ferry back to the mainland in order to be able to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

We decided to walk to the far end of the beach, passed the dock where we disembarked yesterday. We had to navigate large troughs of water runoff from the mountains as a result of last night’s storm. This water was brown and probably laden with bacteria. Guess these troughs always occurred in the same locations, as we found flimsy, wooden foot bridges erected up near the tree line on which to cross. It was so disappointing to see all these brown waters, as Paden had told us this island had some of the cleanest, most beautiful beaches he had ever seen. After talking with the owner of the resort, it turns out that the storms stir up all the jungle debris and it washes down the hillsides into the ocean after these bad storms occur. Bad timing on our part.Just as we approached the dock where we disembarked our ferry yesterday, the ferry was arriving and I was able to get pictures of the ordeal I described yesterday. Full sized suitcases being tossed through the air like they were nothing.We continued along the beach and the further we walked, the filthier it became and we ended up in an area called Dolphin Bay.

We watched as the Chinese with luggage were brought over in a boat from the pier. There was one backpacker, who turned out to be from Montreal, who had to walk as there was no room for him in the boat. It appeared that he was the only Caucasian going to the Dolphin Bay area. Poor guy! Hope he can speak some Chinese.

We ate chicken fingers, drank beer and wine on the beach and just sat there to relaxed until dinner.

22 March 2018 – Travel Day – Sihanoukville to Koh Rong Sanloem – Day 1

Published on March 22, 2021March 24, 2021 by Old&LostLeave a comment

Today was a travel day to the island of Koh Rong Sanloem. We had bought our ferry tickets already, which included a transfer from our guest house to the ferry dock. Our pick up time was 1130 to catch ferry that departs at 1200.

We waited and waited and waited. Saw taxis and tuk-tuks come and go along the street, but none came for us. The owners saw us still sitting there and we mentioned that our ride hadn’t shown yet. Waited some more. Finally the owner got a hold of the ferry company and discovered that they had forgotten to pick us up. By now it was 1155, so the owners grabbed us a tuk-tuk from outside of our BnB/Guest House to get us there. The owner phoned the ferry company back to let them know that we were on our way. They were going to pay for the tuk-tuk as we had already paid for transportation with our ferry tickets, which we had purchased through them. I am guessing that the ferry company will reimburse them the transfer portion. We arrived at the dock around 1205 and the ferry had already pulled away, but was in the process of coming back to get us! Thank God as these ferries fill up days in advance. We had to jump from dock onto the boat, which was about 3 feet, while we were still wearing our day packs. It was scary!! Also didn’t get to take any pictures.

The 45 minute trip was a little rough as we were in a rain storm. Quite a bad rain storm.

Once we arrived at Koh Rong Samloem’s dock we had to walk across a very narrow wooden plank to get from the ferry to the dock. Not everyone was disembarking, as this ferry makes a few stops. The luggage was being thrown off the boat, which was a distance of approximately 3 1/2 feet to a crew member who would catch it before it landed on the dock, not always successfully. A wheelchair came flying out first, barely being caught. It was a scary sight to watch.

It was STILL raining!!!

We walked to the end of the pier only to discover that there was NO ROAD and that we would have to walk down the beach to our accommodations. We were able to find shelter where we converted our big backpacks to back-carrying packs, as we usually just rolled them along on their back wheels. However, the wheels were not good for off road. We had to get the harness out and cover up the wheels. After putting on their rain covers and hefting them onto our backs, we attached our day packs, which also had rain covers to our front. Big packs on our backs and day packs on our fronts, we headed off down the beach. Since my backpacks weighed approximately 51 lbs and Doug’s were lighter, he carried mine.
According to maps.me our lodging was 1 mile down the beach. Surprise! Maps.me showed the accommodations being in the wrong place and it was SO MUCH FURTHER!!

We checked in the Sara Resort. This is a refurbished resort with new owners as of December 2017. It was really quite nice. But not with issues thanks to the big storms that were going on. This was causing toilet issues and the toilet would not fill with water after flushing. Plus all the water was brown.We were hungry and decided to grab a pizza, beer and dessert.

Now it was time to relax and enjoy the sunshine. Watched a delivery arrive which was quite fascinating.We had a nice dinner at the resort, but it was not cheap here considering we are still in Cambodia.We enjoyed watching a kid practice his fire twirling talents.

There was another BIG storm during the night.