Wandering Scotsman

Well, it is. While moving stuff around from one laptop to the newer slimline lightweight Sony, I got a dialer trojan horse virus. The first one ever. Anyway, I had a look online and it didn’t look an easy one to get rid of so I had no choice but to leave it just now. I had flights to catch before I could leave!

Anyway, a few days into the trip I did a search with the free AVG Anti Virus which I’ve used for years, and it cleared the lot out. If only Sony would bump up their prices by £30 and get rid of all the crap software they throw on….. rant over.

Well I survived the first night in Singapore. This place rocks. I could maybe work here in some later life. Despite being a wee island in SE Asia there’s so much to do here…rock climbing, mountain biking, night safaris, cable cars to islands…but I walked twe blocks to the pub (despite passing many on the way…are they really so bad you can’t see inside any of them?) So Asian, but so western at the same time….hmm…maybe thats not so good. Survived a few drinkies at the local ’57 Chevys’… spent 10 mins thinking I was fleeced on the $5 cheap beers, but then two sets of change arrived (hey I was thirsty after a long flight!). The live music consisted of such classics as ‘You to Me Are Everything’, ‘Acradababra’, ‘Word Up!’ by Cameo, ‘Happy Birthday to Ya’ and others. By the way, British Airways rocks too…despite the amazing cheap carriers, they moved me to the front of the plane on arrival so I could catch my connection in Heathrow. Try cheap n cheerful Sleasyjet doing that! Anyway, I had to come ‘home’ to my Hostel tonight…you see my pants were hanging off my arse as the elastic had blown. I was going to leave these behind, the wonderful 3/4 length troos….hey I’m only going to be trek leading, who said you had to check your kit out before hauling it half way around the world. I did use my initiative and stopped pulling the elastic out, and walked back to retrive the catch from the pavement.
I realised I was 7km from the city centre, but despite what they say, everyone is smoking in public and throwing butt ends away. I haven’t had the balls to spit on the pavement yet to see what happens…. Shit, maybe I should have eaten tonight…

I finally made it to Asia. I was determined to be more organised than my sister when she comes home priot to scooting off to her next teaching posting…..well I failed miserably I think. Unfortunately the rush of sorting the flat, the stress of having too many toys in my bag (Underwater camera, flash, compact camera, DSLR and lenses….) kind of took the joy out of leaving. Rushed goodbyes, many goodbyes missed, and leaving loads of crap for my mum to deal with!

But after just making my Edinburgh check-in, I had 1hr 45 mins to make my connection. The flight left Edinburgh 70 mins late. Amazingly both my bag and I managed to cross over to Terminal 4 at Heathrow in time.

Anyway, I’m in Singapore. I’m knackered, despite mucho kip on the flight, but what the f*** am I doing sitting online in the hostel, I’ve gotto go and explore.

Justgiving – Youth Development Work, Borneo Summer 06: “*Total donated online: �585.00
Amount raised offline: �1,021.00
Plus Justgiving has reclaimed Gift Aid of: �133.97
“

Fundraising target reached! Thanks to everyone who has helped – I’ve been blown away by the generosity. Will write more later, if you still want to help email me and I’ll let you know how. Better do some packing….

Can I make this website open source so someone can jazz it up for me and give me a fancy content managed system…? No time for stuff like that! Saw a postcard the other day in a pub “Same Shit, Different Day”. Oh how I laughed. Although my same shit days of organisation are almost ending…. 😉

Well if you have had a check of this and there’s been nothing appearing, I’m sorry, but it’s been manic. Have been sorting out stuff mail order, the new laptop (took ages, and I got a trojan horse virus!), and all my kit – never mind the paperwork. Its way more stressful than working.

Also, here’s a couple of pictures of my room in my mum’s house 2 days before I left Aberdeen to come back to Edinburgh for my flight.

Got the following leaving card from my sister before I left…very appropriate!

Who needs Asian sunsets when you get these in Aberdeen? (ok, not quite the same but I nice one to leave with!). Actually this wasn’t the sun, it was the moon.
  

I managed to make a few phone calls to Trailfinders in Glasgow who I always completely trust with my flights – so helpful, never rushed, and they seem to have access to flights that other’s don’t have (e.g. my Kuwait airlines trip last year Kuwait-Bangkok-Manila and back for £550!) and for decent prices. I’ve had a couple of last minute calls from a friend who hopes to be in Asia after my Raleigh expedition, and my sister hopes to be holidaying there too at the end of October so I made some tweaks to try and accommodate these if they happen. After going through the flights I wanted, Trailfinders had me reserved on similar flights to STA Travel, yet at £200 less. On Friday I called up and finally, less than two weeks prior to departure, booked and paid for my seats. So for a mere £848.60 I have a return trip to Australia…with some nice twists in the middle.
LHR-SIN-SYD-AKL-SYD-NRT (overland to) BKK-LHR

In English…
Thursday 14th is D(eparture)-Day out to Singapore.
After a couple of nights there I’ll cross the causeway to catch my AirAsia flight from Johor Bahru in Malaysia to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo.
The expedition lasts til Mid September then I’ll kick around Asia, and maybe head down to Bali until flying to Sydney in mid December to spend Christmas in Australia. At the end of January I head over to Auckland for a couple of months in New Zealand. I hope to get up to Fiji around this time as well.
At the end of March I fly back to Sydney then on to Tokyo. Somehow from there I’ll make my way overland hopefully by ferry to South Korea, then a ferry to China, and down through China and Vietnam to Bangkok for my flight home next June (if it happens 😉 )

Half of me still kinda wishes I had just booked a one way to Malaysia and sorted out tickets using discount carriers and flights from Bangkok….
You can get flights from Singapore to Darwin for £150 return and apparently that’s nowhere near the cheapest they are sold for!….maybe the next time!!