14 April 2007 - It's been a while!

Hey guys!

Fear not, Vick and Matt are safe and well.. The last few weeks have been pretty hectic hence no journal updates. Well I'm sure your all keen to read up on the next installment of the rocknrollride so lets begin..

OK, where did we leave you..ah yes, twas in good old Mersing. Well before we left we went for one last meal in the amazing Italian restaurant. We had a decent chat with the Swiss manager guy who gave us some advise on moving on. He suggested staying in Johat Bahror which is right at the bottom of Malaysia, just a 1000 meter bridge away from Singapore. He reckoned it would be best to stay in Johat Bahror and then just get the bus into Singapore as and when we fancied it. He also said shopping in JB was much cheaper which was ideal for Vick who wanted to get a new outfit for our big night out to celebrate our 2 year anniversary. We got the bus there and quickly tried to find a taxi driver who could speak sufficient English to recommend us a fairly cheap hotel . This wasn't easy but eventually we found our man. He seemed really friendly and suggested we try a hotel called Villa de la Rosie which sounded rather nice. When we got there we had a look round and it was the pits. The room was so dirty and actually looked like an old disused garage! We couldn't believe the taxi driver could recommended such a dive but we just told him it wasn't quite what we were looking for and asked him to take us to somewhere else. The next place was a bit more expensive but a 1000 times better. We were really pleased and everything was rosie until the taxi driver asked for payment.. Before we got out we noticed the fare on the meter was 8 ringett. The guy charged us 20! Matt was definitely not gonna pay this and started a bit of a heated debate in the lobby of our new hotel. Apparently because he had to stop at one place, then move on to the next, he had to add a surcharge on the bill (bearing in mind the meter was still running when the car was stationary anyway). He also tried to charge us for having luggage!-an extra 2 ringett per item! When he realized we weren't happy he asked how much did we want to pay-Matt just gave him 10 and told him to think himself lucky..

We unpacked and went for a little walk. Early impressions of JB were pretty naff. A dirty place which was just ridiculously un pedestrian friendly. We didn't stray too far into JB, just enough to get some food in to eat back at the hotel. We ate, watched a film, both did a workout and hit the hay.

Next day, we had our free buffet brekkie in the hotel. The usual curry/noodles on offer but we stuck to a few sheets of toast (the level of detail in these journals is staggering wouldn't you agree?!). We headed to the shops and once again didn't much like what we saw. Way too claustrophobic/dirty and REALLY religious (Vick's choice of attire seemed to get more looks and stares than ever before). We decided pretty quickly that we were not going to take the Swiss man's advise and just travel to and fro JB and Singapore to save money. We decided to go to Singapore the next day and just try and find somewhere cheap. Vick's mind was firmly made on moving on from JB when she ordered a Ceaser salad at a restaurant which consisted of a few manky leaves of lettuce with just a blob of mayo in the middle. We decided we should get up early the next day so as to get to Singapore nice and early and set our alarm for 7am. Had brekkie, checked out and got a taxi to the bus station. We got on a bus to Singapore thinking that would take us straight there. No such luck. Everybody had to get off the bus after about 5 mins to check out of Malaysia, then the bus didn't wait for us, as we'd taken a little longer than the others, weighed down by all the luggage we were carrying. We got on the next bus after a short wait. Then we had to all get off again to check into Singapore! We had to fill in a few forms which took a little while, and were horrified to find that the damn bus had buggered off without us again! We were a little bit peeved-but finally got on the THIRD bus which took us into the heart of Singapore..