An Incredibly Brief Start In Malaysia...

Our first port of call on our adventure was Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. After nearly not being able to leave due to a lot of grounded flights in London and a ton of traffic, we finally begun our 16 hour flight on an incredibly budget Air Asia flight direct to KL. It was a boringly uneventful flight, not moving much and having an asian man asleep on you for the duration tended to make it rather uncomfortable! At the time it felt like the longest journey ever (which is pretty accurate for most British people, as you very rarely need to travel for more than 2-3 hours at a time!) So, upon arriving in KL airport at some silly time which i currently don't remember, the arguments began, mainly because I left the airport straight away wanting a cigarette! It quite quickly became apparent that we should have booked a taxi while in the airport because we had no clue where we were! After a lot of shouting at each other and trying to find a way back inside to get to a booking office, I just kind of snuck past security to go to a taxi booth! This, took about an hour as we were both very tired and grumpy! Fortunately, courtesy of mother, we had a fancy hotel room booked for our first 2 nights. If it's your first time travelling I highly recommend this, mainly because the first time we set foot outside the hotel intending to explore, we got scared and ran back inside! After having a chat with the friendly concierge, we procured a map and directions and set about going on an adventure in KL. The place itself was huge and incredibly easy to get lost, especially if you've spent 99.9% of your life living in small towns where if you walk too far you just end up in a field! Thankfully, KL has a pretty good monorail system which takes you directly to most major landmarks in the city. This made going to the few places we visited pretty simple! Our first destination was chinatown. At the time the place was confusing and a bit too full on, little did we know, that this would probably be one of the more sedate chinatown areas we would visit in asia. Any how, the main problem I, in particular faced, was food. Being a chef, i have had food hygiene drilled into me for the past 3-4 years, therefore i refused to eat street food for the first month and a half of travelling. This put me at a slight disadvantage as most restaurants are ridiculously expensive (compared to street food that is, in the uk restaurant prices would compare to mcdonalds) So, ended up paying to eat at a guest house's breakfast buffet. He tried to charge us 50 ringit, but we said no, and he put it down to 20, so that was a bargain! After a lot of incredibly western food, we went exploring round the shops and market stalls. All we ended up buying was some sunglasses for Eloise as she wanted to try out her bartering skills. We also went into some random shops and took photos of the random shit they sold! We ended up back in the hotel quite sharpish after and chilled by the pool and slept as jetlag had apparently kicked in!

So, there's what our first day in Malaysia consisted of! The next post will be longer and more detailed but my brain has decided to stop working for now!

When The Highlight Of My Day Is Watching Ellen...

I have become increasingly reminiscent of my previous travels over the past few months, hence the starting of this blog to recap everything i've done. It will take me a while to get this all up to date and also make this blog a bit more fancy! So over the next few days/weeks/months, etc... you should end up with quite a detailed description of travelling round asia with a girlfriend! It's hard work, believe me, but also very rewarding!

 Being stuck in this incredibly backwards outback village has made me realise how lucky I have been to see all the places i have over the past year and a half, considering before that the closest i had been to travel was going to wales and a holiday to tenerife when i was 9! So, here comes the start of my initially hazy account of travelling! enjoy!

What's There To Do In Paraburdoo...

...Absolutely sod all, which is the whole reason behind this blog.

Paraburdoo is an incredibly small mining town in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, and the only reason i'm here is because I seemed unable to save any money in Perth, so what better way to save money than to go somewhere there is nothing to spend money on! The fact there is nothing to do here aside, for a vast desolate wasteland, it's quite a pretty area. Amazing sunsets are a regular feature on the horizon as well as some sweet looking 'mountains', which is nice to see in such a ridiculously flat country. The unfortunate thing about this place, is its main source of income, mining. While the mining of iron ore in Western Australia may well be bringing in millions of dollars of income to this otherwise uninhabitable corner of the world, it doesn't half become a pain. Want to see an amazing sunset/sunrise view from a viewpoint on a hill? Nope, it's in the mining area and therefore out of bounds. want to go exploring? Not a chance if that exploration brings you anywhere near the mine! And the worst part of it, the miners! Fussy, ungrateful and all round irritating people! But working in a pub who's clientele is 90% miners, you pretty much block that out of your mind or you might end up committing murder! Anyway, ranting aside, Paraburdoo is actually quite a nice place, although i've not explored much yet as it is ridiculously hot out here and it takes a lot of effort to leave the comfort of air-conditioning. Once i've explored a bit more and taken some decent photographs of the place then i feel i will be more qualified to give a good description of the place, but for now you'll have to make do with the few photos taken so far of the place, courtesy of my girlfriend!

The Beginning Of Something...hopefully!

For the past year I have been contemplating writing a blog while I was travelling, but there was always a reason not to do it. For instance, facebook seemed more important that writing (I'm not sure why my brain decided seeing what other people were doing at home was more interesting than cataloging my adventures!) So, now, while stuck in the arse end of nowhere for a few months to save money, I have finally started (been forced to) chronicling the exciting (and not so exciting) experiences I have been fortunate enough to be part of over the past 15 months, and hopefully carrying on after!
So, here it goes, hope you enjoy it!
Thank you for taking the time to read!
Jamie