4 Countries, 10 Days, 13 People and an Infinite Amount of Fun

So it has been a while since my last blog post but can you really blame me? Hong Kong, Singapore, Bali & Malaysia all in a constricted timeframe of ten days with the most amazing people, having the absolute time of my life.


We departed on the Wednesday at 6:50am which meant leaving for the airport at 3:00am in the morning. And no, I did not get any sleep that night. Rather, we proceeded to arrive in Singapore in a desperate state of tiredness and exhaustion. Nevertheless, after a short nap we were refuelled and ready to conquer Singapore with our first town called 'Little India', Mihir was in his element. Thanks to the advice of Papa Deo (Mihir's Dad), we paid a visit to a famous Indian restaurant called 'The Banana Leaf Apolo' where we had the most amazing Indian meals and Mango Lassi's. For some of us like myself it was an early night that night to catch up on sleep, however some of the girls went out for a few casual drinks.

We made great use of the following day by going on a "Hop On-Hop Off" bus tour of Singapore where we visited many of the famous sites including the Botanical Gardens, Gardens by the Bay and of course my favourite: Marina Bay Sands, the pinnacle of architecture in my eyes.



The weather was hot and humid, nothing like what we were used to back in Hong Kong (yet anyway) but I quite enjoyed it as it reminded me of an early Summer's day back on the Gold Coast. After mucking around at the Gardens and taking lots of photos we were finally headed to Marina Bay. I could not hold my excitement. My SLR couldn't take the photos fast enough as the bus approached the Marina Bay area and the building was in my sight. Soon enough my thumb become sore from the amount of photos I was taking from the open rooftop of the tour bus. The building itself was just as amazing and astronomical as what Google Images had portrayed it as, yet far more beautiful and majestic in person. I was instantly in love. The building consists of three, hyperbole-like curved towers in the middle of Marina Bay with what looks like a gigantic space-like ship floating across the top of each of the towers.

We later came back that night for beers and cocktails at KU DÉ TA: The Club at Marina Bay Sands. I can not even begin to describe the view that we had overlooking the city at night time, it was incredible. Unfortunately I did not take my SLR with me so I was dependent on my iPhone for photos. In saying that, Sara and I managed to pass through a reserved section of the bar and get a few photos of us by the famous infinity pool, unfortunately we were the outsiders looking in rather than the other way round.




The night continued with a Mexican dinner and drinks before heading to a few nightclubs. After a few too many tequila shots Sara thought it would be a great idea to go on what was called 'The Sling Shot' in the middle of Clarke Quay, Singapore. At what first seemed like a terrible idea after so many drinks, it actually turned out to be quite a laugh. See the video below for a full demonstration.

Off again in the morning and on our way to the airport bound for Bali! (The country I said I would never go back to..I deeply withdraw that statement now). We arrived at Denpasar airport and were taken to our villa in Seminyak by our private drivers. For $30USD per person we had a six bedroom mansion with its own pool, swim by bar, three private chefs/maids and our own driver..the benefits of travelling in a large group.

It was time to celebrate our fortune with some casual drinks by the pool before sitting down for our first "family" (of thirteen) meal at the dinner table cooked by our chefs. The food was fresh, rich with flavour and unimaginably scrumptious - even the photos you can see I have taken do not do the food justice.

Breakfast was equally as good each morning with a variety between a traditional american breakfast to a local balinese cuisine. Most of our days were spent in Bali relaxing by the pool and enjoying each other's company, it was the "holiday" between our two travelling destinations; Singapore & Malaysia, even though the whole trip was really just one tremendous holiday. However, we did manage to do some sightseeing in Bali thanks to Jack who organised the driver to take us on the bus to visit the rice fields over lunch and then local temples in the afternoon before visiting the monkeys and then proceeding to dinner at a nearby restaurant. By this night at least four of us were quite sick, my guess was from the water (Bali Belly). By the last day in Bali there were only four of us who had not experienced any such symptoms, however the rest were dropping off like flies and we were expecting ourselves to be next.

Our final days in Bali consisted of us enjoying each other's company at the villa over a few quiet drinks and the odd trip to the beach. Owen and Jeff regrettably purchased sunscreen called 'Bali Boat' that was no doubt a copy of 'Banana Boat'. Expecting it to work like normal sunscreen, they both ended up getting burnt from sitting in the sun all day and putting their faith in the sunscreen. We all managed to have a bit of fun with Owen over the next few days slapping him across the shoulders every now and then. One night we did manage to go to Kuta to a few nightclubs that I had been to on "Schoolies" over three years ago. 'Engine Room' seemed to be everyone's favourite. Sara at some staged managed to lose her iPhone between us leaving Kuta and getting back to the Villa. After looking everywhere for the phone, Sara and I sat down to try and locate her iPhone using the Find My iPhone app with mine but unfortunately we had no luck.

Whilst everyone was in the pool in somewhat of a drunken state, Sara and I managed to put aside the issue of her phone being lost to Bali and sat down and talked until the early hours of the morning. Sara Jane Eadie. She is one of a kind. Sara is the most independent, career driven and hard working young woman (of my age) that I have ever had the privilege of meeting. Conversely, her passion for people, socialising and spending time with good company is outweighed even further by her inherent nature to care for others in both a friendly and motherly manner. She is the sort of person that is the first to sacrifice her own needs for others, always taking charge of a situation, very forward and knows exactly how to get what she wants.

Sara is the epitome of the perfect friend and above all of these characteristics she is someone whom I can have a conversation with about anything whether it be uni, work, career prospects, personal life or even the future and in turn I value her trust and friendship in being able to share, listen and learn from these very conversations of her own. Making close friends here was always something I anticipated but never actually realised just how close I would become with these foreign students that only weeks ago were strangers to me. Yet now they are the closest people in my life and I feel like with them here this is my home now.

After late night swims, or should I say early morning swims and Mojitos thanks to Martin, we were off to Denpasar airport bound for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur ready to expect the worst of the media, candlelight shrines and families saying Hail Mary's in dedication to those passengers involved in the missing flight of MH370. However, there was no such evidence of disruption to the airport or media coverage, I later worked out that we were in fact at the low budget airline of Kuala Lumpur which was not in fact the airport where Malaysian Airlines is situated.

I was not quite sure what to expect of Malaysia. However, the country had been experiencing heavy bush fires only days before we arrived which meant we arrived to a completely smoke ridden city with absolutely no view. Our hostel was incredible. We stayed at the 'Reggae Mansion' which was full of a hundred or so other twenty year olds there for Future Music Festival 2014, just as we were. With a rooftop bar, a group of nine of us now and reception and security staff that continuously encouraged drinking I was beginning to regret having put my visa card and name down for all nine beds. We had a great deal of fun visiting the local sights and caves of which we ran into some very aggressive monkeys once again. One monkey managed to steal Connor's gatorade from his hand and open the bottle (when the cap was tightly closed) and drink the gatorade.

Upon wondering the streets of Kuala Lumpur that night we came across a shrine on the corner of two streets for flight MH370. Several posters were laid across the ground, surrounded with messages of love, support and lit candles in the shape of the Boeing 777. As inspiring as it was to see the locals latch on to any hope that the passengers on that flight were still alive, it was also very sad and daunting as our flight back to Hong Kong in a few days was to follow the same flight route as MH370.

We also managed to visit the Petronas Towers that night only just after Sara managed to snap the strap off one of her sandals and had to make use of Connor's sock as a replacement. It was incredible how much effort went into the visibility of the Petronas Towers, they were brightly light up every night and could be seen from miles away. On the final afternoon in Kuala Lumpur, we were just about to start pre-drinks before finding out via Facebook that the Future Music Festival was cancelled due to five locals having died from drug overdoses. We were quite disappointed that the festival was cancelled, especially because it was the main reason why we decided to come to Malaysia. Nevertheless, us business students did what we do best and turned an unfortunate event into the beginning of an eventful night at the rooftop bar. We drank, we witnessed terrible attempts at Karaoke, we danced, we ate BBQ for dinner and we pretty much stayed up all night before leaving for our flight at 3:00am from the hostel.

Without a doubt this was the best time of my life and I can not express how much I appreciate spending such a time with each and every person that came on the trip. This blog post does not do our trip justice nor could it every portray to you just how much of a great time I had. I wish I could have included every detail in this post but unfortunately that would take me weeks. In years time we will look back on such moments and say "they were the best times of my life" even though I am being premature and establishing that fact now because I know for sure it is true. These wonderful people are friends for life and I indent to keep it that way.