The Two Towers, Fish on my Feet and the Final Show.

Hello all!

So we're all back safe and sound. In fact, we've been back for 3 months. Whoops! Sorry for the delay. Here is the fifth and final CT Tour blog, enjoy!

So, our final three days were a relaxed affair. On the Saturday, myself, Mud, Scottrina, Valentina, Kevin, John and Kim went to see the Two Towers (The Petronas Towers not Orthanc and Barad-Dur from The Lord of The Rings.) I can confirm that they are quite big but dissapointingly there were no evil wizards played by Christopher Lee in them. The attached shops were very expensive, particularly compared with the Chinatown night markets we went to that evening. My one peice of advice when visiting a market like this, don't wear a football jersey if you want to be left alone. In particular, don't wear a Manchester United jersey. It is amazing the amount of United merchandise there. I think i did quite well to restrict my purchases to two shirts and a cap.


We returned to the YMCA and myself and John King returned to our room to find a most horrific sight. Joel, in his underpants, cigar in one hand, beer in the other, watching Project Runway. Joel insisted that he was 'living the dream.' It seemed more like a nightmare to me. So we left to go out and watch the Australia/Ghana game at a bar called 'Ronnie Q's.'

We performed TPATFPOYP at The Temple of Fine Arts for the final time the following day. Personally, I was a little sad to finally say goodbye to Sima but it was some send off and certainly a very different experience from the final show at Nexus. We took photos with some of the children afterwards and oddly, some children did want photos of Joel! On the plus side, never again will I have to put that damn moustache on! After removing them, Jenny wisely disposed of my fetted whiskers safely before I performed arson upon them.

Our final day of the tour saw the majority of us prepare to leave for home. Once our bags were packed and we had left the YMCA, we dropped off our luggage at the temple and went to spend one last afternoon in KL. 'What ever did you do?' I (imagine) you ask. Well the obvious; buy a remote control helicopter for $17 Aus and let a tank of fish clean my feet.

You may have seen this activity on TV where people stick there feet in a fish tank full of tiny fish and let them nibble away. Well Scottrina, John King and I saw a shop in this massive shopping centre offer this service and decided to participate. It was an interesting sensation. I never expected it to be so pleasent. It feels odd at first, as the fish latch onto your foot and nibble away but the slight tickling aside, it really is quite relaxing.

And that was pretty much it. We returned to the temple in the evening, showered, flew remote control helicopters for a bit and then gathered up our belongings and took the coach to the airport. We arrived in Perth at roughly 5-6am where it was a dazzling 8 degrees Celcius. Brr! Still, we got through customs, I picked up a nice big bottle of port from the duty free and we parted company, all of us ready to sleep.

Within two hours, I was home just in time to wake up my brothers for school by landing a remote control helicopter on their faces. Their mood improved once they realized I had gifts. I fed the dogs for the first time in nearly two weeks (they seemed happier to see me than my siblings) and I slept in my own bed. As sleep enveloped me in her heavy embrace, I found it odd that almost thirteen hours prior I was in a Malaysian temple, having a shower and whistling the Swedish Rhapsody.

It is a funny thing, Children's Theatre, isn't it?

Yours belatedly,
Stephen B. Platt, former Confucian Bear.

Planes, Trains, Boats and Manchester United themed Cafes...

Greetings from Singapore!

I'd better start from when I finished the last blog. The journey from home to The Hive in Singapore took a total of 11 hours. Everything went very smoothly. After saying goodbye to loved ones at the airport, we boarded the plane for Singapore. The 5 hour flight was pleasant enough, even if we had to make our own entertainment. This primarily came in the form of a game of I Spy in which it took Scottrina most of the flight to figure out what began with L. (The answer was 'Label')

After landing, we boarded a fleet of Taxi's and were driven to our lodgings whilst here in Singapore, The Hive. As it was close to 4am by the time we got there, none of us were in the mood to appreciate our surroundings. We went straight to bed and would have gone to sleep immediately if it weren't for Kevin's 'hygiene routine.' I think Joel summed up everyone's feelings; "Who cleans there ears at 5 in the morning?"

Due to the heat and humidity, the boys room has established the rule of 'Pants off, shirts optional' which is being enforced, mostly by Joel. The rooms are basic but secure. Both rooms were air conditioned until the girls AC started leaking. In Kate's ear so I'm told. So there may be a small invasion tonight. So I'll be fortifying the room after this.

So today, whilst the girls (and Kevin) hit the shops, myself, Scottrina and Mud (John Langdale) decided to go explore some of what this city has to offer. My overall impression so far is that Singapore is a very charming place, particularly by the waterfront. The public transport is of a high quality. The trains are on time and clean. As someone who uses Perth's trains a lot, I am unsure how I can ever return to a normal life after the dizzying heights of Singapore's standards. A place where T.V's display movie trailers and informative transport announcements while you wait, a place where the bars you hold onto whilst standing on a moving train split into three bars at shoulder height, meaning three times as many people can use them. A place where the signs say "No smoking, No eating or drinking, No flammable goods and No durians."

The buildings here are some the most daringly designed I've ever seen. I can't even begin to describe some of them to you. I'll put up pictures when I get back but they are incredible. But the building that impressed me the most was the Manchester United themed cafe on the waterfront. We stopped there for a tasty lunch as the others watched me get very excited over the wall dedicated to United's great number sevens and the framed and signed Rooney and Giggs shirts.

Once we had eaten, we left the cafe (with me now wearing a new official United top that cost over $50 less than it would back in Aus!) and decided to take a river cruise. Singapore continued to be amazingly beautiful, with highlights of the tour being a brilliant statue of 5 little boys jumping into the river. They literally were! Again, pictures will be available when we get back.

We made our way back to The Hive afterward and sat down with Joel and John (King) with some Tiger beers, which I would recommend everyone trying. People began cooking up plans for a night on the town but tiredness and Tiger Beer caught up with me and I had to have a long nap. This worked out perfectly for myself because, as much as I'd love to drink until my brains turned to mush and started dribbling out of ears in a Singaporean night club, instead I get to kick back and relax in the lounge of The Hive, write this latest installment of our travels and watch the World Cup with a Tiger Beer or two ;)

A trip to the zoo is planned tomorrow, so with any luck you may get another of these blogs in the evening. Or I may wait until we arrive in Johor Bahru on Monday. We'll see. Anyway, going to watch the England game in about an hour or two and then hit the hay.

Wishing that you were all here with us,
Stephen