Day 19 - Final thoughts

14 hour flight back to London was a bit hard for me. Because of the daylight savings we could not understand how much is left till landing, and last two hours have been really long! In London we had to run through the airport to check-in for our Dublin flight… One more hour… Back in Dublin…

In general, the trip was very good, but nature was particularly beautiful. I would actually say that I enjoyed the nature most with waterfall swim and volcano climb being my favorite moments of the trip.

Big cities were the biggest disappointment, unless one can do some dining or shopping there, like in Singapore, for example. Jakarta and Padang have been the ugliest spots of the trip in terms of dirt and Kuta Bali was the ugliest spot in terms of drugs, prostitutes, drunken tourists and other “sweet life” accessories.

Activities are difinitely the key to the successful trip. We would not last for 17 days with one and the same activities. Motorbikes, volcano hike, beaches, surf board, waterfall swim, night club, etc. – the trip should definitely be activity-centered, rather than place-centered. But changing places once every three days was also a great idea.

Finally, small local villages with authentic experience, local language, and day-to-day habits are probably the best spots to enjoy the country. It was such a peace of mind to be among people, who are happy for you to be there, who smile as sincerely, as you do, and how don’t care about selling something to you, as they have their own stuff to do.

Waiting for another year… Let’s see what happens…

Day 18 - Kuala Lumpur

We arrived to Kuala Lumpur at 5am in the morning by the night bus from Singapore. The night view of the city was pretty ugly, especially compared to comfortable bus seats that almost transformed into a bedsit :)

After unsuccessful attempts to catch a taxi with meter, we went to Chinatown for RM20. Quick check-in to the hotel, and two hour power nap, which we desperately needed!

During the day Kuala Lumpur was much better than at night, yet the sun and heat that we already experienced in Singapore was killing us again. Petronas Towers view point was closed on Monday – unlucky we are, so we went to the Menara KL Tower to enjoy the city view. It was funny, how they wrote “4th Tallest Tower in the World” at the entrance. “4th” was in really tiny font 

In the shopping center near Petronas towers we spent some time near Sauber bolid and Malaysian Grand-Prix stand. Local lady wanted to take picture of her small son with me – would be nice to find out, with which celebrity they actually mess me up…

Second half of the day was devoted to shopping and gastoronomic pleasures. We were totally tired of traveling – relaxation and nothing else we need… Final tropical rain in our trip, final Chinese market, and final taxi to our final flight…

Day 17 - More Singapore

Well, this day was probably the most boring one. We slept only 4 hours, plus this was one of the last days on the trip and were looking forward to come back home. Relaxing program of the river cruise was accompanied with the strongest sun and heat, which made our existance almost unbearable. We dreamed about a cool and relaxing place – probably that’s why we ended up in the electronics shopping mall again :)

In the evening we came back to hostel, and what a surprise – we have met Dasha! Two days we were sending emails forwards and backwards, as our phones didn’t work properly. She was staying at Makenzie Rd 11, and we were staying at Makenzie Rd 12 – well, the same G4 Station Hostel, as we discovered at the end… Happy days and happy dinner! Zoli was satisfying his gastronomic passion with chinese century eggs, and later with durians… Dasha was sharing her plans about Formula 1 Grand-Prix in Kuala Lumpur… Good ending of our stay in Singapore.

Day 16 - Singapore

After Indonesia Singapore was a total contrast! Everything is organized and civilized, almost everyone speaks English, and actually almost all the faces look educated.

As expected, Dima and myself got stuck on the passport control. From Dasha’s words CIS countries enjoy visa free transit entry for 96 hours. Immigration office first hesitated that our flight from Kuala Lumpur is actually eligible for this regulation, but after all the stories about our trip, and royal mail, they stamped our passports with entry permits.

The heat in Singapore is even worse than in Indonesia due to total concrete structures all over the place. We spend about 1.5 hours in search of a hostel and ended up in the most expensive accommodation of our trip - $40SG per person. We could hardly stand all together in the room – it reminded me army conditions with double beds and no space whatsoever…

From the hostel we went to meet Joao, and after that luckily we proceeded to local team event meeting very interesting people from the local office – real mix of asian nationalities – philipino, vietnamese, indonesian, thai, singaporian, taiwan and so on. Joao brought us to his favourite Thai food restaurant, after which we could hardly walk. Indeed, Singapore is a paradise for Asian food lovers, but I am definitely not the best person to tell you about this…

After the dinner we went around the town. Night views of Singapore are very nice, although not as impressive, as in Hong Kong. Personal income taxes are really low here, so with a slightly higher accommodation prices compared to Dublin, one can enjoy a significant tax benefit with lower prices on other services on top. Not even saying about electronics paradise that we witnessed in the Sim Lim Square shopping center. Singapore is the place to be, if one is looking for an Asian hub city for living.

Day 15 - Lake Maninjau

The day was a bit boring after all the volcano impressions. But probably we needed some time to do nothing, to plan nothing and to run for nothing. After some negotiations with local taxi we caught a public mini van and asked to give us a list to the lake. The guy couldn’t go himself, but happily dropped us to bus station, where he sold us to another mini van driver. At 60% of the taxi price we went to the Maninjau lake…

The lake itself looks a lot better from the top of the mountanous road with 44 crazy turns, which not every driver will be able to surf. Couple of turns were inhabited by monkeys – happy days for Zoli. At the actual lake we didn’t find anything impressive, so in two hours after a fresh juice in the local café we took a mini van back. The driver was actually very nice and attentive – he waited for us all these two hours, and on the way back he bought some peanuts for monkeys – Zoli was especially happy to feed monkeys and take pictures of their peanut jumps.

In Bukattinggi we had our last pineapple juice before leaving to Padang, and then to Singapore. This juice was actually the last positive note of the day, as Padang itself happened to be an ugly and dirty city with only one decoration – local public transport mini vans called opeletes.

Once again we could conclude that big cities should be avoided in Asia, while nature and small authentic villages are the best places to be.

Day 14 - Climbing Merapi

Merapi is an active volcano on Sumatra, 2891m high. To clibm this beauty within a day we got up at 5am. The rain joined us immediately, and we were a bit doubtful of our chances.

Taxi to the village close to Merapi for Rp.100K, and good sip of a coffee with toast in the total darkness in front of the mountain. Funny that liquid coffees were given to us in small plastic bags :)

The climb started at 6:10, when the light was already out. It tool us 30 minutes to get to the only check point at forestry station, and after that the 4 hour fun began.

We passed the bridge from bamboo, observed a wierd animal on the trees - something between a squirrel and a rat. And, of course, the route got steeper and steeper. Mud changed for tree roots, tree routs to clay, clay to green stones, and finally green stones - to volcano ash with grey minerals.

Last 300 meters were especially hard, as we chose the wrong way on top and climbed the steeper side without any pathway. After a quick chocolate and cookie lunch on the top we went to research the crater.

As the first-time climber of a volcano, I was amazed with the size and activity of the volcano's heart. The smoke was coming from a 200m deep hole of a 500m diameter. The walls of the hole were layered with different colors of rock - green, red, brown and even yellowish. We tried to come to the side to see the bottom of the hole, but it was covered under rock.

Another amazing thing that I observed on the top was a full circle rainbow around the sun. My humble understanding was that rainbow is a half circle on the ground - but this one was really symbolic for me - the sun in the center, and the rainbow around it in the very zenith of the sky!

Around 1pm we moved down using the pathway this time :) The whole route took us another 3 hours, and actually I found it harder to go down - maybe my muscles are just built like that...

Back in Bukittinggi we celebrated another great day with fresh fruits and juices. And the town gratefully added another tropical wall of rain to our nicest volcano memories...

Day 13 - Equator

Early in the morning we tried to rent motorbikes, as we did on Lombok, or a jeep. Both attempts failed, and as we found out later in the day - failed for good. Drivers on the road are crazy, roads are bad and swingy, plus the rests of rainy season add a bit of a head ache.

We took a bus to Bonjol for Rp.10K to see the equator. Distance to Bonjol was about 40km, but it took us 2.5 hours to get there. First, the driver was collecting stuff all over the town, then he was driving slowly not to catch the cops. Yet, we caught the cops and he spent some time bribing them for the illegal load. Finally, 3km before the equator we have got a flat tyre :) Zoli happened to be an excellent predictor of flat tyres :)

We reached ecuator around 2pm, took couple of pictures with local latitude marksn and then discovered an interesting phenomenon. Real equator is about 130 meters south of the latitude mark with 20m accuracy. How good that we have GPS - let"s take a picture on the real ecuator as well :)

In general, the trip to the equator was boring, but couple of thing have made it at least a bit more interesting. As Dima noticed, many girls we strangely looking at me, smiling, waving and discussing something between themselves. Still can't undertand what's going on and why they like me so much, but Dima concluded that I may well be the local sex symbol :)

Another funny thing was that we were the only white people around, and noone actually spoke any English. Yey! We finally escaped from the tourist track and went for some authentic stuff :)

The bus itself was one of the authentic experiences. It was so packed that I traveled for 15 minutes on the stairs with open door - really afraid to fall asleep :) After that I have got a quarter-seat, in which I traveled for another 2 hours. Heavy rain has added even more to this, but who cares? - Now we know, where the real equator is :)

Day 12 - Sumatra

This day started with 12 hour sleep in the hotel without any light, Zoli fighting mosquitoes and covering his face with a pillow case, and finally pastry breakfast in the airport that I desperately wanted for such a long time!

After 2 hour flight we arrived to Padang on Sumatra. No wonder that first thing to do was to negotiate something - this time the car. As usual, prices were too high and arguments were too weak, plus the guy was very strange.

In Padang city we tried amazing taxi mini buses called opeletes. These cars are painted in bright colors and tuned to the likes of the driver with nothing but stereo on board :) We enjoyed a good techno selection in ours :)

Bus to bukittinggi took us two hours with last hour in heavy rain. The driver happened to be a tricky one and tried to get more money from us for dropping directly to the hotel.

Day 11 - Jakarta

They say, even if you don't want to go to Jakarta, you will still end up there. We woke up at 3am to catch the flight from Lombok to Sumatra through Jakarta. First, the airport was closed till about 4:30, and then we discovered that travel agent booked us tickets for 24th and not for 23rd...

Changing flight to Jakarta was not a problem, but getting to Padang the same day was away too expensive.

We don't know, if the agent made a mistake on purpose, but thanks to him we got stuck in the hell of Jakarta for a day. You can feel this hell already in the plane - everyone is mad in the total rush, with zero culture or attention to people around. Tourist tricking started again as well, when guys in the airport denied the existance of the hotel we were looking for and referred some of their friends.

It's funny, but locals think that white man can only go to Bali, and there is nothing else the white man could potentially want - Bali, drugs, girls, food, taxi, fake gucci, etc.

The only thing that we admired in Jakarta was food. The airport itself was a pastery heaven with cakes, donuts, cookies and so on.

Near the transit hotel we went for a lunch in a small wagon, where locals eat. Two girls aged 14 could not say any word in English, but their pleasure and happiness of having us there was infinite! They were laughing all the time trying to understand, what we want. One of them touched my hand and told something to another. As one of the locals translated, she was saying that I was handsome - blushing indeed :) These were the happiest tip I have ever given, and I admire people, who do their job with passion, and do not try to trick you.

After the lunch we took a power nap for 2.5 hours, and I bet we could last longer, if Vlad wouldn't wake us up. Quick shower and we took a taxi to the Old Town.

Now, really welcome to Jakarta - noise, motorbike fumes in the air, crazy traffic jams, and dirty streets. The contrast with heavenly Gili Islands and Rinjani is shocking!

We went to see the fleet in Kota, which is probably the only one still operating on sails. Numerous workers were loading cement in the peak of the heat, all covered with dust and trash around the ships. We were the only white people there - so it was we, who acted as an attraction at the time :)

We kept walking along the streets of Kota packed with workers and terrible living standards. I had a strange feeling that they look at ua, as at big bosses, who have all the power and freedom in this life.

On the central square of the Old Town we went to a very posh colonial-style cafe Batavia. I saw something that I always imagined in the books about Caribbean pirates - red wood house with big windows and view on palm tree leaves, waiters all around, tropical rain wall outside and numerous slaves loading boats in the port. I really felt like a colonialist.

Day 10 - Rinjani

The day as usual started from negotiations. We kept in mind Angrid's words that this is our trip and selected to go to Rinjani National Park by bikes.

The road to the mountains took us longer than we expected - approximately 2.5 hours - partially because of bikes power and partially because of roads. Yetn we enjoyed one of the best sceneries in our trip - rice fields, coconut factory, authentic villages, etc.

Lombok is 90% muslim in contrast to hinduist Bali island. People in the villages are not used to tourists and many kids run towards the road to wave and say "hello!". They are so happy, when you wave them back! As our local advisor Jonny said, we are so strange and interesting with white skin and blue eyes...

Actually, some of the locals were even afraid of us - especially those, who didn't speak English. That was a bit weird, but we tried to be nice and make them smile.

Rinjani National Park is a beautiful range of mountains with volcano and the lake in the epicenter. The highest point of Rinjani is 3726m and requires three day hike. We stopped at 601m point is the village of Senaru and limited ourselves to the waterfall hike.

The first waterfall was not interesting at all, expect the locals, who were actually taking pictures of us :) We stayed there for ten minutes and went for the real hike to the second waterfall. We had to cross the river in the fast water flow, climb couple of stones and small hills, and go through the narrow jungle path.

The waterfall was amazing! We took our clothes offn jumped into the water and moved as close as possible to the falling waters. Drops were cooling the body, and humid wind with mystic sound was bringing the peace of mind and body. Swimming in the waterfall was definitely one of the best and most energizing moments of the trip.

On the way back we were just ten minutes late for the sunset :( But we saw a small village parade and celebration of something. The day ended in the souvenir shop full of emotions from the waterful and wooden masks with geko ornament in our shopping cards :)

Day 9 - Gili Islands

The day started from buying tickets to Sumatra. For about 70 euro we have got a flight from Lombok to Padang on Sumatra via Jakarta, saving one day on commuting by ferry.

After that we negotiated a boat to Gili Islands. As usual, the guy started high at 600 thousand for two islands, we offered 300 for three islands, and final deal was 400 for the full day and three islands. I am sure we could negotiate more, but still a good practice :)

Actually, all the islands around Lombok are calles Gilis - meaning small islands. Yet, when you here Gili Islands in books, they refer to three major ones near Senggigi - Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno and Gili Air. These islands are famous for snorkling, diving and white sand beaches.

Gili Trawangan was the first island that we visited. It was about 1.5 hours by boat from Senggigi. This island is known as party island, and is most packed with tourists, marihuana and things like that. Yet, it is not as busy, as Kuta on Bali.

The water is amazingly clean! We used Zoli's swimming glasses for snorkling and collected couple of corals for presents. Dima kept negotiating with local seller about pearls and means of checking their quality.

Next and the best out of three islands was Gili Meno. That is where everything was authentic and density of tourists was minimal.

We crossed the island on foot, meeting some locals (population is 300 people), looking at their small houses, throwing coconuts and climbing palm trees. It was so nice to be in the place, where people do their own stuff and don't care about tourists. We finally felt ourselves part of the whole thing, and not tourists.

On the opposite side of Gili Meno we had a swin in totally transparent water with clean white send! It was heaven, and I found an ideally heart-shaped piece of a coral for the memory.

After the second island Gili Air didn't seem impressive at all. We quickly came back to Senggigi and ended up in the cafe, where the waiter kept comparing me with spanish guitarist that he saw on TV the other day :)

Day 8 - Lombok

Early in the morning we took a taxi to padang bai, from where we took a ferry to Lombok island. For a change we took a taxi with meter, and at the end the price for 50km was 240,000 rupia versus initial ask of 400,000 from a private driver.

The ferry terminal was full of locals - only one American girl except us four. The way to Lombok takes 5 hours and waters were generally calm.

In just an hour from departure skinny man in swiss hat sit next to me on the side of the ferry. We started talking about traveling, and he told me couple of interesting stories about himself.

Angrid was 35 years old from Batam island near Singapore, heading to Lombok for a 5-day climb at Rinjani. For last 20 years he was climbing one major indonesian mountain per year and two or three secondary ones. Also recently he has crossed Kalimantan island on military jeep on the 45-day trip.

Angrid eagerly shared his knowledge on Rinjani routes, and explained that to see volcano lake we need minimum 2 days / 1 night, and for the top - 3/2. That's something we didn't research properly before, so our climbing ambitions disappeared.

Also Angrid adviced us on crossing the ecuator on Sumatra and gave a lift on his mini van to Mataram, listening to U2 all the way ;)

In Mataram we had a quick dinner - suffered from spices again :) and then took a taxi to Senggigi, where stayed for night in a nice cottage.

Day 7 - Beaches

Early in the morning we went to Dream Land beach. This time we new the road, didn't lose anyone and at 10am landed on the beach towels.

Waves were pretty high. We rented a small board to play in the ocean. Sun was burning hard and everyone got burnt to some extent.

After the beach we went to the Monkey Templen where Zoli spent an hour taking pictures of monkeys in different postures and occupations. Vlad's glasses and Zoli's hat have been stolen by our brothers, and only temple staff managed to return items by throwing cucumbers to monkeys.

To conclude our Bali beach visits we went again to Uluwatu and spent two hours there just sitting in the shade and drinking water.

Motor bike repair claims also have been resolved quickly, so I have got a good life lesson for 20 euro worth of bike repairs.

Day 6 - Around Bali Island

The day started badly. We rented 4 motorbikes, and I was stupid enough to get one for myself without any license or driving experience. Taking into account bad Bali traffic, I crashed two times and we gave away my bike. I was in the psycho shock all day - luckily no major injuries, broken cars or hit pedestrians.

Then, on the way to Uluwatu, we lost Zoli... Still, Uluwatu was a great fun - surfing paradise with water entrance through the rock.

After Uluwatu we spent some time on another beach - Padang-Padang. And only close to the end of the day we found the best beach in the area - Dream Land.

The way back home was hectic - the traffic is real hell with all expensive cars around... At some point I even jumped of Dima's bike to let him balance properly.

The day ended with foot massage and nice dinner with crabs, prawns and fish satay. Tomorrow we go for Dream Land, and who knows what happens with bike rentals...

Day 5 - BaliPatrick

We arrived to Bali at 10pm, spent half an hour looking for a proper taxi with check :) Good stuff - to do your research around - we basically paid twice less.

Reunion with Vlad and Zoli happened around midnight. Quick shower and we found ourselves in the night club celebrating Paddy's day over a pint of Guinness :)

In one of the clubs we've met two irish girls dressed all green, drunk, dancing - usual irish tourists :)

Bob Marley and disco on the sand stage introduced another important part of Bali clubbing... All over the place you are offered Ephidrin and similar substances. Prostitutes, taxis, motor bikes, drunk tourists, crazy noise - fantastic :) Unfortunately, I perfer nature and consolation...

Around 4am we finished our Paddy's day near the pool - tired, but excited and ready for the top of the morning ;)

Day 5 - St. Patrick's

"Top of the morning to you!" - that how we start each day on the trip, and especially St. Patrick's.

After a night in the noisy hotel we went to pick up our indonesian visas. Then - a small bargain over the taxi price to bus station - we actually got a bit better in bargaining.

Also, we got a bit better in eating the local food, especially the rice stuff, which is amazing. As proved by Zoli and Vlad - don't eat western food in Asia, as they don't know how to cook it :)

The bus to Kuala Lumpur was flying at 140 km/h. At 4pm we arrived to the futuristic KL with skyscrapers, highways, financial centers and other alien-liking facilities.

Singapore embassy does not issue visas anymore - there are four agencies that do this, but all of them could handle the docs only within two days. So, we decided to go to Bali straight away.

Last flight to Bali was at 7pm - it was 5:10 at the moment we decided to go, no ticket, 60km to the airport, etc.

The taxi driver promised us to be in the airport within an hour, which was already too late... But we gave it a try :) the whole way on the taxi was full of adrenaline - is this the right flight, is this the right airport, can we make it on time?

With 90-150 km/h the car was literally flying. It was especially symbolic, when we were passing Sepang Formula 1 ring :) We entered the airport at 5:55, which left us with 5min to buy tickets and check-in. Luckily, we could do it at the service desk omitting the sales office lines. At 7pm we took off to Bali...

Day 4 - Yobo Penang Bridge

It probably started from the moment I took a picture with Yobo brand - let's say, became an official face of Yobo.

Penang bridge is the longest bridge in south-east asia - 13km long, and seeing this giant was a great deal - that's what we thought :)

Near the bus station we hired a taxi for RM20. As we found out later, proper price was about RM7, and the guy dropped us in the middle of highway for triple price...

It started raining... Quick view on the traffic jam and some pieces of the bridge... And the fun begins - how do we actually go back?

We went back along the highway for about 1.5km jumping over canalization and breathing the best of the jam :) we reached the gas station, and then Tesco, which was the only hope for proper transportation in the area.

Well, the bus 206 - marshrutka style half damaged mini van - was the only option. For RM1.5 it took us around the unknown George Town - 1.5 hours of big and small streets, skyscrsapers and social housing, outdoor swimming pools and garbage areas... Where did it all come from? We thought it was a small quiet town... Night and the bus 206 have changed it all...

Day 4 - George Town

Last morning in our luxury hotel and time to join our counterparts in Indonesia for a real backpacking stuff :)

We packed ourselves with breakfast laughing at East European style of exploiting the free stuff :)

Bus number 101 took us to George Town, where we had a critical task - to get Indonesian visa. On the bus we have met a family with two small kids, one less than a year! What can I say - brave people!

We hoped to get the visa on the same day, but after a hassel with photo copying and getting passport pictures, our chances went down to zero. We have to spend one night in George Town.

The town happened to be a crowded city with roundabouts and weird one-sided traffic. Prices are often quoted as number++, for example 340++ will add up to 390 with additional fees and charges.

Several times we went to central bus station to find a connection. As in many countries - it is a place to be :) Homeless, fights, dirt, emissions - that's how we found the ultimate story with Penang Bridge trip...

Day 3 - Penang National Park

Today I finally got a pastery :) Even six of them... So, full and slow we went towards Penang National Park, which is in the north-western part of the island.

Trekking trails kept changing from easy to hard ones, from sand to rock and from beaches to jungles. Lighthouse was definitely the best bit of our half day hike. Wonderful view on surrounding hills with dense jungles and mysterious smoke.

On our way back we took a boat for RM30 and checked our route from the sea. Relaxing pool and another cup of noodle soup concluded our day nicely. Tomorrow we are going back to George Town to apply for Indonesian visa.

Day 2 - The Split

We woke up at 4am to catch the flight to Solo, Indonesia. Dima and myself did not have visas, but we firmly decided to play a bit with check-in crew and sneak into the country.

First of all we tried self check-in service, but smart system has sent us for a visa check :) Then we tried wonders of storytelling at the actual check-in, but the guy was very firm and our attempts failed.

Zoli and Vlad boarded the Solo flight, while Dima and myself bought tickets to Penang - an island up north in Malaysia - 1 hour before the departure.

At 8am we landed in Penang in the middle of poor housing and a bit shocking reality in terms of expected beaches.

The reason we went to Penang in the first place was the Indonesian consulate in George Town. It was saturday, so two more days before we can apply for a visa, and we did not want to spend those days in the packed KL surrounding.

We took a bus to George Town and enjoyed a rare case of tourist free walk around local houses, small sewing factories and infinite palm trees.

Around 11am we took a taxi to the only decent beach area of the island - Batu Feringhi. Guesthouses were in the worst traditions of offering compared to prices they asked for.

We decided that during these first days of the trip after our long passport story we deserve a luxury hotel and went for Parkroyal Resort.

Just for a change we can make exception to our ultimate backpacking style... Swimming pool, recreation areas, nicely decorated room - we are well set till the critical monday in Indonesian embassy :)

Day 1 - The Air

On friday 13th we departed from renovated London Stansted by newly launched AirAsia flight to Kuala Lumpur. This was probably the first time that I watched the whole piece of safety demonstration... Cabin crew girls were so beautiful!

Definitely, there is something special about their behavior and probably asian culture that even low-cost airline treats you as a human being saving from RyanAir-style upsells.

13 hour flight was a bit hard, but we managed to get some sleep and honestly did not know what to do all night ahead. We ignored all our last year experience and started over with touristic manipulation in asian countries. The only positive note is that malaysians are not that pushy, as cambodians or thai people are.

We ended up spending a night in the middle of nowhere in a strange worse than hostel type of accommodation for the price of a hotel :) that's where friendly referrals lead you :)

Spicy soup, Carlsberg and long waited shower left us with 3 hours of sleep before the next flight...

Day 0 - Passports

Real adventure started long before our actual trip. On 9th of february I have made one of the biggest mistakes that almost costed the whole trip to us. I have sent our passports to indonesian embassy in london by registered post.

Documents have been delivered by Royal Mail seven times! Each time successfully, of course :) and finally landed in Canadian embassy!

Week on the phone, tones of nerves and help of my London friends (thanks Olesya, Katya, Anna and Rick) returned our passports back to Dublin on Tuesday leaving us at least Malaysia to fly on Thursday evening.