All of Melaka and a bit of the Cameron Highlands

Day 1:

After finding the guest house we chilling out over a coffee in the reading area and met Isabelle (an old American from California who has travelled all her life). She had some good stories to tell and was talking about how she goes around setting up libraries for the disadvantaged.

Melaka itself is a really nice place - very friendly people and nice on the eye. The night markets were in full flow so we ate on the aptly named food street. Dinner was a bit dodgy but ok. Didn't do a lot more as we wanted to get back to our lovely guest house and chill whilst watching the river boats go by.

Hit the sack at about 11pm after hunting down a mossie for a while.

Day 2:

Got up, had a coffee and saw a monitor lizard swimming around - huge! Met Alain who was the owner of the guest house. He suggested we go out to get local breakfast so we went along with that. Isabelle came too and Alain took us out of the tourist part and to a very busy local cafe. He ordered loads of food and I had some noodles with chillies and prawns and stuff. It was really nice but as it had prawns in it, Claire couldn't have any. Shame as it was delicious!

Alain then drove us through the old Portuguese settlement and we saw a family of dogs with their puppies running around. They were cute. We headed to the coast to stop and look at the Straits of Melaka for a while. There were lots of big ships but no pirate ships from what I could see.

As the Riverside One was fully booked for the Saturday night we had to find other accommodation so Alain took us round loads of places to find a good room. We found one in Discovery Cafe which, although it was a bit grubby, did the trick. We had a balcony too so quite nice.

Offered to pay for breakfast but Alain had none of it - he's a great guy, really friendly and helpful.

Walked around Little India but it was pretty dire really and the food looked dodgy so walked back into the main town and found a place that did banana leaf curry. Several washes of the hands later and we were stuffing food into our gobs quite literally. It was tasty.

Had a siesta, then walked along the river to get a river boat. This was not bad but very tacky music was blasting out and the commentary was about twenty seconds out so a bit confusing.

Walked through the markets (again) and ended up having some spring rolls and fresh veggie rolls for dinner. Then we went back to watch the band at Discovery Cafe. The owner, David, insisted I get up and play but I said no, no, no. The singer sounded a bit like Tina Turner crossed with Rod Stewart but she was pretty good. The guitarist (called 'Man') came over and we talked music for a while and he tried to get me to go up and play but again, I resisted.

Had a couple of Tiger beers and then went to bed.

Day 3:

Got up early and went downstairs (spiral staircase) for breakfast. This was atrocious. Cold coffee and cold toast with lard. I was going to laugh and say good one - April Fools and all that but I don't think it was supposed to be a joke. Left it all and saddled up for our journey to the Cameron Highlands.

Had to get a local bus to the bus station, then a two hour bus to Kuala Lumpur, then a LRT to Pudujaya bus station and then a four hour coach to Tamah Rata in the Cameron Highlands. There was a crazy guy the Melaka Sentral bus station who had no arms so I didn't really feel too threatened by him.

Took all day pretty much but the scenery here is fantastic and it is actually quite cold! Looked around some guest houses and hostels and they ranged from the classy to the comical so we took a classy one. Haggled on the price a bit and got a decent deal for two nights. Went for some dinner. I had pepper chicken which blew my head off. Claire had some veggie curry effort. It was all nice though.

Retired to the balcony to watch the night market and have a beer and then fell asleep.

Just woken up and had to fix the computer so that I could update this blog. The mist is hanging around the hills but it looks like it's going to brighten up soon. Had a great night sleep so hopefully tonight I'll finally make it two good nights sleep in a row!

Going to try and get more photos up now so keep 'em peeled.

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

Day 1:

Had some breakfast in Singapore before hopping on the train to the Airport for our first Air Asia experience. Check in was easy and the flight was on time. Had our toothpaste taken off us as it was 110g. I keep forgetting how much of a threat to Aircraft safety toothpate is. Apparently Colgate is lethal at 30000 feet.

Boarded the plane and listened to the Indian family behind as they passed the mobile phone around for conversations all the way through the flight despite several warnings. Was thinking of complaining but didn't bother.

Decent enough flight arrived about five minutes late. Grabbed a bus to KL City Centre (airport is 75km outside the city). Befriended a local old guy who showed us to our train at the bus station and soon after arrived at our hotel in Little India.

Hotel Arenaa Mountbatten is an odd hotel. Very modern and a bit disco with neon lights all over the place. Room was great though - awesome shower and a kettle with coffee and stuff like that.

Wandered into Little India (grubby place) and had went to a veggie curry house. Never been a fan of veggie curries but this one was great!

Had a bit of a wander about and then just chilled out in the hotel room and watched TV (a bit of a novelty already!).

Slept really well compared to Singapore - probably because a private room actually was private.

Day 2:

Got up early and headed for the Petronos Towers which, according to the Lonely Planet, was free to go up on a first come first served basis. This was half right, but it was quite a lot to go up so we didn't bother as it was hazy any way and the view was apparently not great. The towers are damn impressive though - huge!

Wandered into an exhibition at some posh convention centre by accident, grabbed some breakfast and a coffee and then walked to the train station to go to the bird park.

It's not that easy to get around KL really as the sign posts are crap and confusing so jumped in a cab when we thought we were kind of near the park. I think we got scammed a bit but nothing major and twenty minutes later we arrived at KL Bird Park.

The park had many birds as you would expect. The highlight were walking through a part where lots of birds land on your head, shoulders, etc. You get to feed them so Claire bought some milk from the guy and had about six birds all over her. I got a parrot on each shoulder at one point. We also got to hold ducklings, baby chicks and an ostrich egg which was interesting. The duckling was sick on me so I put him/her down.

Ended up getting a taxi back to our hotel as the bus was ridiculously priced and got a shower to cool off. Headed into Chinatown and was going to eat frogs but Claire was not too impressed as they were too cute (they were still alive in a tank and you chose your frog). Went into a cafe and had some noodles instead which were pretty good.

Decided to go back to the hotel and have some drinks so grabbed a small bottle of whiskey and some coke and played some cards and just chilled out.

Day 3:

Was awoken by next door playing some god awful music so banged on the wall and it went down to a level that was almost more annoying. Banged again and it went off. Still not had two good nights sleep in a row.

Checked out of the hotel and navigated our way to Puduraya bus station which, according to Lonely Planet is where all buses go from. Got there and was told that our bus went from another bus station 10 km out of town. Got the light railway train LRT to the station and was pleased to find out a bus to Melaka was just 9 Ringgit (about two quid).

Bus was posh and comfy and we arrived into Melaka at about 3pm. Met a brazilian guy named Phillippe and some other back packers and wandered into Chinatown to find a hostel. Landed in a place called Riverside One which was great. It had lovely views of the river and was clean and friendly.

I'll write up about Melaka in a separate post as this one is going on a bit.

Summary: Kuala Lumpur is a bit of a mixed bag of tricks. Modern and clean in some areas, dirty, manic and unpleasant in others. Probably wouldn't recommend staying there unless you had a lot of money and could avoid the squalor.

Singapore extra

Day 4:

Went for some prata for breakfast and then headed to the Bay front. Some incredible buildings around there and a double helix (DNA) bridge which we crossed. Went past three huge towers with a boat parked on top which I had seen from the city on day two but had not got up close to. It was amazing in my opinion.

Saw some weird art and a quality floating football pitch and walked into business area for lunch. Got offered two hard boiled egg with toast and drink for four dollars so snapped that up. Shame 'hard' and 'half' sound the same. Gooey egg and sweet bread is not that great to be honest.

Walked through Boat Quay which was nicer than Clarke Quay but still a bit on the steep side so headed back into Chinatown. Went in the Buddha Tooth temple and learnt the many methods of punishment that one can suffer if they don't pay taxes (?).

Went and had some beers in a hawker centre as the storm passed. Befriended the crazy Chinese boss of a hawker centre who must have thought we were fluent in whatever language he was speaking as he strummed up some mean conversation with us. Hand gestures a' plenty. Soaked up the beer with a tasty prata and poppadoms for something ridiculous like 50p.

Walked back to the bay side to see the lights of the buildings at night - much more impressive than in the day. Saw some light art exhibition and then sat and watched the world go by before heading back to Geylang for some cheap food and then went to bed.

Day 5:

Woken up by some posh English guy in the next room trying to tune his radio into classic FM at 3am. Thought about recording some insults on by phone and then broadcasting it via my iTrip imitation device at whatever frequency he was tuned into but was too tired so ear plugged (the hero of the trip so far) came to my rescue again.

Currently uploading photos to Facebook so take a look at them - especially the boat on the roof!

We fly to Kuala Lumpar at 1.30pm so will see what the internet situation is there and hopefully update again soon.

Singapore

-- VIEW ALL OUR PHOTOS FROM SINGAPORE!!! --

Day 1:

Arrived into Singapore at 5pm and found hostel easily. Private double is a rather loose description for our room but it's not too bad. Location is ok, near train station in Geylang (red light district).

Went for a couple of cold Tiger beers and some awesome curry (so cheap) and then went to bed.

Day 2:

Awoken by music in the street at 5am. Had 'breakfast' at hostel (sweet bread and butter) then walked into town to Little India. Claire got a little bag and we walked around a bit and had a coffee (very sweet milk in the coffee here) before heading for Chinatown on the train.

Headed for Canning Fort park and saw a weird lizard and some kingfishers and chilled out for a while to escape the heat (hot hot hot).

Wandered around some shrines, then headed through Clarke Quay and some posh areas to another area called Kampung Glam. Had a very average meal in a restaurant. Compared to the hawker stalls and cheap eats, this place sucked.

Went back to Geylang and had a beer in red light district before hitting the hay.

Day 3:

Woken up by a phone conversation outside our room (shut up!!!). Went for breakfast at a curry house - well nice. Curry for breakfast is the future.

Heading to the botanical garden and walked around for ages - there is a rainforest there though so pretty good. Saw some weird squirrels too.

Came back to hostel to get ready for night safari - had another curry and got the train (with a freaky woman reading and laughing as she read) and then a bus to the safari park. The park was awesome - like a zoo but all the animals that are usually asleep are awake and vice versa. Saw fishing cats actually hunting fish, tigers, flying foxes, bats, hyenas (scary), elephants, lions, etc. Some very loud baby otters were squeaking lots at one point.

Made it home for about midnight after a long standing up bus trip. Worth it though - well good fun.

Just had breakfast on Day 4 now and Claire is still in bed. Lazy git!

Will update again when I get a chance and try and get some photos up - off to Raffles today I think.