Malaysia 5th to 18th January

MALAYSIA ( Melaka / Kuala Lumpa (KL) / Cameron Highlands (CH) / Queenstown & Penang)

5th January to 8th January, Melaka, Malaysia: In the morning we cross from Singapore in to Malaysia & head for a place called Melaka. This is an old port & town important in Malaysia's history. It is now an evolving tourist resort having gained UNESCO heritage status last year & money is clearly being spent developing parts to attract tourists (although there didn't appear to be many tourists about). We are joined from our coach by a young German student called Thomas, who was enroute to Adelaide to study & doing 6 weeks in Asia first. He ended up travelling with us until we get to Penang, and was excellent company, a good beer buddy, and the funniest joke teller we have heard in ages!.

Melaka was our first taste of true backpacker life, in that we had nothing previously booked & no tour agenda, so our first hostel was a bit of a culture shock. We were staying in old Chinatown just off Jonker Street, in a small 'house' that was a bit like a long garage. Our room was basic with a bed & a broken chair. the shower & the toilet (squat type) were in little sheds outside. After the luxury lifestyle at Peter & Joannes in Freemantle, this was a bit of a shock. I had one of those Jason moments, in thinking 'what have I let myself in for?'. It actually turned out to be fine & the young owner who had just bought the place was very helpful & we began to make the necessary mental adjustment to being true backpackers.

We did the usual tourist stuff in Melaka: river boat ride, visited the replica palace & the remaining gates of the old fort (the Britsih seem to have wrecked most of the old parts when they took the place of the Dutch many years previously), & the old Chinese graveyard. There was also an olympic size public pool which was way under used, & we took to have a late afternoon swim each day. It was here we met a very friendly local who I started swimming lenghts with, who invited us to do a Tai Chi session on the top of the hill overlooking Melaka (location of th old church), to be followed by a Chinese breakfast at 7am the next morning. We duly got up & went to there at 7am (before dawn) to find no one else around. Got some dawn shots of the town. Walking around 1/2 hour later he found us, & we clearly mistook the fact that he didn't do Tai Chi, but his wife did but at the bottom of the hill & he wanted to show us the sites whilst his wife did her stuff. They then took us for a traditional Chinese chicken & rice breakfast. Then visited his home to see pictures of his family. He then drove us over to the Portugese settlement on the other side of town. He was very proud of his town & his Malay Chinese heritage & loved to meet tourists & its one of those memorable experiences that make travelling such fun. Have a feeling he may turn up in Puckeridge one day, as had travelled most places in the world.

On the 9th January, we & Thomas depart for Kuala Lumpa, the big city. Thomas only planned to stay in Melaka 2 days & KL only 2, but his plans never seem to happen which is why we eventually travelled together on to the Cameron Highlands & then Penang.

... luggage update, now one back strap on the day bag is going; out with the repair kit again !!!

9th to 11th January, Kuala Lumpa (KL): Arrive late afternoon. Our hostel is right in the heart of Chinatown right next to the entrance to the famous night market. This called for some serious shopping & so invested in some new MP3 speakers (as sent the ones home I purchased in Singapore as too good to travel with), a new electric head shaver (so sent Franks home with it's 5kg charger), many T shirts (for a Uk pound or less), including a Chelsea one for the big game (Chelsea v Ipswich in the FA cup - big bets has ensued). KL is really humid but thankfully we have air conditioning in the room if they remember to turn it on.

Early day two set off for the Petronas Towers to get our ticket to do the Sky Bridge (limited tickets so have to get there before 9am). We are booked mid afternoon, so spend most of the day walking the area around the Golden Triangle & the tropical rain forest in the park. In the evening we frequent a local Chinese street bar (becomes a regular nightly habit for us in KL), which is fun as meet some interesting characters each night, including allegedly Benasir Butos personal bodyguard. Also tend to eat street food each night around Chinatown as is so cheap (food around 3UK pounds for the 2 of us). Day three we do chaws in the morning: another parcel back to the UK of unwanted clothes (including my thick fleece & walking shoes which 2 days later needed in the Cameron Highlands!), and also tried to find someone to repair my day pack - in the end did it myself. Afternoon visited the National Museum, Lake Gardens, the Orchid Gardens, Parliament House, Melaka square where Malaysian independence was declared. In the evening came back to do night shots.

11th January to 14th, Cameron Highlands (CH): Arrive in Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands late afternoon. Find that our hostel booking has been moved to the bland hotel on the mainstreet. After a restless night with 4 internal windows with no curtains & major strip lighting in the corridor (during the night went out to turn it off 4 times & each time I did, someone turned it back on again!). Also no hot water, so we moved round to the hostel the next day. Meet loads of people as there is a camp fire in the bar each night. Dinner with our new friends is a Steamboat (bit like a Swiss fondue where you cook your food yourself) It gets cold in the highlands at night (so regret sending the fleece home 2 days before!). Watch Man Utd v Cheslea live at 1am - wished I hadn't!!!!!!!!

Day two starts with Gill having to sort out her Abbey bank account as they've cut off funds again. Learn to use Skype & its so cheap to call the UK. Afternoon do a jungle hike with Thomas but get slightly lost & find night closing in. Eventually find our way out but there is long walk back to town on the road. Blame Thomas personally!

Next day do a tour which starts with another jungle walk which this time is in the rain & the path is very wet. Concerned about slipping because of the hip so the guide cut me a big bamboo pole to help with my balance. Soon everyone wants one. Also get jungle hats made from the ferns. Part of the tour plan was to see the world biggest flower but advised none blooming today (so picture of one is from a postcard!). After the 2 hour jungle hike, we do blow pipe training (I'm the only one who hits the small leaf target). Gill with no puff manages to just get the dart out of the blowpipe. Next visit a tea plantation; the highest point in the CHs, which is lost in mist so no view; a strawberry farm; an insect & butterfly farm. Good day but knackered at the end of it. Eat dinner as soon as get to town, curry on a banana leaf. Back to the hostel to meet the new arrivals around the campfire

14th to 17th January, Penang: Set of for Penang on an early min bus, which departs @ 7.30am. Arrive in Penang on the mini bus with Thomas, who is supposed to be on his way to Krabi. Guess who calls later in the afternoon to say he's still in Penang! Staying in a really nice recently renovated town house called the Hutton Lodge, just 1 minute of the main Penang Road. Highly recommended if anyone comes to Georgetown. Did check out the 6 star Rasa Sayang favoured by our friends Pearse & Natalie but found it too slumy for our taste - wine choice was limited to Bulgarian wines only & some naff tasting Aussie home made chardonnays & appeared to have Irish & Aussie riff raff staying! In the evening we dine at the red Garden Restaurant (a huge foodhall with great food selection). We also met up with Thomas again, as he failed to get a bus onto Krabi, so have a 3rd leaving do. Also dine with 2 Spanish girls who travelled on our bus. Food was great ( we had Stingray fish & huge prawns) but we had some pretty terrible music, with various singers & one particular lady we nicknamed 'screachey' from the terrible noise she made, but she clearly love herself & seem to only focus on singing to her friends.

Day two we did touristy stuff we toured the beaches (but couldn't swim as sea full of stinging jelly fish), Cornwallis Fort, Chinatown & Little India. In the evening returned to the Red Garden for a Dim Sun food selection.

Day 3 we went up Penang Hill. Bus ride & then 2 Fenincular railways to get to the top. Amazing views but due to the heat of the day the photos are all hazy. We both get new mindi tattooes done hoping they would last for the Chinese New Year (but in vain as fade fast with all the swimming we do in Koh Lanta). An amazing Buddhist temple on the top of the hill (great for photos). Also visit the Kok Lok Si Temple. Not knowing where it was, we waited 1/2 hour for a bus, & then find we only went one stop! The temple is huge & they are building a massive buddha statue on the hill above it. Bizzarely the huge tourist shop inside the temple was full of Walt Disney tourist rubbish, & round the back we found some carved statues of Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck, amongst other things, which we guessed in time were going to be put somewhere around the large buddha. In the evening returned to the Red Garden a Thai meal (I had a very hot Tom Yam soup).

Day 4 in Penang, we take another bus south to the Snake Temple. Very disappointing as under major reconstruction & the only snake to see is a tourist snake for pictures. Nothing else to see locally & struggle to find another bus we make our way to the Giant Hyeprmaket for lunch & a look around. See wine (cheapest on show was 30 Ringets, about 6 UK pounds, but anything realtively decent was about 10 pounds+, so not too bad). Evening back to our fvourite restaurant & have a local crab dish - very nice but pricey).

Day 5 we leave for Thailand, heading for Krabi on the west coast. It is a 10 hour journey in a very small & crowded min van, so we leave Malysia behind, but we would both love to come back & spend more time here. Maybe we can introduce Pearse & Natalie to the real Malaysia & get them to come and stay at the Hutton Lodge backpacker hostel.......maybe....

Singapore 1st to 5th January

Plans for Sinagpore didn't go quite as planned thanks to Qantas! Arrived 31st January at Perth Airport for our 1.15pm flight (a;lready put back form the morning). to find there was a 3 hour delay until 4.15pm. We theref ore sat in thew departure lounge where unfortunately the air conditioning had broken down & the temperature was 38 c outside. 4.15 came & went with the notice board flashing last call but with no Qantas staff to be seen. Eventually the first communication about what was happening came at 6.00pm, that a part was being flown in from Sydney & another part from Melbourne & that all being well we would fly at 10.30 at the earliest - this meant we would miss the fireworks in Singapore having paid for an expensive hotel on the river to view them. Many of the Qantas customers pointed out that we had been waiting 5 hours already in the hot departure lounge without food or water. This was then promised but took half an hour to organise & when arrived everything disappeared in a flash. Around 7.30 they gave us all vouchers for $20 to spend on food, but all the food outlets (the 2 of them) had pretty much run out of food being New Years Eve & we weren't alloweed to buy alcohol with them. We opted to buy a couple of sandwiches 7 some bottles of coke, & invested in a small bottle of Bacardi to drink in the New Year. Eventually flew at around 10.45 & midnight was a subdued affair with a Qantas dinner & a small bottle of Aussie plonk before the light went out around 12.30. Great New Year, atleast we have the Chinese New Year to look forward to in 26 days time..

Also one zip on my rucusack broke in transit, so now the little bag is held on to the bigger bag by washing line. You get creative when you travel as you don't necessarily have all the things you need to hand.

Staying at the Miramar Hotle for the fist 2 nights (a posh hotel from which to see the fireworks. Close to the river & Chinatown on the south side of town, but no metro close). Arise around 9am, despite getting to bed about4am, as couldn't work the curtains in our tired state on arrival, so they were only partially closed and the sun woke us. Set off to Chinatown for our first breakfast - eggs, rice & some other unidedntifiable stuff, all for $2 Sing. Gill then went on to buy 2 paisr of shoes (1 pair lasted 2 days!). In the evening went to Clarks Quay (Boat & Clarks quay are the active night spots on the river with loads of bars & restaurants. Watched some Chinese Lion dancers practising on poles for a big contest the next night.

After our 2nd night we had to move to our budget hotel, a Fragrance hotel (a chain a bit like Travel Lodge)located close to Little India & Orchard Road (& the Raffles hotel)on the north side of the river. Location was great & the hotel was fine (even had a pool on the roof), but the room was tiny, the size of our double bed!! Did the hop-on hop-off bus for the day, & went over to Sentosa Island in the afternoon. Sentosa Island is a big Play area, with lots of fun activities (none of which we did)& some very small beaches. They are building a Universal Studios there. Return via the Raffles but Gill refuses to buy the Sinapore Sling at their price (now Sing $22).

Day three & four do more tourist stuff in Singapore. Included walking around alot, going into lots of shops & eating various asaian dishes. We also swim twice a day on the roof. Did also do the Jurong Bird Park, the Zoo & the Night Safari (all in one day). All were great & the zoo & the Night Safari are extemely well constructed for seeing animals in 'natural' environments. We also visited the Stamford Hotel to see the view from the 71st floor. Whislt Pearse & Natalie paid Sing $ 300 for a bottle of Bulgarian merlot (their favourite wine) just to see the view, we did it backpacker style & did it for free (as it was too early in the morning for the bars to be open)

5th January we departed from Singapore by bus in Malaysia...