Malaysia

We got our flight to Singapore and got there late on Tuesday night - very nice/clean place (it is illegal to eat chewing gum there!), but you can tell most people go out there on business as beers are so expensive. Though we were very lucky, in that we booked a hotel when we arrived at the airport (very "Marriott" - nice 4 * etc) and upon turning up, as they had sold all their rooms but one, they put us up in their presidential suite up on the 17th floor. Not bad when you've paid 60 quid for the night!

Yesterday, after catching up on some sleep, we took a bus out to Malaysia. We got to Melaka at 8pm and found a backpackers guest house (clean enough, but somehow very different from the suite we'd slept in the previous night!). We are going to spend another night here and head up to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning.

We are still walking around and taking in the surroundings, Melaka is an interesting place but I can't really think of how to explain it. In Chinatown there are no pavements on the street, so you end up walking next to deep, long, rectangular trenches that make up the sewage system, regularly dodging cars/motorcycles/tuk-tuks that wizz past you on the other side. The traffic is unbelievable, looks like it's rush hour at any time of the day. And not far from the pavement-less streets, you can find huge shopping centres ("Melaka Mega Mall") with all the McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut and High Street shops of this world.

I look forward to going somewhere a bit quieter (KL will not be it but we want to see it as it is on the way) - e.g. a village near a beach. I am sure it will come in due time, as we are making our way up to Thailand.

C.