Dec 2006

After only 6 days here I can confirm that this country is unfit for human habitation: EVERYTHING (including the vegetation) is out to scare our species away...we had contemplated spiders and snakes, had forgotten about the crocs, jellyfish and stingrays, but were completely naive to the fact that even the trees (stinging variety) like to have a go: this is a dangerous place!!! Despite the tough conditions we are still alive and are enjoying the drier climate (gladly left the 80% humidity in Asia) and beautiful landscapes...

15/12/06
Checked out of the family home in Singapore and wondered around Chinatown, trying to figure out how to fill our time (are flight wasn't until 10.30pm). We walked into a coffee shop and through what can only be described as a bizarre coincidence bumped into Thanh and Blanche (a couple from London who we'd met briefly in Krabi, Thailand and then again in Georgetown, Malaysia). We therefore spent the afternoon playing 'James Bond' style poker with little packets of sugar under the watchful eye of the coffee shops two employees (Thanh VERY discretely 'borrowed' the coffee shops entire sugar supply...they didn't seem too impressed.)

Got to the airport early and found out that Qantas had transferred us onto their 'ryan air' style JET airline - very, very sneaky as this meant ridiculously slow check in (2 desks open), no in-flight entertainment and very limited leg room. We were not impressed – if they were going to tamper with out flight they could have at least upgraded us! If the next flight is on JET I’m going to moan to Qantas – in the hope of being flown first class from LA back to London…wishful thinking?? In contrast, Singapore airport was luxurious…free internet booths and foot massage chairs, a cinema, spa and gym. We were reluctant to leave but the 4.5 hour flight to Darwin was painless. After a quick security check in Darwin at 4.30am we popped back on the plane for another 3 hours (stunning views) and landed in Cairns around 8.30am. With no sleep for the last 24 hours we were a little p*ssed off when we arrived at the hostel to find that our pre-booked room wouldn’t be ready until about 1pm.

Cairns city centre is nothing special…pretty bland and spread out (hostel = 45 minute walk to the centre). It doesn’t embrace the high-rise city landscape of most famous cities and therefore looks like any other town-centre. The best feature is the ‘lagoon’: a free public swimming pool, located on the waterfront.

16/12/06
The hostel is sooooooooooooooooooooo annoying!!! As soon as our pre-paid nights are up we’re moving out of here: they have an irritating speaker system (which they obviously think is high-tech modernism) installed into the guest rooms. Whenever they want to make an announcement (even to specific people), i.e. “Sarah Black your taxi’s arrived and waiting for you out the front” EVERYONE in the hostel gets the announcement blasted into their rooms (day and night!). It’s like being on Big Brother – I keep checking for cameras.

Anyway, today we made a dramatic change of plans: instead of catching the greyhound bus down the East Coast we have decided to hire out a campervan (decision made primarily because of 2 main facts: there are thousands of free camp sites in Australia – National Parks etc. and the accommodation in this country is a rip-off compared to Asia – our budget is spent after paying for a night in a hostel and one meal a day.) Only problem with hiring out this campervan is that it is x’mas time and the campers are VERY popular. The first one available isn’t arriving in Cairns until the 30th December, so we will not be on the move until New Years Eve. We now have to think of things to do in this not-so happening town??? Fortunately the area around Cairns is meant to be stunning so we will try and do lots of trips out of town…

17/12/06
Up early to sort out money probs with the campervan hire, then took a taxi ($30!) to Cairns Skyrail Terminal. Jumped into a car and took a ride on one of the longest skyrails over the canopy of the Barron Gorge National Park (7.5km cableway, towers lifted into place by helicopter.) Bit of a tourist trap (100’s of Koreans posing for each others cameras!) and completely blew our budget, but thought it was a worthwhile trip – the views were amazing. Stopped at 2 stations enroute to Kuranda: Red Peak, which had a boardwalk through the rainforest, and Barron Falls, which had numerous lookout points over the Falls, but there wasn’t much to look at since it’s the middle of summer here!

Kuranda is a pretty village in the rainforest – again another tourist destination, with numerous market stalls selling didgeridoos, boomerangs and kangaroo skin souvenirs. Visited ‘Venom Zoo,’ which breeds venomous animals for medical research purposes: supply venom in the hope that new drugs can be developed. Saw the most poisonous spider, snake and centipede in the world! Instead of catching the ‘Scenic Railway’ back to Cairns we opted for the $2 bus ride.

18/12/06
Checked out of the Big Brother style hostel and headed up the Captain Cook Highway (single lane each side – nothing like the M1!) in our Hyundai hire car. Beautiful coastal road: Great Barrier Reef to our right, rainforest to our left. First stop: Mossman Gorge, a freshwater swimming spot complete with huge boulders for sunbathing on. Unfortunately, being the budding photographer that he has now become, Wayne got a bit too into his snapping and accidentally slipped jumping from one boulder to another. He balanced on his back: both arms stretched out - one holding is his camera, the other with his camera case. Luckily he flipped himself upright and neither camera nor case got wet, although he was a little damp!

Second stop was taken when we realised we’d ‘seen it all before’ and had evidently taken a wrong turning ending up looping around Daintree Village a couple of times?!? Following a shopkeepers directions we backtracked 11km and found Daintree River Crossing (rope pulled ferry contraption). We then continued north through the stunning Daintree National Park, reaching Cape Tribulation later that afternoon. Found the cheapest accommodation available in this isolated town: a tent! But this was no normal tent. It had proper beds, a light and even a fan! There were cooking facilities and hot showers, so it actually seemed better than a lot of Asian guesthouses. Perfect location: right next to the beach. Only problem is the fact that you can’t swim in the sea due to the presence of crocodiles, stingrays and jellyfish. This is a cruel strike of nature as the beach is stunning: fine white sand and in swimming distance to a coral reef! To cool down we had to walk up to Masons Store (extortionate prices as it has sales monopoly) and swam in the freshwater swimming hole in the forest next to the store. Pretty cool place full of fish and supposedly turtles (although we didn’t spot any). Later that evening we walked down Myall Beach in search of the resident croc (who attacked a Danish guy a few weeks ago because he WALKED INTO THE WATER in the hope of getting a better picture! What an idiot!) Unfortunately/Fortunately we didn’t see him, but we did notice loads of stingray swimming in the shallow waters.

Days are great, but evenings are getting pretty dull because we can’t afford to do anything! We are hoping that fellow travelers will be residing on various camp sites along the east coast, otherwise we are going to be going to bed around 8pm every night. Whilst discussing this predicament we were mucking around with our cameras and Wayne accidentally deleted ALL of his photos! This isn’t as bad as it seems as he uploaded most of them onto the computer, but all of the last few days have been lost (aghhhh!!!!) You therefore haven’t got any illustrations of the basketball match, Kurunda or Mossman (although I think I took a few pics).

19/12/06
Ever wondered why people don’t lie in when staying on a camp site?? Because you cook to death if you stay in the tent past 7am! It was scorching when we woke up this morning! After breakfast we went in search of the local croc again, but this proved fruitless, so on the way back we diverted down Dubuji Boardwalk: a 1.8km circuit through rainforest and mangroves (giant crabs and massive fan palm canopies = highlight). In the afternoon we attended an ‘Exotic Fruit Tasting’ session at a local organic farm, which turned out to be excellent. Digby (the farmer) and his wife used to be a Biology teachers, but had enough of teaching (in Melbourne, Darwin and in an Aboriginal school in the middle of the outback: school = a caravan) so decided to purchase 9 hectarres of land in Cape Trib. They lived in another caravan for a few years whilst building their home and planted a variety of fruit trees to see what would prosper in this tropical environment. Their philosophy has been to let things grow that want to grow and let the others die off – no chemicals used. The problem with this is that they can’t produce enough of one thing for it to be commercially viable and therefore rely on these fruit tasting sessions as their main source of income (popular: 20+ people there). Many of the fruits are simply not suitable for mass market, mainly because their shelf life is just one day. We tried 10 different fruits, including an ‘abiu’ which was a very sweet, (almost condensed milk like flavour) fleshy fruit with a latex rim (had to be careful how you ate it!); ‘soursop’ an ugly looking chewy, fibrous, fruit-salad flavoured fruit that you couldn’t really chew – you just had to swallow and a ‘Davidson plum’, which was incredibly sour but after eating a ‘miracle berry’ (which kills your sour taste buds temporarily) the plum tasted like jam! Very odd. We were also given a tour around their garden and orchards. It is an amazing place because everything that grows possesses edible parts, whether it be the foliage, flowers or roots. They grew coffee, peanuts, all spice, pineapples and even chocolate pudding fruits (no calories but same texture as mousse – just add cocoa!)

That evening when we were having a wash, Wayne was joined by a humungous Huntsman Spider (regarded as one of the largest and most frightening spiders in existence, but fortunately harmless). It was bigger than my hand! In fact all the insects here seem to be five times the size of ours back home – I told you this place is dangerous (especially if you are living in a tent!)

20/12/06
Another search for the croc proved futile so we packed up and headed to Port Douglas which is a very up market holiday destination (boutique shops, art galleries etc) and also where the late Steve Irwin died. It is far too expensive for us backpackers, and yet again we found our budget merely stretching to a two-man tent. The tent was located at a backpacker hostel, so we had access to the bar and kitchens etc. After a few hours lazing on 4-mile beach we spent the evening playing cards again!

21/12/06
Headed back to the beach. The water is very choppy, a real contrast to Thailand’s calm waters. I was reluctant to go in the sea (due to the deadly stingrays and jellyfish – quite justifiable reluctance!) but Wayne spent most of the morning riding the waves strictly in the confines of the stinger nets. After lunch we made our way back to Cairns, where it was pouring down with rain (we are lied to in the UK – Australian weather isn’t all sunshine!) and found that we were returning our car a day early?? See what happens when your life doesn’t revolve around a working week! You loose all sense of time! We were advised by the hire guy to spend the afternoon at Crystal Cascades (another swimming hole in the rainforest) but it was pouring when we got there so we turned around and came back. Pleased with our new residence as the hostel provides free breakfast and dinner – result!

Right that’s us up to date – hope everyone has a brilliant Christmas. We have booked ourselves into a bit more ‘up market’ establishment for x’mas eve, x’mas day and boxing day so I doubt we’ll have much more to report in a few days time. In Cairns until the 31st so our blog entry next time will be much shorter as we won’t have done much! E x

11/12/16
Target: to spend as little as possible…we therefore spent most of the day wondering around the city, avoiding museums and therefore hefty entrance fees. Started off in Chinatown and wound up in the Central Business District. The contrast between Singapore and Vietnam is unbelievable: where as in Vietnam people wander the narrow streets in traditional dress, selling goods on the streets and just generally hanging around, Singapore is just like any Western city; everyone is rushing around in smart, business attire with a Starbucks coffee at hand. There are numerous expensive restaurants and bars (which we also had to avoid), but Singapore is unusually clean (due to strict police rule). We were both really impressed with the city and surprised by how green and spacious it is. If I was to live/work in any of the places we’ve visited so far, Singapore would be my first choice: it has everything (including good weather!)

We visited Fort Canning Park and ate our picnic lunch (common occurrence these days – saves us a few dollars) and then found Raffles Hotel, where the minimum price for a room is 250GBP/night. Unfortunately we couldn’t go inside (surprise, surprise: no shorts or sandals/flip-flops allowed). Walked along the waterfront and went inside Singapore’s’ 200 million GBP flagship development: Esplande (Theatres on the Bay). We then splashed out on 2 Christmas stockings (1 GBP each) so that we could celebrate Christmas in style: we will ‘fill’ our stockings with the small gifts we have bought for each other: one from each of the countries we have visited.

12/12/06
Headed to Sentosa Island (dubbed by the locals as Concrete Island because it has been developed purely for tourism – you have to pay an admission fee for stepping foot on the island). Visited Underwater World, which featured a huge underwater tunnel: as you walked around, sharks, rays and divers etc. surrounded you. The admission price also entitled us to see the pink dolphins at a lagoon towards the south of the island. However, the most interesting attraction we visited was Fort Siloso, built in the 1880’s as part of a ring of British Fortresses guarding Singapore Harbour (Siloso is the only remaining coastal fort). It was really well put together: as you walked around you got a feel (and smell) for colonial army life as it was re-enacted by life-size models and audio commentary. It featured the surrender chambers, where wax-works recreated the British surrender to the Japanese in 1942, and then another room showing the Japanese surrender to the Allied Forces in 1945. You could also explore the tunnels (which reminded me of the air-raid shelter in our garden at Bloomfield Road). Only drawback of the day was the temperature: it was sweltering (event the locals have been saying it is unusually hot for December).

13/12/06
Visited the new outdoor swimming pool (30p each!) in Little India. Fantastic pool – it is an Olympic sized pool and, to Wayne’s delight, had bookshelves scattered around the perimeter: full of car magazines. After writing up a bit of the blog we ventured to the National Indoor Stadium to watch the Singapore Slingers play the New Zealand Breakers. It was actually a really enjoyable evening – I would definitely go to a basketball game again, if not for the sport then for the music – I didn’t realise they play such wicked tunes all the way through a game (Claire, Beth – you would have loved it!) The actual game was quite amusing; they only played for 8-minute intervals then took a break – lame! Before we arrived I was a little concerned that the Slingers would get thrashed: have you ever seen a tall Asian man?? Surely Basketball is not a suitable sport for Asian’s to be competing in: even the taxi driver seemed a little confused! However, it transpired that the ‘Singapore’ Slingers comprise of second-generation expats: I only saw one Asian player. The crowd also consisted of mainly white expats (I think most of them worked for the sponsor companies and had been given free seats). Anyway, regardless of the player’s race, they won; beating the Kiwi’s 111-94…well done the Slingers!!!

14/12/06
Our last day in Singapore and Asia We have had an excellent 3 months and have so many memories to take away with us…we’ll defiantly come back one day to explore more of the continent, but for now we can’t wait to reach Australia…

Hi all, hope everyone’s ok? I’m going to start a new update now, but will finish it off tomorrow as we are a bit pushed for time…Wayne’s making me go to a basketball game (Singapore v’s New Zealand)…I’ll let you know whether it was worth it tomorrow.

6/12/06 – 8/12/06
Melaka wasn’t anything to write home about: stayed in a travelers guesthouse that had military-like house rules, but the room was a great size so we just kept ourselves to ourselves so as not to get into any trouble! Visited a few museums (including Baba Nanya Heritage Museum: a traditional 19th century Pernakan house, and the Maritime Museum: located on a recreation of the ‘Flora de la Mar’ – a Portuguese ship that sank off the coast of Melaka whilst trying to transport treasures back to Europe) and hung out in coffee shops playing cards most of the time. We were just really stalling so that we didn’t have to pay for too many nights in Singapore.

9/12/06
After a 5-hour bus journey we arrived in Singapore…We hadn’t booked any accommodation, so were delighted when a random man on a bicycle greeted us at the bus station in Little India. He offered us a room for S$25/night – far cheaper than any of the ‘budget accommodation’ listed in the guidebook – so we jumped at the offer, no questions asked. When we arrived at ‘Al’s Nest’ as he like’s to refer to it, we realised that we had agreed to a ‘home stay’ arrangement, rather than a room in a guesthouse…we are therefore currently residing in a family home. It is very bizarre – the sign over the door declares that it is an export trading company (??), they leave dirty washing all over the floor and never ever clean the shared bathroom (gross), but they give us breakfast and then let us get on with it…all we have to do is put up with the grandmother, who gawks at us, whilst shouting in Chinese (we have now established that she’s deaf). After ‘settling in’ we caught the underground to Orchard Road, the infamous shopping district. It is so Christmassy: lights, music and decorations everywhere, and incredibly busy – worse than Oxford Street at this time of year!

10/12/06
Breakfast eaten quickly and in silence, whilst grandmother viciously decapitated smelly fish with a humungous knife. Escaped and caught the underground then bus to Singapore Zoo, which is just outside the city in the centre of the island and set in beautiful jungle. Saw a Bengal White Tiger and a Polar Bear for the first time. The zoo is excellent and internationally acclaimed, primarily because they try to recreate an entire ecosystem appropriate for individual species. There are virtually no cages and animals are only separated from visitors by a moat system (many species, including the Orangutans are free-ranging ).

We spent the evening wondering around Little India: it was a memorable experience; despite the fact we did very little. Apparently every Sunday night all the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi immigrants (in Singapore on 2 year work visa’s) swarm the streets and simply hang around…there were literally thousands of men (no women), you could hardly move, even the alleyways were crowded. Sunday is their only day off, so they ‘socialise’ according to ‘Al’ (the man of the house we are staying in). They don’t drink, eat or party - they just stand. Some of them must have intended on spending a bit of money though, as we went to the only ATM in Little India and queued for about 20 minutes behind a massive line of Indian men. Spoke to Al for the rest of the evening and learnt that hangings are still carried out here and that men who commit crimes receive a beating from the police force!

Run out of time, I’ll continue tomorrow – our last day in Asia! Emma xx

Can't believe another 2 weeks have passed since i wrote this damn thing – i finally get it written up, feel relieved that its out of the way and then realise that I'm behind again. As you can probably sense i'm getting fed up with it so from now on entries are going to be sketchy...I should never have started it! I'm hoping you are all getting fed up of reading it, so that these diary notes are now purely for my own benefit: to dodge my memory when i'm old and grey (although my genetic inheritance denotes that I will be grey before i'm officially old – hey Mum...haha – Rich, make sure she doesn't change the locks before I get back!)

The most important message to get across is that Malaysia is sooooo HOT!!! I think it's the warmest place we've been to so far. It is sometimes unbearable and you just want to go back to the hotel room and lie in an air conditioned space. Other than that its a wonderful country and we have been having a really great time.

20/11/06
After a late night (watching Thai boxing in a bar with Micheal (the Dutch guy) and his Thai 'girlfriend'...) we rose early to catch the ferry to Krabi, so that we could take a minibus from Krabi to Hat Yai (southern Thailand, on the Malaysian border). To cut a long story short, we broke down and ended up sitting, once again, on a very cramped minibus on the hard shoulder of a motorway. The upshot being that our last day in Thailand turned out to be our second last day as we had to spend the night in Hat Yai (which can only be described as a concrete dump). The city, for obvious reasons that strike you upon arrival, does not cater for tourists – basically because no sane tourist would set foot in it. The main attraction appeared to be the Carrefour (massive superstore – identical to the one we always visit in Italy). No-one spoke English, but with the help of some Thai ladies who were in our minibus, we managed to find a reasonable hotel and a travel agency, so that we could catch yet another minibus to Malaysia.

21/11/06
Arrived in Georgetown, the second largest city in Malaysia, via ferry as it is on Penang (an island in NW Malaysia). The first hostel we looked out was gross: stale smell, no lock or key and no toilet...so we snuck out and found a newly opened hostel above a bar. It was clean and cheap so suited us, but it did look a little incomplete: concrete floor and the 'ensuite' consisted of a freestanding shower, randomly placed in the room like a wardrobe (no sink, toilet etc.) It was very strange. I think they ran out of money and opened early to earn money off travelers so that they could tile/carpet the floors.

Georgetown is very much a Chinese city, with a scattering of colonial architecture. Since we were staying in Chinatown we went for a Chinese that evening and decided to explore the rest of the city the following day...

22/11/06
Hired a moped and stopped off at all the main sights:
1.Fort Cornwallis, where Captain Light first set foot on the virtually uninhabited island of Penang in 1786. He established a free port, in the hope of luring the spice trade form the Dutch. The fort was made from wood, but in 1808 a convict labour force replaced it to the current stone structure.
2.Penang Museum, which highlighted the customs and traditions of Penang's' various ethnic groups (Chinese, Malays, Indians and Europeans).
3.Piang Peranakan Mansion, the ornate home of a wealthy Chinese family – beautiful, but a bit OTT!
4.Penang Hill, was cleared of forest under the instruction of Captain Light so that he could grow strawberries, hence its also known as Strawberry Hill?!? We took a painstakingly slow tram 800m up a steep slope, but the 30 minute ride was worth it: the views of Georgetown were stunning.

First impressions of Malaysia are really good: prefer it to Thailand already. Its much more developed, but still retains a traditional atmosphere. Tourism doesn't seem to be everything to Malaysia. We wanted to see the 'real Thailand' but now realise that the real Thailand is in fact what we saw: tourism. A huge majority of the population seem to work directly/indirectly in the industry, and this has in my opinion ruined its' appeal. They just shouldn't try so hard!!

23/11/06
Kept hold of the bike and headed to the Botanical Gardens. Pretty place, surrounded by natural jungle and where monkeys roam freely. Found a pagoda, ate our picnic and then read our books for a couple of hours (yes, I said 'our books', Wayne is now reading novels!! Well he's read one...what a transformation!) On the way back we stopped off at 'The World's Largest Toy Museum,' but I desperately hope that this is a false claim as it was probably only a little bigger than a double garage. We had the impression that it would be full of life sized toys, but it consisted of a few glass cabinets and looked like an unexciting version of Toys'r'us After a brief stop at the beach we headed back to Georgetown and booked a bus ticket to our next destination...

24/11/06
Caught the early bus departing for Tanah Rata; the main town in the Cameron Highlands (name taken from William Cameron, the surveyor who mapped out the area in 1885). The highlands are 6000 feet (2000m) above sea level and it was therefore a lot, lot cooler than anywhere else in the country (I actually had to put my jumper on in the evenings!) Temperatures there rarely climb higher than 21C (but don't drop below 10C) and the fertile soils mean that the land is perfect for vegetable cultivation and horticulture – something the town of Tanah Rata is VERY proud of...we should have really read up about the highlands before we came, because other than the fact that Jim Thompson (the American whose house we nosied around in Bangkok) disappeared here whilst out on a pre-diner stroll in 1967, we knew nothing about the area. It transpired that the only things to do were: visit various vegetable farms, visit various fruit farms, visit various tea plantations or go on a walk!! We opted for the later the following day...

Tanah Rata possesses an old-fashioned English atmosphere, despite the fact that the main ethnic group is Indian. On several occasions we went to a tea shop and dined on English Breakfast Tea and sc'o'nes. Our accommodation was clean and comfortable but the name painted on the front of the building suggested that it was a retirement home! We never said anything to the owners but I'm worried that the 'aging' gene mentioned earlier has already kicked in??

25/11/06
We'd had enough of paying tour guides to take us on treks that we could navigate ourselves, so we decided to use the guidebook and head out into the jungle alone. After 4 hours of jungle photography and one ambiguous set of crossroads/tracks we finally made it to the Boh Tea Estate, where we continued our trail through the plantations and upto the factory (bit of a brief encounter). Since we'd walked over 20km we treated ourselves to ANOTHER cup of tea and a scone, and then took a taxi back to the main town. It was a really fun day, despite the leg effort, and we hardly spent a penny – tap on the back.

26/11/06
Upon realising that unless we wanted to visit a farm there was little else to do in the highlands, we decided to make our way to Pulau Pangkor; a very small (8 sq km) island. The journey from the highlands, via Ipoh and Lumut only cost us 3GBP each (minibus, coach, local bus, taxi, ferry, minibus again) but did take 9 hours! Found accommodation in Teluk Nipah, the most 'happening' place on the West coast of the island. We timed our arrival completely wrong as it is now school holidays and Pangkor is 'apparently' Malaysians top holiday destination! The place is FULL of school kids (holiday camp ambiance) and prices have rocketed, so we seem to be paying over the odds for our chalet. Despite this 'weeks' worth of popularity the island doesn't have much to offer. Its main industry, surprisingly, is still fishing. Spent the rest of the day and most of the following doing very little; lazed on the beach and cooled down in the expensive chalet.

28/11//06
Hired a bike and rode around the island, which took all of 50 minutes – well worth the 24 hour rental fee! The east coast is full of fishing villages, which were pretty, but offered little to do, so we drove back to the west and lazed about again on Coral Beach. Started to feel ill that evening: on and off the toilet all night (centre parcs re-run!!)

29/11/06
Planned to leave the island that morning, but I didn't think I could control my bowels for the 4 hour bus journey to Kuala Lumpur so we spent another day doing very little – it was starting to get boring! Since we had stayed for so many nights, Wayne decided to try and negotiate a better price for one more night but they wouldn't budge, so we moved next door. It was a lot cheaper, offered a similar type of room, but breakfast was included! We should have looked here before! I wasn't feeling any better by late afternoon, so Wayne hired a bike and went and found the only chemist on the island to get me some antibiotics. Seemed to have an effect as I was feeling a lot better by the evening.
We were woken up that night (about 2am) by the most horrendous thunder storm I've ever heard: torrential rain and roaring thunder that went on for hours. We were scared that the room was going to flood so we got up and moved all of our luggage and belongings onto the furniture.

30/11/06
Up and out at last!!!!! I know there are many, many places on Earth far worse than a tropical island to be stuck on, but this place was seriously dull and the food was terrible. We couldn't wait to get to Kuala Lumpur. The Bus dropped us off in Chinatown and we eventually found a windowless box to sleep in (the hotel is aptly named 'D' View Inn!) It's actually quite a nice place, you just can't tell what time of day it is, or what the weather is like outside, when your indoors. That evening we wondered around Chinatown (Wayne got his hair cut at last!), visited Petaling Market and generally enjoyed KL's vibes; seems like a wonderful city.

1/12/06
Can't believe it's December already – Christmas is coming and we have finally found somewhere in Asia oozing with festive spirit: a shopping mall! Took the underground to KL City Centre early morning in hope of going up the Petronas Towers (Malaysia's landmark). We got into the queue, but it was enormous and a member of staff came and placed an 'out of tickets' sign after the couple standing 5 places ahead of us...aghhhhh. Since only 800 tickets are allocated to members of the public each day we had to abandon all hopes of seeing the view that day. Instead we browsed around the shopping mall, wondered around the park and then walked to the communication tower, which we foolishly paid to go up. The view was impressive but we should have just waited to get some free tickets at the Twin Towers. Later that day we bought a ticket to see Dejavu at the cinema (1.5 GBP each – bargain!)

2/12/06
Walked around Chinatown and the Colonial District. Saw Masjid Jamek (1907 British designed mosque), Central Market (handicrafts and arts stalls) and Merdeka Square (aka Independence Square). Not very exciting day. Its so hot and humid here that its hard to appreciate all of the sights – we gave it our best shot.

3/12/06
Visited the Lake Gardens situated towards the west of the city. Really pretty place to relax, but very, very hot. We had a look around the World's largest 'covered' Bird Park, which was essentially an enormous walk-in aviary, with around 160 species of birds. Witnessed a bird show: parrots performing clever routines on mini-bikes etc, and saw eagles, pelicans etc... Kept us entertained for a couple of hours. That evening we returned to the shopping district and ate in pizza hut of all places.

4/12/06
Visited the commercial centre and faffed around: sorting out Waynes camera and FINALLY managed to put his pictures online (3 hours worth of uploading – we actually persuaded the bloke to let us leave the memory card connected to the computer while we went and got lunch – it was still there when we returned – phew!)

5/12/06
Finally made it up to the skybridge in the Petronas Towers (level 41 of 88) – at least we can say we've been in the buildings that Catherine Zita Jones hung from in the film Entrapment. The actual view was not as great as from the Communication Tower – oh well – it was free.

We've spent most of our time in KL wondering around the shops, but the city is fantastic and if you have a job and money you could really have a great time here. We've decided to move on to Melaka tomorrow, so our next update will probably be summing up Singapore and our time in Asia. Moving on to Australia next week...............very excited!!