Kuala Lumpa, Melaka and Singapore

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We had previously forgotten to mention that whilst in Malaysia we would undertake a challenge. This challenge far greater than that of safely finding our way around the world or even communicating with non-English speaking locals. Actually, we met a couple who had an ingenious solution for this - a book containing thousands of images, successful communication just required you to point at the most appropriate picture - brilliant! Back to the challenge no drink for an entire country. As i write this now we have arrived in Singapore and have been clean for 21 days - in short, we need a drink!

KL was good, plenty of Chinese and Indian influences here so again a good cultural mix and some interesting food. We spent a lot of the time wandering round the streets not really knowing where we were, taking in the sights, smells and most importantly the tastes of KL. We visited the national mosque and were given some fetching purple gowns to wear to cover our skin, especially for Hannah who had to also keep her head covered. A volunteer tought us about Muslim prayer and seemed confused when we told her we didn't really follow a religion, I told her I followed football.

The petronjas twin towers (previously the tallest buildings in the world) were impressive and after 1 1/2 hours queuing we managed to get tickets for the skybridge, about half way up. The views across KL were awesome and the elevator that took us there was rapid from ground to 41st floor in what must have been about 30 seconds, I dred to think how long it would be if we had taken the stairs!

The rest of time we spent drinkng iced tea, satisfying Hannahs' new vice - coffee, and shopping. I think Hannah enjoyed the shopping, I tolerated it simply because it was a chance to escape the oven that was the outside world.

A few hours south of KL is Melaka where we stayed for a couple of nights. We really liked it here, helped by the super friendly guesthouse owners who showed us all the best things to eat and where to eat them. We all went out one night and tried loads of local food, most of which was really good.

It was in Melaka where I was introduced to the Mangosteen, a small fruit similar in texture to a lychee which tasted sublime. After my introduction to this fruit I subsequently purchased 1 kilo from a local market and a couple of star fruits. Within the next 15 minutes in a mad mangosteen feeding frenzy. I manged to, with a little help from Hannah, polish off the majority of these little beauties. Whoever said fruit was good for you? I felt really ill. Other cool foods we tried in Melaka were baba Laska - a hot and sour creamy soup with seafood and noodles, delicious, and Cendol - a dessert consisting of ice shavings, coconut cream, sugar cane syrup, peas and kidney beans! it really wasnt too bad, although I think I will stick to kidney beans in chilli con carne.

In Singapore we went out for a curry with a couple we had met in the Taman Negara jungle. This brough with it our first beer in over 3 weeks (a whole countries worth), we were very thirsty. We had a really good night and ate far too much food. After, they showed around there appartment which was really nice.

It was fun to stay at the YMCA! which was more like a hotel with an amazing rooftop pool on the 9th floor. It was cool swimming around surrounded on all sides by massive skyscrapers. Singapore is the first place I have been to with escalators in a park - dont people go to the park to get a bit of exercise?!

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Comments

[Gordon Fisher]

good to see you guys having a great time i went round thailand and cambodia at the end of last year and it is an amazing region to explore looking forward to more updates G