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I'm back in the land of sugar palms and rubber trees after returning to Melbourne for three weeks to attend a wedding and catch up with friends and family. Currently I am on Palau Tioman, a beautiful island off the east coast of Malaysia. But firstly I will let you know what I have been up to in my first few days back in Malaysia.

My flight arrived on time Friday afternoon and a couple of hours later I was in my guesthouse in the Golden Triangle area of KL. I had a small bedroom with shared bathroom at quite a reasonable price of $17 a night. I really liked the location, one street from a night food market and two streets from Jalan Bukit Bintang which is a street full of bars, shopping centres, and massage places(mostly legit I think). I spent that night wandering down the main street being asked by about 30 people if I wanted a massage or a lady. Later that night I stayed up to 2am talking to a young Dutch guy and a couple of people that work at the hostel. Next day I went to KL tower but didn't go up to the observation deck because they didn't have an outdoor viewing area and I was too tight to pay the $15 they asked. Next I had a quick look at the suburb of Chow Kit that sounded interesting but wasn't, and the suburb next to it Kampung Baru, which was. After that I caught the underground to Petronas Towers, had a wander around the park next to it and took a lot of photos. That night I had a wonderful Indian dinner next to the guesthouse while watching the EPL, then chatted with the super friendly staff until 12.30am.

On Sunday I decided to leave KL and head for Mersing which is the jumping off point to get to Palau Tioman. I was a bit lazy in the morning so I didn't leave until midday, which meant when I eventually got to the long distance bus station they told me that I wouldn't arrive till about 8pm. I decided then and there that I would go to Melaka, spend one night and be on my way the next day. Two hours later I arrived at the Melaka Sentral bus terminal where I was met by a couple of the guesthouse owners offering cheap rooms. I decided to stay at the one in the old part of town for a whopping $6.50 a night(including wifi) for a room to myself with a shared bathroom. I had a walk around the beautiful town in stifling heat for an hour and a half before having a delicious chicken rendang on the riverside whilst the sun went down. I washed this down with a couple of iced mochas and a mango shake and then headed for the night market. I tried a couple of sweets at the stalls before taking a seat and watching the oldies sing Karaoke to what I presume were Chinese songs. After about half an hour I had another quick look around the market before calling it a night. I have been to Melaka four times now and thoroughly enjoyed it everytime. It turned out to be a wonderful detour.

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