Melaka to Penang

---

I left Singapore and after a four hour bus ride crossed into Malaysia and my first stop Melaka. I passed through here about 15 years ago and like alot of places I've revisited its changed alot. In 2006 it became a world heritage site and has been pushing tourism hard ever since. Theres a river bank walk all lined with bars and restaurants a hard rock cafe and i'm sure if I looked hard enough a starbucks. I stayed near Jonkers st which last time I came was full of antique and junk shops but theres only a few left now most of it has been turned over to less interesting but more profitable shops aimed at tourists. Having said that I still liked the place, food is good and cheap although beer comes in at a hefty £2 a glass so a fairly sober few days.

Moved from Melaka up to Kuala Lumpur. Stayed in the embassy district which was a bit expensive butvery nice. My hotel had a balcony but the doors were locked so I had to get special permission and sign a waver to get them opened. When I asked why i was told people had been throwing things off. Find that hard to believe and i suspect somebody threw themselves off.

Payed a visit to the Petronas towers which are hard to miss as thier bloody enormous. Didn't bother go up as you can only get to the skybridge on the mere 44 floor and that was a whopping £16. The first 5 floors are given over to a shopping centre which you can wander round for free. Theres a small china town area and the central market which I think used to be a wet food market but is now a collection of stalls selling mainly cloths, pashmina shawlls and all sorts of other nic niks. After that it was a short bus ride up to Georgetown in Penang.

Spent five days in penang and had a great time can't tell you about it because i'm writting this on my last day and need to cheack out and head to the airport but after penang it was back through bangkok for the night before heading down to the beach at Pattaya where i started the trip for a final few days at the beach before home. So will be leaving in a few hours and will see many of you soon.

---