Goodbye British winter... Hello South East Asia (Singapore and Malaysia)!

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Coming back from South America and spending about a month in the UK visiting family and friends was great. We ate, drank and made merry far too much of course, but also enjoyed some lovely walks with family in West Wales and Herefordshire in the mild, if not slightly soggy, late autumn weather.

However, with the British winter now getting into full swing, we decided we'd had enough of cold weather, so we waved goodbye to real ale, mashed potato and fish and chips and early on the 20th November caught the National Express coach to Heathrow, where we excitedly boarded a plane to Singapore. With a brief stopover to change planes in Doha and very little sleep, we landed in Singapore, slightly disorientated, about 17 hours later.

Getting from Singapore airport into the city was no problem at all as the metro station is joined to the airport, so in no time we were climbing up out of Bugis, the metro station nearest to our accommodation and that's when it hit us. Until now we had exited an air conditioned aeroplane into an air conditioned airport, walked to an air conditioned metro station and boarded an air conditioned train and it was only now that we were finally hit with the heat and humidity of Singapore.

So after a few seconds of chewing the thick humid air, we got our bearings and walked to our accommodation which was situated in an area known as Little India. Fortunately at this time of year the humidity and heat are broken most evenings by a refreshing monsoon deluge (and we made it to our accommodation just in time).

Singapore has an interesting history. Although there were some Malay settlements in the area known as Kampungs many years ago, it was the British who decided to develop the city as an important trading port. In order to achieve this an army of migrant labour was required primarily from Southern India and China. These migrant workers were allocated areas for their own housing and those areas still remain very prominent today, namely Little India and China Town. Since then Singapore has become very successful and has grown into a vast city state, which has attracted migrants from all over the world making it a truly multicultural city. All this multi ethnicity means there are a whole host of decorative mosques, Hindu temples, Chinese temples and Buddhist temples to visit. It also means there is a fantastic array of food on offer. However, so much of it was so completely foreign to us that we just didn't know where to start and with signs like "frog's leg porridge" and "fish head soup" on display, we were a little apprehensive.

Fortunately we had a food ally. We had met Melissa who lives in Singapore whilst traveling in Bolivia and bumped into her again in Ecuador. We got to know each other well enough to arrange a meet up for lunch and to gain the inside track on life in Singapore. Melissa introduced us to the Hawker Centre which are found everywhere in Singapore. Its a bit difficult to explain exactly what a hawker centre is to anyone who has not visited one. It's like street food or market food all under one roof with a sort of canteen style seating area. The food venders are all independent and each one serves a few speciality dishes or drinks, you simply walk around and get what you want from as many stalls as you like paying for each dish individually, find a seat and get stuck in. The best thing about the Hawker Centres is that they are incredible value and all the food is cooked fresh in front of you, so they are very popular with the locals.

We had a great meal with Melissa. Nothing too weird, just some good and tasty dishes to get us started, all washed down with a glass of freshly pressed sugar cane juice whilst she gave us some tips on what to see in Singapore.

We spent the next few days munching our way through a variety of different Hawker Centres, visiting the modern city, the old city, the famous Raffles Hotel, many temples and the Botanic gardens. All in all we found Singapore to be a fantastic place to visit with so much to do and see and a great introduction to South East Asia.

After a four days in Singapore it was time for us to leave the city state and head north to Malaysia. Catching a bus from Singapore over to Malaysia was no problem. With the border formalities being very straight forward we soon found ourselves in the old port town of Malacca on the west coast.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans who conquered Malacca, followed by the Dutch and finally the British, all of whom have left their mark on the old town centre. We checked in to our hostel just out of the centre and went for a good look around the town. Ross decided to try some Chinese herbal tea which was utterly vile, even Ross the avid tea drinker couldn't stomach this one (much to Liz's amusement).

Malaysia has a similar approach to street food as in Singapore only the food halls are called coffee shops. There was one of these coffee shops right opposite the hostel which had been recommended to us so we gave it a go. It was certainly a little more rustic than the ones in Singapore but the food was good, you just had to ignore the odd appearance of a rat zooming through the place from the fairly grotty street (this is something we have now gotten quite used to).

After a day or two in Malacca we headed further north to the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is a big and bustling city which again has been in a few different hands giving it an interesting old town with a cricket pitch right in the centre (no prizes for guessing who put that there). The modern twin Petronas towers were worth a visit as they are very iconic and absolutely huge. We also visited the Batu Caves which is a huge Hindu temple set in a vast cavern. Many Indians come here on a pilgrimage as well as Maylay Indians and a lot of tourists. This was really good to see and very atmospheric apart from the cheeky local monkeys who are pretty good at stealing any food or bags with food in. Fortunately we had been warned so didn't carry any food but others were not so lucky and we saw quite a few monkeys scurrying to a high spot with a bag containing some bananas or an apple, with the owner looking up at them shouting what we thought must be some strong Hindu words.

We had contemplated visiting the East coast of Malaysia as it is supposed to be very picturesque. However, our timing was a bit off as the East coast has its wet season at this time, so after our stay in Kuala Lumpur we decided to head further north and inland a little to the Cameron Highlands in search of tea plantations and misty mountain forests. We found both in abundance and were able to walk for miles up the mountains through picturesque tea plantations and descend via steep trails through the dense mountain jungle, despite being warned about tigers in the mountains from an old Chinese man (we think he was joking). One day we got a little carried away with our walking and found ourselves trudging up peninsula Malaysia's highest road. Even though Ross was fueled up with a fantastic cup of tea and Liz with ice lemon tea from a tea plantation we had passed through, it was tough going in the heat. Fortunately a nice man in a pick up truck took pity on us and stopped to give us a lift to the top in the back.

We enjoyed spending some time in the highlands and even Liz was getting a real taste for tea, all be it in the form of a refreshing ice lemon tea. After a few days we moved on to the town of Ipoh which is not very visited by tourists and as a result a bit difficult to find reasonably priced and cleanish accommodation. We eventually decided to book a place in advance but had no real idea where in the town it was, so when we arrived at the bus terminal we set about finding out. We soon had several local bus drivers and conductors jabbering away and waving their arms helpfully and eventually they decided we should get on bus 113. The conductor on this bus didn't know where we should get off but after much discussion with the fellow passengers (none of which we could understand) and one of them even making a phone call to the hotel, the mystery was solved and the location of our hotel was discovered. It was a long way out of the centre. However, after checking in, we found it was easy to catch bus 113 back to the centre, which we did several times and each time the same friendly driver and conductor greeted us with a smile, no doubt thinking where do these two idiots want to go now?

From Ipoh we traveled to the city of Butterworth to catch the very short car ferry over to George Town on the island of Penang. George Town is famous as a foodie paradise and it did not disappoint. We had some great coffee shop food and drinks and knowing that we would soon be heading to Thailand, we made sure to eat some of the really tasty Indian food on offer as there would be far less Indian influence in Thailand.

We spent a couple of nights in George Town looking around the historic centre before moving a few miles along the coast to a small town beside the beach, where we could get the most amazing Malaysian pancakes known as roti pancakes for breakfast each morning. After breakfast, we could head out to the Penang National Park where we hiked to some virtually deserted beaches, namely monkey beach and turtle beach. We spotted lots of monkeys on the way as well as giant monitor lizards and large black squirrels. Unfortunately, much to Liz's frustration, we could not swim at the beaches as there were signs warning of the box jellyfish, which are a bit of a problem around these parts, so we decided not to risk it.

After a great few days and one final roti pancake feast, it was time to wave goodbye to Malaysia and board a very tightly packed train heading northwards towards the border and Thailand.

What useful things have we learned about Singapore and Malaysia?

- They all drive on the correct side of the road, apart from the mopeds which drive wherever they like, including the pavement and even through the doorway and straight into a hotel lobby.

- Chocolate milk iced tea is utterly addictive. Ross is now suffering withdrawal symptoms.

- Always check the toaster for little lizards before you put your bread in, as Ross had a bit of a surprise when one ran up over his bread.

- The native Maylay population are Muslim. Therefore the proximity of your lodgings to a mosque is worth consideration, as although the call to prayer is very atmospheric, at five o'clock every morning right outside your window it can be a little difficult to appreciate.

- Singapore and Malaysia have been a great start to our South East Asian adventure. We found travelling around easy, felt very safe, met some genuinely friendly people and ate some fantastic food!

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