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Published: February 6th 2007
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It has been a little while since we have done a blog, so we will get you up to speed with what we have been doing.
The last couple of days in KL, involved more mooching around the shops, eating (what we do best), and buying bits in Chinatown. From there we got a bus to Malacca, for a change of scenary and to use up some more days before our flight.
Malacca is small, and there is not a lot to do, that is if you don't include ten pin bowling and the cinema - both of which provide us some entertainment! There are more museums than anywhere else it felt, though we could only persuade ourselves to visit one (the maritime museum - this only got our vote as it is shaped like a boat!) as we have had our fill of museums.
We went out for sushi, where we created a fantastic tower of plates, picked from the revolving carousel. We couldn't see anybody elses tower, but ours rose above the sides of the seats! It would have cost us an arm and a leg at home, as the prices are probably the same in
pounds as they were in ringgit.
With 8 days left in Asia before we move on to Australia, we left for Singapore. We checked into accommodation, our first dorms of the trip, as the cost of living is a lot higher than we have come accustomed to - still cheaper than London though. The first night we had a resident snorer in the dorm, so neither of us had a good nights sleep - the snorer was still asleep in the morning, despite our banging around! He started snoring within 10secs of his head hitting the pillow. We decided to change accommodation, finding more dorms above a pub, which has the added bonus of reduced price beer and reduced room rates with longer stays!
On our first full day, we went out for a walk around - how nice it is to be able to walk on pavements! We saw the 'Durian buildings', the Merlion, Raffles hotel, Orchard Road, Clarke Quay and Chinatown - We ended the day with sore feet, and a full memory card!
That evening we wandered up to one of the temples where they were making preparations for the Thaipusam festival - there was
a party atmosphere, but this may have included Singapore beating Thailand in the football!
The Thaipusam festival started at midnight but we decided to check it out the next day. With day break and showers completed, we set off to see the festival. For those that don't know Thaipusam involves people taking milk as an offering, walking 4km from one temple to another. To top this off, the men have numerous bits of metal piercing their bodies. In the build up to this there elements of fasting, and the men end up in a zombie like state. We saw one man that was pulling along a 'cabinet on wheels', which was attached into his back with metal hooks - this was obviously not hard enough for him, as he had a mate pulling back on the ropes - Ouch! Every now and again, the devotees would have a little dance and jig about, pleasing the crowd.
We ended up walking along the route. We had not intended to go to the temple, but found ourselves the wrong side of the barrier about 1km away, and there was no escape route, so we were in it for the long
haul! We queued in the heat with all the others - grateful that we didn't have pieces of metal skewering our tongues, so at least we could have a drink! We finally got into the temple where the adorned men went mental, dancing around. I don't know where they get their energy from! It was a truely amazing sight, and no blood to be seen!
We finished the day with more walking around, looking in the many shopping centres. We wanted to stay out until dark so we could take some pictures of the views by night. In order to pass some time we stopped by the river and had a beer, in these really comfortable beach chairs. We both nearly didn't move again for the rest of the evening! Needless to say we both slept well that night.
The next day we went to Changi, and visited the war rememberance museum. This has changed a lot since Rob was last here, transforming from little more than a shack to a purpose built air-conditioned centre. The material was as depressing as ever. We discovered a local fast-food chain, that does fantastic fishfingers! Comfort food! We finished off the night
on a sofa, listening to a live band in the pub under our dorms.
That brings us almost up to date - yesterday we went walkabout, visiting where Rob used to live, and where he went to school. There has been a lot of building since he was last here. In the evening we went to a Hawker Centre that he used to go and eat at, which unsurprisingly has also had a face lift. Still the BBQ stingray and sweet and sour chicken was as good as he remembered!
As we had probs with our new memory card, we didnt publish this blog earlier. Since then we have visited Sentosa, and I had a little snooze on the beach. Idyllic if you can force out the noise of a pneumatic drill and look at the right angle so you can't see the container ships - so reminiscent of Felixstowe! We took the cable car over to the island, which is the first time we have been in a cable car in a long time, without having our snowboards in tow!
Last night we went to the night safari, and it was good! We took the tram
ride around the park, spotting pretty much all of the animals. We caught one of the animal shows, which was enthusiastically done, by both animals and trainers, and included a recycling message. Unfortunately if you use a flash you get booed at, so we don't have any piccies, but it meant that we could enjoy fully what we were watching.
We fly to OZ tomorrow leaving Asia behind - our home for the past 3 months. We have slept in a total of 29 different beds, and spent 5 nights on public transport! Between us we have devoured 45 books. Whilst we are sad to leave, we are both looking forward to some potato, and the opportunity to cook. Not quite so looking forward to the washing up that will follow!
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Grandma and Grandpa
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Men and metal
Wow, what a lot you have seen. Do hope you have not indulged in the metal piercing, it looks very grisly. Do hope you enjoy Sydney, there's a lot to see, we are looking forward to the next blogs. Lots of love from us both, your loving G and G.