Melaka and Singapore

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Moving on from KL we spent a few days chilling out in Melaka before we were to move on to Singapore. Melaka was the nicest place we had been to in Malaysia. Melaka historically was an important trading port and consequently over time had been occupied by many countries such as Britain and Holland. So this town had many cultural influences and a vairety of colonial buildings which gave it character. We stayed in an old Chinese medicine shop which had been converted into a hostel, which had a pleasant rustic feel to it.

On the friday and saturday we were able to experience the market down Jonker street. Here we tried a speciality called Cendol, which is a combination of shaved ice, syrup, pasta and kidney beans... The ice and syrup was nice and sweet, the pasta was ok and the kidney beans were terrible and all put together was a bizarre pudding that we did not have a second time.

The next day we took the bus to Singapore which took four and a half hours and as soon as we crossed the border we felt a complete change in our surroundings. The city was clean, spacious, modern and very green. We both enjoyed the fresh, clean, green character of Singapore. Here we stayed in Little India where we were able to enjoy some more Indian food.

Our first full day in the city consisted of walking around and soaking up the atmosphere, we headed to the bay area and here there was a mix of tall modern skyscrapers and small traditional buildings creating a nice contrast. Even though we walked around a lot, there weren't many people about we soon found out that everyone travels by the underground even for a short distance.

Our second day involved taking a trip to Singapore Zoo, it took most of the morning traveling to the zoo we took the underground then a bus. At the zoo we finally got to see the Proboscis Monkey that we did not get to see in Borneo, their long noses are really strange. As well as the Proboscis monkey there were many other varieties such as spider monkeys, gibbons and baboons. We then followed a trail for feeding times, explored the reptiles and saw two giant tortoises getting a bit frisky. The male on top was grunting loudly it was funny - we made a video to show you back home! We then ended the zoo trip watching the elephants at work show where we saw how they helped humans in the forest lifting and pushing heavy logs.

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Comments

[auspicious]

Turtles in Singapore
Hilarious! Happy to read that you are having fun on your travels. I don't know how you keep your blogs so up to date! This is Michelle, we met at Lucy Backpackers in Kota Kinabalu. Haha, obviously, I'm behind on msgs as well. Look forward to reading more of your adventures and watch out for those frisky tortoises. :)~

[cathy]

green space
Im loving the green space Laura =]