Jerry and I left Australia at midnight with heavy suitcases and a feeling of "have we done the right thing?" Arriving in Shanghai we were met at the airport by a an English speaking guide who drove us an hour to our hotel - the 'Yangtze' (can highly reccommend it). It was freezing cold and raining. The hotel was an original art deco hotel and was situated very close to the Shanghai museum and Nanjing Lu (St), which is a pedestrian shopping mall which stretches to The Bund, the famous waterfront concessional area which was Shanghai's Wall Street in the 1930's. We spent three nights wandering the streets around our hotel and dodging rain showers. On the eve of Chinese New Year all night you could hear fire crackers go off - it was totally crazy ... read more

At the moment we are in Kota Bahru at the top of the eastern side of Malaysia. Tomorrow we cross the border into Thailand but at this stage am unsure as to whether we stay in the region for a few days or just keep heading north to Bangkok. We can’t get any information on the train timetables until we actually arrive in Thailand. We’ve booked a taxi to drive us the one hour north and drop us off at the border immigration office, where we then have to walk the kilometre between the two border posts and onward to the train station. We loved our time in Kuala Terengganu - the city had a strong Islamic influence and we seemed to be the only tourists there. We spent 2 days and nights there - we ... read more

I’m writing this in a little café in Jerentut in Central Malaysia, whilst waiting for a bus to take us to Kuantan on the east coast of the country. We arrived in Jerentut after five hours on the Jungle Railway from KL. We travelled 2nd class - it was clean, comfortable and a/c. The train was very busy as it is now school holidays here. Jerentut is a quiet little village, though we discovered the main part of the town (much bigger) when we climbed up the hill behind us. We are actually in the old part - the newer part is higher and set amongst trees so hard to see from here. We spent the night in a small hotel, paying only $16 for the room. After wandering around the village we located a laundry ... read more

Singapore wasn't as busy as we were expecting., though rush hour was much busier. I think our main impression of the city so far is the intense humidity and temperature! We have never felt as hot though and I cannot say that I have ever been absolutely drenched in perspiration before. And it is only the first month of summer here.... We've been fascinated with all the tiny shops we've discovered whilst exploring the narrow alleys leading off the main streets. and have thoroughly enjoyed exploring them. I confess that we've found it hard to eat from the many food stalls on the streets - the locals live their lives behind those stalls - we've seen people cutting their toenails, spitting, changing babies nappies etc on the food preparation areas. Some of the stalls looked really ... read more

I'm using Hotmail att he moment as there are no cheap international phone linese available to us my little pocket emailer. This afternoon I will try one of the international telephone offices to see whetehr I have more luck - most will probably be like the Post Office - with no stamps! Yestarday was very quiet but we spent thre afternoon going to Tanah Lot Temple towatch the sun go down. Very touristy but it was great to sit and watch the waves hit the little island that the temple was perched on. Last night we again ate at our favourite little haunt and spent the evening talking to a couple from Norway who have a son on AFS exchange in America. And listening to latin and jazz musicthey even had Buena Vista Social Club in ... read more