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Hi,
Its been a very busy first week - jet lag and early mornings means that myself and jenny are pretty tired by now. Its also very humid and sunny and its hard getting used to that, at least our room has air conditioning!! We have learned by now not to try and do anything for a few hours midday due to the heat and so now we just go back to the hostel and have lunch/relax for a few hours before venturing out!
The hostel is really nice, the staff are lovely and very helpful. Our room is nice and the hotel has lovely facilities such as a kitchenette and lounge area that make it very comfortable. Its just Jenny and me staying in this hostel but there are more student girls from cardiff that we are going to be meeting up with here and doing things with so that will be nice. The hostel is in a good location, 5 minutes from a monorail station, making everywhere very accessible. Its also walking distance to some good food places and to food shops
We have been getting the monorail to the
paediatrics centre every day for 8am ward round but then have been leaving early afternoon so its not too bad at all. The children in the hospital are very cute, the doctors are generally very nice and seem quite accommodating to the idea of letting us have time off for seeing more of malaysia! The ward rounds are very long though- usually means we are standing from 8am until 1pm in a humid ward while trying to hear what the different doctors are saying to each other! Because it is a free hospital (there are private hospitals here too) the patients are generally from poorer families and unfortunately tend not to speak much english, however the doctors and a malaysian student are pretty good at filling in the gaps.
We went to Melacca (historical port of malaysia) on Tuesday, as it was a national holiday and we were not expected to go into hospital. Malacca is the 3rd smallest state in Malaysia, its about 2 hours south of KL on the coast. The historical centre has been listed as a UNESCO world heritage site since 1998. It was a long day (and very hot) but we saw
everything we wanted, including the palace of the sultan and the ruins of fort A famosa. Basically, to summarise- it was a very popular port at one time, indonesia, Britain and many other countries would sail there to buy/sell goods and would stay there for months until the wind changed for them to sailback. It had a ruling sultan however was taken over by the portuguese in 1511, who built a fort- A famosa to defend Malacca. It was then taken over by the Dutch in the 1600s, claimed by britain from the 1800s and then finally became a malaysian state. The portuguese and Dutch influences can be seen in the architecture and in the local cooking.
For lunch in Malacca we went to china town and I learned that a Malaysian 'mild' dish is still too spicy for me, so am now trying to avoid most dishes with chilli in them!! We tried a local dish called 'cendel' there,which is a dessert consisting of ice, coconut milk, golden suryp, kidney beans (!!) and green worm-like things, a bit like tasteless jelly. All in all it wasnt the tastiest dish, however it also wasnt the worst thing Ive ever
tasted either!! For supper we went to little india,where we had a cheap and tasty meal on a banana leaf!!
We discovered china town in Kuala lumpur during the week and had some nice food and went for a walk around the markets there. The markets are amazing- lots of fake brand handbags,jewellery, wallets etc and I managed to barter a fake chanel purse down to 4 pounds!! (we are planning on returning here towards the end of the holiday to make some more purchases!!)
Yesterday (saturday) we met up with a couple of friends who are also on placement in KL and we went to lake tittiwangsa, the idea was to have a walk and maybe go for a kayak, but by the time we had a walk we were boiling and the sun was very hot and so we went to Chow kit market instead. Chow kit market is mostly underground and so the smell of all the fish and meat is a little bit overpowering. The fish looked very fresh (in fact there were live fish in bowls under the counter and so perhaps this is why...)
Following
this we went to the Patronas Towers for an evening meal. The towers themselves are very impressive, especially lit up at night. This area is a massive contrast to most of KL as it is very clean (!!), air conditioned and full of tourists. The towers are full of shops including big brands such as Chanel, restaurants, cinemas and an aquarium which we are going to visit on Monday.
Today we went back to the patronas towers to see the Malaysian Philharmonic orchestra perform Beethoven's piano concerto no.2. We thought it would be enjoyable and a nice experience, also a relaxing activity for a sunday! Plus with student dicount it was only four pounds, so we thought it was a bargain!
Right, I am going to settle down for the evening, tomorrow we have placement and then we are celebrating one of the student's birthday's by going to the aquarium and then on an evening trip on a river boat cruise to see fireflies and have an evening meal.
Hope you are well, I will post again next week,
Eleri.x
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Cath
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Hi from Cath & Kevs
Great blog. Very glad to see you are having a great time and are safe. Sounds like the hospital is being very fair with you both and you're having plenty of free time to explore. look forward to reading more xx