Hi All,

We arrived in Asia braced for the culture shock but soon found that Singapore itself would ease us into the way of life here pretty gently. Singapore is a pretty impressive city, very modern and with a clean, efficient transport system that puts the London underground to shame. We did however get stuck straight into the food scene at some of the local hawker centres where you sit on the streets and enjoy great food with the locals at rock bottom prices.

We didn't have too much time to spend here so although we only arrived at our hostel at 5pm we headed to the night safari at Singapore that evening. First we watched a creatures of the nights show and then got on a tram to tour around the zoo itself. As it was by now 1030pm and much cooler than during the day all the animals we moving around their enclosures and we got to see some animals that we'd never seen before such as anteaters and hyenas plus all the usual suspects you'd expect in a zoo. It is designed quite cleverly so you don't see how the animals are separated from you and those that are harmless are allowed to wander freely so deers and goats are lining the road.

The next day we explored the town and the quay area, visited a local market before going to meet Jay and Racquel who were joing us for a 2 week holiday. After being suitably jealous of their nice hotel we headed out for a few drinks long Orchard road, although not too many as drinking here is not cheap. We packed in quite a bit of sightseeing including the botanical gardens, markets and a curry in Little India. We finished off our last night in Singapore with a Singapore Sling in the famous Raffles hotel where the drink was created. I loved the colonial design and the monkey nut shells all over the floor, plus a bit of sophistication was a nice change to those backpacker bars in Oz!

We left Jay and Racquel in Singapore for a couple more days while we headed by bus over the border to Melaka in Malaysia. The bus journey itself was interesting as no one spoke English and we had to get off the bus at both Singaporean and Malaysian customs with all our bags and then wait for another bus to come along each time, then get another bus once in Malaysia to take us on to Melaka. It was a bit of an adventure but very cheap and its always good to travel the way the locals do.

Melaka was very charming, a small town steeped in history which felt very authentic after all the western influences in Singapore. Our guest house was basic but had a really friendly owner who took us to hawker centres and restaurants each nights and recommended what we should try. On the second night we went to a Satay restaurant (and by restaurant we mean more of a dingy cafe) where we were presented with trays of raw food on skewers (most of which we had no idea what it was) and you cook it yourself in the bubbling pot of peanut sauce in the middle of the table. The food was great even if it was slightly scary trying to work out what we were eating!

We then met back up with Jay & Racquel in Kuala Lumpar for some more sightseeing including the Kuala Lumapr Tower and the Petronas towers which are the most beautiful out of all the egotistical 'tallest building in the world for five minutes' that we have seen so far, with stunning architecture and attention to detail.

From Kuala Lumpar we flew to the island of Penang to sample the Malaysian-Chinese fusion food and a whistle-stop tour of the sites - in less than 24 hours we managed to see the cute monkeys in the botanical gardens (one tried to chase Alex when he got too close - I've never seen him look so scared!) several temples and a mansion house. Plus just wandering round taking in the atmosphere and having our first 'drink in a plastic bag' - it has a straw in the top and you can hang it on you wrist from a string!

After so much action we had a well deserved couple of days relaxing on Langkawi, a much more touristy resort but the boys were delighted with the price of the tax free beer and needless to say Alex made the most of it! Thought to be fair we all enjoyed a few cocktails in the poolside bar of J&R's luxury hotel. To make sure we didn't get too lazy we did a spot of jet-skiing to get the adrenaline pumping and there were a few sore backsides the next day after bumping over all the waves at high-speed (not that Jay and Al were being competitive at all!)

All too quickly our time in Malaysia was over but we were looking forward to Thailand which we'll save for the next installment.

Missing everyone back home but not the weather ;)

Lorna and Alex

xxx