We were really enjoying our coach journeys in Malaysia, our trip down from KL was another comfortable ride, and we also got some impressive views and caught glimpses of Malaysians doing their day to day things. We ended our journey at the bus stop in central Melaka, our hostel was located in china town a good 15 mins drive away, we debated briefly on our transport options to get there......hmmm cheap slow overcrowded bus.... or expensive fast taxi??....We differed in opinion but as Jen wasn't feeling too good down to a dodgy wobbly seat soo we went for the taxi. Within minutes of exiting the bus station I could tell by that all too familiar look...Jen was feeling sick!....silence, white face, and a scary stillness......the window slowly winds down......Matt knew Jen was now a ticking time bomb and the driver has mins to save his cab. Matt tried to calm and distract from the situation but with every swing of a corner he knew it was gonna be close.......dual carriageway.......single lane road.......bridge.......back alley......yes nearly there!!........Jalan Jalan Hostel! woooo made it!!......beads of sweat dripping down Matts face......crazy enough but within moments of some fresh air Jens seemed to peak up!! close one!! We were standing in the middle of a quiet narrow road full of lil boutique shacks....The baby blue doors of Jalan Jalan a memorable feature which was one of many lil quirks of the street. We rang the door bell and within secs we were greeted by a Frankenstein looking man (Alan)....A bit weary we entered the small shaded room, old style basket bikes in the entrance, a well, sofas accompanied by a couple of travelers, coffee table with hot tea, fridge as a TV stand, tea stand with a hot water dispenser, a computer desk with a cozy chair, and an office desk.......There was a warm, cozy, inviting feel to the place.....we was checked in by Alan, a friendly englishman who gave us a tour of the facility and then choice of room.....either a medium sized dark room, modern looking double bed with an Audrey Hepburn photo on the wall that had no window......or......a smaller spaced room with an old wooden double bed but with venetian style windows across half the room letting in oodles of light......hmmmm.....decisions!!grrr!....Were not good at making decisions...usually ends in a difference of opinion!....surprisingly we both agreed rather quickly on the light!........we hadn't really had a window in our last two places so we were both pretty excited.....especially jen. We were both pretty hungry so asked where we could get some good food.....Alan was our fountain of knowledge throughout our stay.....very helpful with local info!.....He took us round the corner and into a pink house, the front completely open, a wok n stove on a small table, and a few plastic chairs n tables within, we were introduced to a small malay woman......."Rice or Noodles?".....huh?!....ummm......Noodles please......."Chicken?".......Yep!!.....Wow....lighten quick...smashed in the wok....chicken...green veg....a handful of this, a squirt of that.......the noodles!!.....stir stir stir......and....flop..... onto a plate......The tastiest noodles we have ever had!.....and cheap as you like!! After our delightful snack we took a stroll and ended up along a river, it was a beautiful sunny day, as we walked down the bank we came across a load of rowing boats, not any old boats, these boats had dragon designs on them with around 10 guys sitting down the length of the boat, there was also a hobbit sized person sitting at the one end with some drum sticks smashing a drum.....bang......bang.......bang.....bang!! The rhythm of the pounding controlled the timing and rowing speed!....confused we stood wondering what was going on!!......on the other side of the river people gathered along the river bank and a an MC was rattling on about the different boats!....We eventually realised they were racing down the river!....we took a pew on a patch of grass and took in the atmosphere!....the MC chanted.....there off!!......the pounding sound getting faster and faster! The crowd opposite chanting and cheering on their team!......We watched through a number of heats and then the final!!....It was a nice introduction to the culture of the city! There was a community feel to the place which we could relate to from home. We continued back up the bank and round across the river into a small square with a number of dusty brick red buildings....one of which was a clock tower!....In such a small space of time since we arrived we could see so many varied influences in the buildings, environments and culture.....it was really intriguing but very inviting. The heat eventually got too much for us and we headed back to the hostel for shade. It didn't take long before we were sat in the "lounge" drinking free tea and chatting to the other guests. The hostel had such a laid back family atmosphere, every time a new guest walked through the door you was instantly introduced by Alan, Alan knew what travelling was all about and wanted everybody who walked through the hostels formidable blue doors to leave with some passed on travelling knowledge and a memory. After getting through most of the tea bags and picking up a good load of useful info we headed off for some evening grub with a couple of guys from Hull, our intention was to find a recommended cheap Indian restaurant....... after a good walk following directions all we could see was a Chinese style food court and a dirty, empty, dingy place serving fish head curry!...hmmm....I knew Jen had come on leaps and bounds but that was asking too much!!....Yep we eventually ended up forfeiting the Indian plans for the Chinese food court!!.....Matt wasn't too pleased after craving a curry and Naan!!........We ended up with some random Chinese dishes! When we returned to the hostel we got chatting to Will, Will was residing at the hostel on a more permanent basis......working from Malaysia!! He was basically a vampire.....no he didn't go round biting people's neck.....he slept in the day and came out at night......he was also a football fanatic!!......Matt was happy!!.....Matt and the Hull guys was soon convinced to stay up till stupid o'clock to watch the football....Will had known of a few places that might show the game.....So we arranged to meet at 2.30am to watch a football match.....oh that wasn't England.......oh and might not be shown anywhere!!hmmm!......anyway we stayed up chatting to more people and drinking the night away!!....Time ticked away!......and with our half opened eye lids and a beer slightly falling from our hands we made it too the meeting time......Jen thought she might have been missing out soo stayed up!!.....We left the hostel with Will heading for his normal early hour football bar!......5 min excitingly walking through the deserted streets........hmmm the lights don't appear to be on!......what!!.....no worries!!.......I know another place!!....arhh ok!....5 min stroll through a couple of the dim lit back alleys.....Hmmm!.......no lights in this place either!!.......Ur joking!!.....Right!!.....There's one more place that might be showing it!!........ok let's go!.......5 mins more walking.....The lights are on but the doors are shut!!..........huh?!......why are there a dozen Chinese kids in the middle of a random street at 2.30 in the morning?!......hang on a min there's sound coming from the bar!!......Knock Knock!.......Hello?!......the doors opening!!......Can we watch the football??.....we have just closed!......but we hear the football showing!!.......No football, we are going to bed!!......but look how many people are here?!!.....hmm!!......If we all buy a drink think of the money!!.....Hmmm!!....we eventually convince the small Malaysian barman to let us all watch the first half!!......We pile into the tiniest bar.....grab some stools and turn to the TV.....50" HD LCD screen smacks us in the face!!....We grab a cold beer from the fridge!.....I think we have just hit heaven!!......Shhh you must be quite my family is asleep above!!.....Matt goes to the toilet to find what must be the blokes dad sleeping on the sofa in the opposing room!.......It was the strangest moment how we were watching football in a small Malaysian bar with a dozen Chinese kids drinking beer on a super awesome TV at gone 3 in the morning with a pretty good atmosphere!!....A memory which I will never forget!!....We eventually zombiefied flopped back to the hostel at around 5am.....tip toeing across the creaky floorboards back to our room! We missed the most of the following day but still managed to explore a little more of Melaka, we headed back to the square we encounted the day before and walked down to find a huge wooden ship, for only a small entrance fee we decided to check it out.....there was a maritime museum inside! It was pretty cool, although there was only soo much maritime history we could take in the crazy heat!.....We moved on.... walking down and around in a huge circle finding a shopping complex for the much needed air con in the process. It was a pleasant place that was just really relaxed, within the space of the past two days we had pretty much had the full vision of Melaka even though we hadn't had to go too far to see it. We spent that evening meeting a load more new arrivals, as people left more people would be welcomed, it was great hearing different people story's.....where they was from, where they had been, where they were going!!..... We decided that our hunt for the Indian would continue.....this time we went with about 10 others.....we finally found it and sat down with a right mixed bag of nationalities!.....It was an amazing Indian!!....Just sitting and talking with all the people was an experience!.....Not that we was finding each other's company boring but it was a breath of fresh air having so many people around that you could chat with....We really felt comfortable around the hostel and in Melaka and over the next few days we sort of felt like we had knowledge to pass onto others...... Over the next 2 nights we met people from Norway, Switzerland, Holland, Austria, France, England, Korea, and Italy. We decided to share our Indian dining experience with pretty much everyone around the hostel and ended up eating there for the remainder of our stay!! Each night there was old and new faces around the table......Wow!.....it was pretty special....and crazy how we could get soo many different foreign people together!!....... just seemed like this is what happened whilst staying at the hostel!!......we knew it was happening long before we got there and was going to happen long after we left. Jalan Jalan had the atmosphere down to a t!... Each night Alan would sort out a film to watch and as and when we returned we slumped on the sofas with a collection of people. We spent the last couple of days wandering around the streets of Melaka, drinking lots of tea and soaking in the nationalities that walked through the doors!.....Jalan Jalan was an inspiring place, I think this is when we realised that we didn't need to get out and go exploring thinking we was going to miss out on something........we now knew that we could sit, listen, take in our surroundings and learn a bunch of things. Just before we left Malaysia for good Matt had something to tick off the food list that was missed in George town......a dessert called Cendol.....It didn't contain the most appealing ingredients consisting of flaked ice, green spaghetti, red beans and coconut milk in a milkshake type consistency......the excitement didn't last long......It was honestly the worst thing I have ever tried......It looked like puke and it sure tasted like puke!!.....To be fair only finding one food thing dodgy in Malaysia after a month of travel wasn't bad!!......Malaysia was an amazing experience for us both......something that we had never expected it would be.....we had tried loads of great food (excluding Cendol puke), met some great people, seen some amazing sights, and had a good feel of the country's culture. Our next destination was Singapore and from what we had heard it was gonna be alot different from the Thailand and Malaysia.....we had organised yet another coach journey!.......we had the feeling of the unknown again!.....we got on the coach although this time it wasn't to our luxury standard as before!...two seats either side of the isle!!grrr!.....Jen made sure her chair wasn't a wobbly one! We set off travelling down towards the border......We had heard that Singapore was rather hash with items being brought in......it was a bit sketchy too what could be taken and how much!.....we didn't have anything to hide but didn't want to get caught up with not declaring alcohol or Matt's pen knife!..........We was told that if we wasn't back on the coach from going through customs within 20 mins the coach would go without us!.....This was a common thing!!......sooo.....we stopped at the Malaysian border!.....Go go go!!.....we grabbed our bags....shot up the escalator and straight through to the customs officer.....we got stamped out of Malaysia.....ran down another escalator and back on the coach!!......woo we made it!!.....and breathe!!.....10 mins later we reached the Singapore border!!.......We were told the same statement.....if you're not back on the coach we will go without you!!.....Go go go!!....we grabbed our bags.....shot up the escalator and up to the bag scan!.....hmmm!.....waiting nervously......the bags slowly went through the x-ray machine!!........phew!.....there through!!....wipe of the forehead......quick quick!!.......on to the custom officer to get a stamp of the passport........down the elevator and.......yes the coach is there!......wooo we made it!....with time for a quick toilet stop!!.....safely through to Singapore without any problems!!.....YAY!!