I said goobye to Austrailia, and i'm not in the city of Penang in Malaysia. I arrived in singapore a week today and spent two nights there staying at a v. nice hotel in orchard rd (lot's of HUGE shopping malls and posh hotels-they even had TOPSHOP, WAREHOUSE AND MARKS AND SPENCER to name but a few).mind you, i didn't really think much to the area-it was v. much like a main shopping area back home but was absolutely ram-packed full of people, not v. cultural. The next night was spent in a hotel in Chinatown, where i got to experience abit more of the singapore culture-taking a look around a few of the mosques and paying a visit to the famous 'Raffles Hotel' and enjoying a singapore sling at the long bar. The streets everywhere are packed with numerous shops, selling everything from souveiners,clothing, antiques, electronics....! and hundreds upon hundreds of hawker centres seeling a vast array of chinese, indian, malay cuisine-mind you some look abit cleaner and safer than others!!! V. different from travelling around austrailia-big culutral and language difference...althought feel relatively safe-apart from the taxi driver that insisted he take me out for ice-cream!! Anyway.... i've managed to pack loads of stuff into the last few days...so here's a quick summary...after singapore i crossed the border into malaysia and went to melaka for the night where we had a ride in a trishaw, ate the famosa chicken rice balls..then kuala lumpar for a couple of nights, experience the night markets (hundreds upon hundreds of fake handbags,watches, sunglasses....!) tried my hand at a bit of batering but i'm yet to purchase any bags!!!!shock horror-but there's still time! had a half day tour fround kl, visiiting the pewter factory, kings palace, mosques, kl tower. went along the footbridge of the petronas towers, ate lots and lots of malysian food-although have to admit did have to resort to a starbucks one day-my stomach just was not agreeing with all the malaysian food i was supplying it for breakfast, lucnh AND dinner! tried lots of different dishes though(got to try everything at least once) and loads of different fruits, including mangosteen, durain, lychees, starfruit, dragonfruit......the list goes on! after kl we went to kuala kangsar and took a boat ride out to suka suka lake retreat and small island with a spattering of small bungalows-here we spent a couple of days swimming in the lake, kayaking, visiting the nearby village where we went on a trek through the rainforest finishing up at a waterfall, expereinced malay family life and last night had a tradional dinner with the hosts in their house, sitting on the floor eating with our hands! learnt how to play chunga (a marble game), experienced loads of thunderstorms. the weather is just soooo humid-i'm still getting used to it! and now i've arrived in penang, where we'll be spending two nights, staying in the chinatown area of the city (which appareas to be a cross between melaka and kl) lot's of quaint streets mixed within huge sky scrapers...

I hope everything is going well back home and that the weather isn't too bad?! is the summer meant to be a good one this year?! i'll be home a fortnight on monday!gawd! time flies when you're having fun....tsake care everyone-xxxxx