Malaysia

Hi Everybody

So it's back round to my turn to write some blog.

We're just coming to the end of an interesting few days in Kuala Lumpur. The first thing I should say about it is that it is scorching here at the moment. It's hitting about 35 degrees in the heat of the afternoon which in the middle of a big city is a little bit more than is pleasant.

It's a very strange city actually. There are massive sky scrapers everywhere but then the city is actually very very green. There are still more trees than there are buildings and there is acutally a patch of forrest right in the middle of the city that is being preserved. We've spotted wild monkeys crossing the road and heading up into the trees and plenty of birds and insects. There are signs up when you enter the forrest warning you to be careful of the snakes and the scorpions. It's refreshing to see that a big city is actually taking care of it's wildlife and parkland and not bulldozing everything in sight.

We've been round to see the sights. The telecom tower is the 4th tallest in the world, the view from the top in the evening was pretty spectacular. Kuala Lumpur is also home to the Petronas towers. These two towers were the tallest buildings in the world until a 2004 I think (the sign of an oil company doing rather well for itself!). They don't let you go right to the top but they do take you up to the skybridge on the 41st floor which connects the two towers and allows a good view over the city aswell.

Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia in general is a very multicultural society. There are three disctinct groups, the chinese, the indian hindu and the muslim communities but all seem to co-exist perfectly well whilst each still retaining their individual identities. We went across to Little India one night in search of a good curry but actually came away disappointed. All we could find was row upon row of textile shops.

Speaking of shops, this is something that Kuala Lumpur does very well. They've some of the largest shopping centers that i've ever seen. There is one called Times Square which has 10 floors of shopping and an indoor theme park complete with large rollercoaster running very close to the walkways. Unfortunately the themepark has been closed for maintenance since we've been here so we didn't get to ride the coaster.

All in all it's been a good experience in Kuala Lumpur, there have only been a couple of things that has made it perhaps a little more difficult than it should be. Crossing the road has become an artform. They don't beleive in pedestrian crossings that work, every road is a main road and getting from one side of the street to the other is often quite a challenge. They also seem to be firm beleivers of paths that either stop alongside the main road forcing you to walk into the road or they just generally don't go anywhere in the first place. But it hasn't been that bad getting about really. The public transport metro and monorail has been very good even if you do have to buy a new ticket every time you take a trip or change lines. One final night here now and then off to Singapore tomorrow, we've decided that we're going to go by bus as the trains in this part of the world are very very slow and the bus looks more comfortable. Plus there is the added bonus that the bus station is the other side of the road from our hotel, so it's just laziness really!!

Well that's it from me for now. Next update in a couple of days about Singapore I expect.

Chris

Hello again,

A lot has happened since our last brief update, in particular our current location which has shifted from Thailand to Malaysia. Further good news is that we all passed our Open Water Diving course (with varying degrees of success - I drank half the sea for example).

We took our diving instructor Kung out for a few drinks to celebrate which turned into a mini session by the end. We reckon he hustled us drinks wise, he was struggling with beers but then got us on Thai rum (Sangsem) and coped a lot better. Needless to say we were all surprised by his prowess with some rum, Sprite and small bucket of ice.

After Koh Tao and diving, we got back to the Thai mainland to get a sleeper train down here to Malaysia. As we waited on the platform the Orient Express turned up and they watched us waiting as they ate their over priced dinner - which amused us. Eventually our train turned up and we all had our own bed compartment with curtains and windows and stuff - very nice. Apart from the loud noises and shaking we may have got a good nights sleep but hey ho!

We arrived in Butterworth having gone through immigration some four hours earlier (fairly straight forward affair really) and found the weather in Malaysia to be very hot and humid compared to what we're used to. It wasn't the sort of place to hang around in so along with a couple of American hang-ons (Dan and Justin) we got on a boat to Penang more specifically Georgetown. This was quite a big port once but has floundered (like the Empire).

Georgetown isn't the nicest we've decided, but is ok. Our hostel is cheap and friendly and very ample in headroom. Laura and Locky got a moped today to explore more of the island and found some nice things apparently but also got a bit sunburnt (much to my amusement). I explored Georgetown some more on foot - which turned out to be a bit of an error really - not much to see other than a 5-storey shopping centre which was quite modern and nice - not a patch on the Bullring tho!

Next stop for us is Kuala Lumpur on another sleeper train. We're quite looking forward to this one, with soaring skyscrapers nestled between lush green it should be a nice contrast with our other big city experience of Bangkok.

I know we promised some photos and they're coming soon. We've got a few diving shots (or wetsuit shots) which will please you and we'll also try and get some more stuff on as well. Sorry for another rushed blog - we're all quite hungry now so are gonna shoot off!

Until next time -
Hugs and Kisses,
Woodie (with Laura and Locky perched on each shoulder)