Hi Everyone! Sorry for taking so long to put this postcard up. We're still in Malaysia just about and have been travelling in Asia for 3 weeks now. Singapore was excellent and we really enjoyed it. It's a very clean and friendly city. We spent a day in Little India exploring the temples, a day and evening in Chinatown in the market and temples. We also took a bumboat down the river to see the Merlion statue, the Singapore mascot, half lion half fish. After four days in Singapore we left to travel by bus into Malaysia. First stop Melaka where we had the most surreal time. We made our friend Dangerous Dave on the bus on the way there and ended up travelling with him for the week ahead. Melaka has a rich history but didn't seem especially touristy when we were there. The Chinatown is nice and has some lovely little shops, but turns into tack city on the weekend nightmarket. We met up with Dave's friend Angela and another Dave for a meal in Melaka and ventured to the nightmarket in Chinatown where we discovered a shop full of giant mushrooms and a huge karaoke stage in the middle of the street surrounded by locals singing Malaysian karaoke. They take their karaoke very seriously over here and looking back it possibly wasn't the best idea for us to jump up on stage and start singing Copacabana very very badly.... and as for the dancing.... but hey it happenened and we just hope the Melakan people forgive us. We spent five days in Kuala Lumpur with Dave and the others. The Petronas Towers are amazing, and better still free to go up! It's a really dirty, smelly, noisy city, and we loved it. The day we arrived there was an international bicycle race on a circuit through the city which was good to watch. The chinatown market in KL is actually smaller than others we've been to so far and much much tackier but quite good fun if you're looking for a pair of Oakeys or a Rolox. We also took a bus to the nearby Batu Caves, a huge flight of steps up a cliff face to a cave with a temple and a family or resident monkeys. After KL we parted company with Dangerous for the time being and took a bus to the East Coast to Cherating, a little seaside village with not much to do except chill out and surf. But we don't surf, so we did the other instead. We did take a little trip on the river in a small motor boat through the mangroves and saw monkeys, monitor lizards, fish, crabs and birds including a kingfisher. It was really good. There is a fantastic Indian restaurant there called Spices and 'wow', the food is great!!! From Cherating we took a bus back to Kuala Lumpur for a stop-over, incidentally Valentines Day. We were all set to walk to a nice Malay restaurant for a romantic meal when the monsoon hit KL, I ended up covered in water in the middle of the road with my flip flops up around my knees... hmm, attractive... and Ben and several locals in stiches on the other side of the road. So we went around the corner to Nandos instead. We left KL for Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands where the weather was a little cooler but only at night. It's absolutely beautiful up there. They have several tea plantations, flower farms, fruit and honey-bee farms. So we drank copious amounts of tea for a few days up there. We're now in Penang, an island off the North-west of Malaysia. It is roasting! Our hostel is very sweet and the people here are really friendly. We've been exploring the city today and we're planning to visit Penang Hill tomorrow. Next stop Thailand! Thank you for all your nice e-mails and messages. Take care and keep in touch! Love Helen and Ben xxxx