KUALA LUMPUR - SINGAPORE

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After the mostly forgetable transport hub of Hat Yi, we were flabberghasted at the utter beuty of Malaysia. The greenest of mountains, the cheeriest of peoples and the nicest smelling food we'd experienced in a little while, and as all of that was from our seats on the coach, we couldn't wait to get off and experience some of it up close, and the first service station certainly did not dissapoint, fish ball broth anyone??? Blinking gorgeous!

'Betty' sat in the seat next to us on the bus, she was travelling back from a 'girls weekend' The girls being her younger, perhaps a sprightly 50, and her mother, who looked decidedly Botoxed!!!) in Thailand, where they had shopped till dropped, and she did not stop thrusting food in our direction, which was absolutely charming, however the soggy salt water soaked nuts where a step too far perhaps!!

All the beauty and charm soon made Jem and I fear that we had perhaps overlooked Malaysia as a destination. We had simply treated it as a country to pass through on our way to Sinagapore, with only a cursary stop in Kualur Lumpur 'cause they got dem towers there init!'. What a mistake, it is a stunning country, in every way, and that's from spending only 1 day travelling the length of it and 2 days in it's capital. One question we had to keep asking ourselves though was; Why has nobody ever raved on about Malaysia to us?? (the only answer we could come up with was that perhaps the old alcohol not being for sale so easily in this largely Muslim country has something to do with it!! Damn drunken backpackers!!!!?).

Anyway, we spent the very short time we had in KL (as the locals call it) being helped out by locals anytime we looked lost, eating wonderful food from all over asia, visiting the sights (yes we did see the famed Petronas towers and very impressive they are too), ducking around markets, mosques and churchs, admiring a nation that is full of different peoples all living in the most harmonious environments we'd see in ages, and generally appologising to people when they asked us how long we were in Malaysia for, and we had to say 3 days, they always looked very hurt, but we made a promise (which we are keen to keep) that we would certainly be back for a longer look at this most gracious, gorgeous and friendly of countries.

Next up we had 3 days dedicated to Singapore the country we were to use as our departure point from Asia.

To be frank we couldn't have chosen a better place to ease ourselves back into the western way of life, English comes as easily as any of the other many languages that are first toungues in this melting pot of a country. The cost of things certainly made us double take at times, we certainly had the 'ain't in Kansas no more Dotty' feeling on many occassions at the increase in the cost of living. We found ourselves dealing with the reality of travelling staying in dorms; 19 people in the same bedroom with 2 toilets and 2 showers between us all, food and drink costing 4-5 times what it had in the rest of asia (including a rather extravegent couple of Singapore Sling cocktails in the very establishment that created the drink - Raffles hotel - 17pound for 2 of them?? You what! Worth it mind), and back to pavements, shopping malls (Singaporians love to shop in air conditioned malls - we didn't mind the AC though) and finding out that the camera we were toying with buying was more expensive there than at home - You what again??

We based ourselves in Little India (a little like coming home after our month in the bonkers land itself) and basically kept ourselves out of the stinging heat (still up in the thirties) which was harder than it sounds at times when every street is controlled by traffic lights that are very pedestrian unfriendly!

As we arrived at the airport after 3 days lazing around the city we took stock of our time in Asia. The highs had been many, the lows few and far between. Some places are definately on the Jem n Jim list of places to return to, others we realise we may never see again. We were certainly sad to be leaving such a colourful and exciting part of the world, and getting more and more concerned with the potential costs we were about to incur in the more Western world of Australia, but the adventure had to continue, the largest island in the world was calling and as we boarded the plane,we waved farewell to the maddness and love of fantastic places and people, and eagerly looked forward to the road ahead.

Kwup Com Kap, Lagaan Thailand

Kwup Ji Li Li Laos

Cam on, Tam Biet Vietnam

Ar Kun, Choum Reap Li Cambodia

Terima Kasih, Salamat Tingal Malaysia

Thank You and Goodbye Singapore

Cheers Asia, you are Bloody Brilliant!

More when there's more folks.....

JnJ