Hi all

After Australia we headed to Singapore, and what seems to be the shopping capital of the world. You can imagine Adam's delight at being here on the last saturday before christmas! It was also absolutely boiling, so although Adam would never get onto the podium if shopping was olympic sport, he certainly would have a good chance of gold for sweating. The air was very humid, but the place was lovely.

Singapore is clean and efficient and in most parts you feel safe and are free to wander the city and enjoy its sights. We went to the famous Orchard Road shopping area and into Chinatown to look at all the markets and temples.

We then caught the train across the bridge to Kuala Lumpur. The train trundled through endless malaysian jungle and villages before making its stop in KL 8 hours later. But we had been warned to only travel 1st class, advice we were so pleased we took as the seats were comfortable and the journey really quite pleasant. (thanks Kate!) It also meant we avoided the rather corrupt immigration services that the busses had to endure, and instead went through the efficient stop off for the trains.

In kuala Lumpur we were surprised to find our hotel was actually really lovely, in fact it used to be the Hilton! It was great and a real relief considering we spent most of the next two days on the phone to our banks as they stopped all of our cards. Apparently there was fraud on Adam's card, someone trying to buy something in India. Mair's card was stopped automatically as Malaysia is a hot stop for fraud. We were stuck in KL with no access to any money. But just then Adam bumped into a friend he worked with in Reading, Raheel. Raheel kindly lent us some money until we managed to sort out our cards. Thanks so much Raheel. We were then able to explore Kl on the monorail, taking in central markets and the plentiful aray of bars and resturants. Adam was even treated to a local eye's view of the city by going our drinks with Ramzi and his wife.

Then onto KL airport, the most clean and efficient airport we have been to! there were monorail shuttles (called aerotrain) that took you to a separate area full of shops whilst you waited for your flight. Adam's idea of heaven I can hear you say!

Then off to Thailand........