28 November 04 Selamat Detang! Malaysia!!! I'm not sure what images it conjures up for you lot but I have certainly been in dreamland. So often you hear of the long white sandy beaches with crystal clear waters - hmm - then you would wonder why we spent 7 days by the pool. I was appalled that even at a 4* resort there was rubbish littering the beach. We ended up at Damai Laut on the West Coast of Malaysia in Perak Region. And as I said spent 7 lazy days by the pool. One day we ventured over to Palau Pangkor, an island still unaffected by tourism and the fishing villages still thrive - and so does the rubbish they dump onto the otherwise georgeous beaches. Our resort was very nice though and remained relatively quiet the whole time we were there. Rob, desparately trying to get a sun tan, ended up looking more like Tandoori Chicken at the end of Day 1. He swears it was the dodgy suntan lotion, and the Malaria tablets we are taking also didn't help. Unfortunately we couldn't partake in the luxury of the spa or slog a few golf balls on the green but we were both content to relax, read, and play cards - although don't mention Canasta to Rob. Dad, the cribbage board came in handy but we are dubious about a couple of rules you will need to clarify for us. Even the loser seemed to always get points. Will explain later. Thrown back into the world of backpacking we thought we would struggle but so far so good. From Lumut we took a 4 hour bus trip to Kuala Lumpur. Not really much to report there except we both thought we wouldn't make it to KL when the bus couldn't find the right gears. But it crawled on. KL didn't rock our boat at all. In fact, with only one day to spend there we struggled to fill our time. We were too late to get tickets to go up to the Skybridge of the Petronas Towers - the one thing most visitors do do, so had to content ourselves with sitting outside and watching the towers light up at dusk. Whoopee you say. Moving on to Melaka which is where we are now. This place oozes history and architecture. Influences come from the Chinese, Dutch, Portugese and English, mixed with the Islamic culture bringing it to life. There are museums everywhere and they are worth while going to just for the buildings themselves which are relics from colonial times. The sun has followed us everywhere, except today it is raining, giving us a chance to fill you all in on our whereabouts. Tomorrow we bus to Singapore, arriving at about 1.30pm. Just enough time to dump our bags, take the MRT line into the centre city, and relax in the Raffles for a Singapore Sling - has to be done right!!!! I think Rob and I were born in the wrong era or have been reading too many books about Colonial times. We just need to win the lottery so that we can have a colonial house of our own. We have an early flight (8am) to Sydney arriving on the 1st December. And finally the last leg of our journey will be crossing the Trans-Tasman into Windy Wellington on the 5th December, just ahead of Santa. Don't worry - more updates will follow from Bondi Beach. Love to everyone. Kylie and Rob xxxx