We left Singapore to get back to Port Klang and start the car cleaning... but decided to stop in Melaka one night. Its a historic city, and really interesting for the colonial architecture and all that stuff - they even have a pirate ship as part of the maritime museum!!

We booked into a hotel and decided to go for a walk around later in the afternoon - just because it was so hot and humid. Even when we went out later, it was still pretty hot... but we walked down some back streets, checked out the old churches and had a nice time... Its a really interesting little place, and not so far from Kuala Lumpor.

Now the only thing left for us is to clean the car to within an inch of her life, so that we car get her into Australia. Famous for importation regulations, and rightly so, we have to give everything a scrub down. But we're also against the clock now! In order to get to Australia in time to meet up with JB (Fintan's friend from uni, who will be in Perth for a total of 5 days for work) we need to get a flight on Thursday - I've even booked it! Eeekkk!! I think 4 and a half days cleaning should be ok, but we just have to do the best we can and hope that it is good enough...

But this is really it now... the end of the road... the first flight we will have taken for 10 months!! And the start of a new part of lives. It has been such an incredible journey, there have been tears, there have been swear words yelled at Kyrgy bus drivers, laughs, and beautiful landscapes (although the Kazakh nuclear polygon wasn't one of them!). I think for both of us, the best thing has been opening our eyes to these parts of the world we knew nothing about and had no idea what to expect - Georgia, Uzbekistan and Laos really blew us away. Mongolia was amazing, but like our friends said - only now we are gone, we appreciate how wonderful it was... at the time, it was pretty stressful!!

And also the people we met along the way, fellow travellers and local people who were so interested in our trip and excited to share stories, even when there was a severe language barrier. These people have supported us, inspired us and pushed us to continue on, go to more places, see more and even do things (underwater!)... and this also includes all of you who have been reading the blog, following our travels and posting support. It has been overwhelming to have so many people take time to read our posts and cheer us on. Hoping to catch up with many of you soon and tell our tales in person!