A comfortable night in a "cheaper end" Singapore hotel not far from the bus station we wanted to be at the next day, made a good start to our adventure.A reasonably comfortable bus took us to the Singapore - Malaysian border and the pesky border formalities then onto Malacca. We had jagged a fantastic price for a Novotel Hotel for our three nights.Luxury!We enjoyed wandering around the easily walkable old city and exploring the Portuguese and Dutch buildings. ...

KL airport has an overnight hotel just off the airport car park. The rooms are tiny, and I mean tiny, but are fine if all you are wanting between flights is a bed. To get anything extra it costs, even if you want the air con on, but hey its budget. As a bonus after leaving the airport, on the far side of the car park is a cafeteria. The food is basic but a lot of choice and great for the budget conscious. So we stopped for a feed.The Tune Hotel also has a 7 eleve...

The taxi arrived at the Rasa Ria Resort and as we gingerly eased ourselves out, favouring our aching muscles and sore feet, the doorman rushed up and said "Congratulations did you make it all the way to the top?" we answered in the affirmative, but were briefly bemused, then it hit us, normal people don't hobble quite the way we were.  The welcome was effusive, with a gong ringing out and Yoko, one of the receptionists coming out to greet us. She took us im...

"Breathe, breathe, suck the oxygen in, you can do it" No, I am not being coached while giving birth, though climbing Mt Kinabalu is akin to that experience, I am instead trying to get enough oxygen into my lungs in the rarefied air, close to the 4,000 meter mark on Mt Kinabalu. It is 5am and we have been climbing from the climber's rest house, Laban Rata since 2.30am. I am struggling to get enough air to keep going for a minute without a rest. Avan could see ...

Just when we thought Chinese New Year was over..... we found it all over again in Kota Kinabalu! KK is the capital of Sabah a Malaysian State in the Island of Borneo. We flew in, courtesy of Air Asia, and enjoyed two days at a bit slower pace. Eating and drinking is fairly inexpensive and in the evenings we went out looking and found live music. An amazing performance troupe presented a very acrobatic version of the New Year lion dance that involved high platfo...