Hello everyone,

you probably would have expected some new photos by now. Unfortunately, they won't come as my camera (and all the photos with it), together with cash, traveller cheques, passport, credit cards, driving license and mobile phone got stolen in Melaka, Malaysia, just the night before I was meant to move to Singapore. We had dinner at a food court and I placed by bag with my belongings under next to me, under the table. Three guys sat down at the table next to us, separated by a screen. What I didn't notice was that they screen didn't reach all the way to the bottom. My rucksack must have got moved a bit closer to the screen, they saw it, pulled it over and made a run with it. Useless to say that I was carrying all my valuables in it. The security cameras even recorded the theft. I could see the face of the guys who took my bag!All this happened on Thursday night after a day of sight seeing in Melaka. Once I had filed my police report (which took ages and the police weren't really interested in it) and got back to the guesthouse, I sat down with my group, filled them in and then they handed me a new mobile!!! They had all chipped in to by a new one with a Malaysian sim card. So I started crying again. It was so sweet of them. I am ever so grateful for that as I can still be in touch with people this way.

After a night with very little sleep, I took the first bus back to KL to go to the embassy in the hope that they could issue an emergency passport the same day (as the name suggests). But I wasn't lucky. Because of the time difference between Europe and Malaysia, they couldn't get my identity confirmed before Friday afternoon. And they don't work Friday afternoons. So I'll have to wait to Monday. All this gets slightly more complicated as I don't actually live in Germany anymore and thus they will have to check with the German embassy in London. I can just hope that everything goes smoothly (for once) and I'll have a new passport on Monday. So I'm stuck here in Malaysia as I can't leave the country without a passport. I was really upset because I was meant to meet Neil in Bangkok today and I was looking forward to it. And all this was ruined by some **********! But I suppose every cloud has a silver lining and there were a few nice things that happened, like the new mobile phone from my group or the taxi driver that didn't charge me because he felt so ashamed of his countrymen. And I have just discovered that it is really cheap for me to send text messages to the UK, it's only 20 cents, which is the equivalent of 3.5 pennies! Neil is now flying into KL and will hopefully be here later tonight. So we'll just have to see if the German embassy is up to its reputation of being efficient and I am allowed to leave the country on Monday. Will keep you updated. Anyway, if any of you want to get in touch, here is my Malaysian mobile number: 0060-166116456.

Admittedly, I am struggling to keep smiling at the moment but I keep on trying.

Take care everyone,
Yvonne