We caught our bus from KL to Melaka which amazingly left and arrived
on time. We then got a local bus from the terminal into Melaka town.
Then it went downhill a bit… We walked down some very hot streets
with our packs to find that Sam, the owner of our guesthouse, was out
and so we couldn’t drop off our bags. Thankfully a very friendly shop
keeper offered to look after our bags while we went for a drink to
wait for Sam.

After half an hour we returned to Jalan-Jalan guesthouse and finally
met Sam and checked in. We asked Sam where we could find an ATM and a
travel agent as we wanted to book tickets to Singapore. He said the
only way to get them was back at the bus terminal we had just come
from and we would have to go soon as they sell out on weekends!

We headed straight to the bus stop but the bus had just left and we
couldn’t face sitting in the heat waiting. So we decided we would try
to walk. Big mistake.

The Rough Guide we have (published late 2008) has a Melaka map from at
least 5 years ago. As we did not know this we followed the map to the
bus terminal to find it no longer there. It is now 3km out of town!
We thought as we had come that far we should at least try the walk but
after 1km it became clear these were not roads for walking.

Annoyingly all this faff could have been avoided had the Melaka bus
terminal information point not had a 3 hour lunch break. Oh yeah,
Melaka also has no maps anywhere for some reason. For a UNESCO tourism
site it’s amazingly difficult to figure out at first.

Thankfully that is where the bad things finish. That night, after a
comfort pizza, there was a night market with some of the oddest sights
we have had in Asia. There was a huge Kareoke stage (photo) and all
the temples were being used for more kareoke and latin-type line
dancing! We wandered the streets for a while and then collapsed back
at the guesthouse.

This morning we got up early and managed to get a bus to the terminal
and grab some of the last tickets to Singapore. Then a bus back to
the town to try and appreciate it this time!

Melaka old town is a cross between Hoi An and Georgetown but a little
more touristy. There are some really interesting sights and buildings
plus we saw a naked guy having a wash by the river. The locals were
very amused.

We stumbled upon the best hidden secret in Melaka all because Jen
needed a wee. It is a Korean cafe which has tables and benches over a
fish pond which you put your feet into while enjoying a refreshing
fruit juice and the fish nibble on the dead skin on your feet!!! It
was cool, felt a bit wierd and tickled Ben a lot but excellent fun and
we both now have silky soft skin. This is defo the most bizzare place
we’ve been. What will we find next?!

Tonight is the weekend night Market again and we are off to sample the
cook it yourself satay. Yumm!

It’s our final night in KL and we’re knackered from all the walking
and exploring we’ve done over the past 4 days, not to mention the
underwear buying in the M&S we found in the mall under the Petronas
Towers!

We’re certainly ‘malled out’ after being here – they’re all either as
big or bigger than the Trafford Centre and quite often there will be
two or three next door to each other. We were even let into the
exclusive curtained room of an expensive watch shop to look at a
£100,000 Franc Villa watch!

We’ve both got colds and so found a Chinese tea specialist in China
Town where we drank pretty yucky but apparently cold-curing tea.
Hopefully that’ll do the trick.

This is the pic we took tonight to send to Gem for her birthday
(yesterday) which we have recycled I’m afraid, but we do love those
towers!

Born yesterday, let us introduce you to our twin baby nephews: Samuel
George Butler (with Judith) and Rhett Holman Butler (with David). They
are gorgeous and making us feel incredibly far away! We can’t wait to
meet them in 4 months time. Meg is just fine, looking incredibly well
and Tim hugely proud in the other photos we’ve got.

Apart from waiting for the exciting news from home we have been
exploring Kuala Lumpur and really like it. We walked the majority of
the city yesterday and today, including going up to the Skybridge
between the Petronas Towers and exploring a few of the, literally
hundreds of malls.

Currently sitting in our hostel room waiting for a famous KL storm to
pass over us. Yeh!

Our 7am bus got us into KL in super-quick time and after a short stomp
from the bus station we checked into our latest guesthouse, Paradiso.

KL is a huge contrast to our last few weeks of travelling and it’s
quite good fun being back in a bustling city. What is odd is there is
some serious wealth here as we’ve already seen a Ferrari and a
Lamborghini!

Once checked-in we headed straight out into the heat for a walk to the
iconic Petronas Towers and a quick visit to the mall below them.
Strangely the mall has a Karen Millen and an M&S!!

A few more kilometres were then stomped before we finally gave in to
the sweating and headed back to our guesthouse. Now all we need to do
is tidy ourselves up and decide what to eat. Not bad at all really.

Finally, a special hello and good luck to Megan and Tim for tomorrow.
We can’t believe that we are going to be Aunty Jen and Uncle Ben!
Can’t wait!