Hello from KL

Hey y'all,

Well we've made it safe and sound up to KL in Malaysia - I can't actually spell the city name, so I hope you know where I'm talking about.

Brief history: On Sunday Evening we arrived in Singapore. According to the pilot it was only 26ish degrees when we landed - I'd like to disagree. After lugging our 14 bags around the airport and onto the MRT (train), I'd lost more sweat than I thought I had in me... and then we had to get off at the other end. We had been contemplating taking our packs around with us, but this quickly changed our minds to "we're leaving our bags here at any cost".

Monday found us sweating our way around Orchard Rd and going to see the orchids in the botanic gardens. On our way to the gardens we saw heaps of turtles in a pond. While trying to capture a video of them, I nearly died in the sun. Needless to say, water was our friend.

On Tuesday we headed up to Melaka mostly by train. It was supposed to take 3 hours, but after moving about 2km, it decided to sit there for about an hour before moving on. When we got to Tampin, we caught the first bus we could - after being told by a wiley old taxi driver that there weren't any... he tried really hard - "would I lie to you, look at me, i'm old, look at my hair" - turned out (fortunately) that he would lie to us :) We ended up catching a local bus which took us the scenic (read long) route the rest of the way. Melaka is a town with a lot of history. First colonised in 1511 by the Portuguese, then the Dutch, then the English, then Japs, then English again. We stayed in a little hostel where we discovered that even top sheets weren't included in the price. That night we discovered why - even with the fan on, it was too damned hot.

Wednesday, we went for a wander around the township. I persueded Kerstin to allow me to hire a trishaw which was much better than walking. I don't think they know what wind is here, so some old guy peddling us around at 10km/h was sheer bliss. We also went to the "Sound and light show", which was a tape recorded history of Melaka.

Today we've moved on to Kuala Lumpur. Everything went smoothly today. The bus didn't rattle much at all, and we were here by lunchtime. We ate Indian for tea which was great after the terrible Indian we tried in Singapore. Now Kerstin is just checking all her job emails, and then we might head to the KL tower for tea :)

I think we're starting to adjust to the heat here now. I don't start beading sweat as soon as I step outside anymore. Don't get me wrong though, I can't wait to get to the islands in Thailand...

Till next time.
Lindsay and Kerstin