Sightseeing Bonanza - KL to Melaka to Singapore!

Hello again everyone, we can't quite believe that it's been so long since we last blogged (very sorry about that, as it'll mean that this will most probably be a longer than normal blog for you to plough through)! We've been up to a fair amount, so we'd best just get on with things really!

TUESDAY 19th June

We spent the morning exploring China Town, where we saw two Chinese Temples and also a Hindu Temple. They were pretty nice, although the Chinese Temples we went to weren't as nice as the one we saw in Penang when we did our Heritage Trail walk around George Town. Once we'd seen the Temples in China Town, we made our way to the Post Office to send home yet another heavy parcel of things we don't want to be lugging around with us, at least this time it didn't take us over 2 hours to sort out (unlike in Hong Kong)! After the Post Office, we made our way into the Colonial District and went to Merderka Square (Independence Square) - where Malaysia's independence was declared 50 years ago (and is also the sight of the world's tallest flagpole)! Whilst at the Square, we popped into the History Museum. We then decided to make our way over to the Islamic Arts Museum. This was a really great museum and we ended up spending over 3 hours there! There were 2 special galleries, which were the most impressive - one was 'The Spices of Life' and was more informative than being made up of artifacts, but it was really interesting at the same time and we learnt some cool facts about spices and the production of perfumes and make-up etc! The other special gallery was a black and white photo gallery of portraits of people, which was really interesting (I think Steve was especially enjoying himself around this gallery, especially when he found the old cameras on display). There was one amusing photo, it was a group shot of some officials in a garden and in one of the windows of the house in the background is someone peeping through the curtains!
Once we'd finished the main part of our sightseeing for the day and were almost dead on our feet, we decided to head over to the Petronas Towers to see them lit up at night and to also get some dinner. The Towers were pretty cool and Steve got a couple of photos, although he was 'upset' that he didn't have his new tripod with him to take some better photos! By almost 20.00 we were absolutely shattered and so went back to the hostel.

WEDNESDAY 20th June

We got up early this morning and made our way back to the Petronas Towers so that we could get a free ticket to go up onto the Skybridge. We hadn't thought that it would be that busy, but we were wrong and there was an enormous queue when we finally got there just after 09.30! We ended up having to wait for 40 minutes before we could get tickets and then we found that our tickets would only let us go up to the Skybridge at 13.15! We went to the foodcourt to grab some breakfast and decide what we wanted to do in the mean time.
We ended up taking a half an hour walk to a Craft Complex nearby, which sounded really good. There were meant to be lots of craft shops/stalls, places where you could have a go at doing things like pottery and batik etc and also an artist's village. However, when we arrived it seemed to be very sleepy and the majority of it not open! The artist's village was OK and the only place you could have a go at doing things was a little batik shop! After a little while of exploring, we made our way back over to the Petronas Towers, where we arrived just in time to be ushered into a mini cinema to watch a movie about the Petronas company. We then had to go through lots of security checks, including X-ray machines and metal detectors before we were herded into the huge lift (which took us up 41 floors in 41 seconds - scary stuff). Once finally on the bridge we were only allowed to stay for 10 minutes, so we took a few hasty photos and had a wander around (my vertigo was trying to get the better of me, but I managed to sneak a little peek over the edge) before being shuttled back down to ground level in just 41 seconds!
After the excitement of the Skybridge visit (which by the way is the highest 2 storey skybridge in the world) we ended up going back to the craft village to try our hand at batik painting! We chose our designs and then had to trace them onto the silk in pencil, one of the assistants at the shop/stall then went over this outline with the wax/resin mixture (we could have had a go at this ourselves, but both decided we weren't steady enough of hand to do it well enough). It was then our job to fill in the design with the dyes provided. We ended up taking a fair amount of time over this, but both really enjoyed it, once we'd finished, they framed our paintings for us and we were finished! Steve did a lion fish (as we'd seen one whilst diving in Koh Tao) and I wasn't sure what to do, so ended up doing flowers (I kind of wish I'd done something relating to our travels more, but it's too late now)! I think I've found something to do as a hobby when I get home and am a bit gutted that we weren't able to buy a batik kit, as it was too expensive.
After fixing our creative craving we made our way back to the Petronas Towers so that Steve could take some more photos of the towers lit up at night and also so we could grab some dinner from the foodcourt before making our way back to the hostel.

THURSDAY 21st June

This morning we made our way to the bus station to buy tickets to get us to Melaka later on. We then went back to the hostel and got our bags packed up, it was then a matter of just waiting for the time to arrive when we had to go back to the bus station to catch the bus. The journey was pretty good and we were in one of those buses which has larger and therefore fewer seats in it. It was kind of funny as well, as there was a large tour group of people on the bus as well and we wondered whether they were maybe from Intrepid! When we got to Melaka, we had to catch a taxi to get to the part of town we wanted to stay in. Unfortunately the guesthouse we'd originally wanted to stay at was full, but luckily we found a much better (and better value) place to stay at instead - Shirah's guesthouse, the staff were really nice and the room was pleasant too. Once we'd cooled off and freshened up we decided to go out for a little while and went to the ruins of St. Peter's church on the hill, as well as the remains of the Portuguese Fort (Fort Santiago). It was then back to the hostel for some much needed sleep!

FRIDAY 22nd June

We spent the day exploring Melaka. First of all we went to the Sultanate Palace, which had display about previous Sultans and the cultural heritage of Melaka. We then went to the People's Museum. The first floor wasn't particularly riveting, as it was about the structure of the government and what it has to do (it was like being in a human geography lecture at Uni)! But the second and third floors were better. The second floor had a display of kites from around the world and from different periods of history, whilst on the third floor there was a really good display of 'Enduring Beauty', which showed the means by which people from all over the world have enhanced their looks to become 'more beautiful'. There was some fascinating stuff about lip plates, piercings, tattoos, corsets (there was an English woman who ended up with a 13 inch waist - ridiculous), scarification, neck rings, bound feet, head binding and goodness knows what else!
After taking in the museum, we went to see Christ's Church, a very simple Dutch church, which was somewhat spoiled as there were postcards and souvenirs on sale at the back! We then went into China Town to have a wander around there. We went to a few Temples, unfortunately at one Hindu Mosque we arrived during prayer time and so couldn't go in, but the others we went to were very interesting. Other than that we just wandered, soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying seeing the traditional shops and people doing their daily things.
We went back to the room for a couple of hours to get freshened up and relax before heading out to the night market. We ended up getting sent in the wrong direction, so it ended up taking over half an hour to get there, but we made it in the end! The first thing we came across was a man featured in the Malaysian Book of Records for his extraordinary Kung Fu finger, which can punch through a coconut! We were quite intrigued and the 'show' was due to start in a couple of minutes, so we decided to wait around and watch (a very bad idea that turned out to be). The guy started off by 'warming up' and basically did some high kicks and bounced a round a bit, he then did some cool stuff with fire - he had 3 'batons' which he wafted around and then ate the flames before then breathing fire etc. Then he got his whip out and cracked it a couple of times, it was then that we got excited as he got his stuff set up for the coconut Kung Fu finger! However, he then proceeded to take a VERY long time faffing around, selling his various ointments, for joint and muscle pains, which even Del Boy would have been proud of! He also got people to give the coconut a bash in the place he was going to pierce it and he himself knocked it around a fair bit, before finally getting on with it! It was fairly impressive to see him in 2 or 3 'hits' with his finger to pierce the coconut. He then did some more whip tricks - cutting paper with them, whilst an assistant held the paper up for him. He also did some more flogging of goods. We thought he was going to do an amazing trick where someone threw the coconut to him and he somehow pierced it, but he ended up just catching it (the whole thing was a wind-up) and to finish he cracked the coconut with his elbow. All told this lot took him an hour to do and we were so bored! We finally got to have a look around the market, which wasn't the best one we've been to and also was quite sad as we saw lots of animals in tiny cages being sold (there was even a tiny baby monkey). We finally made our way back to the hostel and went to bed feeling dejected as we'd thought the market was going to be much better.

SATURDAY 23rd June

We didn't get a huge amount done today. We had to get packed up and checked out of the hostel and then had the task of getting to the bus station again. We were going to be good and get the bus there, but unfortunately we saw it pulling away as we were about 5 metres away! In the end we got a taxi there, and had a very nice chatty driver who was really friendly, and was pointing out sights to us on the way. Once at the bus station we were lucky enough to buy tickets for a bus that was due to leave in literally 2 minutes time! So we got loaded on and sat back and waited to arrive at the border to Singapore. We arrived after almost 4 hours (during which time we'd had a stop for lunch as well) and had to make our way through border control getting stamped out of Malaysia and into Singapore and getting our luggage X-rayed. We then hopped back on the bus for about another half an hour to get into Singapore city.
Once off the bus we headed straight for the underground and made our way to Little India to try a hostel there, but we found that their room rates had doubled and we couldn't afford it, so we got back on the underground to China Town. We spent an age getting very hot and sweaty trying to find a hostel, which we're sure must have moved or closed, but luckily we spotted another one on the same street and the rooms were much cheaper. Unfortunately we could only stay one night, as the room had been booked in advance for the next night. We decided to stay for the one night, as by this time we were thoroughly fed up of lugging our bags around and were in desperate need of a shower! After freshening up (and taking advantage of the first free laundry service we've come across), we went out into China Town and spent an age looking for an ATM and then had some dinner before going back to the hostel to dry our washing and also phone a couple of hostels to see if they had spare rooms for the next couple of nights.

SUNDAY 24th June

We ended up having a rubbish night of sleep, as the hostel is above a pub, which has karaoke until 02.00 in the morning! So it was a bit difficult getting up, but we needed to get checked out so that we could go to another hostel before going sightseeing for the day! However, when we came to check out, there was no-one around to return our deposit and to give the key to, we ended up having to wake to up the owner by phoning her - I'm not sure she was too impressed, as I think she'd been working in the bar until it closed! So we were laden with our bags again (we have a new appreciation for snails) we made for the underground and went back to Little India to get to our new hostel. By the time we got there, which was only just 10.00 we had to have another shower before we could go out for the day!
We started off having breakfast and then began sightseeing. Our first stop was to visit 2 Temples, one Hindu and the other Chinese, they were right next to each other and were pretty busy with people praying and burning incense etc! We then went over to the Singapore Art Museum, which was quite nice and had an interesting display and movie about the copper plates made to store 'copies' of original paintings (calcography), from which they can make prints. We then wandered around Fort Canning for a little while, before making our way towards St. Andrew's church, there was a service on, so we only peered in, but it was very beautiful. Our next stop was the Asian Civilisation Museum. We ended up spending several hours in here and it was really good, there was another display about 'beauty'. I don't think it was quite as interesting as the one in Melaka, but it did have videos of tattooing and piercing (not ear-piercing, but back piercings, the same method used for nipples, eyebrows, navels etc) - it was totally gross and I can't believe Steve's had these things done to him, although he took great pleasure in further detailing the procedures whilst pointing out the tools they used etc (I hadn't quite managed to watch all of the piercing video, so he felt he needed to fill me in)! On leaving the Museum we went and had a look at the Theatre, which looks like 2 huge durians, before heading back to the underground once again to make our way back to the hostel for the night and to rest our weary feet!

Well, we think that's finally about it for this one! Sorry it's so long, but we're just getting so much sightseeing done! Next blog will be from yet another country and it's going to be completely bizarre being back in Western Culture, but the drop in temperature is going to be bliss, I'm sure we'll be steaming from the residual heat for a few days!

Bill - I'm not sure you will recognise me when I get back, I'm certainly doing lots of things I NEVER thought I'd be able to do through fear - I'm even considering doing a skydive!!! We were really pleased to get your comments and are glad to hear you're all enjoying the blog.

Andie - We're glad that you're still getting a chance to catch up on the blog every now and then and are glad it wasn't too time consuming (pretty surprising since we manage to ramble on for so long most of the time)! Yeah, Pirates of the Caribbean was pretty naff, but even so, we've managed to watch it twice!

Mum - Was great to get your (very long) comment, it really cheered me up to hear from you! I don't think I've been body snatched, but I can't count on it, seeing as I am doing so many extraordinary things for me! I certainly can't wait for the change in temperature when we get to New Zealand, I'm actually getting excited by the prospect of having to wear a jumper! The scenery is going to be amazing, I can't wait to lay eyes on it all! We'll get tonnes of photos I'm sure. Sorry to hear the rain is holding up your gardening plans, but at least you're managing to get things done around the house - I'm glad you're considering my shelf space needs! Glad you managed to finish your floristry course even with your arm as it is - impressive stuff really, considering. I hope people want to continue more next year, so you can get even better! Good luck at work - let us know how you get on. Also, Steve had a little giggle about the fact that everyone will now know that you can't get your bra on on your own! Keep taking care of yourself and keep up the physio exercises!

Lawrence and Trina - We just got your comment as we were updating the blog! We're glad you're keeping up to date with our travels and are enjoying hearing about it all! I know what you mean about all the crazy stuff we've been doing, it all feels so surreal! The sharks were so scary, and it's completely bizarre, that I (of all people) have actually swam with them - Steve loved it!