Batu Caves (13km north of Kuala Lumpur) 26.01.10

We're pretty savvy and catch a local bus out to the caves, through the northern outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, where new highrise apartments dominate and the roads get much better. The bus drops us in front of the entrance gates to the caves which house many Hindu temples.

There's a gigantic gold idol which has been erected next to the 227 steps which lead to the entrance to the caves and this is as tall as the limestone cliff face itself. The giant holes in the limestone crags were once used as a prison when the communists were in power in Malaysia, then it was taken by the British who sold it on to the Hindus to build a temple inside. It's a bizarre place. The floor of the cave has been levelled with concrete, obviously having destroyed the stalactites which would've been present, in the process.

Along the sides of the cave there are hindu idols, shrines and even two small temples, where we witness Hindus paying their respects and being 'tagged' on the forehead with white and red paint. We're saddened by the amount of litter present all the way up the steps and in the sacred areas themselves. It's quite a contrast to the immaculate Islamic mosques in the green belt area of town. Many women are beautifully dressed in embroidered saris with makeup and jewellery to match as they make their pilgrimage in bare feet with their husbands and children. On the way back into town we stop at a batik craft studio to have a look at some work being done because it's the national textile style in Malaysia.

The large silk frames are suspended at hip height and the artists are deftly painting out wax outlines of exotic flowers and leaves and filling them in with blended dye fading to the edges. The assistant shows us the fixing process out back where the cloth is dipped in sodium silicate, then washed through, then the wax is removed by boiling with soda ash added to the water. I purchase a couple of chanting tools, take photographs for reference with the intent to get set up for batik at home when I return. It's an effective style which can be easily reproduced at home with a simple pot of melting wax over an electric hot plate. I must find out the type of dye used however. We take the monorail to Chow Kit Chinese food market in the north of town where the walk through the undercover stalls presents a feast for the eyes, from the fresh squid and still moving catfish to the rows of hot chillies and ox legs hanging out to dry. The stall owners particularly like Greg's Aussie hat and call out to him 'cowboy!' and 'crocodile dundee!'. He can take a bit of jovial teasing and smiles back, saying he's definitely not Australian or American and vows to reconsider whether to wear the hat again!

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia's capital city) 23.01.10 - 25.01.10

Greg waiting for our bus in Chinatown, KL

Kuala Lumpur is a bustling metropolis with new buildings going up all the time and many different areas in wealth and character, from colourful Chinatown to KLCC, (Kuala Lumpur city centre) where the mighty Petronas Towers dominate a skyline of expensive hotels, malls and banks. We find walking a difficult business sadly, because there's so much traffic and a lot of the roads are too dangerous to cross. We do succeed in finding our way but we've come to the conclusion that some parts of the city are not designed to be navigated on foot. The monorail and train system covers the city's main locations but there are only a few lines and the stations are few and far between so you do end up having to walk a fair bit to where you want to get to. I wouldn't mind walking at all normally but the traffic fumes combined with having to navigate the treacherous pavements (Greg nearly fell down a drain hole whose grate was missing!) makes it quite unpleasant. It's hot here too and the thousands of air conditioning units hanging off the sides of buildings mustn't be helping with their pumping of hot air out into the street. Again, I'm not complaining about the city, I'm just trying to accurately portray it from my viewpoint so I can attempt to remember what it was like in years to come. The driving and parking skills are 'interesting' too with cars parked up on the slip roads of the city's highway it makes it hard for our tourist bus to join into a line of oncoming traffic. As far as parking goes, the pavements are often used as buffers or for pulling right up on to. Malaysia is an Islamic country so the majority of women wear headscarves. It's a cultural mix though so there are women who don't, a large Chinese and Indian population and many other faiths are practised too including Hinduism and Buddhism. We're startled by some peoples' dress- they're wearing vests under their shirts and the women are sometimes layering up with a cardigan. We're sweating buckets in our tshirts and shorts and they're going round in layers! It's amazing how you get used to it though. Today we visited the Islamic Arts Museum in a beautiful, new air-conditioned building at 22 degrees celsius but before long I was feeling chilly and actually wanted to go outside. There's lots to do here in Kuala Lumpur. On the first evening we went up the Menara telecommunications tower

to its viewing deck to watch the sun setting over the city and especially the Petronas Towers,

which, at almost 500m, were the tallest buildings in the world up until 2003.

We've been to the Bird Park and Orchid Garden today where we saw parrots

(Greg became the 'bird man' by feeding the little parrots milk and seeds) cassowaries (we didn't see any in Australia) millions of peacocks, ostrich and lots of little monkeys. The orchid garden was stunning too but the heat of the day forced us to find shade before we wilted. The orchids didn't seem to mind though. The heat and humidity suits them very well. We've been enjoying good food while we've been here. Even the cheap dishes from the markets' foodcourts have been very tasty. In fact the cheaper the better I've found. I had an excellent Laksa (spicy coconut chicken soup) from a food court vendor and the best sweet and sour chicken I've ever tasted from a Chinese street cafe right outside our hostel on Jalan Sultan in Chinatown. Greg's favourite of the moment is Singapore noodles.

more photos from Melaka

more photos from Melaka

an old rusty rickshaw

Malaysia Melaka 22.01.10

We leave Singapore in VIP air conditioned comfort on one of the many interstate luxury coaches which operate throughout Singapore and Malaysia, although it only costs us $24S to make the trip (approx £4). We don't have any problem carrying the knives through Mayalsian customs and the journey up the west coast to the historical city of Melaka, through fields upon fields of palm groves, takes little more than three hours. These buses are great- so comfortable, because the huge seats fold down into an almost sleeping position and the cool air conditioning makes for a very pleasant ride. They're very similar to the ones we journeyed on in South America. We arrive in Melaka to be confronted by a huge Tesco supermarket (they get everywhere) just outside town and we take a taxi to our guesthouse in Little India, 'Eastern Heritage'. This is an eccentric old place in one of the traditional trading houses complete with original black wood and gold detailing interior. The ceilings are high and the spiral staircase is of a plush dark wood but the place is so rundown it's very sad. There's a particular smell to it (!) and the tiled floors, wooden furniture and tiny age-old kitchen looks like they haven't been cleaned in years. I'm just dying to give it a good once over!, get rid of the silly, tiled plunge pool (intended for guests to use, but I think if I did I'd end up with some kind of waterborne infection!) and this place would be a stunning traditional Melakan mansion.

Our room is equally as eccentric as the entrance hall with a whole wall covered in a pretty well executed mural of a waterfall landscape, no air conditioning (only a small yellow fan which, as we find out later, simply cannot cool the hot air) and access to the 'washroom facilities' (one pretty suspect toilet and a not so inviting shower). I just thank my lucky stars I've not seen any big bugs! I don't mean to complain. I actually found the experience of staying in a rundown establishment very interesting because of its faded glamour and eccentricity and I'm sure there will only be more to come. We walk out to explore Melaka's streets and districts which cover all the periods in it's varied history, from the Dutch colonial influence, when it was once one of the most wealthy cities in the world (the river running through the centre reminds us of the canals in Amsterdam and the small white houses on either side are being carefully renovated) to Chinatown, which is a fascinating warren of rundown streets of old Baba Nyonya * houses and street stalls, to the village Morten, a distinctly different area of town where the stilted Swiss chalet style houses are lovingly cared for and the pot plant gardens are some of the most impressive I've ever seen.

The town now is largely underprivileged and the open drains and litter are a clear indicator of this, however there seems to be a lot of significant renovation going on for the tourists (many Singaporeans make Melaka their weekend getwaway) and, as we're finding with South East Asian cities, big and small, the ubiquitous mall and flashy food court are doing a very good trade in the city's modern quarter. We leave Melaka for Kuala Lumpur having mostly enjoyed taking interesting photos in it's picturesque and characterful Chinatown.

* Baba Nyonya is the name given to the particular ethnic group who resulted from the intermarriage of Chinese immigrant traders to Malay women in the 19th century.

more photos from Singapore

one of the swish malls on Orchard Road

iconic Esplanade Theatres

bizarre entrance to a Chinese shopping mall

Greg just acquired a friend as he was busy posing!

Singapore 19.01.10 - 21.01.10

When we arrive in Singapore Changi airport at 8pm local time we have no accommodation booked and therefore nowhere to go. Greg manages to alleviate this situation by replacing it with a more difficult one- the fact that we've failed to declare knives in our luggage. We are questioned and asked to show the knives to customs for inspection, then beckoned to come to the customs office. It's not a situation any rightminded person would want to be in- being asked to accompany an official to the customs office in a country where you can be fined for not flushing a public loo or hanged for drug smuggling. Fortunately the customs officer deems the knives recreational souveniers and meerly provides us with a form declaring their purpose for us to carry through other South East Asian countries. Phew. We then manage to secure a room at a hostel in Little India before leaving the airport. A tropical thunderstorm is in full swing as we head into the city lights, the humidity is high. The place where we're staying is in a lively neighbourhood where the narrow, low rise streets are lined with Indian food shops, restaurants, sari textile emporiums, traditional gold hindu jewellery shops and stalls selling floral garlands of bright orange and pink. The place is lit up by fairy lights traversing the streets and there's Indian music blaring from the Bollywood DVD stores. It's busy in the evening and we head out for a short walk around the block to take it all in, stopping at a small informal cafe for a tasty Indian naan/ hash with onions and garlic plus hot sauce dips for supper. Singapore is a mish mash of cultures- Indian, Chinese, Malay- but English is the national language so, even though on the streets you'll hear people speaking their mother tongue of Mandarin or Urdu, on the whole most will be more than able to converse in English too, which is good news for us. The main central area of downtown Singapore is world's away from Little India. It's full of high rises, beautifully kept pavement arcades with water fountains and coloured lights, malls upon malls and evry so often a historical colonial building heralding back to the British empirical reign. You can get a fine for jaywalking here and there are signs to that effect so most people obey the pedestrian crossing rules and diligently wait for the green man. The streets around this area are kept clean and the buildings are freshly painted which makes it feel like a very clean city. It's obvious they plough a lot of money into keeping the city smart, from the pristine waterfront boulevards to the immaculate MRT underground system. It's a joy to travel on- quite the opposite to London's tube. The stations themselves are cool, marble clad affairs with air conditioning throughout and in the trains too so it's a place I'd actually rather be than out in the humid hot sunshine! The tickets are clever too. You pay a $1 Singapore for a plastic travel card with your journey embedded on it and retrieve your deposit when you finish your journey by surrendering the card back to the ticket machine, thus eliminating the need for endless paper tickets- (it's against the law to drop litter here). We're also pretty impressed by how much building and development is going on here especially at the waterfront. They are striving for an unrivalled marina park with the world's largest casino under construction due to be finished in six months. We wonder why they should need any more skyscrapers for the 4.5 million population they have here but I've a feeling it's more a status thing than anything else. The people here are well dressed, well behaved and well mannered and it seems, as a country they like to express themselves through innovative architecture and providing a stimulating and pleasurable experience when walking through their city's public areas. We've learned it can cost up to $200,000S to own a car here because you have to apply for the provision of a hefty tax which is levied to ensure the numbers of cars on the city's roads stays at a minimum. So the cars on the road tend to be Bentleys, Mercedes, other non-descript 'business' cars and we did see a Lamborghini parked on Orchard Road. It's a city of style and it's obvious it pays to be seen in one of these cars or clutching a Chanel handbag. We feel downright scruffy. However we do manage to get over this and take in some tea and cake at the famous Raffles Hotel.

Sir Stamford Raffles was the first European to land in Singapore in the late 18th century and found a trading station on the banks of the river that runs through the centre of town. He built the hotel in a true colonial style and warmly welcomed a whole host of travelling British aristocracy to the delights of East Asian hospitality. The hotel has been recently refurbished after it was almost in ruins and now boasts a beautiful palm-filled courtyard and rooms with wooden verandahs out on to the inner gardens. We explore the entire city on foot in less than two days covering Chinatown and La Pau Festival Market

(where you can get a mean Wonton soup), Orchard Road, (a street lined with endless shopping malls) the Colonial District, (with it's traditional members-only cricket ground) and the pretty esplanade

(where the best views of Singapore's skyline can be had at night including the spine clad Esplanade theatres). I can say I've tried traditional Singaporean Gee Moreng (fried rice, mutton and fried egg on top) and a Singapore Slinger

at the Swissotel East Asia bar on the 70th floor of Raffles City complex (gin, cointreau, pineapple juice and grenadine).