Duta Hacienda Riviera Port Dickson

... once more (see previous entry), and he took me to a classic Malaysian cafe, which is in sight of the two towers, but down a street that no tourist would ever think to go down. I asked if he would order me a classic Malaysian dish from this place, and I then had the most delicious chicken, veg and rice meal I have had since I arrived here (photo provided...which you can't taste).
Hmm...how do I describe? Coconutty curryish rich dark flavoured chicken, soy-ish ...

... same agency with us - he had done more research on the bus tickets and said ours was the best and pretty much the only place to buy the tickets from. Lucky...!

With a full day to spend we decided to go for a little walk in the city. The town is one of the richest in Sumatra thanks to oil that is drilled off the coast but it still seems to be very poor - the pavements are none-existent and if they do exist they have enormous ...

... good old Lonely Planet walking tour, and went to visit the 'Petronas Towers', the biggest twin towers in the world. We also went and had a look at some shops and ended up buying ourselves a tiny laptop, which would come in extremely useful for phoning home through skype and sorting out photos! Kuala Lumpor was pretty compact, and so after a day we decided we'd seen it and made our way to Singapore the following day.

... minggu. Sampai di Tol Sungai Balak sesuatu yang tidak diingini berlaku. Palang tol jatuh di atas cermin kereta kenari Mohd Noor. Cermin hadapan retak, mujurlah tidak pecah. Hal ini kerana sebiji kancil mencelah di dalam barisan konvoi secara mengejut. Ini menyebabkan Mohd Noor sedikit keliru dengan sistem palang tol, kerana 'marshal' Mahathir telah membayar tol untuk ahli di bawah kendaliannya. Makwe penjaga tol juga rasanya pening dan keliru ...

... to Penang. Exhausted from the heat we took a bit of a nap on the hotel couches, and ended up in conversation with the hotel owner. He explained to us that it was a holiday in Malaysia that day- THE official day of the Autumn Festival (lantern festival). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lantern_Fe stival He told us how he had been to the local food center and in addition to receiving his lunch for the day, he had also ...

... delve into the city's colonial past", "check out the bustling china town and interesting night markets", or "take a walk around and enjoy the city's facinating architecture"...get the hell out of there! its code words for "this city has absolutly nothing to offer but we had to write something nice about it anyway". malaka was one of those towns...masage chairs and flipper fish were the highlights.

... and cheap beer. The bus didn't leave until 11 so we after saying goodbye to my sister, we tried to waste a day. Headed into the markets and would you believe some chump tried to rob me!! How dare he! I know exactly what he looked like- well... blue shirt, red motorbike helmet. There I was minding my own business gazing at an extensive range of t shirts with amusing motifs when I felt fingers (Yes!! Fingers ...

... Africa). Everything I did was either a source of amazement or amusement! Could be quite disconcerting... but also gave me licence to do pretty much whatever I wanted... We returned to Johor state, West Malaysia, where Yati comes from. Her parents have a lovely home with a gorgeous garden. They run a plant nursery business in nearby town, Batu Pahat, and grow the plants for the shop at home. Yati's parents are so sweet! And also very determined to fill me up with as ...

Cant believe I left this so long, I know its only been a week in 'real time', but that's a looong time over here, so a lot has happened. This probably wont be too detailed, so for an EXTREMELY detailed and slightly different version of whats been happening, refer to my travel pal's travelogue (shand180), password hitmonlee- hes spent about two hours doing his second one this morning... So, arrived really late in Singapore Sat nite and had dramas finding ...

... to watch. Robin wanted to talk to me. He's just converted from not-so-devout Buddhist to very Christian, and wanted to tell me all the joys. I didn't mind listening, he so wanted to tell somebody and no one else here will pay any attention to him. But I began to become annoyed when he tried to convert me. No matter how many times I told him, or how many different ways I tried, or how many evasive answers I gave, he still kept on me. Badminton was over by then, so I made an excuse and retired.