Formosa Hotel Melaka

... just over a couple of pound each. It was nice to just have some civilisation as the previous 3 places we had stayed at were a little remote. We did even manage to go and play some bowling and that is why you see Alison wearing some nice socks and shoes. Again as Alison was not feeling well I did let here win one game and the match ended 1 a piece....We did go and look around the Malay Sultanate Palace in Melaka which is a replica of Mansur Shah's hilltop residence ...

... them with a toothpick. Delicious. Inside this mall, they also had a huge bowling alley, which was BUMPIN on a Friday night full of Malay families, and a large movie theater that boasted the latest ****** Asian zombie movies. It also was showing a Bollywood flick, since Malaysia has a large Indian population, but when we asked if the subtitles were in English, we were told that they were not. The movie was in Hindi but the subtitles were in Tamil, and if you didn ...

... had got in before me. The next day we continued over the Nullabor Plain, we started to see the remains of old beaten up Ford Falcon estates on the road side - clearly backpackers cars that hadn't made it all the way across. There were Wedgetail Eagles all along the road, on the few trees there were or on the telephone poles that ran the whole length of the road. They looked enormous from the van (they are the biggest eagle in Aussie), but we got a chance to really see the size of ...

... entering the SunTec carpark by mistake! Loud tooting of horns followed but we managed to avoid all traffic as we reversed out of harms way. <br><br>We had no problems as we crossed the Tuas Checkpoint except that we didn't allow enough credit on our Autopass Card to pay the toll. We budgeted on the Woodlands Crossing but went to Tuas because we thought it would be quicker, but it costs more. 'Pay $10 fine and proceed'. We had no problems when we got to Malaysia Immigration except that we ...

... und vorbei am ehemaligen portugiesischen Fort. In Chinatown liegen in der Temple Street hinduistische und buddhistische Temple Tuer an Tuer mit Moscheen - ein wirklich interessanter Mix!! In anderthalb Tagen hat man hier allerdings wirklich alles gesehen, ausserdem waren Matthias und ich nun wirklich reif fuer die Insel! Und da geht es als naechstes auch hin :-)

... how I found my first Malaysian experience... Rewind back one week... Well, I write this whilst hiding from the deafening rain in Melaka's Chinatown. I arrived last night and found a hostel before heading out to explore. Feeling lazy I remained in the new part of town, bustling with shops, street stalls and hostels, but little charm. A chance encounter with a Malaysian from my bus journey earlier that day led me the ...

... far food's been amazing, but it's really hard to eat in this climate. had chicken and rice ball, a couple of different laksas, lots of wanton soup and possibly best so far satay. This is a bubbling bucket of a spicy 'secret' recipe sauce in the middle of your table that you dip various things into to cook. It's great and would take off so well in UK it's a great idea. Manager was a top guy who gave us beers and we had biggest prawns ever- like 6-8 inches of prawn, the ...

... lined the streets and it made for a good atmosphere. There were lots of nice antique and art galleries too that you could just spend hours shopping. I followed a lonely planet walking tour for the town which was really quite god and took me everywhere I wanted to go. Some of the houses were so tiny and had the most elaborate ceramic tiles and decoration on the front. Walking around the streets here I completely ...

... and the first curfew we've had as the doors must be closed before twelve to stop the spirits getting in!! Tuesday 11th: River tour, we're becoming big fans of river based sightseeing. It was up the river spotting the monitor lizards, mud skippers they are a protected species and the whole river bank looks like the end of the Guinness advert. Just before the stilted village they are proud to point out the stretch of river from the film ...

... called Baba-Nonya, whose food can go from fish in thick gravies to not-too-sweet miniature pinapple tarts. Add a sodium induced Indonesian flair to Nonya food and you have Peranakan. Even the Portuguese haven't given up after being pushed out 400 years ago, they lay claim to their own part of the city with the fiery "devil curry" and crab specialties. And even if you were to get bored of all of this, there is ...