The first week of our trip to Asia has been quite an adventure. We started our trip by flying into Singapore and we spent 3 days there. Like I mentioned before, Singapore had one of the nicest and easiest airports that we have ever been to in the world. Singapore was exactly what we expected, a big city, lots of people, and very hot. We had been in New Zealand and were used to mild, sometimes cold weather, and Asia is so hot and humid. We spent most of our time walking around China town, little India, and the business district of Singapore.  We watched a catamaran race along the bay, and took in the sites at Merlion Park.  When we were ready to leave, we took a coach bus from Singapore to Malacca, and it had air conditioning, movies, the works. We cleared customs and spent two days in Malacca staying at a wonderful guest house called Jalan Jalan Emas in the city center. Malacca was much smaller, and it suited Morgan and my tastes sa lot better. We went to all of the small shops, markets, and the Jonker Walk. We found a very nice Chinese breakfast place that served dim sum (small, bight-sized bits of food) and our new favorite snacks… meat buns.  All the Chinese people commented on how beautiful my beard was as well. We stayed right next to a mosque, and they have prayer 5 times a day. The call to prayer comes over a loud speaker, and can be heard all over the city. The first call comes at 0600 in the AM, and scared Morgan and I at first. We got used to it, and it was a good wake up call. Malacca is an old Dutch port town, and we went to many of the historical sites in town during our two days.

We then took another coach bus to Kuala Lumpur, and we have been here for 3 days. We have been to the National Mosque, Batu Caves, Islamic Arts Museum, Orchid and Hibiscus Gardens, Malaysian Ethnology Musuem, and the Petronus Towers in downtown.  KL is very difficult to get around, and we got lost all day long. Nothing is marked well, and cross walks basically don’t exist.  You just try to time the traffic, run and pray for your life. It was fine though because we stumbled across some sites not mentioned in the book. We met a bunch of Catholic school children, and they were very excited to say “Hello, welcome to Malaysia.” We probably had 25 children smiling and saying hello as we walked by. The Batu Caves are one of the coolest things we have seen thus far. The Caves are on the side of a limestone mountain and you can walk up to the top where there are hundreds of monkeys jumping and walking around and a Hindu temple inside. It was quite nice, and we had a lot of fun with the monkeys. They were sneaky little devils, and tried to steal anything we had on us. Tonight, we are going out to eat for Morgan’s birthday, and then tomorrow we’re are off to Tanah Rata in the Cameron Highlands where all the tea plantations are located. We have two nights reserved there, and might stay longer. We are having a great time, and love the low cost of living here. All the Malaysians have been very helpful, especially the older generation. Lastly, here are our top 6 new things we have experienced since being here that we were not ready for as westerners:

1. You get your toilet paper outside the bathroom before you go in.  Make sure you judge accurately
2. Squat toilets…. Hole in the ground…. No need to say more
3. No shoes worn inside the house
4. They don’t wait for you to order food…. They just hover over you until you get flustered and point at a picture
5. Bargaining is a way of life. Never pay the first price offered
6. We don’t smoke or do drugs, but in Singapore drugs result in the death penalty, and smoking in prohibited areas in Malaysia carries 2 years in prison… no thank you

We will post again soon, and may be in Thailand at that time.

Cheers, David and Morgan