Melaka

Melaka was another one of these former British colonies (and Dutch and Portuguese), although, unlike Georgetown, the place is long past its prime. I found Melaka a little sleepy. It had a nice old colonial town centre with an old Dutch windmill and church and it's Chinatown was lovely, but apart from that there wasn't many people around. One saving grace about the town was its maratime museum, which is inside a replica of an old Portuguese ship near the docks. It had a very anti European feel about it (understandably :-)) but was quite interesting. The town was a huge port back in its day but by the 19th century had been completely eclipsed by the likes of Georgetown and Singapore.

From Malaysia Photos

From Malaysia Photos

From Malaysia Photos

By the afternoon of our first day there we had run out of things to do. Melaka might be a good jumping off point for other activities, but you'll be finished with the town itself fairly quick.

From Malaysia Photos

If by the off chance anyone ever gets here - try your best to stay in Tony's guest house. Totally chilled out and Tony is really sound!

From Malaysia Photos

KL Tower

A slightly better better view can be gotten from KL tower (4th or 5th tallest tower in the world) ... nice view ... again ... okay I've had enough tall buildings for the moment. ... it was nice though.

From Malaysia Photos

Petronas Towers

When you think of Malaysia, or at least Kuala Lumpur, you think of Petronas Towers. These were the tallest buildings in the world up until 2003 and are still the tallest twin towers. Very impressive to look at. You're not allowed to the top, but you can go half-way-ish to the sky bridge - not worth the ordeal of getting tickets, but a nice view all the same - It involved queuing at 8:30 in the morning for a ticket, coming back at 12:30, watching a Petronas Oil Company propaganda movie the heading up to the sky bridge to 15 minutes.

From Malaysia Photos

The film "Entrapment" was filmed here also - remember the one with Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones?

From Malaysia Photos

There is a viewing area on the very top floor, but its not open to the public - Petronas top brass only - he didn't believe me when I told him I was CEO ... maybe it was the torn shorts.

From Malaysia Photos

Kuala Lumpur

We got to Kuala Lumpur the day of the grand prix. If we'd known it was on we'd have tried to get tickets - what a pity! They were quite cheap too - 50EUR for 3 days.

From Malaysia Photos

Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia - very slick, modern and a little overpriced ... actually I take that last comment back, I think it's just us getting too used to how cheap everywhere else was. We'll have to get used to this in the future, especially when we go to Australia! This city has a lot going on and is huge considering it was only founded 150 years ago. As well as the grand prix I think the strongest man in the world competition is on at some stage also. Might be a fun place to live.

Georgetown

On the island of Penang is Georgetown. This city was the first British settlement in Malaysia and was founded in the late 1700's. This was a great town, I really loved it here. The place was very relaxing for such a big city (about 1 million) and had none of the craziness like in Bangkok or Saigon. This was refreshing. At the same time there was plenty to see since the city is steeped in history - Old forts, the first Catholic church I'd seen since I'd left, old colonial buildings and all this nestled in a very modern setting filled with skyscrapers. Also, to get out to the island, you cross the longest bridge in southeast Asia, which was pretty cool. If anyone is planning a trip, this is a must see for a day or two.

From Malaysia Photos

From Malaysia Photos

Differences in Malaysia

I never expected such a difference the second you cross a border, but there definitely was. Malaysia immediately seems like a wealthier country, or at least better run. Roads, cities, public places all seem to be better kept, the countryside is much greener, the language has changed and everyone seems to be able to speak flawless English.

Even though we were heading directly south, when you cross the border you enter a new time zone. We didn't realise this for a couple of days. It was kinda funny because we were a bit spaced out from all the travelling, so we were convinced that all the clocks were wrong and it was us that had the right time, until it dawned on us eventually that it might be the other way around.

There are huge Chinese and Indian populations here too, which means I can get even tastier food here now!

On to Malaysia - 6-4-2007

After Krabi we have to leave Thailand and make our way down through Malaysia to Singapore for our flight to Australia on the 16th. Plenty of time. We're gonna try make stops in Georgetown (Penang), Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Singapore. Should take a little over a week.