KL, Melaka and Singapore

Because of my extended stay on Koh Samui, I ended up in Kuala Lumpur a few days before the truck. This suited me fine because I was able to spend a week with an old friend who lives there. The thing with visiting people you know is that touristy stuff gets put on the back burner: I saw the Petronas Towers only from the outside and Batu Caves. The caves were impressive, and hot, and I got mugged by a psychotic monkey who took my bag of food. I could tell it was a psycho because the back of its head was missing: it was not a monkey to be messed with. That was pretty much my tourism in KL. I did find some cool bars though, and some nice shops, so my time was obviously not frittered away on trivialities.

After rejoining the truck, minus Abby and Elaine who both went home from KL, we drove the two hours or so to Melaka where we said goodbye to Calypso. I wasn't pleased to see her go, but it did seem like the right time. 29000km or so is probably about right for a journey in a truck.

Melaka was quite pleasant, in a quaint colonial kind of way. It must have been very important in the past judging by how many nations had conquered it at one time or another: it was British, Dutch and Portuguese before Malaysia was formed. There was a rotating circular viewing deck in the city which gave a great view, there was also a big ferris wheel, which seemed to be a small copy of the London Eye, and didn't interest me enough to warrant a visit.

Since Calypso was going home from Melaka, we took the bus to Singapore. Along with half the country, it seemed. The border posts were massive and very busy, especially on the Singapore side, which had this construction more suited to a Terminator movie than a friendly welcome. I'll say it now, I didn't like Singapore. It is clean, pleasant, has plenty of parks and greenery but it is too clinical for my tastes. The trees all seemed to be planted exactly eight metres apart, the grass was cut to the same height, everything needed a rule, regulation or right-angle to exist there. It felt very much like Central London but with more rules: $500 fine for this, $1000 fine for that. And for all these rules it was no cleaner or more agreeable to be there, and many rules were flagrantly and continuously broken by locals anyway. Not my cup of tea.

Because Singapore was so expensive (just as bad as the UK!) we decided to move and spend one night across the border in Johor Bahru. What a difference a bridge makes. JB was grimier, needed a good clean, and had the odd rat visible at night but it had life! Maybe this was due to the impending Deepawali festival, but the whole town was in party mode, with music and markets and fireworks. It was a great change from Singapore, where the whole country seemed to have a broom handle shoved up it's behind.

Well, there are eight of us going to Borneo now, not including Tim and Cheryl, everyone else has gone home or to Oz. Or both.

No pics this time, my sincerest apologies and I consider my knuckles rapped as punishment. Will do better next time.