Space travel - episode 1

Captains log: Wednesday 23rd Sept. Location: KL Planetarium. Mission: Learn the history of Malaysian space travel...



or... see what it's like to use a space loo.






... and meet the resident astronaut.



Actually, we did learn some stuff too, but I'll let Mike S go into more detail about that later ;-)

No tea at the Palace

Popped by the Royal Palace in KL for a quick photo with the guards. He wasn't quite as good at staring into space as those at Buckingham Palace, but then Mike's not had the practice...

You could actually see this chap giving annoyed sideways glances at everyone.. oh, and whilst we were focused on getting this photo, the King actually did pull up at the Palace, through different gates, got out his car, walked in and we missed him!

Say it with a T-Shirt

From a market stand in the Central Market in KL and now you know why?

I think I was taken for a ride....

I'm sure this isn't right?

Captions please.

Arriving in Kuala Lumpur

Busy day in KL today... arrived after a couple of hours bus ride, staying right in the middle of Chinatown, then out straight away for a bit of a guided walk followed by a minibus tour... saw the National Monument, Royal Palace (another photo to follow!), the Batu Caves, but only after climbing 365 steps in what seemed like 35d heat... then the KL tower, the 4th highest communications tower in the world. The rest of the group went up, we opted for a latte and peanut butter waffle in the Rainforest Cafe as we'd been up it 4 years ago with Nicola and Dan - and yes, that meant we had 36 Malaysian Ringets to put towards the Tiger beer later. Went to the Petronas Towers foodcourt for dinner - very tasty and cheap Indian - and of course the obligatory outside posed photo. Amazing buildings.











Also went to the Central Market where Mike made the first souvenir purchase of the trip... and we confirmed that Mike is a Rooster and I'm a Dog - thats according to the Chinese year of our births... doesn't seem right to me...?

Just a check up please...

Saw this shop front in Melaka yesterday... apparently he's a well respected professional, having been in business for many years...we're not so sure.

Food and Drink Part 3

We left Singapore on early Monday morning to catch a coach to Melaka in Malaysia. Melaka is an old trading port especially Indonesian spices, the area has been colonised by the Portuguese, Dutch, British and Japanese - independence to the whole of Malaysia was not until 1957. Melaka has some sites of great historic interesting Christ Church and the Church of San Francis Xavier famous for bringing Christianity to the East.

There is a very large Chinese Malay population here and we tried some authentic Nyonya food (only available here and Penang). The main course didn't really do much for me - quite typical Chinses dishes of mushrooms, cabbage, vegetarian Chicken (I was reassured) and rice.

The desert was more interesting - it wouldn't be on my top ten- it's called cendol - a mixture of shreaded ice, coconut milk, cane sugar, jelly(which looked like green maggots) and red kidney beans!

However, over the last couple of days,we have also tried Pineapple Rolls, Sweet Potatoes(taste like macaroons) and peanut butter waffle cakes - all delicious - if we carry on like this, we will be returning home as excess baggage.

Window on the world...

Just in case anyone was wondering... nope, the Perek Hotel doesn't have an automatic loo... it does however have a window with a never-ending view (in other words..a mirror behind some shutters, no actual window) and a gurgling fish tank on the otherside of our wall which we asked them to turn off, but they refused because apparently the fish wouldn't like it...now, where did i pack the earplugs....

Food and Drink 2

We have now moved to the Perak Hotel in Little India, north of the city in preparation to meet out fellow travellers. It feels like Delhi with the cafes and people but without the noise, dogs, car horns and smell (it's the truth). Lunch consisted of Aloo Palak (potato and spinach curry), Egg and Onion Parata (layered fried pastry) and Coke - it was delicious and we just watched the world go by but it's really hot and humid here so it was time to go for a power nap.
As a group, we went to the Green Banana Leaf restaurant for evening dinner, my dish was fantastic - Fish Sambal (chilli) curry with Veg Biriyani (Cabbage and Gourd) served on a banana leaf, Mike chose a Southern Indian Thali (a set menu on one plate, sort of a try everything)- I licked my leaf clean-much to the horror of my newly found travelling companions! Not really.