21/01/2005
Not much (we could afford) to do, the cancellation of all New Year's celebrations and lack of funds to afford beer made Malaysia a dull visit.

Kuala Lumpur
It's not a good idea to travel for 15 hours and then arrive in a new country at 11pm with no currency and no knowledge of the nearest ATM. This was the dilemma we faced, plus we were starving as we had not been able to buy anything to eat since lunch. We ended up having to take the first pricey hotel, so we could get some kip.

In the morning we moved to another pricey hotel in China Town. But it was the best room we'd had yet, and the most expensive bar Beijing. We had hot water, air con and cable TV. We got 24 hour coverage for 4 days of the tsunami, so we were very, very aware of the situation. Hotel China Town Inn - for 98 ringgit is recommended. We looked at a hotel in our 50 rinngit budget range and it was hired by the hour by prostitutes and had huge cockroaches running across the floor and the walls were made of plywood!! No way jose!!

So we spent New Year in a lovely hotel watching Matrix and Harry Potter with coke and chocolate. More of a midnight kid's feast than a boozy bash up. Couldn't afford the beer and all celebrations were cancelled in respect for the tsunami victims, and it was recommended that we all pray.  We preferred coke and chocolate.

The shops were good here, but we didn't come to travel Asia for the shops so we hit Petronas Towers - twice. And twice we failed to get a ticket to go up in the lift to get a view from the Sky Bridge linking the two towers. They sold out. So we were stuck with window shopping. It was great to see British chains such as Top Shop, M&S, Miss Selfridge for the first time in 3 years.

We visited the colonial heart of KL, Merdaka Square. This was a waste of footache. Not much to see. One thing we did enjoy was the Islamic Art Museum. They had scale models of all the best mosques in the world, plus it was a/c and had seats, as our feet were killing. In fact, our feet were killing as there are no bloody pedestrian pavements in KL. This city was made for cars and not people!!! We ended up going round in circles and having to cross/run over some dangerous highways. On a plus note the best thing here was King's Bakery, they had excellent cakes. We heartily recommend the banana and
chocolate cake.

Melaka
Best value city so far - a real gem and the highlight for us in Malaysia. Melaka is 2 hours south of KL and is a Chinese/Portuguese/Dutch/British colonial port with plenty of history and museums. The best one is the maritime museum in a mock-up Portuguese ship. We stayed in Melaka Town Lodge 1 for only $7 a night, this was cheaper than India. It was a family homely and they were very friendly.

We had some great cheap food here also - Nasi Goreng and Satay sticks from street stalls. We also tried the local cuisine called Nyonya. This is a mix of Portuguese, Chinese and Malay influences. Very spicy. They also had some amazing Chinese temples here, and in excellent condition - much better than the ones in China!!

Melaka is not known for its night life so we took ourselves to the cinema to see The Avaitor. We thought it was a kid's movie because Lenardo DiCaprio was in it, but we were very wrong and we loved it.

Penang
A real disappointment. Came here after Singapore to break up the trip back to Thailand and we wish we hadn't bothered. Two days was more than enough. We arrived from an overnight bus at 6.30 am in the dark. We managed to find our LP recommended abode - Love Lane Inn. The room looked lovely but the eyes can deceive as Zoe woke up the next morning covered in bed bug bites. See the gallery for graphic examples. They were disgusting!! To add to this Penang was dirty, prostitutes were everywhere, open sewers and the buildings were dilapidated. Get us out of here!!!

The best thing was a Buddhist temple near Penang Hill - very big and in great condition. But even this was spoiled by aggressive stallholders all the way up to the temple. The snake temple was not too bad either.

Food
Chocolate and banana cake in KL - yummy!!! Chicken satay in Melaka.

People
Very friendly and helpful.

Toilets
Very good condition - mostly western (all western where we stayed).