No More Rice‏

So here I am, finally in Oz!

It's been a while since I last wrote, so I'll tell you what I've been up to. Penang was a bit boring and I wasn't a massive fan. It was a nice place to spend a day, but people go all the way there for a two-week holiday. Admittedly we didn't go to any of the posh private beach resorts which were probably very nice, but expensive.

We left Penang by another overnight train. It was a lot nicer and cleaner than the Thai trains, with air conditioned waiting rooms, and no rabid dogs on the platform. I even got to eat in a buffet car for the first time in my life. I know, I don't get out much. We had planned to go to an area called the Cameron highlands, but due to lack of time as well as our general ignorance of the area, we decided to go all the way through to Melaka on the lower western coast of Malaysia. We had to get the train to Kuala Lumpur first, arriving in the nicest station I've ever been in (more like an airport), and then get a bus the 4 hours to Melaka. We've been to Kuala Lumpur before, so we weren't too bothered about going back.

Melaka wasn't as I pictured it at all. It was described as an ancient historical port, but hardly any of the old stuff remains. They knocked down a lot of the colonial stuff, and due to land reclamation the actual historical waterfront is now about 500 meters inland, surrounded by apartments and a shopping centre. We spent a couple of days there which was plenty, and then got a bus to Singapore, our final destination.

Singapore is freakily different from Malaysia and Thailand, considering how near they are. Singapore is rich. Singapore is clean. Singapore has shopping centres full of Versace, Armani, Rolex and Tiffani's shops. Singapore has traffic laws that people actually obey. Singapore has an excellent public transport system. It's probably the most efficient place I've ever been. It all sounds a bit Nazi-ish and I suppose it is in a way, but it works for them and it's a very nice place. Especially when you've been slumming it for the past two weeks. The main street there is Orchard Road. If you imagine a road about a mile long, lined with about 15 different shopping malls. I've never seen so many shops, or so many people shopping. By some strange twist of fate and some dodgy map-reading, we ended up looking through a Basildon-style boot sale in Little India, but that was an exception to the rest of the city. It's weird how even Singaporian Indians are trying to get rid of the same old crap that we do in our boot sales. Mabe there's an international law of junk. The treaty of Pitsea or something.

So after a couple of days there, me and Dave finally parted ways and he flew off back to London while I went to Sydney and then on to Cairns. The supposedly nice British Airways flight to Sydney was pretty bad with no legroom, a screaming baby and and faulty entertainment system. The supposedly cheapo Virgin Blue flight to Cairns was actually really nice. So here I am just arrived in Cairns where it's apparantly been raining all week, and is still raining now. It's the tropics, so it does tend to dump it down every now and then, but it's still hot. They don't call them rainforests for nothing you know!

I've just heard from a couple of friends who say they are in town, so hopefully can meet up with them in the next couple of days.