Hello!

My first blog post fromn Asia - I am currentyl in Melaka, Malaysia which is about 5 hours north of Singapore. I flew to Singapore from Oz and spent a few days there. It was nice enough but its just a city so was a little boring although it was a good way to get used to travelling again i.e. living out of one bag! I also met up with a friend from Melbourne who I hadn't seen for 18months (she is Canadian but is studying in Singapore for a few months). We had a good but expensive night out. My taxi driver on the way home was a big Liverpool fan so we had an interesting conversation. The next day I got the bus at 10am to head here to Melaka. The bus was incredible! Massive seats (only three width wise), lts of leg room and the seats had a massage function! We had to go through Singapore customs then back on the bus for about 5 minutes to Malaysian customs where we had to get all our luggage off the bus and walk through with it but they didn't scan it or do anything with it! We just walked through and put it back on the bus. Very strange. Melaka is a nice town - the Chinatown area is on the World Heritage list. i have just been wandering around and looking at the buildings and a few museums. It is quite historical and at times has been an important trading post for the Portugese, then the Dutch and then the British. Last night there was a Chinese festival called Festival of the Ghosts and there was a huge party in the street and lots of fire - right outside the hostel! We were given free food and drink and there was karaoke, great night. Today I woke up and it was pouring with rain and the river has now burst its banks so I'm going to go and have a look before booking my bus to Mersing on the East coast from where I can get a boat to the island in the picture above.