Melaka in pictures

Garishly decorated trishaws are the way to travel Melaka
Couple culture is not just limited to Korea

The only bound-foot shoemaker in the world

One of Chinatown's many temples

Melaka

So after a laid-back start this morning, we got a lift to the bus station to hop on a bus to Melaka. After picking out the first listed guest house in the guidebook, we grabbed a taxi to the heart of Chinatown. I guess Lonely Planet destinations are aware of Lonely Planet users' ironic disdain for Lonely Planets, as the Sama-Sama Guest House has a new annex "NOT YET IN THE LONELY PLANET". I wonder how long it will be before it makes its way in there.

Melaka really is rather the epitome of the Lonely Planet's definition of chilled out. But it's good. And I guess Christmas is the time to take your holidays to avoid the hoards of tourists. We've just spent our day taking a very leisurely wander around Chinatown and around, nosing in at the various temples, learning a bit about the area's history and sampling the local cuisine. Very relaxing. I would like to upload some photographs but I'm not sure this slow internet connection would be able to handle it.

Kuala Lumpur

I like it. Everyone speaks English which is incredibly novel (and highly convenient), though coming from a predominantly non-English speaking society I'm finding myself conscious of what I can say (without disapproval from passersby) in public. But everyone is very friendly and accommodating; and Malaysia's multi-national people are not at all intimidating as I imagined travelling as a lone female at 2am when I arrived at KL airport on Friday might be.

KL is pretty small as far as capital cities go, and certainly being able to walk from one end to the other in the humidity is quite a contrast from the never-ending sprawl of Seoul. But despite its size, the rather convoluted road network rather does make navigation somewhat taxing as Ian and I discovered trying to cross the 500m from KL Station to Chinatown by a criss-cross of overpasses, underpasses, roundabouts and railway lines. We have been lucky to be able to stay with Ian's cousin and his family to get easy rides to places of interest, and of course getting a local's perspective of what we should do/where we should go and charge-free accommodation.

So after a morning's meander through Chinatown (complete with a roti canai breakfast and tour of temples - see photo) yesterday we took Peter's recommended tour of the swish department stores of KL, slowly meandering our way up to the sunset view of the iconic Petronas Towers (photo above). I've certainly been filling my photo quotas. Today - a Malaysian national holiday - we gave Peter and his 8-year-old daughter an excuse to take the car and walk up the 272 steps to the Hindi shrine-laden Batu Caves. The highlight was probably the scampering monkeys - around to keep the tourists interested, around to enjoy the banana-feeding - though playing "I went to the market and I bought..." was also a great way to pass the car journey. Teaching English to non-native children, I get a warped view of the level of language that young children have.

This afternoon we were let loose by ourselves to explore the Lake Gardens and foot our own entrance fees. We wandered the Butterfly Park, making for some challenging photography, before heading on to the Bird Park to walk through the extensive free-flying aviary. We'll head down to Melaka tomorrow before heading onto Singapore for the weekend.

In transit

So I didn't really consider what I was going to do for between six and seven hours at Beijing airport waiting for my connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur. I would take advantage of the unlimited internet access and comfy seats in the business lounge for a mere 50RMB (which I was forced to exchange into cash at 50RMB commission thus essentially paying double for my time, but whatever; that £20 in my wallet hasn't been spent on anything else in the last year) and spend more time online, but despite definitely being winter in China, somebody decided it would be a good idea to crank up the air conditioning as if it were 30 degrees outside. I purposefully didn't bring my winter jacket with me on this trip, foretelling the inconvenience of lugging it around in the heat. I carelessly forgot to take into consideration potentially heavily air conditioned buses and shopping malls, even where it might be appreciated where it is 30 degrees outside.

So since I landed in China I've had a reasonably leisurely brunch, followed by a half hour of surfing while my fingers froze off, followed by a wander to the gate, getting distracted by a coffee shop, spending an hour warming my hands on some warm tea, followed by cooling my hands once the cup was empty. I dislike air con. So I decided to warm up my toes by walking the length of the airport back to the business lounge, and that's where I am now, slowly numbing my fingers again.

I'm also pretty tired. Four and a half hours of interrupted dream sleep isn't my favourite kind of sleep. I did get an hour on the airport bus and maybe another hour on the plane, but sleep in a chair just isn't as good as the sleep you can get in a bed. I guess I just don't fancy battling with the air conditioning to take a nap in the airport. But I like airports. There's something about being between countries that kind of makes me feel trapped in time. It doesn't matter that I'm tired now. I'll catch up when I'm out of the airport. I guess I really would get tired if I were Tom Hanks in The Terminal.

After all this procrastination (but it's forced procrastination, and perhaps that's what I love; there's nothing I have to be doing, largely because I can't. And for goodness sake girl, you're on holiday) I only have a couple of hours left to wait. My fingers are sufficiently numb now to decide to go and take that walk back down to the gate again. But if this post wasn't enough evidence of the excitement that Beijing airport has to offer, here's a picture that I took of my tea.

Merry Christmas!

Despite being away from friends and family in the UK, I have had a most relaxing Christmas in Korea with all my closest friends (bar Jaideep who I will see in Singapore in the next week, but still managed to phone in his Christmas wishes to us all) exchanging gifts, eating food (not necessarily traditional Christmas food, but good food nonetheless), listening to music, dancing, and generally enjoying one another's company. After all, home is where the heart is and all that, right?

So now I'm packed up and ready to get the 5am airport bus tomorrow morning to head on out of the sub-zero temperatures of Seoul on for warmer climates in Malaysia. No doubt I'll do much blogging and photo taking from there, but in the meantime I wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

Wonder Girls – Nobody

Another inescapable chart topper.

Airport goodbyes

Another weekend on friend-filled fun. I think we're all getting a bit partied out; hopefully the holidays will bring a lot of excuses to sleep! Anyway so for Jaideep's final weekend in Seoul it was back down to Wara Wara in Sanbon on Friday night with their delicious fruit soju cocktails; salsa class on Saturday followed by shots and raspberry mojitos at Bonji and dancing at Caliente; and for the first time in a long time we all went our separate ways at 4am, to reconvene in Hyehwa at midday on Sunday. This was just in time for coffee and lunch and to make our way to the airport to send Jaideep on his way.

I'm not a big fan of airport farewells; they're sad and prolongued and well, sad. Luckily Jaideep attempting to take five large suitcases on the plane to get charged $2000 excess baggage rather detracted from the sadness as we spent an hour packing it all up to ship (for a meagre $500 :-o), and after a final dance with all the girls there was little time for tears. Of course he will be missed, but we're living in a small world. I have no doubt that the adopted salsa family is yet to disperse.

And just as a relevant aside, Andrew dreamt that on questioning when we'd all next see one another, I distributed fingers of a severed hand and assured everyone that once the fingers revived themselves we'd know to get back together. Someone's subconscious is running overtime I fear...