Tuesday 20th January 2009

After spending a very hot day visiting the sites of Georgetown it was time for an earlynight on Saturday as we were off to get the first ferry of the day back to the mainland at 5.45am. Followed by a 7 hour train journey to Kuala Lumpar. Only had about 7 hours there but we liked what we saw. Tried to go up the Petronas Towers (which was until recently the tallest building in the world) however they only allow 1100 per day and we were too late. Awesome sight though even from the outside. Also visited the old colonial area and walked over the cricket pitch in the the centre while the ex-pats looked on downing their G & T's. Then it was the overnight train to Singapore which was quite comfortable and we caught up on some sleep. Spent Monday and today Tuesday seeing as much as possible of Singapore. Very modern,clean and efficient city - we both loved it although it is very expensive. Retail therapy reaches new levels here! Had two splurges - cocktails in Raffles Hotel - Singapore Slings, well you just have to - don't you and a meal in a restaurant overlooking the Singapore River. Today we went on the cable car up Mt.Faber for a view of the city, followed by a mooch around Chinatown which was pre-Chinese New Year festivities and DimSum in the market and now here at Changi Airport about to leave SE Asia after 61 days and move on to New Zealand. We arrive in Wellington tomorrow afternoon.

Well, here are some stats and highlights of our grand tour of SE Asia. We visited six countries (Thailand twice), slept in 37 different beds. Travelwise we took 10 train journeys, 13 bus journeys, 3 boats and two internal flights in the region. We liked best (in no especial order) Angkor, HaLong Bay, Phu Kradung, the Nan trek, Singapore and Hoi An. In the interest of scientific research we tried 9 different brands of beer (extensively); 3 Thai, 1 Cambodian, 1 Lao, 4 Vietnamese. After a great deal of retasting we voted the winner - Hanoi Beer! We look forward to researching wine in a similar manner in NZ and Oz.