Melaka, Malacca - Potato, Potahto

I ended up spending three nights and two days in Singapore. I couchsurfed with a Filipino guy named Alex, who has been living in Singapore for a few years and is currently sharing a three bedroom flat with five other people from the Philippines. He was working during the day so I was free to roam around. I arrived quite late Monday night. I decided to get a bus from the airport instead of a taxi to save money, it ended up taking about an hour and a half, but I managed to see a lot of the country. I didn't realise how small it was. Alex said something about how his house wasn't too from Malaysia.

My first day it was pouring, as it seems to have done in every major city I have been in recently. I went to the Asian Civilizations museum and walked around part of down town. I headed over to China Town and had a bite to eat and bought some new headphones, since mine mysteriously stopped working on the flight to Singapore from Cairns. Oh dear! I wondered around for quite a bit that day actually and took some pictures. I then went back to Alex's and took a quick nap. He came home with Vaughn, another couch surfer from California who was passing through on his way to Indonesia.

The next day was much better weather-wise. Vaughn and I went to the American embassy since he needed new passport photos. Afterwards we went to Reservoir Mcritchie (or the name was something along those lines...) It was really pretty. We went for a walk and saw loads of monkeys. We didn't get to go on the tree walk though, because it was already closed. We then met Alex who had organized a couch surfing meet up. There were 8 of us in total. A mixture of locals, new arrivals and travellers. We ate at Lau Pa Sat, a GIANT food court in raffles. There was every type of Asian food imaginable - yummy! Afterwards we went to a bar where there were even more couch surfers!

The next day I left fairly early to get to Malaysia. It was by far the easiest border I have ever done. I arrived in Malacca (or Melaka), early afternoon. It's about two hours south of Kuala Lumpur (KL). I took a bus into the centre and walked around forever trying to find a certain hostel. I finally found A hostel, just not the one i was looking for. It was small and really run down, but it was pretty much myself and a canadian guy, Brent.

Melaka was a pretty cool town. Very historic and nice to walk around. It has changed hands a lots (England, Holland, Portugal, China, then England again and now Malaysians). So there are a lot of different areas. The first night Brent gave me the grand tour and we ate a really good meal at the marina.

The next day (yesterday) Brent left and I went to Mini Malaysia about 14km north of Melaka. It's a touristy thing, but there are thirty something houses from the different Malay states as well as Indonesia, Brunei, Philippines...etc. It was really interesting for the first ten houses or so and then by the eleventh I just though "oh wow, another house..." they were all just variations on the same thing. I was supposed to go to the yoga class of a couchsurfer that Alex knows but I got a bit stranded. Of course the bus dropped me off at the stop, but there wasn't one to pick me up. I found that out after about two hours of raining when it started POURING. So I broke my rule *tear* and took a cab.

Last night I went on a walk through China town where there is a weekend night market it was PACKED. I grabbed little bits and pieces for dinner. I still have no idea what I ate, but I was assured it was vegetarian and I am pretty sure it was different variations of Tofu. I then started walking back to my hostel or so I thought and got so LOST. I ended up on the North side of the city while I was staying in the south. I went into a 5 * hotel and asked for directions. On my way back I walked by the restaurant that Brent and I ate at and saw that the Mexico - South Africa match was on so I watched the first twenty minutes of that. Everyone was going CRAZY for Mexico, although I still have no idea why (I was told by someone it was because nobody like South Africa... okay). I then walked back to my hostel and passed two mcdonalds that were PACKED with people since they were showing the game. Hopefully tonight I will be able to catch the UK/USA game.

This morning I left for KL. I met an Australian guy on the bus who is making his way to Europe. I have settled in a hostel, but it is a bit out of the way, so I may find another one tomorrow closer to the hub bub of everything. I am meeting up with some people tonight, and a norwegian girl I was stuck with at the border in Bolivia is here as well. Tomorrow I will be meeting up with some more couch surfers as well as in the beginning of next week. It's nice to have a full social calendar for the first time in the year. I even got a sim card!! I did however, lose the number. I will call someone later and have them give it to me. I don't know if I will be able to accept international calls though.