Driving to work every day, I get to see all the road works in progress for the tramline extension - it's happening really quickly. 

The only issue I have is, why does the tramline need to go out to the Port Adelaide..?  There's already a train that goes directly up Port road, and also has a stop at the entertainment centre.  I feel they would have been better sending the tram out to Norwood or even better simply improve the infrastructure they have now - i.e. increase the efficiency of the trains and improve the lines.

What a waste of money.  What was the government thinking?  What about a North-South arterial road - start buying back some houses to try to take some of the traffic off the minor roads.

I was listening to the radio today when I heard them mention "enter you dog in The Face of Advocate competition".  I thought, that's exactly what Bentley would be good at, sitting still for cameras; yeah right!

Anyway, I entered him into it.  It's kind of like a facebook for dogs.  You add photos and leave comments on other's pages.  By getting noticed you get votes, these votes add to your popularity which inturn adds to your overall score.  Also, everytime you upload a photo, vote, write anything on other's pages you get activity points, which also add to your score.  It's pretty lame, but pretty funny. 

The funny thing is to see how people treat their dogs and cats.  People take photos over and over of their cats curled up literally doing nothing or photos of a cat licking itself.  Have a look and see what I mean.

For Bentley MEMBER OF THE Dog PARTY Click here to vote for Bentley at VoteMyPet.com.au

Well, my night wasn't all bad.  My hotel, like I'd chosen it, was within walking distance to the KL Tower (Menara) which meant I took a stroll up there and took some photos of the fifth tallest tower in the world.  I went up to the observation deck and tried to take some decent photos, but couldn't.  I went and had a look at some animals, that definitely weren't overy impressed being in their little cages.  There was an white Baboon that was obviously a little stir crazy.  There were signs everywhere saying 'NO FLASH' however while I was in there there were a number of people in the exhibit taking photos with flashes - this annoys me.  Poor animals have enough to put up with, people gawking at them all day and most of the night without being blinded frequently by white flashing lights.  Look what happened to Britney Spears.


So, after all this activity all I wanted to do was head back to my room and relax.  So that's pretty much what I did for the rest of the night.

The floor I'm on has low ceilings, the wiring looks dodgy, the power points don't all work, the bathroom is poor, the ceiling is very low (7ft), the air conditioning hums so loud I had to turn it off to go to sleep.  This was before I was woken up an hour later by the guy next door coming home, slamming the door, and lighting a cigarette (that flows into my room).  Now I'm not going to name and shame this hotel, but I'm certainly not going to endorse it.  I'll certainly not recommend it to anyone.  For paying a very similar price to the Prince Hotel, the maintenance is the issue.  The cleaners clean as best they can, but the design flaws are incredible.


So today, I'm off to the airport for my 21:50 flight arriving in Adelaide tomorrow morning at 06:15.  Man, what a flight, I think I'll wear my ear plugs.

I've arrived back in KL today.  I thought I'd try a different hotel - nearer to the Monorail and KL tower and a little bit cheaper (not much). 

It was a big mistake, the rooms are tiny, the bathrooms look terrible.  I'm in a smoking floor - I might see if there's a floor that doesn't have smoking.  Not entirely sure though.  Oh well, it's only one night I guess...

Well, I survived the night in Melaka at the Voyage Guest House - I had no issues sleeping.  No mozzies, no bed bugs.  Slept like a log.

Today, I slept in until 10.30am, arose to a beautiful day, headed to the Dutch Harbour Cafe for an iced coffee.  Then took a 2 hour rickshaw ride (40 MYR per hour) and saw the sights.  I got out and went into a museum built in a ship.  It was great - explained the Portugese, Dutch, Malay, and English ruling of Melaka due to it's great position for trading with India.  It seems the Portugese came over in 1511 after setting up trading with India in 1498.  Then the Dutch came and fought them off.  The Dutch, were friend and foe to the Malaysian people of Melaka.  Then the English came and then finally returning it to Independence in 1957.  Long story cut short, much more explanation needed as I'm sure I've only wrapped it up in a sentence which isn't quite right.

I then went to Villa Sentosa - a living museum.  A woman lives there and shows you around the house, the marriage chairs, the marriage bed, the dining table, the 200 year old gong (3 times for luck).  It was really great.  She was really proud of it, and it is worth a visit, it was built by her father in the 1920's and raised 12 children in there including herself.  She's owned it since.  A lot of old photos and historical pieces.  If you get a chance, she's really good value.


After my rickshaw ride finished I went for a look at the Architectural Museum and then the Islamic Museum.  After that, I decided a trip to Charles Cham's Shop (www.charlescham.com) was next to buy a shirt.  Then off to get a full body massage.  Man was that great!  78 MYR (not the cheapest massage) but it was exactly what my body needed, and NO, there was no happy ending thank you.


The Dutch Harbor Cafe is where I ate a snack yesterday, anyway, I was so relaxed I walked off without paying.  I did return for tea and paid my full fair last night.  I nearly did it again for breakfast today - quite funny.

So tonight I'm off to dinner down the road, and some night market shopping before returning to KL tomorrow and then fly back to Australia.

Well, I caught my bus this morning to Melaka (once controlled by the dutch) - arriving at lunch time (2hrs).  Got a taxi to my accommodation 'Voyage Guest House'.  There's a cafe that it's run out of, and they're very friendly.  They lead me down an alley to where the accommodation is.  Looks neat, cold showers, no air-conditioning.  A bit of a change to my last couple of places I'd stayed.  But what do you expect to MYR 35 per night (AUD $11 approx).  Anyway, I was told to get a pad lock for my door, as a back up to the door handle lock.  This was harder than I thought - I got some directions, then set off.  I walked up a street, down a street around a corner and then ended up where I had started about 2 hours later, having had some lunch, got some sunburn.  So I went upstairs grabbed a hat and set off again.  This time I was far more successful, I walked on the other side of one street and found a general mart.


I went back to the room, locked it up.  Sat down and watched Wolverine (dodgy version - you could see the CGI and wires for the special effects - some weren't complete so just a grey picture).  I then decided to go for more of a walk and see the historical sights - churches and fortresses built back in the 16th Century - more information on this later.  I also got my picture taken with an albino python - man it was pretty big.  Worth the MYR5 I spent on it though.

I then went back to my room after about 1.5 hours, lay down and chillaxed for a bit.  I'm now sitting in a Portugese cafe having consumed a spicy hotdog and a chilled Hazelnut cappucino.

Tomorrow, a rickshaw ride and some more sight seeing.  I just hope I get through this evening.

Ok, so today, I caught a skybus (AirAsia) all the way from the LCCT to KL Sentral, from there I got a taxi to the Prince Hotel www.princehotelkl.com where I'm staying for the next three nights.  I got settled in, then headed off to Central Markets for breakfast and some shopping.  Didn't find anything to buy other than breakfast, so walked to China Town.  Well, China Town is where you get all the non-ligit items such as perfumes, clothes, sunglasses, DVDs, wallets, handbags.  These are all sold in the open with no real hiding of anything.  So I picked up some perfume for my sister, some shirts for me, a wallet for my sister, and a few DVDs.  I then decided it was time to go to the KL Bird Park www.klbirdpark.com.  However, when I got in the taxi, the driver said that I should go to the Butterfly Park http://www.malaysiasite.nl/butterflyeng.htm as it was right next door, would take me less time, and would be cooler.  The Butterfly Park is quite well set up with an amazing number of butterflies.  There are also general insect displays inside including the dung bettle, leaf insects, scorpions, tarantulas, and many more.  After checking this out, I headed to the KL Bird Park - only a short walk up the hill.  This is the World's Largest Covered Bird Park.  It was a great set-up.  I got my photo taken with a Hornbill and a Macau, as well as getting fairly close to a number of other birds including owls, birds of prey, parrots, etc.  There was also a nursery where they were hatching chickens and ducks in incubators to show people how it was done.  I guess the reason they were using chickens and ducks because they're not as crucial to incubate.


Ok, so after the Bird Park I walked down and looked at the Malaysian National Mosque, quite an impressive set of buildings, across the road was also the Islamic Arts Museum of Malaysia - really nice looking building.  Then I managed to get a taxi and be back at the hotel by 4.30pm.

I bummed in my room, enjoyed a bath (haven't had one in a while due to water restrictions).  Then decided shortly after 6pm that it was time to embark on another adventure.  Thanks to my taxi driver, he basically explained the monorail  www.klmonorail.com.my and showed me the closest stop.  So after some research, I tried to get myself using the monorail and buses to the Mega Mall - Mid Valley Mall www.midvalley.com.my.  It's a 4 level Mall that stretches a long way in the North to South direction, whilst covering 420 000 metres squared or an impressive 4.5 Million feet squared.  So I spent pretty much the rest of my time there, buying dinner and some more clothes.


I then got a taxi back to KL Sentral where I caught the Monorail back.

It's quite funny how cheap taxi's are.  For this part of my journey I'm in KL for a work related function, so I'm meant to be keeping receipts to get re-imbursed.  However, when the taxi rides cost as little as 6MR up to 10MR or 2AUD to 5AUD, it's hardly worth getting a receipt.

Tomorrow I've got a course from 9-5.  The reason for the need to buy all the clothes, is that a number of my shirts have stains and smell a little due to humidity, so I thought I'd better set a better impression.  It would have been a lot better because I was looking to buy some shoes tonight, perhaps tomorrow night. 

Ok, before I go, I'd better explain the need for clothes and shoes and shopping.  I was restricted by Air Asia to approx 15kgs of luggage, so I travelled pretty light for the first portion of my journey.  However, now I don't require light luggage, I can get some new stuff.

Last night was great.  First we went out to a kind of Hawker's restaurant.  A place where you sit down and there's a number of food sellers that come around and give you menus and you can choose between any one of these.  We had fern salad, spinach salad, sizzling Venison, fried Pork, and rice.  The food was great.  We also polished off a few tigers (beer).

Then we went to a bar called Al Fresco, where we polished off a few Sol beers.  We also watched Mark Webber finish 2nd at the Grand Prix.  Then we returned to Hughesy's for a few scotches.  Man, am I hung over today..?  Sweating water out and also drinking alcohol is not good for someone not fully aclimatised.

Oh yeah, I didn't make it to the waterfall either :).