Menara Taming Sari

We are now in Melaka, or as it used to be known, Malacca - as in the Straits of Malacca. We visited here last year and returned as it is a very relaxing place, quite small, pretty and fortunately for us, nice and cheap.
We are staying in one of the original Chinese shop houses that backs on to river, and has a lovely communal balcony where Daz is posing.
It has a few issues, such as the fact that there are two shared bathrooms upstairs but only one toilet roll. The lively lady who looks after the place puts it on a little table and I think the idea is that you take the correct number of sheets on the way in. There is also a hosepipe that are often found next to the toilets out here, but I have never worked out what you are supposed to do with them.
There is also a beautiful water garden complete with fountain and koi carp in an internal area on the floor below our room. The drawback for us is that we can't see it, but the fountain tinkles away very loudly, particularly all night.
The Chinese lady who looks after the hotel is hyperactive and speaks very little English. She showed us around at the speed of light, shouting lots of instructions that we couldn't really understand. She dragged me along the corridor saying what I thought was 'monkey', so I was a bit reluctant to follow her, but it turns out she was showing me the bathrooms.
She is also not posing in this picture, but waving frantically at me to make sure I know how to get back in. She is very nice though and has just made us a coffee each. At £15 per night it's brilliant.
The Menara Taming Sari is such a great name. It is actually a viewing platform that starts off at ground level, shoots to the top of its pole, whirls round a few times to show the 360 degree views of Melaka, and then lands back on the ground again - all in seven minutes.

Chinatown, Singapore

We stayed a couple of streets away from Chinatown and we saw all of the preparations for Chinese New Year.
The streets were packed and we could hardly walk through the crowds. There were stalls along the roads in front of all the buildings and they were selling many things that we could not identify, but also nuts, dried meat slices, loads of different fruits and horse shaped souvenirs.
Next year will be the year of the horse and we were surprised to see that most of the horses looked rather cute, more like 'my little pony' than a prancing stallion.
On the move now and due to arrive in Melaka, Malaysia.

Last day in Singapore

We really pushed the boat out on our last day in Singapore and did a double header - the Waterpark and Aquarium.
I have never been to a Waterpark before and did not know what to expect. We arrived just as it opened and raced to the first ride.
We got straight on and both sat in the yellow dingy that Daz is modelling. It trundled slowly up a slope - apparently the underside is magnetised. Once at the top we shot down a pitch black tube and then it turned into a roller coaster, as we whizzed up steep slopes and careered down the other side. I screamed all the way, then suddenly we went through a tube again and out into the splash pool at the bottom.
It was so amazing we did it again and then tried all of the other rides at least once. There was also a lazy river to float around on rubber rings, and an adventure area. We jumped off the wall, tight rope walked across the water (I fell in both times) and tried to climb a rope to ring a bell (I didn't manage it).
There was also a massive tank where you snorkelled amongst thousands of beautiful fish.
After the mornings excitement we spent the afternoon in the biggest Aquarium in the world.
The displays were incredible and we eventually sat down for a rest in front of the Ocean Gallery.
We watched gigantic manta rays and thousands of fish swimming about. A couple of divers appeared and suddenly it was feeding time. One diver swam with a ray and fed a fish to him right in front of my nose.

Botanic Gardens, Singapore

This is third time lucky in our attempts to visit a Botanic Garden recently.  We spent ages searching in Labuan and Sandakan, but we had to give up without finding either Garden, even though they were clearly mentioned in the guidebooks.
This time it was easy as there was train station called Botanic Garden so we couldn't miss it. .
As we have come to expect in Singapore, the place was absolutely beautiful and immaculate.
We had a lovely time wandering around and the Orchid Garden has the largest display of tropical orchids in the world.
My favourites were the orchids and the enormous water lilies with leaves that were almost a metre across.
Got a bit carried away posing at the entrance - sorry.

Southern ridge walk, Singapore

I can't believe how clean, tidy and well organised it is here in Singapore. I haven't seen a single piece of litter, and the streets and pavements are immaculate.
We caught the MRT train to HarbourFront and set off on a well marked trail. We climbed a steep hill to the top, and joined other tourists who had come up on the cable car.
Our walk was mainly through beautiful jungle paths, with lots of signs warning about monkeys. After a few minutes we reached the Henderson Wave. It is a pedestrian bridge that is 36 metres high and crosses a major road. It is a beautiful structure that curves and waves across the gap.
We carried on walking and came to a raised canopy that must have been over a kilometre long. It was really busy on a Sunday morning and it was lovely to see lots of people out enjoying the scenery.
In total we walked about 10 k and we ended up at another MRT station so we hopped on a train and headed back to put our feet up.

A life in the jungle - the ballet

Last night we put on our poshest clothes and headed off for a night at the ballet.
As the crow flew it was only about a kilometre to the theatre from our hotel, but it was across a river and the bridge was nowhere nearby, so a taxi would be very expensive.
We decided to cross the river on a sampan and then walk, although the road took a very indirect route. We ended up marching along the side of a dual carriageway, and the lovely local people kept shouting 'hello' and waving at us from their cars and mopeds.
It gave the walk a festive feel and we were in a cheerful mood when we arrived.
We were lucky to get the chance to see the ballet as it is only on for three days and was last  staged 30 years ago.
It was called 'A life in the jungle' and featured over 100 dancers and a further 100 in the orchestra and choir.
The storyline had an amazing and totally impractical twist. It is based on a local legend featuring a family of pong kapong birds who forgot that they had laid an egg and left it on the top of Mount Kinabalu. I won't give away the ending in case you ever see it.
It was a great end to our month in Borneo and we have just arrived in Singapore for our next adventure.