Malaysia

Dear All,

After an overnight flight from Dehli, involving a couple of decent films but little or no sleep, we have finally escaped the clutches of India and become enveloped in the welcoming arms of Kuala Lumpur. Despite the post flight eye sting and general weariness I write this in a very happy mood indeed. First impressions of Malaysia are promising and our residence in the 'hectic' (guidebook description), tranquil (our post-India description) Chinatown area is cheap and cheerful with a cell like feel. It is clean though.

So we bid farewell to India with mixed emotions. Mine of utmost joy, Em's tinged with sadness.

India was a fascinating place to visit and we would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to have a unique travel experience. We saw some amazing sights, sites (especially the Taj Mahal) and sounds. Never a dull moment. However, for Em and I it was a country that you could love one day and hate with as much fervour the next. Perhaps you cant love all of India all of the time, you can just love some of India some of the time. Having said that we did visit some of the main tourist spots and probably experienced the worst touting and hassling. People who have visited the far South (Goa, Kerala etc) & North (Leh, Minali etc) talk very highly of them.

So Malaysian adventures begin after some much needed sleep. I only hope that I dont start having any post-India flashbacks in which the slow-calm Malaysian fan will turn into a noisy-I'm going to drop off this ceiling Indian fan, akin to Vietnam veterans seeing helicopter blades (you've seen the films!). Whereas Vietnam vets would see little people with strange hats attempting to shoot them I expect to see hawkers holding soap-stone elephants in elephants, pipes, books of post-cards, small bicycles fashioned from tin cans, leather whips, I love India t-shirts, strange sequened rugs and countless beads all being sold at a 'special good price for you my friend'. Its all coming flooding back.......am breaking into a cold sweat.

Need some sleep.
Love
Simon & Emma (who is fast asleep and will give me a good telling off for writing such nonsense. Tee hee wait until she see's my all new funny sign section!)