From the Land Down Under: home sweet home....

I felt that way about our home in Perth a week ago when we were on our journey to Kaula Lumpur in Malaysia. Our little abode in Australia looked pretty good from there, and our Australian hosts did too. We were the only white, blue eyed, blond people as far as the eye could see most of the time. Let me tell you, if you need a scarf, the place to be is Kuala Lumpur...no where else on the planet could possibly have more stores selling fabrics with which to make scarves and burkas. Not sure if we went to the wrong area of the city, but we could not find any good shopping (unless you seriously loved scarves). We were frustrated by that, as we thought it would be really awesome and we would get great stuff really cheap. We tried to communicate our wishes with each taxi driver with whom we took our lives in our hands, but, alas. It was certainly an adventure and now we can say we have traveled to Malaysia.
Having said that, we left a day early and took the train to Singapore. Let's just say it wasn't the luxury liner we had been led to believe, but, another adventure. Don't even get me started on the toilets. Anyway, we arrived in Singapore and were instantly smitten. What a fabulous city. We enjoyed our time there immensley, and we even hooked up with an old college buddy of Steve's from U of O. He and his wife are American but have lived in Singapore for 13 years. We had a good old time with them. We racked our brains to figure out a way to stay longer, as the few days we had was nowhere near enough. There is a great deal to do and see in Singapore and it is lovely there. But, you have to leave your gum at home (illegal)and swallow that loogie or you will be caned. (I hear that hurts quite a bit) Needless to say, there is no gum on the sidewalks, which are also quite free of sputum. I liked it.
We had a wonderful trip and my husband outdid himself for my 50th birthday. However, we've both agreed next time we'll book a resort at Phuket in Thailand and sip Pina Coladas while we sit on chairs in the Andaman Sea. Pics below are in Kuala Lumpur....