Kuala Lumpur

We haven't actually done very much here, so it's difficult to know what to say...
We're staying with my mate Pete and his free internet and a 40"LCD TV and a swimming pool, so we shall try not to over exert ourselves.
We travelled up on Sunday from Singapore to KL, which is a 7 hour train journey (but only 325km, so not exactly a fast train). The trains are very comfortable and at only S$34 (NZ$30/GBP11) it was pretty cheap.
Pete picked us up at the station and on the way back we had time to grab a sandwich and get my ATM card eaten. Only 4 days into the trip and we were already one bank card down, so that didn't look so good.
That evening we went out for a nice Italian meal (soaking up the local culture you see...) and a few glasses of wine with Pete, Uma and a couple of their friends.
Monday was a late start (which we understand to be standard for most shops in Malaysia) and first stop was the bank to try and get my card back. Well, first stop was actually Mickey Ds - more local culture you see. With no card yet, we headed off to see if we could go up the KL towers. The good news was that they did free tours up the towers, the bad news was they did it every day except Monday. Arse.
After a therapeutic cup of tea and some chocolate we headed off home, however this was harder than we thought as we failed to find the train station after we left the KL towers (we later discovered that the train station is in the KL towers, so not so smart there).
Back at the apartment the good news was that my ATM card had been located so a quick trip to the bank and we were all good. Celebrated by a quick dip in the apartment complex's pool.
That night the four of us headed down the road for some traditional Indian-Malaysian food, which was essentially Indian food but with some noodles. Very nice though, and not bad for RM25 for all four of us (NZ$10/GBP3.60)!
We rounded the evening off with a reflexology massage for the girls and vast amounts of gin for the boys (as you do!).

Singapore

So we left on the 26th on a 10 1/2 hour flight from Auckland to Singapore. I laughed in the face of a measly 10 1/2 hour flight, it was barely enough time to watch four movies, all of which were a little bit disappointing (maybe I've coined a new collective noun, "a disappointment of movies").
We managed to come by some free accommodation in Singapore via Pete's girlfriend Uma who has an apartment there that she wasn't using. We made it to her place at about 10pm and crashed out.
The next day we were up early and jumped on the train to head towards Singapore Zoo. The public transport system in Singapore is very good, although a little bit more complicated than we thought. 30 minutes of wandering around looking for our bus eventually got us heading in the right direction and we got to the Zoo about 10:30.
It's a pretty big zoo and very open with few cages. At times you feel like some of the apes and monkeys could fall down right on top of you and it felt like you were in the enclosure with them.
We particularly liked the baboons, the Komodo dragons and the elephant show.
Just as we were about done the heavens opened and one of those regular thunderstorms swept in and it p*ssed down for about 1 1/2 hours. We caught the bus into town and decided to get our train ticket for Singapore to KL. This was harder than we thought as MasterCard wasn't accepted at the train station and the nearest ATM was another 15 minutes walk back from where we came!
After this we headed back to the apartment and then out to some local outdoor eatery for some fried rice, prawns and a very big bottle of Tiger beer.
The next day was spent exploring Singapore city, particularly Chinatown, Little India, the Arab Quarter and the waterfront area. As this was done all on foot we were pretty sore by the end of it all.
The food here can be very cheap and I have to admit to feeling a bit guilty when I sat down in a coffee shop and bought a $4 cup of tea when I'd just walked past a restaurant selling a $2 meal!
That evening we went back to the same place for dinner (and another very big Tiger beer) before bed. An early night as we needed to be at the train station by 8am for our train to KL.

On our way...

It's nearly 11am on 26th April and we fly off in just a few hours. Our bags are packed and suprisingly small but heavy and we are fully equiped for the flight with books, cakes and Uno cards to occupy us during take off and landing (times where my ipod shuffle would cause the $20 million dollar plane to fall out of the sky - wait til Usama finds out about that...)

Our itinary is:
New Zealand -> Singapore -> Malaysia -> Thailand -> Cambodia -> Vietnam -> Laos -> Thailand -> Singapore

but that's just the plan, who know's what will actually happen. You'll just have to wait for the next exciting episode of etc, etc...