Hi Again!
As you may remember I flew into Malaysia on the 18th of January 2013, which means I have been in the country for about a month now. I booked my one-way ticket to Bali for the 2nd of March, by which time I will have been in Malaysia for 6 weeks, and I still have loads more to see, considering that about 4 ½ weeks out of the 6 have been spent in Melaka! Obviously the things you do when you are in a place for a bit longer differ to the things you do when you are travelling all the time.
A typical day now begins with waking up around 10am and having breakfast. Depending on the weather, Ying’s work schedule and our moods, Ying and I sometimes have breakfast together, sometimes going next door, or sometimes venturing further afield for that perfect breakfast of chicken rice balls (for me) and egg and rice (for Ying, the vegetarian).
Sometimes we can’t be bothered and I just grab a yogurt drink out of the fridge and whatever’s available. Today I had chilli and garlic chicken – leftovers from last night – heated up with the Jaffle iron, eaten with some cheese crackers. Usually though I’ll just grab a slice of bread or some crackers and spread some peanut butter on. I’ve been trying to cut down on the coffee as it’s so strong and sweet, I can feel my teeth disintegrating while I sip.
After breakfast I digest my food (aka I use my phone to check Facebook), and then I go through some fitness exercises that I downloaded onto my phone, followed by some yoga breathing exercises, followed by some time on my phone looking at travel blogs, because I don’t have the energy to get up off the floor yet. After that I have a shower and relax some more – then it’s time for lunch. After lunch I do some ‘research’ (aka read more travel blogs), checking out how I’m going to get to my next destination, how much I should be paying for accommodation, which are the best (cheapest) places to go diving and do they have cheese?
I amaze at how much work people put into their travel blogs, and that they are able to make a living (or at least keep travelling) from the money they earn on their blog. Not sure if I’d want all that pressure though. For me writing is a pleasure, but professional travel bloggers spend at least 4 hours (probably more in most cases) per day in front of their laptops thinking of entertaining and witty things to write about, so people will come and visit their site, so that advertisers will pay them to host ads on their site. I think it would probably be cool to team up with 2 or 3 other people and run a blog like that, so you don’t need to pump something out every few days. Besides, what I find amazing and fascinating isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I could write a whole blog post on how wonderful cheese is, but would anyone want to read it?
In the afternoon I’ll usually head out to grab some free WiFi at one of the hostels affiliated with Zero Art (my hostel). Yes, it really does take me that long to get up the motivation to leave the hostel, probably part of the reason I’ve stayed here for so long. As Chinese expression goes: ‘there must be honey in that place’. At 6 o’clock I join the daily bike tour around Melaka, and we usually have dinner at some local place. Last night we went to the expensive Indian place again, and I was so hungry I ordered way too much food – good thing they let you take it home! I was rebuked by Ying though when I gave her half of my (2nd!!) naan bread. I had asked her if she wanted half, and then proceeded to put it on her plate. She said that I often did that, acting without waiting for an answer from her. I guess I’m just used to my Australian friends who, if they didn’t want it, would then say no and put it back on my plate. I guess I need to learn to be a bit more sensitive to the cultural differences here!
Life's an Adventure (if you live it like one) 