“Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking. It’s going to be ahh….long flight.” You know it’s a bad sign when the captain doesn’t even want to know how long you’ll be flying for! But in the end, the 12+ hour flight time was actually a very comfortable and easy journey. This was made even easier by the fact that I shared the flight with a girl from my psychology course in Aberdeen, which just goes to show that the world really is a very small place indeed. 

Once I landed in Singapore, I was stamped in by the cheeriest and most welcoming immigration officer ever. He was surprised when I told him my plans of driving into Johor Bahru because apparently Friday afternoons are the absolute worst time to possibly make the journey. And boy was he right. After some communication errors, Tom and I finally managed to meet in Singapore airport and meet our driver for the never-ending stop-and-go crawl into Malaysia. Although it is only a few miles, the drive across the border took about two hours. If it hadn’t been so uncomfortably hot and sticky outside, I would’ve advised that we join all the clever locals walking past and  just walk across the border. But finally, FINALLY we made it into Malaysia, just as the sun was setting over the skyline of skyscrapers. We were home just in time for some sweet hairy fruit called rambutan and other unknown and bizarre Malaysian delicacies. Because we just happen to be here during Ramadan, it is unlikely that many restaurants will be open…so I’ll take all the food I can get, in the meantime! 

Now, as I sit here writing this, it is 7.30am on Saturday morning, the sun is just rising, there’s a fantastic thunderstorm going on, I can hear the nearest mosque doing its morning prayer, and I have an incredible view of Johor Bahru and its continuous lightning strikes from the 13th floor of Richard’s apartment. I am absolutely entranced and amazed by the newness of it all. Just, wow.