Hey all! I'm still backtracking, trying to catch up on my blog entries. Not bad, after this one, I'll only be about 2 1/2 weeks behind... In the meantime, I'm having a great time with my sister in Thailand. I'm sure I'll have more free time to update the blog when she leaves, so for now, bear with me!
My only plan for the first few weeks in January were to somehow make my way through Malaysia & into Thailand, in time to meet with my sister Johanne on the 13th. Without any previous planning or researching, I realised while in KL that it is very easy to find the best spots, since people seem to travel in almost set itineraries. As I quickly discovered and was recommended by most people I met, my next obvious destination was the Cameron Highlands, up in the mountains near the middle of Malaysia. It would be a nice break from the heat and pollution of KL, as well as being on my way to Thailand.
I took another VIP bus, this one not as luxurious as the previous, but still better than our own "Voyageur" type buses at home. I got to Tanah Rata, my destination, late in the afternoon, so my only activity on my first day was to watch a movie in the common room and luxuriate in my 3$/night dorm. I took pictures of the room for you all, it looks like barracks made out of tole. Still, for that price, I got a bed, blankets & no bugs, so I am not complaining.
Being in the mountains, it was much colder than it had been for me for the past month and a half. I actually took out my hoodie from the bottom of my backpack and made good use of the blankets they supplied.
The next day, I booked a sightseeing tour to visit the surrounding area. I had a great time, seeing the most beautiful landscape, with terraced farms and tea plantations. I don't recall ever seeing such beautiful shades of green! The tour also brought us to the highest point in peninsular Malaysia (which means excluding Borneo and the islands), on a mini-trek through a mossy forest and to visit a local tribe of orang Asli (meaning original people) who still live in very basic conditions in traditional Malay homes.
It was a full, fun day. I loved the mini-trek through the mossy forest, and felt like a jungle explorer when the guide brought us through trails that barely looked wide enough for a monkey, let alone me! I'm not sure about visiting tribes or local people in their homes though. It felt very odd to me, and somewhat like an intrusion into their lives. The kids put on a show for the tourists, but it feels "off" to me. I'm not sure I'd do that again...
Of the 8 people on the tour that day, every single one of them was planning on going to Pulau Penang the very next day (see what I mean about set itineraries?). That's where I was off to next, along with a couple from the tour. The others decided to take an earlier bus, but now being very lazy in the mornings, as well as not being in any rush to get to Pulau Penang, I decided to sleep in a little, in as much as you can sleep in in a barrack with 11 other people...
Pulau Penang is an island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. Georgetown, the most popular destination on the island, is a colonial town built in the early shipping days. It has a worn-out English feel. I spent 2 days sightseeing, one of which I spent with a fellow traveller from the Netherlands. We did all the touristy stuff, such as visiting the museum, the fort and going up on the lookout hill. It was good, and definitely gave me a bit of the feel of smaller Malaysian towns. The roads are packed with motorcycles, buses, tuktuks and cars and there are no sidewalks to speak of. Crossing the street remained a challenge for me, and I mostly managed by taking my cue from other people. I am getting quite good at directions, even managing to direct my taxi driver to my hostel on my very first moments in Penang. And although I'm still not the most adventurous eater there is, I've managed quite well. I've had good (and very cheap) meals at food stalls on the street, and has no regrets!
That's all for my time in Malaysia. I only spent 9 days here, but I think it was a great way to continue on my journey in Asia. It felt more foreign than Singapore, with different sights, sounds and smells, but at least I could read street signs and menus, as they are written in our own alphabet. Next stop: Thailand!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Malaysia whirlwind - Part 1
Hi all,
Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated the blog, but I've been boycotting it for the last week. You see, I spent at least 1.5 hours last week writing the most spectacular post ever (of course!), and just as I was finishing the spellcheck, I lost everything. Don't know how it happened and could not retrieve it no matter how I tried. I was too pissed off to start over again right then, so I gave myself a little break. But for those interested in more up-to-date travel news, you can check out my sister Johanne's blog at johannel.blogspot.com. We are now travelling together through Thailand (yay!) and she is much better/faster at updating her blog. In the meantime, I will backtrack and post over the next few days details about my time in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy.
After spending New Year's Eve in Singapore, I was off to Kuala Lumpur (KL, as known by the locals). I took a bus from Singapore bright and early on New Year's Day. It was a luxury VIP double-decker coach, complete with assigned seats, massage chairs & my own personal video player. The bus even has an attendant, who serves water, coffee and sandwiches. And all this for less than 15$ CDN!
I arrived in KL a little anxious and very much overwhelmed, as I was still feeling some culture shock since my arrival in Singapore. Adapting to Asia was taking a few days, not as fast as I'd hoped, so my arrival in KL, the largest city in Malaysia, was not without trepidation.
The bus dropped my off at a bus depot, which was pretty much just a big parking lot somewhere in the city. Luckily, I had traded my remaining Singapore dollars for Malaysian Ringgits with a girl at my hostel, cause there were no ATM's to be found on site. My first challenge was to get to the hostel. OK, fairly easily done since there were a dozen or so taxis (or teksi, in Malaysian) drivers looking for a willing sucker, oops sorry, I mean customer. This driver comes to me, I show him where I want to go, he grabs the paper (my reservation confirmation) out of my hands and heads to a group of drivers to ask them directions. There was a lot of eye rolling from the other drivers, cause my guy was just not getting it. This is not reassuring, since as it turns out, my hostel was on a main road in the most touristy area of KL. But lo and behold, after maybe 5 minutes, the light seems to go on over this guy's head! Now all that was left to do was to decide on a price, since of course, he and all of the other drivers refused to use the taxi meter. Not being in the best frame of mind, I accepted the first price quoted to me. I didn't even try to negotiate (doh!) but as it turned out, I didn't get fleeced to badly. Only by about 10 RM, which is 3# CDN.
The rest of the day was spent walking around, trying to get accustomed to the sights and sounds of KL. This city is just as Singapore, but way dirtier and stinkier. But the prices! I was completely amazed by how cheap everything is. A few examples: a 1.5L bottle of water costs 1 RM = 0.30$ CDN, A KFC trio (cause KFC is EVERYWHERE in Malaysia) is 8.60 RM i.e. less than 2.70$ CDN. And KL has lots of western shops and restaurants, with the obligatory Starbucks popping up on every street corner.
The next day I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to meet with 2 girls from my hostel to get free tickets to the Petronas Towers. After a 30-minute jog (one of the girls was a very fast walker), I was in line for the daily ticket giveaway. 1400 tickets are dispensed every day for a tour of the SkyBridge that links both towers, and we were told to show up at 7:30AM at the latest or risk missing out. This may have been an exaggeration, but regardless, we were there early so no worries. We got our tickets and were given a 10-minute window to view the SkyBridge. Now, for anyone planning on visiting Kuala Lumpur one day, please skip the SkyBridge and head out to the KL Tower instead. The tickets are more expensive (as in, not free), but you get a much better view of the city, and you actually get to see the Petronas Towers, which are quite beautiful in my opinion.
Now my favorite part of my time in KL was actually about 15 km outside the city. On the list of "must see's" in my Lonely Planet (aka Traveller's Bible), was the Batu caves. So like a good little tourist, I set off to see what it was all about. Part of the adventure was finding the bus that went there, cause even though the direction in my Lonely Planet were quite precise, I still couldn't find the darn bus. After a bit of scrambling and asking 5 different people to get 5 variations on the answer, I spotted a group of tourists (i.e. western looking people) just standing around waiting and looking uncertain. When in doubt, assemble like sheep with other tourists and hope for the best! It usually ends up we are all going to the same place, and this time was no exception. The bus arrived a few minutes later and I was on my way.
Now my arrival at the Batu caves was one of those moments that gave me chills. I didn't know what to except, not really having any idea of what the caves were about, but I was quite amazed when I got there. The sight of the huge gold statue next to the 272 steps leading to the caves was very impressive. Plus, TV junkie that I am, I instantly recognized the place from one of my favorite shows ever, The Amazing Race! I absolutely love it when that happens!
I walked up the steps and enjoyed the great view in the caves. Monkeys were amusing themselves trying to steal food from tourists and getting the last sips of beer in cans thrown in the rubbish bins. Plus, I got to learn about the disturbing Thaipusam, a huge Hindu festival that happens here every Jan/Feb. 1 million devotees make the trek from the city to the caves, many taking part in gruesome and masochistic acts. Piercing their cheeks with steel rods, placing hooks down their backs and hanging thing on them, all to show their devotion.
As per my new pattern it seems, by the 2nd day in KL I was feeling much better and getting into the groove of things. I met a lot of nice people at the hostel, and I find that generally speaking, my fellow travellers through Asia are more sociable than those in NZ or Australia. I haven't spent a day fully on my own since I started my tour in OZ more than 1 month ago. So all in all, a good start to my time in Malaysia!
Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated the blog, but I've been boycotting it for the last week. You see, I spent at least 1.5 hours last week writing the most spectacular post ever (of course!), and just as I was finishing the spellcheck, I lost everything. Don't know how it happened and could not retrieve it no matter how I tried. I was too pissed off to start over again right then, so I gave myself a little break. But for those interested in more up-to-date travel news, you can check out my sister Johanne's blog at johannel.blogspot.com. We are now travelling together through Thailand (yay!) and she is much better/faster at updating her blog. In the meantime, I will backtrack and post over the next few days details about my time in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy.
After spending New Year's Eve in Singapore, I was off to Kuala Lumpur (KL, as known by the locals). I took a bus from Singapore bright and early on New Year's Day. It was a luxury VIP double-decker coach, complete with assigned seats, massage chairs & my own personal video player. The bus even has an attendant, who serves water, coffee and sandwiches. And all this for less than 15$ CDN!
I arrived in KL a little anxious and very much overwhelmed, as I was still feeling some culture shock since my arrival in Singapore. Adapting to Asia was taking a few days, not as fast as I'd hoped, so my arrival in KL, the largest city in Malaysia, was not without trepidation.
The bus dropped my off at a bus depot, which was pretty much just a big parking lot somewhere in the city. Luckily, I had traded my remaining Singapore dollars for Malaysian Ringgits with a girl at my hostel, cause there were no ATM's to be found on site. My first challenge was to get to the hostel. OK, fairly easily done since there were a dozen or so taxis (or teksi, in Malaysian) drivers looking for a willing sucker, oops sorry, I mean customer. This driver comes to me, I show him where I want to go, he grabs the paper (my reservation confirmation) out of my hands and heads to a group of drivers to ask them directions. There was a lot of eye rolling from the other drivers, cause my guy was just not getting it. This is not reassuring, since as it turns out, my hostel was on a main road in the most touristy area of KL. But lo and behold, after maybe 5 minutes, the light seems to go on over this guy's head! Now all that was left to do was to decide on a price, since of course, he and all of the other drivers refused to use the taxi meter. Not being in the best frame of mind, I accepted the first price quoted to me. I didn't even try to negotiate (doh!) but as it turned out, I didn't get fleeced to badly. Only by about 10 RM, which is 3# CDN.
The rest of the day was spent walking around, trying to get accustomed to the sights and sounds of KL. This city is just as Singapore, but way dirtier and stinkier. But the prices! I was completely amazed by how cheap everything is. A few examples: a 1.5L bottle of water costs 1 RM = 0.30$ CDN, A KFC trio (cause KFC is EVERYWHERE in Malaysia) is 8.60 RM i.e. less than 2.70$ CDN. And KL has lots of western shops and restaurants, with the obligatory Starbucks popping up on every street corner.
The next day I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to meet with 2 girls from my hostel to get free tickets to the Petronas Towers. After a 30-minute jog (one of the girls was a very fast walker), I was in line for the daily ticket giveaway. 1400 tickets are dispensed every day for a tour of the SkyBridge that links both towers, and we were told to show up at 7:30AM at the latest or risk missing out. This may have been an exaggeration, but regardless, we were there early so no worries. We got our tickets and were given a 10-minute window to view the SkyBridge. Now, for anyone planning on visiting Kuala Lumpur one day, please skip the SkyBridge and head out to the KL Tower instead. The tickets are more expensive (as in, not free), but you get a much better view of the city, and you actually get to see the Petronas Towers, which are quite beautiful in my opinion.
Now my favorite part of my time in KL was actually about 15 km outside the city. On the list of "must see's" in my Lonely Planet (aka Traveller's Bible), was the Batu caves. So like a good little tourist, I set off to see what it was all about. Part of the adventure was finding the bus that went there, cause even though the direction in my Lonely Planet were quite precise, I still couldn't find the darn bus. After a bit of scrambling and asking 5 different people to get 5 variations on the answer, I spotted a group of tourists (i.e. western looking people) just standing around waiting and looking uncertain. When in doubt, assemble like sheep with other tourists and hope for the best! It usually ends up we are all going to the same place, and this time was no exception. The bus arrived a few minutes later and I was on my way.
Now my arrival at the Batu caves was one of those moments that gave me chills. I didn't know what to except, not really having any idea of what the caves were about, but I was quite amazed when I got there. The sight of the huge gold statue next to the 272 steps leading to the caves was very impressive. Plus, TV junkie that I am, I instantly recognized the place from one of my favorite shows ever, The Amazing Race! I absolutely love it when that happens!
I walked up the steps and enjoyed the great view in the caves. Monkeys were amusing themselves trying to steal food from tourists and getting the last sips of beer in cans thrown in the rubbish bins. Plus, I got to learn about the disturbing Thaipusam, a huge Hindu festival that happens here every Jan/Feb. 1 million devotees make the trek from the city to the caves, many taking part in gruesome and masochistic acts. Piercing their cheeks with steel rods, placing hooks down their backs and hanging thing on them, all to show their devotion.
As per my new pattern it seems, by the 2nd day in KL I was feeling much better and getting into the groove of things. I met a lot of nice people at the hostel, and I find that generally speaking, my fellow travellers through Asia are more sociable than those in NZ or Australia. I haven't spent a day fully on my own since I started my tour in OZ more than 1 month ago. So all in all, a good start to my time in Malaysia!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Asia first impressions
There's something I feel I should admit to everyone. You see, the thing is, if someone had told me last year that I would be ringing in 2008 in Asia, as part of a 1 year round-the-world trip, I would have said they were absolutely, certifiably nuts. Crazy, no doubt about it. I've never had a burning desire to visit Asia. The opposite actually if I want to be truthful. I even remember discussing travelling to Asia with someone and saying it sounded like my worst nightmare. Way too crowded and too many people for someone not 100% comfortable in crowds. Plus being a picky eater, Asian food is not my favorite. Yet here I am, 1 year later and I'm travelling on my own through South East Asia. Crazy!
Then why am I here, you may ask yourself? Basically this trip has been my opportunity to push myself a little bit (or a lot), to get out there and live life a whole lot differently than my usual 9 to 5 (or in my case 7 to 5) job + watching TV. I want to see exotic places than I might not feel up to seeing when I'm retired, if ever.
All that being said, I was a bit anxious and worried about starting the Asian part of my trip. Hoping that I would adapt well and enjoy this part of my itinerary, since it does represent a huge chunk of my time, in theory. I arrived in Singapore, dubbed "Asia for Dummies" in the Lonely Planet, a bit nervous, exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed.
I definitely felt odd and out of place during my first few hours of walking around. Being a visible minority and not understanding the language being spoken around you is quite the change for me. Then I realised that Singapore is basically just another big city with 1 very clear passion: shopping. The malls are absolutely everywhere, and were very crowded while I was there. I can't say if this is because of an After-Xmas shopping blitz, but whatever the reason, they were packed. Some Singaporean call shopping their hobby or favorite sport, while most tourists seem very happy to spend all their time shopping.
Since shopping ISN'T one of my passions, it seemed to me like there wasn't much to do. I visited/shopped in Little India, visited/shopped on Orchard St., went to the Night Safari (basically a night zoo), visited a museum, and made an aborted attempt at visiting Sentosa Island, Singapore's version of an amusement park/beach resort. I was just so exhausted and hot, I ended up going to the movies instead (yay!!!).
Still, I ended up being happy about my time in Singapore. It gave me a chance to adapt slowly to being a visible minority, and being stared at for some other reason than just my weight. I got the chance to rest a bit as well, taking it easy and recuperate from my time in hot & sweaty Australia.
That's it for now. More on my time in Malaysia later, I've got to go catch a bus!
Then why am I here, you may ask yourself? Basically this trip has been my opportunity to push myself a little bit (or a lot), to get out there and live life a whole lot differently than my usual 9 to 5 (or in my case 7 to 5) job + watching TV. I want to see exotic places than I might not feel up to seeing when I'm retired, if ever.
All that being said, I was a bit anxious and worried about starting the Asian part of my trip. Hoping that I would adapt well and enjoy this part of my itinerary, since it does represent a huge chunk of my time, in theory. I arrived in Singapore, dubbed "Asia for Dummies" in the Lonely Planet, a bit nervous, exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed.
I definitely felt odd and out of place during my first few hours of walking around. Being a visible minority and not understanding the language being spoken around you is quite the change for me. Then I realised that Singapore is basically just another big city with 1 very clear passion: shopping. The malls are absolutely everywhere, and were very crowded while I was there. I can't say if this is because of an After-Xmas shopping blitz, but whatever the reason, they were packed. Some Singaporean call shopping their hobby or favorite sport, while most tourists seem very happy to spend all their time shopping.
Since shopping ISN'T one of my passions, it seemed to me like there wasn't much to do. I visited/shopped in Little India, visited/shopped on Orchard St., went to the Night Safari (basically a night zoo), visited a museum, and made an aborted attempt at visiting Sentosa Island, Singapore's version of an amusement park/beach resort. I was just so exhausted and hot, I ended up going to the movies instead (yay!!!).
Still, I ended up being happy about my time in Singapore. It gave me a chance to adapt slowly to being a visible minority, and being stared at for some other reason than just my weight. I got the chance to rest a bit as well, taking it easy and recuperate from my time in hot & sweaty Australia.
That's it for now. More on my time in Malaysia later, I've got to go catch a bus!
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