The end of Asia...

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Ok, so we're a little behind - have been in Oz for almost 7 weeks.... but here's our adventure up until our flight to Perth.... the rest will follow...err....soon!

So we come to our final few weeks in Asia. After a nice few days on Langkawi, enjoying the good weather, our own cooked food and plenty of wildlife, we caught a boat to Penang for Chinese New Year. Maybe we should have researched a little more into it - I only got as far as “Penang has the highest concentration of Chinese in Malaysia so is the best place to experience Chinese New Year celebrations”. What I should have found out is that the first 5 days of CNY and a few days leading up to it everything shuts down and is all about Chinese repaying debts, cleaning houses and meeting up with family - not of any real interest to tourists. So we spent our 5 days in Penang celebrating the start of Chinese New Year eating Indian everyday as it was the only thing open. It was excellent and real cheap food and on the last day we managed to get a Chinese take away and even saw a Chinese dragon waking up and leaving a house... but still felt a little cheated!

We did explore the island a bit by bus, loved the spice gardens and the butterflies in the butterfly farm... but not the other animals who had far less space and looked kind of miserable. But due to so much being closed, our Penang experience did feel a little lacking! Did little more than wander round the streets, getting too hot and retreating to the hostel for a cold shower and air conditioned room.

Due to the heat we decided the next place for us was the Cameron Highlands. We asked a guy in a travel shop if we could buy the tickets the day we decided to leave and he said yes. We decided to go the next day, so in the morning went along to buy tickets on the minibus, to be told it was fully booked, as were all the buses. We went to a different shop and managed to get bus tickets for that afternoon, to leave at 2pm. Called a hostel in the Highlands and booked a room - the last one they had and more than we wanted to pay, but we were able to get a cheaper room the next day so we agreed.

We got to the bus station and told firmly that we were too early and must wait. So we sat down and played a few games of gin, until a young guy came along and wanted to show us some magic. We were both a little suspicious, but let him, keeping a close eye on our stuff. Turned out he did just want to show us some tricks... they were absolutely rubbish but he was friendly and we were kind saying he could definitely be a professional magician.

We then got on our bus and started our trip to the Highlands. It took ages. Due to the CNY, there was quite heavy traffic, our bus driver tried to make up for the delays by keeping his foot on the accelerator along the highland’s road, which went perilously close to steep, sheer drops. Somehow the bus arrived at the town, not a small village as I had been expecting but a fairly big, sprawling town with cars everywhere! After refuelling the bus for about half an hour, the remainder of the journey lasted only two minutes. We were met by a minivan from our hostel and felt pretty happy we had booked as everywhere we looked people were roaming the streets or curb crawling trying to find a bed, and the hostel we were staying with were constantly turning people away! Apparently the night before a number of people had ended up sleeping in the bus station because there was no other option.

Our room was nice, if slightly damp, the en suite being an afterthought, as were the curtains, the fabric of which only covered half the glass our frontage had. Awoke with damp clothes and chased the water around the shower.

That day we moved into our cheaper room... which had paper thin walls. By now we had both developed a bad cold, and what with having damaged my ankle, we decided to rest up. There must have been something in the water, as we were privy to no less than three couple’s private activities. Luckily the air circulating system was scheduled each night at 7.00pm and was politely noisy.

We spent the next few days hiking and getting great views of the tea plantations. The area also produces a considerable amount of strawberries, none of which you can buy fresh, but we did eat some scones with locally made strawberry jam.

After a few days of cooler weather and welcome rain we caught the bus to KL. A sprawling multicultural city, filled with people and colour. After we got off the coach, a taxi pulled up, nodded at our hostels address and off we sped. We reached the area of Chow Kit, but after a while the driver admitted he didn’t know where he was going and he made us get out of his cab with all our bags in a fairly dodgy looking area... we did get a 2ringit (40p) reduction on our agreed price... A friendly guy helped us out, and we walked and chatted, then realised he was only guessing too, but luckily he showed us where an internet cafe was and we walked all the way back that we had just walked with him, then another 10 minutes back along a road the taxi driver had previously driven us and just around the corner we found our hostel, and were welcomed by its surly staff and guests.

Amongst other things, we saw IP Man at the cinema, and it was very good.

After a couple of days taking in KL we took the train to Singapore. We stayed at our favourite hostel so far, hostel 166. Made mostly from recycled rubbish, the interior and its furnishings were great. Designed, owned and staffed solely by the most helpful person in the world. Spent one day at Singapore zoo, which has a good reputation, but left us feeling rather empty. It would be better to see the animals in the wild. I understand the need for conservation, and sometimes there is no alternative to ex-situ work, but as to educating the public, I think wildlife programs do a far better job.

Singapore was as clean as expected, and the three main ethnic groups do seem to mesh without trouble, perhaps because its laws are so strict?

Like the science museum in London, the science centre in Singapore was a fun place to spend a few hours. Snow City, didn’t live up to the promise, being only a brown ice slope with little snow to throw. The Chinese and Japanese gardens were good, and we spotted a number of terrapins. These had been released near to the ‘turtle house’ which boasted of its collection, which though impressive, featured mainly preserved specimens. So we skipped that in favour of watching huge shoals of fish patrol the lake as terrapins accompanied them, looking for food.

Left Singapore from the train station, which is owned by Malaysia. Unlike its surroundings it was a pretty horrible place. Tried to take a shower there, but someone had used it as a toilet, so I retreated fast.
Back to the Hostel Cosmopolitan, spent one night there then moved to the nicer classic inn, where the staff pretty good. From there we had fast access to one of KL’s many malls, and more importantly ‘Sweet Chat’ where iced deserts with sweet corn and kidney beans are a speciality. Became a regular and was high five’ing the staff by the end of our stay.

We caught a bus to the Batu Caves, where the festival of Taipusam was taking place. As a sign of devotion, followers suffer days without sleep whilst dragging or carrying huge adornments, usually attached to themselves by hooks into the skin. Thousands watched and the heat was immense. Many revelled in the attention, but others really struggled to carry on with the task. Sitting they might sip water, or take a few drags from an offered cigarette. It was an amazing place to be. Crammed into bus back to the city and enjoyed a soy and grass jelly street side drink.

Visited the Patronus towers, and dipped our feet in the public pool, listening to people being whistled at by the attendant. Annoyed a few ‘monks’. Who tried to hand us a foil Buddha, in exchange for cash. Saw one fella later on his mobile. Hanging around the towers, they must have scammed a few tourists each day.

Night flight to Perth, Australia!

Arrived, tired at perth just past 6am, and experienced a little culture shock. Westerner serving food being called ‘darlin’ by another westerner, this one in shorts. Had a ludicrously bad and expensive cooked breakfast before getting the grumpy shuttle bus to north perth....

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