Goodbye Familiar Comforts, Hello Humidity

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In the last week, we've said 'good-bye' to New Zealand, whipped through Singapore, and started our time in Malaysia.

When we last left off, we had revised our plans to hit the West Coast of New Zealand and go through Arthur's Pass due to stormy weather. We ended up driving out to Lake Tekapo, which was a more direct route back to Christchurch. On the way, we drove through the Lindis Pass and encountered a bit of snow, but nothing too serious for us. When we arrived at Tekapo, we met up with our new friends Reut and Tomer (the Israeli couple we met in Queenstown) who had also decided to head to Tekapo that day. It was pretty cold and there was snow in the air, so we nixed our idea to hike up to the Mount John Observatory and drove up instead. Usually there are very good views from the top and you can see mountains 360 degrees around, but unfortunately the snow and clouds prevented us from seeing much of anything. Next we decided to hit the local hot pools. They are not from natural hot springs, but nonetheless, we really enjoyed sitting in the warm water with the snow coming down. Naturally, Reut and Tomer were pretty excited (Reut in particular) about the conditions as snow is not all that common in Israel.

The next day, we visited the very pretty Church of the Good Shepherd on the shores of Lake Tekapo. The church had a beautiful view of the lake and was very picturesque. We also saw the "famous" statue of "The Dog". It is a statue that pays homage to the dogs necessary in the sheep industry. It wasn't all that spectacular or anything, but seeing as it was right by the church, why not? Then, Greg and I took another try at viewing from the top of Mt. John since the weather was a little clearer. The views were definitely better and I can imagine that they would be spectacular on a clear day!

Then it was time to move on and head to Christchurch. Our last day there wasn't all that exciting as we spent it running errands and doing a little shopping.

Some thoughts / impressions about New Zealand:
1. The Sheep. There really are A LOT of sheep there. In our experience, when travelling in 80% of the country, you are not likely to go more than a kilometre without seeing some sheep! And we loved that it was lambing season. One of the funniest things that we've seen while travelling is the lambs suckling their mothers while wagging their tails like mad. Hilarious! Wish we had a video.
2. Its not just sheep here. There are a lot of cows (in particular in the North Island) and also lots of deer farms. I've never seen a deer farm in Canada although I'm sure there must be some. But it was pretty common in New Zealand.
3. Merino wool in New Zealand is more expensive than in Canada. Seriously, for the same stuff in New Zealand, you pay almost double!
4. New Zealand people are the friendliest people I've ever met. And you never have the impression that they are being friendly for any other reason than to just be nice.
5. The backpackers (hostels) in New Zealand were a much higher quality than in Australia. Most that we used were part of the Budget Backpacker Hostel (BBH) network and were small and privately owned. For the most part the owners were very friendly (of course) and helpful.
6. Driving was an experience - enough said.

We next flew from Christchurch to Singapore. This flight was over 10 hours, but we were very impressed with Singapore Airlines and found the flight almost bearable. Seeing as all the drinks were free (alcoholic included), I tried my first Singapore Sling. Air Canada could learn a thing or two from this airline. We are getting really "spoiled" as all of our flights have served food. Its going to be hard to go back to the domestic Canadian airlines!

Once in Singapore, we took the train out to near our hostel and faced the reality that we are no longer with a rental car and will be lugging our stuff around using our own power for the next 2 months. The 5 minute walk from the train station was pretty brutal given the heat and humidity. I hope its something that we will get used to fast!

Our first day in Singapore, we hit a lot of the recommended city sights. First we headed to Chinatown. There were lots of market stalls with cheap souvenirs. Next, we walked up to Clarke Quay, which is along the river. It is supposed to be a pretty happening place, but apparently not on a Sunday afternoon. Next we walked along Boat Quay beside the river. There were a lot of restaurants next to the river and we felt like we were running a gauntlet dealing with all of the restaurant hosts / hostesses who were eager to show us their menus. We know that this is something that we will likely have to deal with in all of SE Asia and I imagine that it will only get worse. Hopefully we can get used to it! Next we walked out to Merlion Park where there is a small statue and large fountain in the form of the Merlion. The Merlion is a fish with a head of a lion and has been adopted as a symbol for Singapore. By this time, we were pretty hot, sweaty and exhausted, so we thought it would be a good time to take our stinky selves to the Raffles Hotel, which is a pretty ritzy spot (rooms start at $800). The Raffles Hotel invented the Singapore Sling and we had heard that getting one there was one of the things that we had to do. We really enjoyed it. The Hotel was gorgeous! It was built back in the 1800's and was restored to its original state 15 years ago. The drinks were good and very welcome to cool us down, but quite expensive (about $20 Canadian each). Next, we headed out to Orchard Road, which is a big shopping area, but turned out to be a little too upscale for us. After that it was dinnertime. We were staying in Little India, so we walked around until we found a food centre with lots of locals (that's what you're supposed to do, right?) and proceeded to order by pointing. The food was good, but a bit spicy for me. Then we decided to walk around Little India for awhile. During the month of October and November, they have the Festival of Lights (Deepavali) on so there were lots of pretty lights up in the streets. However, it wasn't a really great time to be walking around the neighbourhood because as we learned later, Sunday is the day that all of the Indian men get together to socialize and the streets and sidewalks were jam packed with men. It was just a little uncomfortable for me and I didn't really take the time to take in the neighbourhood because I was so focused on trying to get out of the crowd.

The next day, we took a walk over to Arab street. We got caught up in the rain and so did what anyone would do to stop the rain from falling - we bought umbrellas. It worked. Later on in the afternoon, after the weather had totally cleared, we went out to the Singapore Zoo. This was quite a trip to get to and took us over and hour and a half on the trains and buses. The zoo was quite nice and it was nice to see some different animals than we normally see at the zoos in North America. Most interesting, was the proboscis monkey, which has a massive nose that jiggles. Next, we attended the Night Safari. This is at another park right next to the zoo and is apparently the world's first zoo of its type. The zoo has very low lighting to encourage the nocturnal animals to come out so you can see them at night. It was pretty cool. The highlight for us was watching the spotted hyenas run around, cackling at each other.

The next day, we left Singapore and headed to Kuala Lumpur. Although we didn't spend that much time in Singapore, we made a couple of notes:

1. The city is very multicultural. It has 4 official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. All kids are taught English in school, so it is very widely spoken, which made it very easy for us as we travelled around.
2. The train system is incredible. It was very easy to find our way around and by the end of 2 days, we felt like pros.
3. Parking on the sidewalk is perfectly normal in some areas.

Once we got to Kuala Lumpur, we took a shuttle into town and after being pointed in the wrong direction by an information centre, finally found our hostel in the Golden Triangle. In the evening, we headed out to Chinatown to the night market. There we discovered stall after stall of vendors willing to sell us knock-off handbags, watches, T-shirts, shoes, and DVDs. It was quite hot, and just as humid as Singapore, if not more. When we got back to the hostel and headed to bed, it started to pour rain. It came down in buckets and the noise against the roof of the hostel (we were on the top floor) was deafening. Then the thunder started up. What a storm! It would have been more enjoyable though if it wasn't midnight and we weren't so exhausted from the day.

Today, we got up early to get in line to get tickets to go up to the skybridge at the Petronas Twin Towers. There are a limited number of free tickets, so we were told to go early. Although the skybridge is only at floor 41, the view was pretty good and allowed us to get an overview of the city. Next, we headed out to the KL Craft Complex. I thought that this woud be a craft market with lots of vendors, but it ended up being a bit more like a store, so after not too long, we moved on. Later on in the day, we went to the Central Market, which was more what I had in mind. Lots of different stuff being sold here like carvings, scarves, and batiks. We only wish we weren't travelling with backpacks! While we were at the market, the skies opened up again and it poured and stormed. I'm beginning to think that this is a daily thing. We discovered during our walk that the umbrellas we bought in Singapore for $5, are not waterproof. I guess you get what you pay for!

Tomorrow, we hope to head out to the Batu Caves if we can make sense of the buses. Then the next day, we'll be flying over to Borneo. Can't wait!!!!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

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