Blogs from Malaysia, Asia

Georgetown has a colourful vibrant feel about it. Narrow streets lined with restaurants and food sellers. There's a mixed array of traffic meadering along along the roads and streets no matter how narrow. Buses, huge posh cars, old broken down cars, bikes galore and cyclos all share the road and pedestrians chance their luck to cross in-between! In contrast close to the port and several grand looking Colonial buildings, built by the Brits many years before Malaysia got independence in 1957. There are several Indian and Chinese temples scattered amongst the old heritage buildings that house the Nasi Kanda restaurants. If you follow your ears in the evening you come across cute bars with live music and chairs and tables spilling out onto the street. A great place to meet up with fellow travellers. Penang is ... read more

For a day away from the hustle and bustle of Georgetown, Taman Negara, Penang is a good choice. Getting there involved a local bus ride that took one and a half hours due to the many stops followed by very twisty uphill roads. Not good in a bus with barely any suspension. Once off the bus, and having got the feeling back in our numb legs due to the bumpy ride, we set off to the national park entrance. As we entered the park we were greeted by a family of monkeys, we were a bit wary at first but they stuck to their side of the path as we passed by. The first path took us to some beautiful white sand beaches, over the sea we could see the towering buildings of Georgetown. We'd heard ... read more

I wanted to do something different and signed up to volunteer for two weeks in the jungle of Borneo. I mainly wanted to see the orangutans, but also learn about the life and the culture of the island of Borneo. We were three volunteers and stayed with our guide in a small camp close to the Kinabatangan river. The cabins were simple, but cosy. We were surrounded by nature and only a small village of 100 people was near by. Every morning we had to get up at 6am and take a small canoe like boat down the river to an empty plot of land for clearing and planting new trees. We usuallly spend the whole morning helping with reforestation of empty plots of land left by the timber or palm oil industry. Within two weeks ... read more

Day 4 (12/03/2023) Since A was still running a fever, we ordered breakfast via Grab. Compared to yesterday supper, the breakfast was not as good, but the kopi and tea were nice. After breakfast, we decided to explore the "Living Room". A had his first billard experience, but he was not very fascinated. After that, we decided to go out for a short walk and get our lunch as well. We walked to Lot 10, Farenheit 88 and Pavillion. There nothing that caught our eyes, so we ended up at a toy shop in Pavillion to get A a toy to make him feels better. He chose a box of animals, which cost RM160, but he was so happy when he saw it. After that, we went to Don Don Donki to get our lunch. Back ... read more

Day 2 (10/03/2023) Since we slept late yesterday, A woke up later than usual. We had our breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast was mediocre. After breakfast, we went back to our hotel to change and pack our stuff for Sunway Lagoon. Its a short walk from the hotel to Sunway Lagoon. When we arrived, we were shocked, as there was already a long queue at the ticketing counter. We have booked our tickets via klook, but we still need to queue to exchange for the wristband. I think we queued for approximately 20-30mins. As the weather was really hot, I told my husband to bring A to the playground in the shopping mall first. Finally, we got our wristbands, we then need someone else to help put it on with a sticker and then move to ... read more