Blogs from Malaysia, Asia - page 6

After cruising the South China Sea for a day and enjoying the on board activities and culinary pleasures, we arrive at Singapore, an island nation emerging from the British Empire as a former member of the Malaysian federation. It has become an economic powerhouse while still maintaining an English interest in civility, law abiding citizens and cleanliness. In the morning, after arrival, I venture out to ride the overhead cable car to visit a variety of sights, including Singapore’s Universal Studios theme park. Not needing to see a step child of Orlando’s original, I enjoy alternative sightseeing until our afternoon excursion bus tour of Singapore’s iconic sights. Stopping at Thian Hock Keng Temple for photos we continue on to Clarke Quay for a riverboat ride in the middle of the city. Our guide points out the ... read more

It's currently 10.44am on a bright, sunny morning here in Kuala Lumpur. The outside, current temperature is 28 degrees/Humidity 83.8 I'm waiting for Maher to finish at noon and then he has today and tomorrow off. No idea what our plans are yet, given that we have seen every 'tourist' place in KL, twice over, no fifty times over! :-) I've just been reading an article on today in history; thought I would share it with you... 1763 - Composer Domenico Dragonetti was born. 1949 - The musical "South Pacific" by Rogers and Hammerstein debuted on Broadway. 1956 - "Rock 'n Roll Dance Party" premiered on the CBS Radio Network. 1967 - Sonny & Cher's movie "Good Times" debuted in Chicago, IL. 1975 - Beverly Sills made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Gioacchino Rossini's ... read more

Having searched bus routes from KL to Melaka online, I decided to take the taxi to the airport with Sophie, then take a bus from the airport, since buses apparently depart from there. Or not. I got to KLIA to find that I needed to take another bus to KCCT, then take the Melaka bus from there. I waited with Sophie for a while, then took the bus. Arriving at KCCT, I wandered around trying to find the ticket booth, only to discover that it was in an area marked 'no entry'. Go figure. I finally bought my ticket, and then settled down at Coffee Bean coffee shop for the two hour wait. The bus took around two and a half hours, then I took a taxi to Rooftop Guesthouse. The manager, Mani, gave me a ... read more

When planning our time in Borneo, one of the places we said we must visit was Bako National Park, as we had heard the wildlife there was sublime, not to mention the various jungle-like trails throughout the park, and we were looking forward to a bit of an adventure again. Once we had booked our accomodation for the park in Kuching at the National Park and Wildlife office (you have to do this before you go if you want to stay there the night), we bought some snacks and got our stuff together in preparation for an early start the next day. Bako is Sarawak's oldest and premier national park, and contains a wide range of vegetation, almost every type found in Borneo. The bus ride from Kuching was easy and by 9am we were at ... read more

On the 3rd, Soph and I moved to the Federal Hotel for a little luxury (Sophie's birthday gift to me). It was a nice hotel, but very dated, and they only allowed free wifi for one device per room; a second was charged at 25RM. I'm glad we didn't pay cos the connection was awful. We constantly lost reception, and every time we went online, we had to go through the log-in rigmarole. Our password also had to be changed three times. Ridiculous. As became a daily pattern over the next few days, we just relaxed by the pool, shopped and ate. Tony and John joined us when they surfaced in the afternoon, and we sat laughing at their water-based stunts. One afternoon, we even had afternoon tea by the pool, too. Very British. Anyway, in ... read more

Hello from Malaysia! I hope you are all well and feeling revived after the Easter break. We are now in Malaysia and have spent the last 3 weeks exploring this diverse country. Our trip began in Kuala Lumpar, the capital of Malaysia. We found a hostel in the area of the city called 'China Town'. The reason it is called this is becuase it was orignially the main area where the Chinese people settled. Nowadays it is not just Chinese people who live here, but it has still retained its Chinese roots, with the food stalls in the area all being Chinese and the shops selling Chinese gifts of paper lanterns and traditional gifts. The main reason we visited Kuala Lumpar was so that I could go and watch the Formula 1 race. I have followed ... read more

We woke up bright and early, and caught the 8am coach to Kuala Lumpur. We had large, comfortable seats, and I slept for most of the journey, thus missing out on the scenery. We arrived in KL around midday, and walked to Reggae Mansion hostel. It's definitely one of the best hostels I've stayed in to date, with large capsule-style beds. We rested for a while, before heading out for Nandos and to do some shopping. When we got back, we chilled again, and had a thoroughly good laugh while Sophie cut John's hair. In the evening, after Tony and John demolished a bottle of brandy and best part of a bottle of vodka, we walked to Reggae Club. I say 'walked', but Tony and John play-fought most of the way, greeting and high-fiving strangers in ... read more