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Published: August 22nd 2010
We’ve made it to Australia! We’ve had four days in lovely Cairns and pick up our campervan tomorrow to start the long drive down to Melbourne (around 4000km). But first here is our slightly delayed Malaysia and Singapore blog and the end of our Asian travels.
The first place we visited in Malaysia was Kuala Lumpur. It is by far the most developed city we have visited and was a bit of a shock at first. The city has some amazing (and plenty of ugly) sky scrapers, none more outstanding than the Petronas towers which form the vocal point of the landscape. It is quite an incredible building with a suspended walkway half way up between the two towers. We didn’t go to the top for the view but did go to the slightly taller telecommunications tower to see the view of the city. It was hard to see clearly through the clouds but you could still see for miles. Randomly we also got a go in a F1 simulator as part of the ticket which was good fun. We spent most of our days walking around to see sights, mostly getting very lost - it is really hard to
navigate when you can’t see anything but huge buildings surrounding the streets.
We stayed in China town which had a good atmosphere, fantastic food and an incredibly busy night market selling all sorts of fake clothing, watches etc. We managed to explore most of the city in the time we were there and even though the majority was just huge skyscrapers there were some nicer parts, including Madeka Square which was surrounded by old colonial buildings and had the worlds tallest free standing flagpole! We also visited a butterfly garden which was nice to get away from the busy city into a bit of peace and quiet. Malaysia is also the most expensive place we have been on our trip, its way more developed than anywhere else we have visited but we still found the cheap places to eat and managed to walk around the city most of the time. It was certainly a shock after relaxing on beaches for the past few weeks but was great to get back into looking round a city and its sights.
We had problems planning the next part of our trip. It is the high season for tourists in Malaysia so getting
a room is difficult and many were booked up in advance but we managed to get a trip to the rain forest and decided just to head down south to Singapore after that to get our flight to Australia.
It took us the whole day to get to the Taman Negara National Park including a stunning 3 hour boat trip in a traditional long boat through the rain forest to where we would be staying. It was an incredible journey, I felt like Bruce Parry heading off to find a long lost tribe. We arrived in the very small town and got to our horrible little room - I guess we shouldn’t have expected much given the location of the place but it was disgusting. The next day we took the boat taxi across the river to the national park entrance. Taman Negara is the worlds oldest rainforest (130 million years old) and has an array of wildlife which unfortunately stay as far away as possible from the tourist areas so it is near impossible to spot anything of much interest. We first walked to a suspended canopy walkway to see the jungle from above, I enjoyed it but
I don’t think Claire liked how much the rope bridges swayed and moved. After this we set about on a small trek to some view points and back to the entrance. We walked about 8km but it was the hardest 8k I have ever walked. The heat and humidity was unbearable at times, I have never sweated so much in one day we were both soaking wet with sweat after. The walk was hilly and not very well worn so it sometimes took forever just to walk a very small distance. We probably didn’t take enough water or food because we thought it wouldn’t take so long to walk 8k as we hadn’t expected such harsh terrain which made it more difficult towards the end. We treated ourselves to a huge meal when we got back and relaxed before heading out in the evening. We had booked a night safari and it ended up being a very strange experience. We were all instructed to get on to a pickup truck (about the same size as Richs’). There looked like there was room for about six people in the back but fifteen of us had to squeeze on! Me and Claire
were perched on top of the roof above the driver with very little to hold on to. We didn’t expect to see any animals especially as we weren’t going into the rainforest, just a rubber plantation nearby. We did however see some leopard cats, wild pigs, a snake and a few birds and was certainly a bizarre experience.
The following day was all travelling again the same journey we had come two days previous. The difference this time though was that during the beautiful boat journey our driver got the boat grounded in the middle of the river. This meant we all had to get our and push it away, it did make it a bit more exciting but we were very wet for the whole journey home. The rain forest was an incredible experience and something completely different to anything we had done before this on our travels.
The final place we visited in Malaysia was Melaka. It is one of the nicest places we have visited on the whole trip. It is steeped in history and is full of beautiful old buildings and an amazing China town. It had been a very long time (since Vietnam)
since we have been to a place similar. It had a quiet laid back atmosphere and plenty to see for such a small place. We stayed in a great guest house which had a roof top area and lots of movies to watch in the evenings. We spent an evening in the Geographers bar which was lovely and relaxing with nice food and jazz music. One night we went to the China Town night market which was full of wonderful and strange looking foods. There was a street entertainer who is apparently a world record holder and very famous in Malaysia. His trick is to pierce a coconut with the end of his index finger. It is quite amazing but you just keep wondering why. This is only part of the act the rest is about had magic miracle stuff he sells which I think cures pretty much anything - even his finger after he’s shoved it into a coconut. All the Malaysians believed it and bought loads of the stuff - I wasn’t so sure. We spent three days in Melaka walking around seeing the sights and enjoying the peaceful laid back nature of the place before heading off
to Singapore.
Singapore was certainly a shock. It feels nothing like Asia. All the busyness and craziness of other parts of Asia weren’t apparent here. The main difference is the fact that English is there first language so it is very easy getting around or ordering food. This kind of took some of the excitement away and made it feel like we were in America or Europe. The city its self covered in huge skyscrapers and shopping malls. There is one street where every building is a huge mall most bigger than any in England. Some of the buildings are pretty amazing but it gave the city absolutely no character. It made you feel very small walking around with nothing but huge buildings on each side of the street. Another thing which ruined Singapore was the cost of everything, apart from clothes shopping everything was extremely expensive. Maybe if I ever get a job where I’m paid over 50k I would come back and really enjoy it but to anyone earning an average wage or trying to travel has no chance of enjoying themselves, even the basic stuff costs a lot. We did have one good day though when
we went to the zoo. Most of the animals have huge cages and the Orangutans swing about reasonably freely in the trees above you. It was nice to be out of the main city centre and is by far the best touristy thing to do in Singapore.
Another thing that is very strange in Singapore is how strict there fines are. For example if you eat or drink on the MRT (subway) you get fined £500! It is more for littering and you even have to cross the road at crossings and only when the light turns green or you get fined. I understand that it is good to deter people from doing thing like littering but they have taken it too far and makes you worried if you have done something wrong every time you cross the road or walk down the street.
I guess for some people Singapore would be great, everything is clean and very efficient, there are amazing places to go out and eat and drink but you have to have a very well paid job to do any of this. It was sad to be leaving Asia but it felt like we already had in
Singapore. So we left with mixed feelings, sad that we were leaving Asia but very happy to be leaving Singapore. I certainly won’t be coming back.
So our travels in Asia were finished. We have had a great two and a half months and had some amazing experiences. We have enjoyed every country we have visited (with the obvious exception of Singapore). The great thing about Asia is just how different each country is, even though they are very close geographically. The food has been amazing and all the different people we have met have made it even better. There is so much more of Asia we want to visit, it’s a great continent and we’ll definitely be heading back in the future to explore the rest. Lots of love xxx
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Mum
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Love the photos!
It all sounds amazing. I love Orangutans and would love to see them. The night safari sounds incredible. I can imagine what Claire was saying as she crossed the rope bridges!!!! Miss you both loads, Love to you both, as always xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx