Blogs from Selangor, Malaysia, Asia

I started early and got to the bus hub in good time with the very efficient monorail and rapid transport. The Selangor buses had moved slightly from where wikitravel says, but I saw them from the rapid transport as it came up anyway so that was no problem. When I got to the stop, I was then told that there was no bus until 9:30. That was a two and a half hour wait and there were definitely no buses to Selangor until then, all the other buses with ‘Selangor’ written on them were going somewhere else. Well, I had no choice but to wait so I went to get some proper breakfast, having just grabbed a quick breakfast on the way. I happened to wander back around the bus station at 8:30 and the person ... read more

Day 2 - Sunday 11th September Weather – hot, sunny (about 33c) dry Up this morning about 9am to greet our first morning in Malaysia! We started off with a plate of beautiful, fresh fruit that Janet had bought for us (thanks Janet!) before heading off for breakfast at Syed Bistro – a local South Indian place – for roti canai (roti bread and curry to dip it in) and tea tarik (pulled tea). For six serves of roti between the four of us (one of them being milo roti) and our drinks, the total cost came to a huge RM 17.60 (AUD$6!) Although we were only having roti, all the other food on display looked amazing, including their specialty of briyani (rice) with a whole lamb shank in it – one day I’ll have to ... read more

Even though I woke up pretty early, I had a leisurely morning drinking coffee, before I decided to venture out. My first stop was more coffee and some breakfast. There is an Old Town White Coffee, a Malaysian chain coffee place, in the mall near where I was staying. It was still quite early, so the coffee shop was pretty empty. I ordered the Kaya and Butter Toast set with eggs, and an iced white coffee. The coffee was nice and sweet, I normally don't drink sweet or milky coffees, but this made a nice change. I tried not to slurp down my coffee as I waited for my breakfast. My toast turned up first, followed a minute or two later by the eggs. My breakfast was good, the kaya toast was a bit too sweet ... read more

Hello everyone!! For the past several weeks I've been posting new travel articles on my website: www.odysseyoftheblondegiraffe.com If you haven't had the chance to check it out yet, please do so! If you've subscribed to my email list here at travelblog.org, you should also be receiving newsletters from my new odyssey site (since I moved all email addresses over). If for some reason you're not, you can subscribe yourself manually on my new site (right-hand column), or leave me a message here and I'll make sure it gets taken care of! It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks for us. To make a long story short, our recent excursion to Thailand landed us some contacts in Bangkok, which in turn has led us to the decision to relocate there...this week! The haze crisis shows no signs ... read more

And what exactly IS a "candle princess," you're wondering? Apparently...it's me! Allow me to explain. Candles are made of wax, correct? And what does wax do in the heat? It melts. What do pathetic westerners (such as myself) do in the heat? We also melt. The Malaysians call people like me "puteri lilin," which literally means "wax" or "candle" princess. I'm fairly certain it's the way they make fun of us high-maintenance, I-can't-believe-how-hot-it-is types, but as long as they say it to my face, I'm okay with it. I'll even laugh along with them (as long as they make fun of me first and THEN take me inside where it's air-conditioned). Besides, it's true. I figured since I spent the first 27 years of my life in Florida that I'd have little problem adjusting to the ... read more