Singapore and Malaysia

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Getting on a Singapore Airlines Flight is always reassuring. I received my complimentary hot towel to freshen up with, a huge selection of brand new movies to watch, great food, and unlimited glasses of wine. It was nice to have something to cheer me up after feeling a bit sad to leave what I had called home for nine months. Jason met me at the airport in Singapore which was awesome! I had my first look around Singapore and was quite impressed with the surroundings. Everything in Singapore seems way ahead of our time. You wouldn’t even be able to tell you were in the train station if someone didn’t tell you. It was just a tile floor, with tinted glass windows around the two sides that opened once the trains arrived.

Jason and I met up with his parents for a bite to eat, then rushed out to go on our FREE City Bus Tour, compliments of Mrs and Mr Goudreau. We checked out the Raffles Hotel, where David Beckham stayed, also famously known as the place where the Singapore Sling Cocktail was invented. At $21 SGD, we decided to leave the cocktail testing till our next visit to Singapore, when we’d be flying home. The buildings made it look as though we were touring Gotham City. We stopped in Little India for a bite. YES!!! Indian Cuisine is my favorite, so I jumped to it, and bought myself a spicy Masala Dosa. Jason and I also tried super sour fresh squeezed lemon juices. We had belly aches later that night.


Fun Facts about Singapore:

• Also known as miniature Asia because of the melting pot of nationalities
• The Singapore Sling was first served in 1915 at the Long Bar of the Raffles Hotel. The ingredients are gin, Cointreau, cherry brandy, Dom Benedictine, pineapple juice, Grenadine, Angoustura bitters and limes
• Buildings in Singapore cannot be higher than 280 metres. There are presently three buildings of that height: OUB Centre, UOB Plaza and Republic Plaza
• Apart from Monaco, Singapore is the most densely populated country in the world, with 6,430 people per square kilometre
• Singapore is among the 20 smallest countries in the world, with a total land area of only 682.7 square kilometres. The USA is about 15,000 times bigger


From Singapore, we took a comfy greyhound bus to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. This city is very much like Bangkok; hectic, over-populated, busy, and smoggy. Our hostel was probably one of the worst we’ve stayed in. The people were great, but Jason woke up the following morning with bites all over his back. Such a complainer, eh :P

Kuala was like our home base for Asia. The cheapest flights we could find were on AirAsia.com and most were out of Kuala Lumpur, so we would be spending quite a bit of time there. We checked out the Petronas Towers which are the world’s tallest twin towers. I believe they’re in the movie, The Matrix, which makes sense as they are pretty funky-looking towers in comparison to the former plain-Jane World Trade Towers. If you’ve read up on my previous travel entries, you must be aware that I have become somewhat of an adrenalin junkie. We didn’t fail to find a little bit of excitement in KL. Jason and I went in the G-FORCE Anti-gravity machine, also known as the “Slingshot” TWICE right outside of the Petronas Towers for a very reasonable price included with a DVD. It works on the concept of reverse bungee jumping. We were strapped in this capsule that catapulted us 60 m into the air, followed by a rapid descent to earth. Very thrilling!

KL is also a great place to barter for knock-off clothes, accessories, and entertainment products, so we spent quite a bit of time checking out China Town where all the markets were. After some time in the big city, we were all in need of a relaxed beach environment, so we purchased tickets to Bali in Indonesia.


So many destinations, so little time.


I promise photos will be on soon, but for the time being, check out Jason's photo bucket for loads of cool photos and video clips. http://www.jasongoudreau.blogspot.com

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