Malaysia & Singapore

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Langkawi
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When booking the journey to Langkawi, it seemed relatively simple. Most places said 'bus & ferry'. Easy enough we thought. 3 buses and a ride on the back of a truck crammed full of people and their belongings, we weren't feeling hopeful. Anyway after an exhausting trip we were finally there. We checked into our 'hotel' which also didn't give the greatest first impression. Pretty sure the room hadn't even been looked at in weeks. Nevertheless we settled in fine. Although Langkawi is an island, we'd spent the last month in Thailand relaxing so we were ready to start exploring again. Our first day we decided to go up to Panorama which is a sort of leisure park which main attraction is a cable car and bridge that gives panoramic views of Langkawi. We paid a bit extra and got an express pass which turned out to be totally worth it after seeing the queues! I'm not too bad with heights myself but this being the steepest cable car in the world I found it hard to look up. It didn't help that the woman opposite me was pretty much having a panic attack. Luckily the ride wasn't long and we made our way over to the sky bridge. That's where I really struggled. Literally just a bridge floating in mid air about a million feet from the ground. I did walk across it but was using deans shirt to guide me the whole time.. Amazing views and lots of pictures taken we headed back down. Our first proper night in Langkawi we headed to a seafood/Chinese restaurant down the road. Langkawi is completely duty free so alcohol in most places is pretty cheap, result! We popped to the local duty free shop and stocked up on cheap booze. The next day we decided to get a taxi up to the north of the island where there's a really amazing beach. The beach is private and only a small part is open to the public, but as there was no one there we were able to use it. A bit too quiet and empty we didn't stay long before going back. The third day we took a stroll down the main strip and spent the morning at underwater world, a pretty impressive aquarium, and spent the afternoon at the local beach. The next day we went back up to panorama as they had a 3D art museum which was supposed to be good. We spent the morning taking some hilarious pictures of each other in the museum. We headed back and booked our mangrove tour and our transport to Penang in a few days. Our last day we did our mangrove boat tour. We got lucky with the weather as it had been so hot but the day was overcast so no unbearable heat. The tour consisted of a boat trip through the beautiful mangrove river stopping to watch the hilarious monkeys swimming, one of whom climbed onto our boat, then onto 2 fish farms, eagle watching, a bat cave and a 3 course lunch. An interesting fact, Langkawi was mainly unaffected by the 2004 tsunami as the mangrove trees work as a wave breaker. We were really impressed with the tour and tour guide, definitely recommend! We got an early night to prepare for our journey to Penang the following day.
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Penang
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Although our bus initially forgot about us we did eventually make it to the pier just in time to catch our ferry. The ferry was about 3 hours and had the most intense air conditioning you've ever known. Arriving in Penang frozen half to death it was a relief to feel the humidity. The rain started shortly after we arrived and didn't stop until later that evening. We were staying in Georgetown, the capital of Penang, our hotel was an old restored house next to the food market so we headed down there as the rain eased off. Penang is very famous for its street food so we did a bit of research on what we should try. 3 dishes of Assam Laksa (a hot and sour fish soup), duck rice (roasted duck on top of white rice and gravy) and some octopus that we didn't really know we'd ordered. The duck rice was good however we weren't overly fond of the other 2. Our first full day we decided to head to the colonial district to visit fort Cornwallis. Fort Cornwallis is where Francis Light (the founder of Penang) first step foot. The fort isn't particularly impressive but has some interesting information about the beginning of Penang. We then stopped at the Victoria memorial clock tower which is next to the fort. The clock tower was a gift from a Chinese millionaire in 1897 to celebrate queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. We then went on to the Penang museum to learn more about the history of the island. A little history lesson for you - Georgetown is so named as the day the island was signed over to Francis Light it was King George IV's birthday. Interesting! That evening we broadened our street food horizons some more and tried a couple more dishes. Wanton mee (thin rice noodle soup with roasted pork, spring onions and pork wan tons) and Loh Mee (yellow noodles in a thick gravy with chicken). Both were good but we both preferred the wanton mee. Our second day we set off for the upside down museum which was advertised a lot. We had a lot of fun spending the morning taking ridiculous pictures. We then walked around the town finding sporadic pieces of street art that are mapped out all over georgetown. In the afternoon we went up to the botanical gardens which were huge so we had a little walk around and watched the monkeys being mischievous as always. We decided to dine out that evening and went to Nagore Square which is a really sweet little square where lots of restaurants and cafes are. We also booked to go for lunch at a popular restaurant the next day called 'what the duck' as their lunch menu was very reasonable. On our last day we spent the morning in the local mall buying a couple of necessities before heading to Kuala Lumpur the next day. We then went for our wonderful lunch at what the duck. 2 courses and a drink each all for 35 ringgit (about £7), can't argue with that! Our last evening we took an uber up to ferringhi beach (yes they have uber!) to watch the sunset. A few glasses of wine at happy hour and we headed back for one last bowl of wanton mee before running back in the rain ready for our bus to KL the following morning.
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Kuala Lumpur
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Well the 5 hour bus ride to KL was surprisingly easy and smooth. Pretty much a first in the travel department.. We arrived at the central bus station where we ordered our trusty (and cheap) uber to our luxury hotel for the next 2 nights. To say we looked out of place with our scruffy clothes and backpacks would be an understatement! We oohd and ahhd for a bit before getting ready and heading to the mall next door for a much desired nandos. The rain pretty much didn't stop the whole time we were in KL so our options were quite limited! As I'd been moaning about seeing the new jungle book film since it came out we got a cab through the horrific KL traffic to the cinema. Film watched, we headed back for our first luxury sleep in what seemed like forever. The next day we took advantage of the hotel facilities and spent most of the day by the pool before venturing out to the Petronas towers in the evening. Very beautiful all lit up, we got some pictures and saw the kind of fountain show (once you've seen the one in Dubai nothing else really seems to measure up). I had received a surprise bottle of wine from a blonde friend named daisy back home so we enjoyed some wine and seafood before our last luxury sleep in KL.
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Singapore
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A relatively early start to catch our flight to Singapore, but only an hour on the plane and we had arrived. A bit of a nightmare going through passport control as we didn't have the right document and then at duty free where we were told we couldn't buy duty free if we were coming from/going to Malaysia. Pain in the arse! We were staying with a friend from back home for the 3 nights in Singapore which was a big help to us! We met franki at her flat briefly before she headed to work and we had a little look round. Not much done on our first day, just some drinks in the evening to catch up with franki and her fiancée Lewis. The next day it rained pretty much all day and of course we got caught in it on our way to lunch - soaked! That evening we went to a boxing event which Lewis' friend was participating in. A long wait for the match meant too much wine was drunk but we had a great night. After recovering the next day and a brilliant brunch, myself and Dean decided to go over to Marina Bay for a sunset drink. As soon as we stepped outside the rain started. Again, soaked! Luckily it died down so we could enjoy the view from the top of the hotel. After it got dark we had a little stroll around the gardens and across the helix bridge before going to meet franki and Lewis for our last supper. As we were all nackered from the previous night we had an early one so we could be refreshed for our flight to Bali the next day.

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