Blogs from Malaysia, Asia - page 771

We have entered the second half of our trip and with it brings a new continent: Asia. We flew into Singapore and the first day we were extremely jet legged. Singapore The city completely lives up to its reputation of being this eerily utopian city. Everything is squeeky clean, modern and efficient. It is true that littering is a huge offense, you cannot eat or drink on the metro and you cannot smoke on public streets. A friend we met on our Africa trip was from Singapore and he liked to call his hometown a "fine" city because it seems you can get fined for pretty much anything. There are no beggars, no stray dogs, no garbage.... We were really interested to visit Singapore because my brother, Steve is doing an exchange there in January and ... read more

The bus didn't reach KL until 9pm. We panicked and couldn't really get a hotel. Tfaduh and I walked around and were disappointed to find Number 8ight Guesthouse full. So we settled for a backpackers' hostel called Green Hut Lodge. RM80 a night. Frantically we rushed down a brilliant tandoori dinner. Greedily, we ordered more tandoori. By the time we got to Top Room @ Top Hat, a quaint little house with a restaurant and jazz club along Jalan Kia Peng, the band was already just about the begin its final set. Very hard hitting jazz. Couldn't tell whether the drummer was playing polyrhythms or not. The rest of the band members were mediocre though. And the singer..well she was bad. What was funny though, was that the bassist called himself Fly, and the drummer called ... read more

KL is a confusing array of shops, the most fascinating includes computer plaza Imbi, where we discovered sleek Acer travel laptops goes for as low as RM1999 (SG$900). Also we made a mad rush for Bentley Music Store, a three storey array of music instruments and accessories before it closed at 7pm. Tfaduh was disappointed that he didn't see as much as he had hoped. The strings were apparently cheaper. He lauded them for their unique Fender basses, but the brand struck dispassionately with him. We discovered an art street behind Bukit Bintang, quaint rows of middle eastern shophouses and restaurants. I loved the colourful apartments. Number 8ight was a guesthouse we wanted to keep in mind, it was a quaint arty cosy looking place, very small, but perhaps like a boutique hostel, friendly staff and ... read more

BORNEO We flew into Sabah, Borneo on the 9th of April, its a stunning area of the world and we really loved it! Ben did some great dives in the marine park (TARP) off the coast of Kota Kinabalu, then we flew to Sandakan to see the Orang Utans. The Orang Utans were awesome we managed to see babies, teenagers, and older adults playing, feeding, swinging from the trees, play fighting and showing off their young. In the quieter afternoon session one mistook Ben for an Orang Utan (easy to do considering the hair style and beard!) So he jumped from the trees onto the viewing platform right beside us! They are sooo human like with facial expressions and mannerisms!! After the Orang Utans we were lucky to get a cancelation to go to Turtle Island ... read more

Question: Which city would you rather visit: KL or Melaka? The modern capital city which didn't even exist 150 years ago; or the old colonial town, drenched in history, formerly occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, and British? Before visiting both places, I would have answered confidently: Melaka! What a mistake that would have been... We arrived in KL on Saturday evening on a Berjaya Air flight from beautiful Pulau Tioman. Even after spending only a couple of days on a small island, having to dodge traffic when crossing the street seemed a bit strange at first. For the first night we had booked a room in Pondok Lodge in the "Golden Triangle", KL's central business district. After settling in, we looked around the neighbourhood, coming across a road lined by loads of food stalls, Jalan Nagasari. ... read more