Kuala Lumpur and Singapore

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So we've travelled a long way since I last wrote but not a whole load has happened! On our next and last day in Penang we all headed in the heat down to the ferry pier to see if we could book a night train to Kuala Lumpur for the coming evening. It turned out yes we could and it worked out very cheap, only 38 ringitts each for a sleeper berth for the 8 hour journey. 6 quid. Katie grabbed a taxi back to the guesthouse as she couldnt face the walk again in the heat while me and rob headed for downing street or "jalan downing" to try and send some stuff home. Unfortunately all Malaysian post shuts down on Saturdays so it would have to wait until Monday in Kuala Lumpur. Katie headed off on an exploration of her own while me and Rob decided to head up Penang Hill - tallest peak on the island at 900m/2700ft and originally a British hill station. We got a taxi there which took a bit of haggling, meters clearly dont exist in Malaysia according to taxi drivers! It was a rainy afternoon and we caught the crazy little early 20th century funicular train built by the British. It took ages, didnt realise quite how high we were going up, when I thought we were there we actually were half way and had to change to get another train up the next half. The view at the top was pretty impressive and there were some funny English houses but it was pretty dull with not much around so we didnt stay up there too long and got a taxi back to the banana guesthouse accross the road from ours to use their facilies, It was worth the trip though. Played Pool and used the internet while we waited on Katie. A little pool update is that although Rob got himself into an early lead of 20-12 and got very cocky, I've won 8 out of the last 11 and the gap is down to 3. I love the look on his face when he loses. Katie showed up and we grabbed our bags and lugged them down to the ferry pier to get the ferry accross the water to Butterworth. The station was an easy short walk on the other side and we set up camp and waited for 9.45pm with our newly aquired speakers and a KFC rob had been so determined to get he'd got a taxi to find for him. I admired his commitment. At 9.45 we moved to the platform and camped out expecting to only be there for a few minutes as surely trains outside of England are reliable.... It didn't turn up till around 11pm which wasn't great as me and Katie were feeling a little dodgy. Our carriage was typically the furthest walk possible but it turned out to be very nice, the beds and pillows really soft and it was clean and comfy. I curtained myself into my little private cabin and chilled for a bit before getting a reasonable sleep. Woke chilly and sweaty a few times thanks to the lovely illness but I wasn't too bad, Katie seemed to have got the worst of it though. The lovely announcer decided to announce stations from 6am through till when we arrived at about 8.30 as loudly as he possibly could but it was a good way to travel and much better than the bus! I'd missed the train, figured out the last one I took was in early February from Bikaner to Jaisalmer in India. How long ago does that feel!?

Anyway both me and Katie were feeling pretty rough so we took about half an hour to wake up in the modern station and we got a coffee at Dunkin Donuts and slouched in the chairs before deciding it was time for the accomodation hunt. Chinatown sounded like the place to find budget accomodation and we grabbed a taxi there. The first place we saw stunk like shit, looked like shit and was generally shit and it didnt improve. After around an hour we gave in and decided to settle for a reasonably nice place for 103 ringgits (around 15 quid) as it was either that or catch a disease in what else was on offer. We left our bags at the hotel as check in wasnt till 12 and went in search of internet which we found at a guesthouse which had a very nice room much cheaper at 85 ringgits. We sheepishly returned to the other place to retrieve our bags.. they werent too impressed! Katie passed out in the room and I decided I'd force myself to go have a look around with Rob even though I wasn't feeling too great myself. We caught the train to the Petronas Twin Towers, tallest building in the world until 2003 and tallest twin towers to the day. Looking up at them was weird as I remembered my Dad going there on business and telling me about it when I was little and here I was myself. Somehow I couldn't help but feel they didnt look as tall as they were, but thats probably me just being crazy. Unfortunately there were no skybridge tickets left for that day so we had a walk around the surrounding park and escaped the heat in the huge mall. We headed back and I crashed out and had a nap for a little while. In the evening we decided to do something very easy and western and headed to the HUGE times square center to catch a film. After some nice chicken and noodles with chopsticks (we'd missed them!) we assessed the options. Nothing seemed to be on and we settled for a crazy film called 'Awake' as it was in English and had Jessica Alba in it. Knowing nothing about it we were amused to find it was about some guy who can hear and feel his own heart surgery. Lovely haha. Not a bad film though... or maybe I havent seen any good films in a while! Drained we all headed back and hit the sack before midnight. Thailand seemed a million miles, couldnt help but miss it a bit!
Day 2 in KL started off like Day 2 in Penang. Booking train tickets and going to the post office. We booked another overnight train for the next day to Singapore for only 38 again - an 11 hour journey. We headed back and met Katie who had been chilling and we all headed to the KL tower - a huge TV tower in the city - and went to the top for the view which was pretty impressive. Guilty westerners were feeling hungry and couldnt resist the Nando's we'd found. It was just what we needed. In the evening we headed to yet another 'Reggae Bar' - a notorious travellers spot in Chinatown. It was pretty cool and we played a lot of pool but compared to Thailand it was rubbish and the drinks were so expensive we werent really feeling it and unlike us we turned in around 12. Plus Rob managed to break a shesha pipe which was pretty hilarious although luckily only cost him 50MR!

By Day 3 in KL I was starting to feel a little bored of the city, when you're on a tight budget I get the feeling that places like this aren't particularly accessible to you. If I had money for swanky meals, entertainment etc I'm sure KL would be great! In the morning I headed to the towers to try and get a skybridge ticket and managed for 3.45pm which was cool. Anyway I decided to do a little exploring of my own and found Independence Square which is where the union jack was lowered and replaced with the Malaysian Flag in 1957 when they declared independence. The British buildings were quite funny to see amongst the modern high rises, some were tudor style! Afterwards I wandered through the Central Market to escape the rain which was disappointing as it seemed to be a tourist souvenier shopping mall when I was hoping for a proper local market! Anyway I came accross a few interesting old buildings and got a bit of a feel for the place before heading back to the towers for my trip up to the skybridge. It was really quite cool and the views better than I expected. Again it was funny to be here when I remembered my Dad telling me he'd got stuck! Headed back and chilled out at the hotel with the others and watched the cabel TV in the lobby. Premiership Highlights - perfect. They go nuts for the premiership here although its pretty Man Utd biased! When it was time we lugged our stuff onto the subway and got back to KL Sentral station. Our train was on the dot ontime and we settled nicely into our little cabins again for the journey to Singapore. Got a reasonable amount of sleep. Woken up at around 6am by Malaysian Immigration Officials stamping our passports out of the country. Now thats what I call service. We crossed the bridge to Singapore and this time we had to get off with all our things and go through Immigration and Customs to officially enter Singapore. Crossing a border by train was a new experience! Back on the train Rob was panicked to see that my mp3 player that I'd lent him and he'd left in his sleeping bag was gone. Customs officials would obviously have taken it but they wouldnt listen to us as the train was moving on to the station in central singapore. I still kept a bit of hope that we'd be able to find it at the other end as it may have just been checked by customs and returned to the train company but no such luck. I was gutted to have lost all my pictures from home and music but these things happen. At least my camera is working properly again (think I forgot to mention that earlier!). Rob offered to give me his but I couldnt take all his away from him! We'd booked a hostel online in KL so as to avoid a long hunt for accomodation and grabbed a taxi to 'city backpackers' which turned out to be pretty nice. Free internet, movies etc etc. Me and Rob grabbed the MRT train to City Hall which sounded fairly central so we could have a look around. We left Katie fast asleep, she wasnt feeling too good again. We wandered around and took in a few sights, it seemed to me a strange place, barely anyone was on the streets, it was gleaming clean and everything was so new. Seemed a little sterile but I can see why people like it here! We found a subway which confirmed to us how expensive it was here but we still enjoyed our first footlong subs in a long time! Afterwards we took a walk and looked up at the huge ferris wheel which looked to be the size of the London Eye. We didnt have the money to ride it but it looked quite impressive. We asked where an electronics mall was and got a taxi to a huge one called Sim Lim Square. Rob was determined to replace my mp3 player and I thought Singapore would be a better place than any for electronics prices. Definitely better than Australia or Africa anyway! This turned out to be true and we played a few shops off each other to get a really good price for a black ipod video, my model didnt seem to be availible anyway so I decided maybe it was time to cave like the rest and go for apple. Obviously it wouldnt have any music on it but we've seen places which do it for you in the past plus all we need is a computer with itunes and rob can transfer his music to my new one. Obviously its not ideal but worse things have happened and it was really nice of him to replace it. We walked through little India and saw a more 'real' side of Singapore but we were both knackered and grabbed the MRT back to the hostel where we had an afternoon nap. Don't know what this evening will bring, spent ages on here as the internet is freeeeeeee but we might go find a beer or two later if it doesnt destroy our budget too much. Originally we'd planned on the classic 'Singapore Sling' at Raffles but after checking the place out today we cant be bothered to go all the way back! We fly to Melbourne tommorow at 3pm our time so like 8am for you guys, cant wait to get going in Australia! New continent! Asia has been excellent though 😊
Hope everyone is good x

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Photos

Train up Penang Hill
or half of it..

Petronas Twin Towers
and two small heads..