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Published: February 13th 2007
Finally on our way! Rushing through Singapore and Malaysia, Remi and I have just arrived on the island Ko Samui off the east coast of South Thailand. Although somewhat touristy, it is a tropical paradise in the true sense, with marvellous beaches and crystalclear water. However, we have not had the time to explore any of this yet. Rather, I will give a summary of what we have seen so far.
Singapore, 5-7 February Arriving late at night on Monday the 5th, we went straight to bed. The next day we explored the central parts of the city, starting with Little India. As the name suggests, this area is strongly influenced by Indian culture and is highly recommended to visit by the Lonely Planet. However, we were not all too impressed. There were a couple of small temples and I suppose an Indian ambience that we did not quite fall for. Admittedly, Little India might be a better place to visit at night, with neon lights, shops and food stalls creating more of an atmosphere.
Jumping on the highly sophisticated metro, presumably one of the better ones in the world, we travelled to Chinatown for a stroll. This area
Canal
One of the canals in Singapore.was slightly more appealing than Little India, but again, I recommend visiting at night for a myriad of craft and food shops where the spending-money-on-junk-I-will-never-use-or-show-off-to-my-friends-inclined (female part of population?) can indulge.
We then went to the river area comprised of Boat Quay, Clark Quay, and Robertson Quay. Personally, living in Sydney, it was a relief to finally be able to have some space and breathe as well as enjoying the water views and bridges. We ate lunch at one of the riverside cafes, however, for those on a budget, simply step back one parallel street to enjoy meals at half the price at the expense of no river view. Alcohol prices, however, are equally high all over the city. At Clark Quay we tried the inverted bungee, where one is positioned in a 'couch' attached to a rubber rope on each end. After tightening of the ropes, the couch is released and one flies vertically up to a maximum height of about 40-50 metres before returning to ground face down and then bouncing up and down a few times. An exhilarating experience, and even more so due to the operator cleverly asking us some questions before suddenly releasing the
Remi at Boat Quay
The Boat Quay is located in the heart of Singapore. couch without a warning! The bungee is a must-do for those of us that have a childish dominant part of the brain...
Going out at night in Singapore was fun. Accidently almost stealing a taxi from two local girls, we ended up sharing the taxi instead, which both saved us money and took us to great local place called the Balaclava. Rather then ending up in one of the typically touristy places, we thus got to see the 'true' local night scene. The Balaclava was a laidback place with nice chillout music performed by a local band. Again, we were awed by the alcohol prices, although reasonable deals were on offer: Big was our surprise when one of the girls came back with a cost-effective bucket of 5 Tuborg beers (Danish beer)! In Norway, this is one of the cheapest beers that can be bought, and consequently what every student would buy. That is not to imply it is cheap tasting, in fact, it used to be considered a very classy beer when it was pricy. We also went to another place that was quite nice, again upon advice from the locals. In conclusion, we suggest to avoid the
most touristy places such as Clark Quay (unless that's your scene) and try and investigate some of the more hidden places that Singapore has on offer.
Kuala Lumpur, 7-9 February We caught the train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on the 7th. For those in a big rush, it is probably recommended to catch a plane for very low prices flying Air Asia. However, travelling by train is comfortable and cheap, and accomodates reading and resting. We rode 2nd class, which was more than sufficient, and gave me time to start a new book,
The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, suggested to me by my PhD supervisor, Peter Neilson. About two-thirds through the book, I am thrilled by what I have read, almost all of which I agree with. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in questions/themes such as
Is there a God? (no),
Did God create the World? (no) and
Is religion the major contributor to the evils we observe in the world today? (yes).
Again, we arrived late, and again we spent some time walking around in the city, sucking in the impressions. Best of these were the Twin Towers, once the highest
buildings in the world, now superceded by the Taipein one in Taiwan. Inside is a giant shopping centre that offers anything from electronics to fashion. As with Singapore, I suspect that women possessing their husband/boyfriend/fiance/male friend/father/grandfather/uncle's credit card would enjoy this city, but for us Kuala Lumpur was just another city.
Of more interest, however, were the Batu Caves located only 13 km outside KL. We caught at taxi for a reasonable price and drove to the limestone mountain area. In front of a famous 272 step stairway is a giant Hindu statue. During January and February, over 1.5 million religious pilgrims visit the caves in relation to the Thaipusam festival. Walking up the stairs we saw plenty of macaque monkeys waiting to get fed by the tourists, thus, we bought some peanuts. At the top of the stairs, we entered a massive cave, probably 70-100 metres high and wide. Walking through the cave, which had an roofhole allowing light to enter, we reached yet another stairway and another inner cave. Here, religious rituals were performed as well as the less formal ritual of tourists feeding monkeys. Remi took out the bag of peanuts, and immediately an bunch of
these small little fellas had gathered around him. Before he even had a chance to open the bag, the biggest of the monkeys jumped up and snatched it before showing its teeth in a scary grimace to tell Remi to bugger off. We then watched a near-human drama unfold, as the other monkeys tried to get a piece of the peanuts from its new and greedy owner. Very entertaining indeed!
Pulau Perhentian, 9-12 February Originally, our plan was to go to Pulau Penang and Georgetown on the Nortwest coast of Malaysia after Kuala Lumpur, however, being sick of city holidaying, we went to Perhentian instead, which is off the east coast, close to the Thailand border. Perhentian consists of the Small and the Big Island. On the Big Island are the resorts and fancy restaurants, however, the beaches are not as good as on the Small Island, which have budget chalets and backpackers. Incidentally, a friend of Remi, Maren, and her class of fellow teacher students also were going to the island on the same day, so this made the choice even simpler.
The Small Island has two main beaches on opposite sides: The Coral Beach towards the
Our night guides
Betty and Agnes showed us Singapore by night. main land (and thus quiet water) and Long Beach on the other side (and thus big waves). We stayed at Long Beach in the Monshi Chalets complex in the only chalet that had air conditioning. Electricity is scarce, and only available when generators are running, which is after 7pm until early morning. Because the monsoon season just ended, most accomodation and restaurants on the island were closed. Right now, people are rebuilding houses that have been destroyed by storms. It must be time and money consuming to rebuild every year instead of building more sturdy buildings that would survive a storm, but the locals seem to judge otherwise. As a consequence, the island was quite dead during our visit, which on the positive side gives you entire beach stretches to enjoy almost by yourself. If you like to meet other people, you should rather visit in April onwards, as the tourist season then starts to pick up.
Apart from enjoying the beach, we hired a boat and driver and went to the fishing village. It did not have much to offer, but we had a pleasant lunch before moving on to snorkle. Our boat driver took us to Turtle
Point, Shark Point, and the Lighthouse. Turtle Point is boring, but you are likely to see a turtle! However, there were no corals or fish, and we quickly moved on to Shark Point. As the name suggest, you are like to see sharks here. Swimming after the boat driver, he pointed out two sharks. Unfortunately, the visibility was low, maybe 5-6 metres, and I missed the two sharks completely. Remi on the other hand saw one of them and estimates its size to about 1.5 metres. Swimming a bit further, we saw some great corals and beautiful fish. Afterwards, the boat driver claimed he had seen 5 sharks in total! Perhaps, perhaps... The final site, the Lighthouse, was great. The corals had wonderful colours dominated by orange, green, and violet. There were literally thousands of fish and I hope the underwater photos will turn out great. For those who like diving/jumping from heights, it is possible to climb the Lighthouse and jump in. You may want to investigate the depth first, as I personally found it a bit too shallow for a dive. A jump should be fine though, as our boat driver screamingly demonstrated.
The first night night
Twin towers
The twin towers of Kuala Lumpur. The world's highest buildings second to the Taipei 101 Tower in Taiwan. we ate at a restaurant on Coral Beach. Afterwards, we sat around the bonfire on the beach, enjoying cold beers and listening to the calm waves rolling in and a local guitar hero. The group of students were a nice bunch of people to socialise with and we got some tips for what to do next on our trip. The students are travelling around South East Asia until mid-April with their teacher, having classes during weekdays. A very nice way of studying, indeed! The second night we ate on the Long Beach side, and there was no bonfire this time. However, during high season, the Long Beach side is the one to be on, with bars, restaurants, and nightlife.
A piece of warning about strong underwater currents: Unless you are a good swimmer, you should stay in very shallow water. Remi and three of the students were shoulderdepth in and laughing at how one of them had been swimming for ages without moving. Suddenly, the situation was not that funny anymore... The three girls had to be helped onshore one by one by Remi, one having gone under twice and swallowed lots of water and on the brink of
Remi
Remi admiring the twin towers. giving up. A very unpleasant experience for that particular girl, and also a wakeup call for the rest of gang. Remi was awarded the Students' David Hasselhoff Baywatch Award, which he now proudly carries around wherever he goes (it is a David Hasselhoff curlyhair wig and Baywatch red swimming shorts). Personally I was too busy at the time reading my book to care about those annoying screams from the water. As I later pointed out, why award someone who tricked these three innocent girls into deep water in the first place just to be able to play the role of the lifesaver when they panicked?! It makes me sick...
Finally, I was somewhat shocked by the students' teacher's comment on Remi's T-shirt on the final night. The teacher teaches religion to the students on this trip, and has travelled and seen a lot of the world for the last decades. However, despite university education and lifelong experience, the teacher suggested that the hammer and sickle symbol on my brother's T-shirt was inappropriate and likened it to wearing a T-shirt with a Nazi symbol such as the swastika! Unfortunately, I listened in just at the end of the discussion and
Tallest hotel in Malaysia
We stayed at the Grand Seasons, the tallest hotel in Malaysia. This photo is from the pool floor at one-third of the total height of the hotel. as I could not believe such illiteracy from an educated person, I abstained from making any comments, however, when asking my brother afterwards, he confirmed what the teacher had said. According to Wikipedia,
The hammer stands for the industrial working class while the sickle represents the agricultural workers; together the hammer and sickle represents the unity of these two groups. The symbol was first used during the Russian revolution and has later been adopted by the symbol has been widely used by communist parties and socialist states worldwide. However, conceding that the symbol is widely taken to represent communism
does not strengthen the teacher's case in any way. On the contrary: He is putting the equal sign between two diametrically different ideologies: communism and nazism! Naturally, I mean communism in the true sense of the word and not the kind of 'communism' that dictators such as Stalin has used as an excuse for their horrid acts. Perhaps the word socialism should be used instead and the word communism thrown into the rubbish bin forever, but that is a different story. Anyhow, to make such an analogy is completely in line with arguments we often hear from the conservative right, both
Fancy hotel
We stayed in the fancy Grand Seasons hotel. This photos is taken before going out on town in Kuala Lumpur. in Norway, the USA, and elsewhere, and incidentally, being a religion teacher, I suspect this is where the presumably Christian theology-educated teacher belongs in the political landscape. On a final note, please keep in mind that all the views represented here are entirely my own and not those of my brother. I just felt like making a comment about it, as I have observed this kind of ignorance over and over again and it still annoys me.
Where are we going next? At the moment we have reached Ko Samui in Thailand. After staying here a few days, we are likely to go to Bangkok, then Chiang Mai and the northern region of Thailand. Here, we intend to proceed into Laos, move south to Cambodia, and then travel through Vietnam from south to north. So much to see, so little time..! We will keep you posted...
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