The Long Trip Back Home, day LXXXI-XCVI: Thailand to Singapore
Last time I updated I had just finished the month-long loop around Indochina (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia), completing the fourth sector of my trip and returning to Bangkok for a final farewell to my previous travel group.
After a spare day in the capital on Sunday, I met up with the new travel group I would be heading south with. Ten new people - plus the tour leader, a native Thai - to travel with: a lovely German couple and a gay Australian couple, with a few Australian and American women (including an older American senior citizen, opinionated, rather obese and clearly more used to more comfortable travel, alienating herself nearly immediately), and myself and a younger Northern Irish girl rounding out the British contingent; apart from the older Americans, most were around my age for a change. Amidst many introductions, we went out for another group dinner in off Khao San Road, before reassembling Monday morning for another canal ride and visit to the Wat Pho (which I'd done already when I was here a month ago), so I peeled off later that afternoon and did my own loop around central Bangkok, not being able to do so last time. We regrouped back at the hotel later that afternoon for another transfer to Hualampong station, Bangkok's central railway station for another night-sleeper (this was the second Thai night-sleeper in the last month I'd taken), in the same style as my previous one (two bunks along the central aisle instead of transversely into the carriage's aisle), and once we departed that evening I availed myself to the train's dinner service, my new travel group taking note how relaxed I was already on the train.
By the time we woke up Tuesday morning, we had travelled the near-700km southwards, eventually arriving at Surat Thani at around 0800hrs. After a quick breakfast alongside the station, we caught two songthaews west to our resort in the middle of the Khao Sok National Park, where most of us had a quick freshen-up, and had a walk-around the small village that had sprouted for the tourists in the middle of it. Most of us killed time with a swim in the pool and a beer or two, but I opted for an early night, as I found out the hard way the 700km dash south had resulted in a heavier level of humidity than I had become accustomed to, hitting me rather hard and sapping my energy (and eventually taking another day or three to finally get used to).
Wednesday was a day travelling through the national park (encompassing the largest area of virgin forest in southern Thailand), mostly by boat sailing across Lake Ratchaprapha, created when the government dammed the river Klong Saeng for a hydroelectricity project in 1982. Combined with karst limestone stacks jutting majestically out of the lake, it made the place a very picturesque place to spend the day, stopping off to visit caves (on thin bamboo rafts that looked like they were perpetually on the verge of sinking), and canoeing or swimming off a floating hostel and restaurant complex. We spent later that evening at Khao Sok's bar for a beer or three and some lovely roast BBQ chicken (the bar's speciality, apparently).
We checked out late on Thursday, but there wasn't much to do to be honest: it had rained for most of the morning, and it was something we would have to get used to over the next few days: until now, on the odd occasion it had rained, it was usually at night, or (mercifully) on a travel day when we weren't doing anything weather-specific. Packed into two vans, we left the national park early afternoon and drove for a few hours closer to the western coast of Thailand into Krabi district.
Our accommodation for that evening was at a homestay, run by a friendly Muslim who had a small business growing fruit (pineapples, mostly) and had a small rubber-tree plantation; we had noticed the further south towards the Malaysian border we headed, the more Muslim Thais and town mosques we were meeting. After a small tour through his fruit-fields, giving examples in pineapple crop management and a demonstration on how to tap a rubber tree, we all pitched in - all 12 of us - to cook that evening's communal meal: many courses of chicken (deep-fried, stir-fried, minced, in many combinations), stir-fried vegetables, hand-made Tom Yum soup, and fried cabbage (no beer, as practising Muslims don't drink). We shared communal rooms for the evening, sleeping on mattresses under mosquito nets, but even with fans on, the evening's humidity ensured it would be difficult getting to sleep for me that evening.
After a light breakfast, we said our goodbyes and drove a half-hour to Ao Nang, the coastal town nearby. We were in luck: despite it being 0930hrs our rooms were available. After quickly settling in, we spent the rest of the day on the sea: after a transfer down to Ao Nang's piers, we hired a speedboat and screamed over the Andaman Sea (the first time I'd seen the Indian Ocean from this side) to the outlying islands of the Phi Phi group: first to swim in the sun on Bamboo Island just to its north, then to Maya Bay to its south (made famous by the movie "The Beach"), some snorkelling in the lovely clear waters off the coast, then to Phi Phi Island proper (Phi Phi Don) for a walk-around. Most of the island group had been washed away in a 2004 tsunami, although you'd never guess by the looks of things: bays were crawling with tourist boats, beaches were packed with tourists, and the locals were touting anything from souvenirs to cheap food to marijuana to anyone even inclined to listen. It was while we were having lunch it starting raining - hard - and after a quick snorkelling session of the main island's eastern coast, we screamed over the water back to the Krabi shore, returning to our hotel at around 1700hrs.
We had our first real explore of Ao Nang that evening: even a "cheap" meal was fairly expensive even by Bangkok standards, but being mostly a tourist town we found the cluster of late-night pubs and bars fairly easily and were immediately set upon by the usual touts offering discount drinks, cheap buckets of spirits, and other things ("ping-pong shows, ladyboys, boom-boom", etc etc). We were happy to have a drink or three at the loudest pub there and crowd-watch other drunken Western tourists, and the occasional ladyboy selling drinks or shows around the corner.
Saturday was a free day, but as it rained all day, it cut down on our options. After the late night out, I enjoyed a lovely sleep-in and lengthy shower (no hot water since we left Bangkok, my hair really needed a wash at this stage), kept indoors most of the day, doing my budget, catching up on my online news, and occasionally wandering out for a walk with an umbrella to look around. As it was our last night in Thailand, we met up for a steak dinner as a last chance to spend the last of our Thai currency before crossing the border, and on a whim a smaller group of us decided to attend a late-night lady-boy cabaret show. Whoa, eye-opening! But it was a lot of fun: mostly lady-boys in frilly dresses lip-syncing to songs, but with a wide variety of acts (Chinese, Japanese, and even an Indian number) incredible dancing, and some very good-looking lady-boys. An hour passed quickly, and I actually quite enjoyed it!
Today was a long travel day, departing Krabi fairly early at 0700hrs, and taking two vans to the Malaysian border, 4hrs away to the south. With a quick lunch stop along the way, we left Thailand through the Thale Ban National Park and across to Perlis state in Malaysia in a fairly laid-back border crossing, jumping an hour forward due to timezone changes. We were herded into a mini-coach and continued south after a quick stop at "duty-free" shop outside Arau (where most of us converted currency from the Thai baht to the Malaysian ringgit and made use of Malaysian ATMs), before continuing another 3hrs down the North-South Expressway, eventually turning off at Butterworth, crossing the 13.5km-long Penang Bridge over the Penang Strait, and finally arriving at our hotel on the inner fringes of Georgetown after a long day of travelling at 1815hrs.
Penang was a hold-over from British interests in the early 19th century, and while merged into Malaya (later Malaysia) in 1957 it still retained much of its colonial architecture and English street names, making navigation through Georgetown a little easier for us. After checking in, we went on a quick walk through central Georgetown and had dinner at an open food-court, a staple of cheap Malaysian eating: a open court surrounded by all sorts of eateries (Indian, Malaysian, Thai, pizzerias, a BBQ grill place, and a Western burger joint were just a few of the numerous stalls), all delivering your order to your seat under the fans to stave away the perpetual heat. Later we visited the town's skybar for a pint of beer or two (and already noting the hike in alcohol prices: Malaysia imposed an extra "sin" tax on such things) with a lovely aerial view of the city with the strait and mainland Malaysia all visible.
Monday we embarked on a half-day tour around Georgetown, with a local guide joining us. First stop was the Kek Lok Si Temple (Penang Hokkien for "Temple of Supreme Bliss") and known as the largest Buddhist temple on the island, built on a hillside with a lovely aerial view of downtown Georgetown from its balconies. Next was a descent back into the heart of the city to a visit to Fort Cornwallis (the British fort built in the early 19th century), then to the Clan Jetties (built by Chinese immigrants to Penang for their emigrating family members, sometimes supporting up to 200 small shacks for each family), then to the local Buddhist temples (Thai and then Burmese) for a blessing from the monks.
After lunch at a bustling Indian restaurant, we had the rest of the day free: myself and the German couple braved the increasing temperatures and humidity to explore more of Georgetown's streets, uncovering all sorts of quirky street-art (both of the paint and cast-iron varieties) on Armenian Street, and also stumbling across the beautiful Khoo Kongsi clan house, an intricate Chinese clan temple built in the 1850s. We regrouped at 1730hrs with our Georgetown guide again to take a trip 6km out of Georgetown to Penang Hill, taking a funicular up to around 750m above sea-level, and watched the sun set over the Penang Straits (amidst the occasional blast of rain and a fascinating lightning show).
Tuesday we said goodbye to Penang, taking a public VIP coach (very comfy, even had its own mobile wifi!) from the bus station back over the Penang Bridge to the mainland via Butterworth, and onwards south eventually to the capital city, nearly 5hrs away.
Ah, Kuala Lumpur: the first-ever international city I had ever visited when I left Australia for the first time nearly 10 years ago; it still leaves an impression on me een after so long, and that I still enjoy visiting this busy, polluted, ever re-constructed city even now. This was to be my third time visiting here - after stopping by here on the way back from my sister's wedding 3.5 years ago - and so I was a little more knowledgeable about where we were going once we finally arrived, navigating through the city's confusing network of expressways and sitting mobile in the usual traffic jams around KL's ring-roads, until we finally arrived at the Puduraya Bus Station - halfway between the old Downtown and the Bukit Bintang district (having stayed more in the latter area previously) - and checked into the hotel right above it. Once finally settled, we went for a quick orientation walk into the old Downtown district, visiting Chinatown along Jalan Petaling, the Central Markets, the river junction that gave the town its name ("muddy confluence" of the Klang and Gombak rivers in Malay), to Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and its gigantic flagpole. We hopped over to the KLCC district via public transport later that night, to see the Petronas Twin Towers lit up in their usual dazzling fashion at night, and ate at the food-court of the Suria KLCC shopping mall.
Wednesday - like Penang - we had a half-day tour around the city. With another local guide showing us around, we first visited the National Mosque, the National Monument to the war-dead, and the Istana Negera (the King's Palace), with a last visit to the Batu Caves on the city's outskirts (a popular holy Hindu temple built into the hillsides around KL, guarded by a 43.5m-tall golden statue of Murugan, the Hindu god of war). We had a free day after that: as I was already familiar with KL and had previously visited many of its attractions, I took today easy, staying indoors for most of the afternoon, getting online and doing my budget and backing up my photos, until the hottest part of the day was over and walking into Bukit Bintang, spending the early evening wandering around the area with a nostalgic smile, visiting the Berjaya Times Square and SUngei Wang plazas, and eating at the famed Chinese outdoor street stalls along Jalan Alor (just like the very first time I had visited here, all those years ago).
After a late check-out on Thursday (not helped by the hotel's wifi disappearing late yesterday afternoon and not returning, and the elevators suddenly halting, considering most of us were scattered along the 7th and 8th floors this was not helpful), we took a local public bus across the city to the new bus terminal at Cheras (in southern KL, newly opened as long-distance buses had previously departed from KL Sentral in the city's centre) and left the capital at 1300hrs, on a standard-comfort bus this time, dashing another 2hrs south to Malacca (or Melaka in Malay), one of the country's oldest established cities (colonised by the Portuguese in the 16th centry, taken over by the Dutch 150 years later, and inherited by the British after the Napoleonic Wars had France invade the Low Countries in 1796), and was thus a melage of architecture, culture and cuisine, as we rapidly discovered once we arrived from the Melaka Sentral bus terminal.
After finding our hotel, we took another half-day orientation tour with a local, walking along the river that originally caught Portuguese attention for a settlement, taking the uniquely-decorated Malaccan trishaw (a bicycle with a passenger compartment welded on the side, and decorated to death in fake flowers, neon, some with teddy-bears strapped everywhere, and some even with their own mobile sound-systems....guarrantted to attract attention!) to explore the old Portuguese forts, Dutch churches and the town hall, and British colonial houses, eventually cycling along Harmony Street (holding four main temples - Hindu, Muslim, Cantonese and Mandarin - either next to or across the way from each other) and ending in Jonker Walk, the residential heart of Old Malacca just west of the river, where we had dinner and later a beer or three. Friday was our free day, so I indulged in a sleep-in and again kept indoors mostly, wandering around occasionally when the heat and humidity weren't at their worst...and when it wasn't pouring down with rain at least once every 2 hours. That night was our last in Malaysia, so we had one last group dinner at a decent local restaurant to get rid of the last of our Malaysian currency.
Saturday was the dash to Singapore. After returning to the Malacca Sentral bus station, we boarded another coach (comfy VIP class again, woohoo!) and rolled back onto the expressway that delivered us to Johor Bahru 3 hours later, on the northern side of the Causeway separating the Malaysian mainland to the island of Singapore. We ran the usual gamut of immigration: getting off the coach on the Malaysian side and up to get our passports officially stamped out of the country, return back down to the coach, slowly crawl across the Causeway Bridge (completely choked with traffic, a 1km bridge took 15min to cross), and repeat the process to stamp into Singapore at the other side, this time taking our luggage with us to get scanned through Singaporean customs. As we already know, Singapore was a bit of a nanny-state: we were already sternly warned at customs that chewing gum was banned, and only a single pack of open cigarettes would be allowed in (any alcohol or other cigarettes would need to be declared and taxed at Singapore rates), amongst others. Surprisingly, we managed to get processed quite quickly: while huge queues were waiting to go the other way out of Singapore to Malaysia, there was barely anyone waiting headed south. After heaving our baggage through X-ray scans and back onto the waiting coach, we left to collective grins as we rolled through Woodlands and onto the expressway that would take us directly into the city.
Our coach pulled into the Queen Street bus terminal about an hour later, where we piled into taxis and finally arrived to our hotel just outside of Little India, close to the Orchard Road shopping strip. After visiting a nearby food market for a cheap meal - and a chance to convert money and visit an ATM for Singaporean money - we went on an orientation walk of Riverside, past the shopping malls and judicial buildings - and even stopping at the Raffles Hotel for a drink, many of us ordering the original "Singapore sling" the hotel was famed for - and through Boat Quay and the Cavenagh Bridge along the river Singapore to the place on Marina Bay where the Merlion stood, the half-lion, half-fish official symbol proudly stood jetting water into the bay. We had our last meal as a travel group at a Thai restaurant on Boat Quay as the sun set, before later having one last beer together and slowly walking back along the streets of central Singapore in the cloying humidity to return to the hotel.
Sunday was the first time I had some time to myself - without being in a travel group - since I arrived in Hong Kong 1.5 months ago. After checking out - and saying a last goodbye to a few of the group whom I bumped into at breakfast - I walked to the Little India MRT and took a metro into the centre of the Riverside district, checking into a rather decent 4-star hotel (thankyou very much internet specials!) right across from the St Andrews cathedral. As most of the day it rained - that special tropical kind, warm rain that alternatives between bucketing down and just raining - I spent most of my time in the nearby Funan IT DigitaLife shopping mall, 6 floors dedicated to consumer electronics, computers, and accessories, one of the best places in all Singapore to buy a replacement smartphone, to which I successfully departed quite some time afterwards with a Galaxy S5, micro-SD card, and even a protective case for it. As I had already arranged for a replacement SIM to be sent from me from London - it had arrived in Singapore a few days before I did, and the hotel concierge had been holding onto it before I checked in - I was able to reactivate my account and get back on air for the first time since my last phone was snatched from my hands in Cambodia 3 weeks ago. I celebrated by returning to Marina Bay for a few selfies. :)
Monday was the only whole day I had left after arriving and going tech-shopping, so I returned to Marina Bay and Boat Quay with both my digital camera and my new smartphone camera to recapture Singapore, retracting my steps and more since the last time I was here 8.5 years ago. I visited the St. Andrews cathedral, both the old and current Singapore Parliament buildings, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, Boat Quay and Raffles Place, and then wandering to Bugis and the Little India and Kampong districts for some temples and museum visiting, occasionally ducking into the air-conditioned bliss of a shopping mall to temporarily escape the humidity of Singapore's streets. Traffic was orderly - quite a difference from the rest of Asia - and pedestrians even obeyed traffic signals (well, for the most part at least).
This morning is my second international flight in the3 months I've been travelling (I last flew internationally from Hong Kong into Bangkok 1.5 months ago): my flight leaving Singapore to Brunei via KL departs from Changi airport in about 3hrs, so I'd best sign out and get going!
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After a spare day in the capital on Sunday, I met up with the new travel group I would be heading south with. Ten new people - plus the tour leader, a native Thai - to travel with: a lovely German couple and a gay Australian couple, with a few Australian and American women (including an older American senior citizen, opinionated, rather obese and clearly more used to more comfortable travel, alienating herself nearly immediately), and myself and a younger Northern Irish girl rounding out the British contingent; apart from the older Americans, most were around my age for a change. Amidst many introductions, we went out for another group dinner in off Khao San Road, before reassembling Monday morning for another canal ride and visit to the Wat Pho (which I'd done already when I was here a month ago), so I peeled off later that afternoon and did my own loop around central Bangkok, not being able to do so last time. We regrouped back at the hotel later that afternoon for another transfer to Hualampong station, Bangkok's central railway station for another night-sleeper (this was the second Thai night-sleeper in the last month I'd taken), in the same style as my previous one (two bunks along the central aisle instead of transversely into the carriage's aisle), and once we departed that evening I availed myself to the train's dinner service, my new travel group taking note how relaxed I was already on the train.
By the time we woke up Tuesday morning, we had travelled the near-700km southwards, eventually arriving at Surat Thani at around 0800hrs. After a quick breakfast alongside the station, we caught two songthaews west to our resort in the middle of the Khao Sok National Park, where most of us had a quick freshen-up, and had a walk-around the small village that had sprouted for the tourists in the middle of it. Most of us killed time with a swim in the pool and a beer or two, but I opted for an early night, as I found out the hard way the 700km dash south had resulted in a heavier level of humidity than I had become accustomed to, hitting me rather hard and sapping my energy (and eventually taking another day or three to finally get used to).
Wednesday was a day travelling through the national park (encompassing the largest area of virgin forest in southern Thailand), mostly by boat sailing across Lake Ratchaprapha, created when the government dammed the river Klong Saeng for a hydroelectricity project in 1982. Combined with karst limestone stacks jutting majestically out of the lake, it made the place a very picturesque place to spend the day, stopping off to visit caves (on thin bamboo rafts that looked like they were perpetually on the verge of sinking), and canoeing or swimming off a floating hostel and restaurant complex. We spent later that evening at Khao Sok's bar for a beer or three and some lovely roast BBQ chicken (the bar's speciality, apparently).
We checked out late on Thursday, but there wasn't much to do to be honest: it had rained for most of the morning, and it was something we would have to get used to over the next few days: until now, on the odd occasion it had rained, it was usually at night, or (mercifully) on a travel day when we weren't doing anything weather-specific. Packed into two vans, we left the national park early afternoon and drove for a few hours closer to the western coast of Thailand into Krabi district.
Our accommodation for that evening was at a homestay, run by a friendly Muslim who had a small business growing fruit (pineapples, mostly) and had a small rubber-tree plantation; we had noticed the further south towards the Malaysian border we headed, the more Muslim Thais and town mosques we were meeting. After a small tour through his fruit-fields, giving examples in pineapple crop management and a demonstration on how to tap a rubber tree, we all pitched in - all 12 of us - to cook that evening's communal meal: many courses of chicken (deep-fried, stir-fried, minced, in many combinations), stir-fried vegetables, hand-made Tom Yum soup, and fried cabbage (no beer, as practising Muslims don't drink). We shared communal rooms for the evening, sleeping on mattresses under mosquito nets, but even with fans on, the evening's humidity ensured it would be difficult getting to sleep for me that evening.
After a light breakfast, we said our goodbyes and drove a half-hour to Ao Nang, the coastal town nearby. We were in luck: despite it being 0930hrs our rooms were available. After quickly settling in, we spent the rest of the day on the sea: after a transfer down to Ao Nang's piers, we hired a speedboat and screamed over the Andaman Sea (the first time I'd seen the Indian Ocean from this side) to the outlying islands of the Phi Phi group: first to swim in the sun on Bamboo Island just to its north, then to Maya Bay to its south (made famous by the movie "The Beach"), some snorkelling in the lovely clear waters off the coast, then to Phi Phi Island proper (Phi Phi Don) for a walk-around. Most of the island group had been washed away in a 2004 tsunami, although you'd never guess by the looks of things: bays were crawling with tourist boats, beaches were packed with tourists, and the locals were touting anything from souvenirs to cheap food to marijuana to anyone even inclined to listen. It was while we were having lunch it starting raining - hard - and after a quick snorkelling session of the main island's eastern coast, we screamed over the water back to the Krabi shore, returning to our hotel at around 1700hrs.
We had our first real explore of Ao Nang that evening: even a "cheap" meal was fairly expensive even by Bangkok standards, but being mostly a tourist town we found the cluster of late-night pubs and bars fairly easily and were immediately set upon by the usual touts offering discount drinks, cheap buckets of spirits, and other things ("ping-pong shows, ladyboys, boom-boom", etc etc). We were happy to have a drink or three at the loudest pub there and crowd-watch other drunken Western tourists, and the occasional ladyboy selling drinks or shows around the corner.
Saturday was a free day, but as it rained all day, it cut down on our options. After the late night out, I enjoyed a lovely sleep-in and lengthy shower (no hot water since we left Bangkok, my hair really needed a wash at this stage), kept indoors most of the day, doing my budget, catching up on my online news, and occasionally wandering out for a walk with an umbrella to look around. As it was our last night in Thailand, we met up for a steak dinner as a last chance to spend the last of our Thai currency before crossing the border, and on a whim a smaller group of us decided to attend a late-night lady-boy cabaret show. Whoa, eye-opening! But it was a lot of fun: mostly lady-boys in frilly dresses lip-syncing to songs, but with a wide variety of acts (Chinese, Japanese, and even an Indian number) incredible dancing, and some very good-looking lady-boys. An hour passed quickly, and I actually quite enjoyed it!
Today was a long travel day, departing Krabi fairly early at 0700hrs, and taking two vans to the Malaysian border, 4hrs away to the south. With a quick lunch stop along the way, we left Thailand through the Thale Ban National Park and across to Perlis state in Malaysia in a fairly laid-back border crossing, jumping an hour forward due to timezone changes. We were herded into a mini-coach and continued south after a quick stop at "duty-free" shop outside Arau (where most of us converted currency from the Thai baht to the Malaysian ringgit and made use of Malaysian ATMs), before continuing another 3hrs down the North-South Expressway, eventually turning off at Butterworth, crossing the 13.5km-long Penang Bridge over the Penang Strait, and finally arriving at our hotel on the inner fringes of Georgetown after a long day of travelling at 1815hrs.
Penang was a hold-over from British interests in the early 19th century, and while merged into Malaya (later Malaysia) in 1957 it still retained much of its colonial architecture and English street names, making navigation through Georgetown a little easier for us. After checking in, we went on a quick walk through central Georgetown and had dinner at an open food-court, a staple of cheap Malaysian eating: a open court surrounded by all sorts of eateries (Indian, Malaysian, Thai, pizzerias, a BBQ grill place, and a Western burger joint were just a few of the numerous stalls), all delivering your order to your seat under the fans to stave away the perpetual heat. Later we visited the town's skybar for a pint of beer or two (and already noting the hike in alcohol prices: Malaysia imposed an extra "sin" tax on such things) with a lovely aerial view of the city with the strait and mainland Malaysia all visible.
Monday we embarked on a half-day tour around Georgetown, with a local guide joining us. First stop was the Kek Lok Si Temple (Penang Hokkien for "Temple of Supreme Bliss") and known as the largest Buddhist temple on the island, built on a hillside with a lovely aerial view of downtown Georgetown from its balconies. Next was a descent back into the heart of the city to a visit to Fort Cornwallis (the British fort built in the early 19th century), then to the Clan Jetties (built by Chinese immigrants to Penang for their emigrating family members, sometimes supporting up to 200 small shacks for each family), then to the local Buddhist temples (Thai and then Burmese) for a blessing from the monks.
After lunch at a bustling Indian restaurant, we had the rest of the day free: myself and the German couple braved the increasing temperatures and humidity to explore more of Georgetown's streets, uncovering all sorts of quirky street-art (both of the paint and cast-iron varieties) on Armenian Street, and also stumbling across the beautiful Khoo Kongsi clan house, an intricate Chinese clan temple built in the 1850s. We regrouped at 1730hrs with our Georgetown guide again to take a trip 6km out of Georgetown to Penang Hill, taking a funicular up to around 750m above sea-level, and watched the sun set over the Penang Straits (amidst the occasional blast of rain and a fascinating lightning show).
Tuesday we said goodbye to Penang, taking a public VIP coach (very comfy, even had its own mobile wifi!) from the bus station back over the Penang Bridge to the mainland via Butterworth, and onwards south eventually to the capital city, nearly 5hrs away.
Ah, Kuala Lumpur: the first-ever international city I had ever visited when I left Australia for the first time nearly 10 years ago; it still leaves an impression on me een after so long, and that I still enjoy visiting this busy, polluted, ever re-constructed city even now. This was to be my third time visiting here - after stopping by here on the way back from my sister's wedding 3.5 years ago - and so I was a little more knowledgeable about where we were going once we finally arrived, navigating through the city's confusing network of expressways and sitting mobile in the usual traffic jams around KL's ring-roads, until we finally arrived at the Puduraya Bus Station - halfway between the old Downtown and the Bukit Bintang district (having stayed more in the latter area previously) - and checked into the hotel right above it. Once finally settled, we went for a quick orientation walk into the old Downtown district, visiting Chinatown along Jalan Petaling, the Central Markets, the river junction that gave the town its name ("muddy confluence" of the Klang and Gombak rivers in Malay), to Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and its gigantic flagpole. We hopped over to the KLCC district via public transport later that night, to see the Petronas Twin Towers lit up in their usual dazzling fashion at night, and ate at the food-court of the Suria KLCC shopping mall.
Wednesday - like Penang - we had a half-day tour around the city. With another local guide showing us around, we first visited the National Mosque, the National Monument to the war-dead, and the Istana Negera (the King's Palace), with a last visit to the Batu Caves on the city's outskirts (a popular holy Hindu temple built into the hillsides around KL, guarded by a 43.5m-tall golden statue of Murugan, the Hindu god of war). We had a free day after that: as I was already familiar with KL and had previously visited many of its attractions, I took today easy, staying indoors for most of the afternoon, getting online and doing my budget and backing up my photos, until the hottest part of the day was over and walking into Bukit Bintang, spending the early evening wandering around the area with a nostalgic smile, visiting the Berjaya Times Square and SUngei Wang plazas, and eating at the famed Chinese outdoor street stalls along Jalan Alor (just like the very first time I had visited here, all those years ago).
After a late check-out on Thursday (not helped by the hotel's wifi disappearing late yesterday afternoon and not returning, and the elevators suddenly halting, considering most of us were scattered along the 7th and 8th floors this was not helpful), we took a local public bus across the city to the new bus terminal at Cheras (in southern KL, newly opened as long-distance buses had previously departed from KL Sentral in the city's centre) and left the capital at 1300hrs, on a standard-comfort bus this time, dashing another 2hrs south to Malacca (or Melaka in Malay), one of the country's oldest established cities (colonised by the Portuguese in the 16th centry, taken over by the Dutch 150 years later, and inherited by the British after the Napoleonic Wars had France invade the Low Countries in 1796), and was thus a melage of architecture, culture and cuisine, as we rapidly discovered once we arrived from the Melaka Sentral bus terminal.
After finding our hotel, we took another half-day orientation tour with a local, walking along the river that originally caught Portuguese attention for a settlement, taking the uniquely-decorated Malaccan trishaw (a bicycle with a passenger compartment welded on the side, and decorated to death in fake flowers, neon, some with teddy-bears strapped everywhere, and some even with their own mobile sound-systems....guarrantted to attract attention!) to explore the old Portuguese forts, Dutch churches and the town hall, and British colonial houses, eventually cycling along Harmony Street (holding four main temples - Hindu, Muslim, Cantonese and Mandarin - either next to or across the way from each other) and ending in Jonker Walk, the residential heart of Old Malacca just west of the river, where we had dinner and later a beer or three. Friday was our free day, so I indulged in a sleep-in and again kept indoors mostly, wandering around occasionally when the heat and humidity weren't at their worst...and when it wasn't pouring down with rain at least once every 2 hours. That night was our last in Malaysia, so we had one last group dinner at a decent local restaurant to get rid of the last of our Malaysian currency.
Saturday was the dash to Singapore. After returning to the Malacca Sentral bus station, we boarded another coach (comfy VIP class again, woohoo!) and rolled back onto the expressway that delivered us to Johor Bahru 3 hours later, on the northern side of the Causeway separating the Malaysian mainland to the island of Singapore. We ran the usual gamut of immigration: getting off the coach on the Malaysian side and up to get our passports officially stamped out of the country, return back down to the coach, slowly crawl across the Causeway Bridge (completely choked with traffic, a 1km bridge took 15min to cross), and repeat the process to stamp into Singapore at the other side, this time taking our luggage with us to get scanned through Singaporean customs. As we already know, Singapore was a bit of a nanny-state: we were already sternly warned at customs that chewing gum was banned, and only a single pack of open cigarettes would be allowed in (any alcohol or other cigarettes would need to be declared and taxed at Singapore rates), amongst others. Surprisingly, we managed to get processed quite quickly: while huge queues were waiting to go the other way out of Singapore to Malaysia, there was barely anyone waiting headed south. After heaving our baggage through X-ray scans and back onto the waiting coach, we left to collective grins as we rolled through Woodlands and onto the expressway that would take us directly into the city.
Our coach pulled into the Queen Street bus terminal about an hour later, where we piled into taxis and finally arrived to our hotel just outside of Little India, close to the Orchard Road shopping strip. After visiting a nearby food market for a cheap meal - and a chance to convert money and visit an ATM for Singaporean money - we went on an orientation walk of Riverside, past the shopping malls and judicial buildings - and even stopping at the Raffles Hotel for a drink, many of us ordering the original "Singapore sling" the hotel was famed for - and through Boat Quay and the Cavenagh Bridge along the river Singapore to the place on Marina Bay where the Merlion stood, the half-lion, half-fish official symbol proudly stood jetting water into the bay. We had our last meal as a travel group at a Thai restaurant on Boat Quay as the sun set, before later having one last beer together and slowly walking back along the streets of central Singapore in the cloying humidity to return to the hotel.
Sunday was the first time I had some time to myself - without being in a travel group - since I arrived in Hong Kong 1.5 months ago. After checking out - and saying a last goodbye to a few of the group whom I bumped into at breakfast - I walked to the Little India MRT and took a metro into the centre of the Riverside district, checking into a rather decent 4-star hotel (thankyou very much internet specials!) right across from the St Andrews cathedral. As most of the day it rained - that special tropical kind, warm rain that alternatives between bucketing down and just raining - I spent most of my time in the nearby Funan IT DigitaLife shopping mall, 6 floors dedicated to consumer electronics, computers, and accessories, one of the best places in all Singapore to buy a replacement smartphone, to which I successfully departed quite some time afterwards with a Galaxy S5, micro-SD card, and even a protective case for it. As I had already arranged for a replacement SIM to be sent from me from London - it had arrived in Singapore a few days before I did, and the hotel concierge had been holding onto it before I checked in - I was able to reactivate my account and get back on air for the first time since my last phone was snatched from my hands in Cambodia 3 weeks ago. I celebrated by returning to Marina Bay for a few selfies. :)
Monday was the only whole day I had left after arriving and going tech-shopping, so I returned to Marina Bay and Boat Quay with both my digital camera and my new smartphone camera to recapture Singapore, retracting my steps and more since the last time I was here 8.5 years ago. I visited the St. Andrews cathedral, both the old and current Singapore Parliament buildings, the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, Boat Quay and Raffles Place, and then wandering to Bugis and the Little India and Kampong districts for some temples and museum visiting, occasionally ducking into the air-conditioned bliss of a shopping mall to temporarily escape the humidity of Singapore's streets. Traffic was orderly - quite a difference from the rest of Asia - and pedestrians even obeyed traffic signals (well, for the most part at least).
This morning is my second international flight in the3 months I've been travelling (I last flew internationally from Hong Kong into Bangkok 1.5 months ago): my flight leaving Singapore to Brunei via KL departs from Changi airport in about 3hrs, so I'd best sign out and get going!
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