SEA Adventures Begin! - Singapore & Malaysia

Just over a month ago (April 11) we flew from Cairns, Australia to Singapore to start our SE Asia adventures. It’s been an amazing month traveling Singapore, Malaysia and Southern Thailand and the order we decided to travel the countries seems like it has been a good way to do it. Geographically and financially it makes sense but it has also been nice easing ourselves into completely different cultures and lifestyles.

Our adventures started a bit sooner than predicted, meeting our first one at Cairns airport. I had been advised by my mother that Singapore immigration requires you to have a place to stay while in the city in order for you enter and we had that covered. What we didn’t realize was that they also want you to have a return or onward ticket from the country which we did not have. We were just planning on purchasing a cheap train ticket from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur once we got into Singapore but that wasn’t enough for the airlines we were flying with as they didn’t want to get the fine if we outstayed our allowed time in Singapore. So instead we purchased an expensive ticket to fly rather than take the train. A frustrating hit to the bank account but at least we were allowed to board the plane.

SINGAPORE

Singapore is both a city and a country and it has come a long way from starting out as a small fishing village. It is probably one of the cleanest and safest places we will ever visit. Some ways the government ensures this is making chewing gum illegal and drug trafficking punishable by death.  Littering also has some heavy fines and although neither of us litter we were very conscious about what we did with garbage. It also has a great economy and strong dollar with it being about five cents less than the Canadian dollar at the time we were there.

Singapore is known for its food, a range of Chinese, Indian, Malaysian and Western foods to choose from. We ate at hawker stalls (food stalls where dishes are cooked and sold) and food courts for cheap but delicious eats. Our beverage of choice was either water (to avoid dehydration from the hot and humid weather [the one season that lasts the whole year] or a big Tiger beer to split for as cheap as 6SGD.

Some sort of laksa

Tiger beer

We stayed in the Colonial District for the three nights and did some sight seeing around there, Little India and the Quays. The Boat Quay was neat to learn about the history of it being the main area for the shipping and now seeing it converted into a pedestrian mall. Past the Boat Quay is Marina Bay where the Merlion statue is representing the country. We learned when an ancient Sumatran prince came to the area he thought he saw a lion type animal and named the place “Singa Pura”, meaning Lion City. I’m not sure where the mermaid part came from. Marina Bay also hosts Marina Bay Sands which is an iconic hotel in Singapore with three columns of rooms and a bar/pool on the top with no real ledge. There were some nice rainforest and treetops walks we could have done to escape the concrete jungle of the city but having only two full days to explore we stuck to these main districts.

Our first encounter with the Asian bidet (left of toilet) in our guesthouse

Adrian at the Boat Quay

Merlion

Adrian and Marina Bay Sands

Panorama of Marina Bay

MALAYSIA

KUALA LUMPUR

From Singapore we flew to Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capital of Malaysia. Although not quite as advanced as Singapore it has also come a long way since its tin bashing days to become a 21^st century metropolis. We stayed in Chinatown at a beautiful guesthouse but the surrounding area not quite as nice. While there were countless places to eat and shop, it’s also where we saw our first rats (alive and dead) and heaps of stray animals.

Within walking distance from our guesthouse was the Central Market full of food vendors, souvenirs and clothing. It also has the popular “fish spa” or “Doctor Fish” where you put your feet into warm water full of Garra rufa fish and they nibble off your dead skin cells while giving you a mini foot massage.  So of course we had to give it a go. It tickled like crazy for the first couple of minutes but once you got past that point it was quite enjoyable! Also nearby was Jalan Petaling, a street market that takes up a few blocks within Chinatown where you can buy pirated movies, “authentic” designer clothing and souvenirs.

Kasturi Walk, Central Market

Cute Fish Spa

Breakfast at Central Market - half boiled eggs and kaya (coconut jam) toast

Entrance of Jalan Petaling Street Market

Sri Mahamariamman Temple in Chinatown

KL is also home to the Petronas Towers, headquarters of the national petroleum company, and what used to have the title of the world’s tallest twin towers until Taiwan built there’s. It is a great symbol of modern KL. Unfortunately tickets to go up in the Towers were all sold out for the day so instead we took photos outside in the day time and night time.

Petronas Tower Day Time

Petronas Towers Night Time

The markets and the Towers pretty much sum up our time in KL. The weather was still quite hot and humid so that was plenty to do while trying to adapt.

CAMERON HIGHLANDS

Cameron Highlands was the next destination, a nice escape from the heat for a day or so. In KL we caught our first bus in SE Asia and it was so nice! The seats were huge and there was heaps of leg room. The roads along the way were smooth but we did struggle a bit closer to the Highlands with the curves and switchbacks going up the hills. Nevertheless, the 4-5 hr drive was quite enjoyable.

We only spent one full day in the Highlands which was filled with a half day tour and an afternoon hike. On the tour we went to a flower garden, a bee farm, a strawberry farm, a butterfly and insect farm, a tea plantation and a Buddhist temple. The tea plantation was probably the highlight as that is what the area is kind of known for because of the good growing conditions. We went to the Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate which distributes the most tea nationally and to Singapore. Here we got a free factory tour and of course had a cup of tea while admiring the beautiful landscape. The temple we went to was called Sam Poh and it was interesting to learn the temple was made due to the Malaysians and Singaporeans donating RM2.6 million. It was our first Buddhist temple in SE Asia but we are much more looking forward to the temples in Bangkok and Cambodia.

Bee hives at the bee farm

Having a cuppa at the Boh Tea Estate

Panorama of the tea plantation

At the butterfly and insect farm. I had a praying mantis in my hand and then a butterfly also landed on my hand. For some reason the mantis caught the butterfly but then let it go.

Strawberries

Adrian and inside the Sam Poh Buddhist Temple

The afternoon hike was more of a walk along a concrete path until maybe after an hour where we got more into the forest and dirt paths. We were planning on hiking to some waterfalls but they were so small we actually missed them on the way there! And at some point we walked through what we think were a group of Buddhists meditating and chanting in a campground. We felt a bit awkward walking around them when they were in the midst of it but we needed to walk through the campground to continue our hike. It was nice to get some exercise and eventually escape into nature but we’ve definitely been on nicer hikes.

On our hike

PENANG

Our next stop was the island of Penang and although a longer bus ride it was still just as comfortable. We were excited to get to Penang as 1. It is an island and 2. It is the food capital of Malaysia. We were disappointed to arrive in Georgetown on the island because it was more like visiting another big city as opposed to a beach town but thankfully the food did not disappoint! 

We tried as many dishes as we could and a place called Red Garden Food Paradise and Night Market made it possible. Some of the highlights were:

• Penang laksa – a coconut curry soup with taramind, meat, mint leaves, pineapple
• Char kway teow – a stir fried noodle dish with meat and bean sprouts but a bit on the slimy side
• Hokkien mee – another fried noodle dish with egg and shrimp
• Cendol – a shaved ice dessert with coconut milk, syrup, red beans and jelly strips made out of pea flour

Adrian and his Malaysian pizza

Hokkien mee

Cendol

Red Garden Food Paradise and Night Market

Wanting to do some sightseeing as well as eating, we decided to go on a “religions walk”, visiting different churches, temples and mosques around the guesthouse we were staying at. We were surprised to find so many different religions practised in Penang/Malaysia yet they all seem to live peacefully.

Some history of the street our guesthouse was on - Love Lane

St. Andrews Church

Han Jiang Ancestral Temple

Kapitan Keling Mosque

On our last day we made a bus trip over to the other side of the island to the National Park. We actually didn’t make it out there until mid afternoon so while it was nice to get out of the city and spend some time in nature, it was short lived. On our hour long walk we saw some monkeys and big lizards.

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Monkeys!

From Penang we flew to Koh Samui, a Thai island on the East Coast to get to the Full Moon Party for Adrian’s birthday (April 25).