A Weekend in Kuala Lumpur - Day Two

Backdated: 11th July 2010

Me in front of the Petronas Towers

So day number two.. 
We decided to get up early to head over to the Petronas Towers, in the hope of getting onto the Skybridge. I had read online that they only allow entrance to 1200 people a day, so you have to go in the morning to have a chance. It opened at 9am so we figured if we left around 8.45am we'd have plenty of time to get there. So we got the monorail to the nearest station and walked the rest of the way, took some stereotypical tourist pics in front of the towers (admittedly more of me than Stephen..) then headed inside to go up onto the bridge. At 9.15am they had already let in their 1200 for the day and were letting no one else up! So pictures is all we managed to get =/ and we've learnt a valuable lesson for next time round.. GET UP EARLY. When something like that is free, there are bound to be an abundance of poor student backpackers all queueing at 6am to get in! 

After this we had a walk around the surrounding area, having a little nosey in the tourist centre etc and sat down to at the Petronas Towers have a drink in a nearby cafe to ponder over a map where we should head to next. After some differences of opinion, we settled on Central Market and walked to the road to lazily wait for a cab. Our taxi driver we extremely friendly and offered to take us to see Batek being made for no higher cost than the fare we'd already agreed on. The display was a little lacking, but very interesting all the same. The driver came in with us to explain the process of making Batek, and kept stressing that Batek belonged to Malaysia and the British stole it! So after this he took us and dropped us at Central Market, explaining that we could buy Batek there the same way we could at the display he took us to (which i stupidly didn't look at the sign for) but it wouldn't be on real silk and the colour would wash out.. What he seemed to not realise was we are students who didn't care about quality and more about cost! As we got out the cab he asked us if we were from the UK, which we thought was a little odd, as we had spoken about London and Biscester already, then told us in an annoyed tone that people from the UK usually tip and drove off rather quickly.. again, we're students! 

Central Market

(Writer's note: I later realised this a commission based deal - taxi drivers bring tourists and get commission on what they buy - so if you experience something similar don't feel pressured into buying, unless of course you want to!)

Central Market was very nice but we had to be careful on the prices as the same products would be sold in several stalls at various prices so look around for the lowest (then try to haggle some more of course). Very nice though, bought some new chopsticks to take away to uni with me. 

Our last outing of the day was to the much anticipated Batu Caves. We headed over to Bangkok bank where the buses go to Batu Caves, and started looking for the right one. Hearing the accents of an Australian netball team, we headed towards the bus they were getting on and asked the man if it was to the caves. 'Batu yes yes' so we followed them on. On the journey we were talking to one of the teachers with the netball team and found out that the driver had tried to charge them 50sens more than he should have, presumably as they were obviously tourists, however the teacher takes the team to KL every year and knew better. She also told us to get the number 11 home as this was going a very long way around getting to the caves.. She was loud, but seemed to know exactly what she was on about.. which was particularly useful as the driver started driving straight past the caves, with no intention of going near.. After yelling down the bus that he had to stop to let us off, the bus stopped on the middle of a busy roundabout with no pedestrian areas whatsoever and opened the doors and dumped us there. Me and Stephen were extremely lucky to have been on the bus with her, as neither him nor I would have had the guts to shout and would have just got off at the next stop. However, we safely made it across the busy traffic and made our way over to the huge staircase leading up to the caves. 

Me at the Batu Caves

It is beautiful there, more because of the cave than the temple, though there were a few Hindus there for religious ceremony i would presume with babies with painted heads and men with white stripes over their bodies making their way up, who helped give the temple a bit more impression. What no one tells you about the caves is that once you have made your way up the initial set of stairs, you then have to go down a smaller set and back up another small set too! It's a workout that's for sure. But definitely worth it. As soon as you get into the caves you can hear the squeaking bats high above you as they flutter about the place. There are various Hindu depictions, presumably from the religions stories, around the walls which are lovely. On the way back down we stopped in several of the souvenir shops (two of which are actually in the caves.. not sure about that) and a grabbed a couple of postcards and a mini statue of the huge gold deity. The stall keeper gave me a bindi on our way out which completely made my day! 

Nice weekend overall - just long enough to see everything we wanted to.

A Weekend In Kuala Lumpur - Day One

Backdated: 10th July 2010

Theme park in Berjaya Times Square

We arrived in KL around 1pm after a grueling 5 hours on the road from Singapore. I say grueling... we were on a coach which had chairs the size of armchairs that vibrated.. so really it was complete luxury as far as coach trips are concerned! Literally the chairs were so big that, on a normal sized coach, they could only fit 3 in. 

Market stalls in Berjaya Times Square

So we got to KL and found our hostel with great ease, dumped our stuff and went out for a wander. Our hostel is right behind Berjaya Times Square, so that was our first port of call. We had a wander around the 10 storey mall, which seemed to get better as we got higher up. The lower 2 floors are well known shops and as you get higher it becomes more like market stalls but in shop spaces. Very nice though. Also it has a mini theme park inside! It has a rollercoaster and a twister type ride high above the shops. We are very surprised when we stumbled across it - having no idea it was there. 

Then we decided to hop onto the city's monorail (which I loved! cost the equivalent of 40p to go 5 stops) and head towards Bukit Nanas - the nearest stop to the KL tower. Having read in a KL guide thing that the entrace gates were a mere ten minute walk away we got off and thought that we would walk to the gate of the tower. We looked at a sign post, but it didn't say KL tower anywhere on it.. so we began to walk in the direction that we thought was most likely to be right. 20 minutes later after looking up and realising we were actually moving further away from the imposing tower, we got a 'teksi' and paid 4.80 ringits (about 1.20 GBP) to go right to the front door. When arriving we passed a pony trotting up the roadside towards the tower.. it turns out that there is a tower pony ride.. There is also a F1 driving experience, an animal zone containing about 15 snakes, a few spiders, some bright birds and a couple of racoons, a cultural garden where you can try samples of Malaysian treats, an extreme sports zipwire and a few dozen other fun touristy things to do. I could complain about the cost of it all but it makes it more than just a tower i suppose.

We went up to the tower, and even with the awful misty view we had it was still a very impressive sight to see the sheer size of KL and how far into the distance you could see. On the viewing deck we bought an 'I <3 KL' T-shirt for myself and some mountain dew for the both of us to try. I was very disappointed when i realised it was merely another brand of lemonade.. 

Me in KL Tower looking over the city

After a brief amount of time on the viewing deck (after all, once you've looked out there's little else to do!) we went down into the cultural garden to sample some yummy Malaysian tom yam crisps and beef curry thing (whatever it was it was lovely!). Just as we were about the head down to look at the houses and gamelan player, I noticed a Malaysian lady across the room calling me over, motioning a camera. I quickly skipped across the room, presuming she wanted me to take a picture of her and her family, and after all i love to be helpful! I got over there and the woman who had been calling me over passed the camera to her friend and put her arm around me to pose! They wanted their picture with the token white girl! Incidentally, I saw several white English and American males but few women.. odd. They were such a lovely family and handed us a business card with details of their address in Kuantan and told us if we were ever in the area to pop around to their place. So lovely. 

As we left the tower a thunder storm started (and has only recently stopped) with hugely impressive fork lightening. We walked back to the monorail and back to Berjaya Times Square where we grabbed some food in Wendy's and headed back to our temporary home! 

My First Trip to Singapore

Backdated:14th June 2010

Before my first trip to visit my Dad and his family in Singapore, I had rarely travelled out of the UK - and the few times I had gone further, I was too young to remember. So nervous doesn’t begin to sum up how I felt about the flight. My boyfriend at the time may have thought I was panicking over nothing, but I bought myself a tiny blue notebook and wrote every single detail I may have needed in it. Having a desperate need to have every detail organised, I had also gone through online check-in on the Qatar Airways site. As we were waiting for the only check in man to finish sorting all the non-online-check-iners to come and swap our online check-in passes, we realised we would probably have been quicker just showing up. Anyway let’s not go into boring detail about flights.. Qatar were brilliant, great service, great food and great entertainment. I’d recommend them to anyone! 

Merlion

Singapore Flyer

My very first impression of Singapore was on the plane when we were handed a leaflet that stated in huge red letters that drug trafficking was punishable by death. Strict eh! When we arrived in Singapore, initially, I was disappointed by the lack of culture shock. As an inexperienced traveller/holiday-maker, I had done absolutely no research and had no idea what to expect when I got out. The only thing I had ever heard about Singapore how clean it was, and I must say it definitely lived up to the hype. 

Breakfast with Orangutans in Singapore Zoo

My highlights of Singapore were the Zoo. The most gorgeous zoo I have ever visited. I must admit I don’t think I’ll ever feel the urge to visit a different zoo again. It is famous for being very open plan, using few cages, opting for moats and barriers instead. It makes for a completely different experience to any Zoo in the UK. Having watched YouTube videos of tiger attacks, I wasn’t 100% sure that the moat was exactly big enough, so walked past that area rather quickly. We had breakfast with the orang-utans, a bit over priced if you ask me and the only real benefit is a photo opportunity in front of some totally disinterested monkeys. My sister and I fed the elephants after watching them wash and the giraffes. My dad and boyfriend wouldn’t let me live down the moment when I got scared of the male giraffe who was leaning over right in my face and sniffing me. I highly recommend any animal fan passing through Singapore to visit the zoo! 

As far as shopping is concerned, we couldn’t afford to even look in half the shops of Orchard Road, but for younger generations I highly recommend Bugis Village. My absolute favourite. It’s definitely the place I’ll revisit when we go this year. Also we got completely lost in the underground connections of the malls (which naturally was Stephen’s fault.. not mine!) but stopped trying to find our way out as soon as we found a McDonalds (our first of the holiday) and discovered that unlike the UK who took the salt out of everything in an attempt to force us into good health, Singapore nuggets still taste FAB with all the salt left in! 

If there’s one thing I could bring home from Singapore and implement here in the UK its the food courts! I love them. Such a variety of different foods. I love the idea that I could eat Chinese food while Stephen ate English food, and both sit together to enjoy it - not have to compromise!