Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

We arrived in a very humid Singapore from Brisbane on April 8, 2010 and were so excited to get out first taste of Asia. We arrived at 11pm, so it was quite the site when the two of us were walking through the streets of Singapore with our map and backpacks at 1130 pm trying to found our hostel! People were greeting us on the streets and welcoming us to their country. We were really taken aback by the friendliness of everyone, especially hearing that Singaporeans aren’t even friendly on the “friendly-scale” compared to the other SE Asian countries. We arrived safely at our hostel and crashed hard after travelling all day….crashed hard until 5 am when the call to prayer rang through our window! Because it was dark when we arrived, we didn’t realize that our hostel was located right next to the largest Mosque in Singapore (Sultan Mosque)! Clem jumped out of bed and yelled “What the hell is that?” I, having booked and researched the hostel, knew that we were staying in the Muslim Quarter and not far from Little India so although it startled me, after a second I realized what it was. It was so loud though, it was as if a man was sitting on the end of our bed praying! After a giggle, we got back to sleep…until 8:30 am, when it started again.

We only had one full day in Singapore, so we spent the morning walking around Little India which was a site in and of itself. They say that Little India is a world away from the rest of Singapore and that it is! It was fascinating to watch how these people live and run their businesses. The attention from the Indian men got to be a little much (and I was conservatively dressed), so we made our way to Orchard Road, which is Singapore’s main shopping district. They say that the two main activities in Singapore are eating and shopping and it is clearly evident. We strolled through a couple of malls (ok, we were really just loitering because we were drenched in sweat from the humidity) and they were so elaborate and completely spotless. Women (and some men) were impeccably dressed in the latest designer fashions so we had a great afternoon people watching. After walking around the city for the day (with multiple stops in air conditioned businesses, including McDonald’s where we bought ice creams just to make it look like we were there to have a snack and not to loiter in the AC) we were completely beat. We went out for a Turkish meal at a restaurant that was close to our hostel and hit the sack as we had to be up early to fly to KL. Although our time was short-lived in Singapore, we really enjoyed what we saw of the city. We were so impressed with its cleanliness, efficiency, and friendliness that we would definitely stop through again if the opportunity ever arose.

While we were in Singapore, we booked a hostel in Kuala Lumpur (the one that one suggested as a favorite by The Lonely Planet). Just before we were leaving, I checked Trip Advisor, which was flooded with comments from the past two weeks stating that the place was infested with bed bugs! We quickly decided not to stay there and took our friend up on his offer to stay at his place. Matt, who is my cousin’s cousin (how’s that for an Island connection?) lives in KL and we had been in contact with him and hoping to meet up for a drink when we were in town. We aren’t related but spent many summers on Brackley Beach together and hadn’t seen each other in about 18 years. We arrived to the KL airport to find a man standing with our names on a sign to pick us up! This was such a nice surprise, considering we had heard horror stories about being ripped off by the taxis here in Malaysia. We waited outside for him to pull his car up and Clem jokingly said “Oh, here he comes” as a beautiful Mercedes pulled up….it was our drive!! Matt had arranged to have his driver pick us up and take us into the city to his condo, which is located right in the city centre next to the Petronas Twin Towers. When we arrived, there was a key waiting for us! We were so excited and could hardly believe it. We had our own bathroom and bedroom complete with a king sized bed! After reminiscing over a couple of drinks, Matt and Camelia (Matt’s girlfriend), Clem and I headed out for some Saturday night fun in KL. We went to a rooftop bar called “Luna Bar”, which is on the 33rd floor of a hotel with 360 degree views of the city. It was amazing! We then met up with a couple of more Maritimers and the “Lord Tunderin” and “By Jesus” were flowing…along with the “cold pops”. We went to another bar called “The Beach Club”, which is full of prostitutes. Camelia and I watched in amazement as they worked their magic, while the boys had to literally fight the women off of them. Matt had warned Clem and told him to “follow through with the punches”, which he had to do on a few occasions as the women were relentless. It was quite the sight! To top it all off, our cab ride home was interesting. Besides the lack of lanes, crazy scooters and speeding lunatics, Clem had his head out the window yelling “Terima Kasih”, which is the only Malay term he knew (meaning thank you). Matt told him to say “Terima Kasih ______ (another word that I can’t remember) and so Clem obliged and said this to a group of men standing at a stop light…only to find out it means “Thank You Honey”. We had a good laugh over that and ended the night at 5am with a massive order at McDonalds…half of which is still sitting in the fridge.

Camelia, who is a Chinese Malay was born and raised in KL. Her and I hit it off right away (and let the boys do their thing) and she has been so excited and eager to share her culture and country with us. She taught me more in the last 24 hours about Malaysia than I could ever learn from any book or tourist experience. We had such a great weekend together and hope to see her again before we leave KL. Either way, she is a beautiful person that I will never forget. I feel like we have known each other for years. We are so grateful for her and Matt's generosity that we don't know how we can ever return the favour.



We spent today in Chinatown at the markets and enjoyed some of the many culinary options in KL. We then spent some time at the gym and in the pool at the condo and will go out for dinner tonight. We have one more day in the city, when we will hopefully head up the Petronas Twin Towers and catch a few more sights before boarding a night bus to the Perhentian Islands, off the east coast of Malaysia. There are no cars and just beautiful beaches on the island, which is completely powered by a generator, so we are going to chill out there for five days before deciding whether or not we can go to Thailand. There have been major protests in Thailand (specifically Bangkok), and they have escalated in the past couple of days to the point where many people have been injured and killed. All Malays have been advised to return home if it is safe so we aren’t sure if we can safely cross the border. We really hope we can experience Thailand, but if we can’t then we’ll head to Cambodia directly from here.