Our hotel for the first night in Kuala Lumpur was the airport next to the baggage claim_2

First Malaysia and Singapore were on our our itinerary, then due to time constraints we cut them out. However, as the cheapest way to get from Bali back to mainland Southeast Asia was through Kuala Lumpur, we decided to give it a go.

Our experience began at 1am when our plane landed in KL and we decided to save money on a hotel by sleeping on the baggage claim floor at the airport. We had a thin sheet over us, it was beyond freezing and uncomfortable and more than a few times I woke up, peered out from under the sheet and saw the feet of security and cleaning people standing over us trying to figure out what to do.

After a few hours we couldn’t take the cold and hard floor anymore, so we moved to the seats nearby: all of which had armrests in between them. We spent the rest of the night sitting and leaning over the armrests on our bags and couldn’t have been happier when 8am came around and we headed into the city.

These entries cover May 18 – June 5, 2009.  Enjoy!

Photos:
-Malaysia
-Singapore

Singapore fines are posted all over the city

Singapore is a country unlike any other I’ve ever visited, as it is literally just a city. It’s like if Brooklyn were its own country. You can drive from one side to the other in less than an hour and public transportation will take you anywhere you need to go. It is also a country of rules and fines, with signs for all the things you can’t do peppering the walls of the subways, streets, buses and buildings. Most are dealt with through fines, though some more severe offenses require larger punishments. Who can forget the caning of Michael Fay in 1994 after he graffitied up a wall.

Everything from littering to spitting, playing music loudly, jaywalking and more is illegal and a fineable offense. As such, we came into Singapore having heard that it is the cleanest city in the world and had come up with a game to find the first piece of litter. However, our hopes of playing this game were quickly dashed as we saw rubbish strewn all over the side of the road moments after leaving the border. True, it is a cleaner city that most, but considering how much of an importance is placed on hygiene it seemed quite dirty.

What about the culture, you ask? There really isn’t much that is true Singapore. Much like Malaysia, the country is a mixing bowl of  people who all seem to hold onto their own identity. This is also reflected in the foods, though we did have a killer plate of Indian food in Little India.

In case you didn't know how to wash your hands, this sign in Singapore will let you know

Singapore is the most expensive place in Southeast Asia. Plain and simple. Food is nearly at US prices as is transportation, goods, services and hotels. Not wanting to pay nearly $50 a night for a hotel we arranged to couchsurf with Daniel: an expat from the Netherlands who had a sweet three bedroom apartment with AC and a pool that was paid for by work.

After spending nearly four hours trying to figure out where he lived and how to get there, we arrived to more bad news: Daniel’s boss was coming into town the next morning. Since he didn’t want the company knowing that work was paying for random travelers to have a place to crash he had no choice but to ask us to leave early the next morning. This was especially annoying as I was now completely convinced that I had Swine Flu and didn’t want to do anything the next day. I had a raging fever that was only kept down with cold and flu meds, no appetite and a nasty case of the chills.

Outside the Singapore Zoo

Still wanting to avoid the expensive hotel, we found Jocelyn: another couchsurfer at the last minute who could host us early that morning. The only catch: we had to get there before she went to work at 9am and couldn’t return until she did at 10pm. We didn’t actually learn this until we got there thinking that I would just lay in bed dying all day. I guess her roommate is not being comfortable with the idea of couchsurfing. So, with self diagnosed Swine Flu I had no choice but to be on the go for 13 hours. Good thing I had those cold and flu meds!

Our marathon day began at the Singapore Zoo, which is justifiably referred to as one of the nicest zoos in the world. The habitats were all very well kept, the animals seemed happy and the layout was great. We spent around six hours wandering around, seeing shows and feedings, waiting out thunderstorms and taking frequent rests when I needed them.

Indian temple in Singapore

Later in the day we headed to downtown Singapore and wandered around Little India, which was far better than the one in Kuala Lumpur. Filled with our favorite smells and sounds, we really felt like we were back on the subcontinent and had a blast wandering around. From there we wandered through the Arab Quarter and over to the 10km strip of malls that Singapore is famous for. Literally, its just malls for miles and miles. How they all stay in business I will never know.

We finally returned to Jocelyn’s apartment at 10:30pm, nearly 14 hours after we had left in the morning. My pills had gotten me through the day, but I quickly passed out when my head hit the couch pillow. In reality, we could have spent half a day the next day wandering through the streets of Singapore, but we were not excited about being homeless for another 14 hours during the day so we decided that we had seen enough. We woke up early, headed to the bus station and began our return trip to the Cameron Highlands of Malaysia.

Muslim women apparantly need to wear burkas while snorkling. Makes sense I guess.

Malaysia
I saw a Muslim woman snorkeling with a full burka on

We saw the final episode of American Idol in a hotel room in Melaka. This marks the third final I’ve ever seen…once in Panama, once traveling back from Nicaragua in 2007 and now this one. I have no idea who won any of them…including this one.

I got a bee sting in the rainforest.

In a Kuala Lumpur hostel there were signs everywhere to leave the toilet seat UP in order to help the ladies. This is because the shower is in the same room as the toilet and when the seat is left down it is soaked for the next sitter. I only mention this because it goes against everything we are taught in the West to leave the seat down for the women.

We visited a museum in Melaka that would have been very interesting, except that half of the signs were illegible due to terrible printing and the entire third floor, which housed the exhibit on beauty that we wanted to see, was about 100 degrees.

The Petronas Towers at night

Before going up the Petronas Towers we had to watch a 3D video that was just a 10 minute promo for the Petronas company. They just made it 3D to make it seem cool. It didn’t work.

Nothing happened, but it is always worrisome when your boat captain quickly puts on and fastens his life vest in the middle of a boat trip

Our guide to the rafflesia arnoldii flower refused to take a photo of us with my camera. I guess it must be some religious thing, but I’ve never heard of that before.

Carrie and I find it hilarious when we order something from a restaurant and see the waiter leaving a few minutes later then returning with a bag of groceries including the ingredients needed to make our dish.

While holed up in Melaka, we sat in the mall next to our hotel for hours to use the free wireless Internet from the coffee and donut shop inside.

A Kuala Lumpur subway station

Even though Kuala Lumpur is a small city it has some of the best public transportation I’ve ever seen.

In Kuala Lumpur we had amazing fresh pineapple shakes that for some reason also included chunks of gooey pineapple candy at the bottom. Delicious, but definitely not fresh.

We ran into Claire, who we met on the top of the volcano we hiked in Bali, Indonesia, on the same minibus we took from the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia nearly a month later.

After leaving a squatty potty stall to find a Western one in a public bathroom I exchanged places with a local who had just left a Western style toilet to find himself a squatty potty.

The Malaysian post office is called POS for short.

Enjoying a steak with not a strand of hair on my head

It’s growing back now, but I finally fully  shaved my head with a razor on my last night on the Perhentian Islands.

I swatted some of the biggest mosquitoes I’ve ever seen in the Cameron Highlands. Sometimes they didn’t even die. I’m pretty sure they might be mutants.

We feasted on delicious and cheap Indian food every night in the Cameron Highlands. Mmmmm!

I’ve pretty much been sick for the last month. First it was a stomach bug. Then my not-quite-swine-flu. Then I got a cold or allergies…still not sure. Then I got a neck thing that made it hurt to move my head for a few days. Now it hurts  to clench my left fist. Sheesh!

A byproduct of all the sickness is that my weight was temporarily 164lbs. You can see every bone in my body. Don’t worry…I’ve been eating everything I can get my hands on since.

We drove by a wedding procession. The men were in back and the groom had an umbrella held over his head while he walked. The women were in front with the bride in the very front: unshaded and carrying her own wedding cake.

I did not have a single beer in Malaysia due to the super high USA type prices. $3 for a can at a supermarket. Crazy!

Many taxis in Northern Malaysia have the side view windows on the side of the front of the hood of the car.

Singapore

Dozens of local men stand outside a little store watching a soap opera

We saw a group of about 30 men standing outside a bodega in Little India at 7pm on a weeknight watching a teeny TV inside that was playing a soap opera.

Apartment buildings have poles sticking of the windows to give residents a place to air dry their clothes.

On the bus ride to Singapore, Carrie and I decided to play a game called “who can find the first piece of litter,” expecting it to take all day. We were shocked to find that there was trash all over the place moments after getting off the bus. So much for being the cleanest city on earth.

When we hailed our first cab we asked the same question we always do, “is meter possible?” He reacted like this was the strangest question he had ever heard, as all cabs in Singapore are meter. What a nice break from constant haggling over fares.

When I was sick in Singapore I had a can of baked beans for breakfast that I couldn’t finish so I put them in a shopping bag and carried them with me until I could have a few more bites.

Subway security stand. I was stopped at one of these with my giant backpack on our first day in Singapore

On our first day in Singapore I was stopped by a security woman in the metro station who wanted to go through my big backpacking bag.

There are white business people everywhere.

There are also tons of Indians everywhere.

I forgot the laws and spat on the street a couple of times and quickly remembered and looked around, hoping no one was waiting to cane me.

When I told a cabbie we were from the USA he asked us if we were traveling for six months or a year. I guess they don’t ever see the one week work vacationer from the USA. Too far away.

Air fresheners and clean smelling air sprays are constantly being sprayed in subways, malls, buses or anywhere there can be fake air.

While waiting for our bus to leave Singapore we saw our first ever Muslim female backpacker, complete with burka.

A woman at the supermarket stopped me to ask if I could get an item down off of a high shelf for her. The amazing thing is that there are items on high shelves at all considering the average height of a local Singaporian is very short.

• Malaysia
• Singapore

Video Links:

• The Harlem Globetrotters in Kuala Lumpur
• Kuala Lumpur Chinatown Kitchen scene at a street restaurant
• Kuala Lumpur – Views of the downtown from a subway train
• Getting to the Perhentian Islands by boat
• Scuba Diving along the bottom of the Perhentian Islands with snappers, nemos and more
• Making spring rolls on Jonker’s Walk in Melaka

Malaysia Photos:

Singapore

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