Lost in Translation

Walking around the never ending Singapore shopping malls, I felt like Viktor from movie called ‘The Terminal’, who gets stuck in JFK and ends up living there. It often feels like you never need to leave that place, as you have everything imaginable there. In last couple of weeks, I went to see several movies, cut my hair, ate in numerous food halls, played bowling among other usual things one does in a mall. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve seen plenty of shopping spectacles before, such as Oxford Street in London, but Malaysian and Singapore ones are on different scale. Shopping is a way of life here.
Of course, besides shopping malls there are lots of other things to see. Panang island near Thai border is a food mecca that we visited, food courts there are amazing, hundreds of dishes and everything is less that £2 a pop.
Cameron Highlands is an interesting stop, it was the only couple of days in last two months that I experienced temperature drop below 20 degrees (Celsius) as villages there are almost 2km above see level. Most communities grow tea or strawberries there, but they also have some amazing insect and butterfly farms. Ugochi was extremely keen to get in close and personal with them.
Then came Kuala Lumpur, with its Petronas Towers, they look best at night and from the distance. My personal favourite is mono rail, its like a kids train with two small carriages zipping through the town on one concrete rail high in the air, you have to try it. If you’re into sweets you’ll be at home, as everything is sweet here, even pork. You have bubble teas with jelly at the bottom, doughnut places everywhere, Malays like to eat.
Malaka is a nice place to stop if you want to break a journey from KL to Singapore, it has UNESCO heritage old town, Portuguese village and very chilled place all in all.
Our final stop was Singapore, the utopian country/city, where you get lashed/canned if caught stealing and chewing gum is banned (you can’t buy it here, shop attendants looked at me funny), with futuristic buildings, uber-efficient transport system, almost non-existent crime and extremely helpful locals (just look lost and within seconds some friendly local will come help you show the way, and even lend you an umbrella if its raining, based on personal experience).
Full photo set can be found here.