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.
Posts Tagged 'se asia'
The Terminal
Published November 20, 2010 Life , Travel Leave a CommentTags: cameron hughlands, city break, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, monkeys, rtw, se asia, Singapore, Travel, trip
5 hours in Burma
Published October 22, 2010 Photography , Travel Leave a CommentTags: burma, monks, myanmar, rtw, se asia, Travel, trip, yangon
5 days in Burma (Myanmar) is like 5 hours anywhere else, as doing things here takes time, lots of time, especially getting from point A to point B. E.g. going to see ‘Golden Rock’ which is mere 200 and a bit km away from Yangon, involved 2h train, 3h bus, 30min moto, 1h pick up and 45min walking, each way, and that’s an easy destination. You need to plan in at least 2 weeks to do meaningful travel and ideally a month.
I’d have quite a few things to say about the disastrous government policies and state of the country, but you can easily read it on the net, so I’ll rather focus on some more personal and positive experiences.
The best bit was providing some free entertainment to local folks. Two favourite activities was to measure with me and giggle uncontrollably (no matter old woman, kid or business man), as on average I’m two feet (or half a meter) above anyone else. Kids normally did it in groups, e.g. imagine me walking down the street and a dozen or so kids running after me screaming and tumbling, it’s like circus coming to town.
Second favourite activity was staring on what I was doing, up close and personal. Like when I stop at the street corner, a couple of men would stand next to me, like a feet away and just stare without saying much, it’s totally harmless and just curiosity, but it took some time to get used to. Special favourite was my Ipod touch. If I’d sit down in local restaurant and pull the Ipod out, to make some notes or check a map, at least a couple of waiters would stand right behind my back and just stare what I’m doing (as mobile phone use here is still relatively limited and touch-screens are scarce). Again, it was totally harmless, but took some getting used to.
Besides providing entertainment, I also visited some pagodas, in fact, lots of them. You’ll notice that from Burma picture set. Pagodas are covered in gold, and nicely illuminated at night (whilst most places have to run generators to get 24h electricity). Too bad the most famous ones have quite hefty entrance fees (5-10 USD) for local standards that go directly into coffers of government thugs so I tried to skip these as and where possible.
The most interesting stop for me probably was visiting 2nd largest monastery in Burma where around 1200 monks live and prey. I was there for their lunch proceedings (10:30am as monks are not allowed to eat after 12pm) where all the monks queue for their daily ration of rice, sometimes given out by keen foreigners. The best of the bunch was the gay monk and his jealous boyfriend, just kidding, but that’s the first thought that came to me. Full set of pics can be seen here.
Vietnam
Published October 8, 2010 Life , Travel 3 CommentsTags: mekong delta, rtw, saigon, se asia, Travel, trip, vietnam
Today I finished off Vietnam, escaping to Cambodia in speedboat down Mekong delta, a bit like in the movie plot, plus mosquitoes. On average I’m staying around a week in each country, which seems very little, but it’s amazing how much you can see and do, without breaking the back. Obviously, along the way, I have to make some hard choices, for Vietnam it was a decision not to go north (something Americans should have listened to 35 years ago), meaning that I skipped Hanoi and Ho Long bay, one of the highlights of Vietnam. But no regrets, there’s plenty to do in south, there’s Saigon, there’s beaches (Mui Ne and Nah Trang), and of course, there’s Mekong delta, where I spent a good three days, with crocodile and fish farms on the river, snake and rat on the menu and mosquitoes with dengue fever in the air, nice.
But the best bit for me in Vietnam is food, it’s amazing value, variety and great taste. You can get a main dish and drink for 5 dollars (or cheaper if you go to street cafes, that are just fine). Noodle soups, barbecue, stews, you name it, it’s all good, so it’s worth while to visit just for food.
Another great thing is visiting random museums and attractions, as average entry to a place is around 50p, even for foreigners. e.g. I visited presidential palace, history museum and Zoo, for dollar fifty total. That’s one good thing about Vietnam’s communism as in democratic India foreigners are charged 5-10 times more for any entries than locals. I guess it makes sense, but I still have a grudge on them.
Full set of pictures from Vietnam can be found here.
