Highligts of Malaysia

Here are some highlights of Malaysia that we listed!

Kuala Lumpur

• Twin towers
• Helipad
• Jalan Alor street

Cameron Highlands

• Tea Tarik
• Tea Plantation

Langkawi

• Skycab ride
• Sky bridge
• first night's sunset!
• Waterfall
• Beach itself
• Roti Canai
• Queens kafe!

Perhentian Island, Pulau Kecil

• The big daddy -lizard
• Fire show and Orang Utan alcohol
• Snorkling trip

Taman Negara

• Canopi walk
• Walk to Canopi in the jungle
• View to the river and jungle
• Market

Tioman Island

• Sunset bar
• the English couple from Reading
• walkt to Tekek

Singapore

• Marina Bay Sands
• Light show
• Ku De Ta skybar
• Chinatown
• Zoo

KL's best kept secret

Next days agenda was to get Steve's head shaved. We got it done in the mall and wondered around (=me shopping). We hang out in our room for ages since we were dead tired and after four weeks of going we were just so so tired. Finally we decided we cant "waste" a day and so we left to search this helipad bar and lounge. It took ages for us to find it since we didn't know it's name or location for that matter..

Eventually we found this round building and on 24rd floor we bought our drinks for 30 ringgits each and then walked up to the roof with them. The roof didn't have any safety rails! We enjoyed our drinks and the view to KL tower and the twin towers, aaand took pictures of course. The heli bars menu said "KL's best kept secret" and that it was! At Raja Chulan monorail stop it was easyish to spot a round building when you knew what you where looking for.

On the 26th we slept quite late, backed and checked out and went to eat. We also made a big decision to skip Sumatra (Bukit Lawang and Lake Toba) since we only would have stayed there for such a short period of time. So only one hour before heading to the airport we booked a flight from Medan to Yogakarta for 27th at 6 am. We had to fly from KL to Medan since we had had to apply for a visa to Indonesia and it had an entry point to the country which we had chosen to be Medan.

Our flight from KL to Medan took only like 40 minutes. At the Medan airport we got so annoyed with these guys offering hotels and rides to the center! They literally did not leave us alone. They followed us to this coffee place where we went to sit down to make a plan. This one man came to sit next to us!!!! WTF?! One guy followed me to the toilets to try to convince me that he knows the best hotel.. He did not fuck of until i shouted in finnish "painu vittuun" and then he got the message.

When we found out that there were no hotels near the airport we made a decision to stay at the airport that night. It woulda been close to nine before getting to Medan and finding a place to sleep. We would have had to leave back to the airport by a taxi at 3 am.. So night at the airport it was!

Notices:

• "What does this food have in it?"
• "Fish and a surprise"
• "Do you have a menu?"
• "Today very busy menu lost"

The floating mosque and trip to KL

On 23rd of May we ate breakfast (read rice and noodles) and headed towards the jetty to do this 40 minute river Cruise. But when the woman at the counter was so unhelpful (which was quite normal in Malaysia) and the price was 23 ringgits each we decided to save money and not do it. Instead we head to the mall (again..) to buy headphones for Steve.

Since it was cloudy day we headed to the floating mosque and didnt bother to wait until the sunset as was recommeded. We walked for AGES! We had been told that it's only a 2 km walk away. After walking around 30 minutes we saw a sign saying 1,3 km to go! What made the journey feel even longer was that we walked through this ghost town! Seriously scary shit. It was like a new area with brand new buildings but no one there. There were no windows in some of the buildings and houses, no electricity yet in any of them, no cars, no cats or stray dogs, NOTHING!

Finally at the mosque, well, a mosque by the water. We didnt even bother to try in with shorts on. We chilled there for a while by the water and ate ice creams. Just the idea of having to walk the journey back was exhausting. When we eventually started walking back, by a chance there happened to be a taxi driving past us! Wuhuu!

At night we went back to the night market to wonder around. Nothing special to the previous night. Again an early night in with finally some planning!

The next morning we were yet again dead tired?! So weird! We set of to walk to the bus #17 around 10.30 ish. Coming with that bus it took us like 15 minutes but going it was closer to 45 minutes! We barely made it to the 12 o'clock bus to KL (13,80 ringgits each). It took us two hours when the bus dropped us of at TBS bus terminal from which we took a train to KL sentral.

The previous night we had booked a hostel Irsia B&B so we took a monorail to Imbi. "Only 1 minute walk from the monorail" it said on their page. It ended up being another 45 minute struggle trying to find it. Totally lost believe that we would ever find it. Eventually we found it and it actually wasnt more than a 1 minute walk....... The hostel was probably one of my favorite ones, the only minus was the tiny thin walls which felt like they were gonna collapse any time.

After eating next door at this chinese place then we went to wonder to the massive shopping mall (Berjaya) and found the roller coaster inside it! At night we walked back to Bukit Bintang to Jalan Alor street and found mango and sticky rise!

A walk back to the hostel and near by bars to figure out where to watch the last premier league game of the season. A game and two beers later we finally got some sleep! Or at least until 5 am when this girl next door decided to have a Skype call?! Untill Steve knocked on the door and told her to shut up.

Melaka

We arrided in Melaka Sentral around 2.30 pm (left 9.15 am but stopped for passport control ect for ages.). From the Sentral station we took bus #17 to the Dutch sq. Walking around for a while we instantly liked Melaka. We found a hostel Jalan Jalan guesthouse on the book and got a double room with fan for 50 ringgits. Rest od the day was mostly walking in this massive mall trying to figure out what to do with my phone. Two guys tried to have a look at it. The other tried to change the battery and this other nice nerd tried to change something else inside it. Did not work.

After it had already become dark we headed back. Most places shut really early there. We went to bed really early after the long day.

The next morning we woke up and went to eat, what came our local place, this chinese family run place around the corner. Melaka and the Chinatown area (Jonker str) wasnt that big at all so only the previous night we had seen most of the mosqs etc. We decided to walk to Little India where was this Sikh festival going on. We tried to go in but I wasnt dressed appropriately with shorts on. Steve bought some indian candy things from these street stalls.

We headed back to the shopping mall to buy me a phone. I had decided to buy a cheaper phone for now. I ended up buying this Samsung J1 from Samsung shop for 106€. After that we wondered back to wait for the night market to start.

It was a lot bigger than we expected. Lots going on in there. Soon it was ruined by massive rain storm. Which was reallly heavy and took for ever. We ended up waiting in this shop for the rain to pass until we got bored. We ran to eat at this local place where our food came before our drinks...!! (water and a tea!).

Before going to bed we chilled at the hostel couches and drank some beer (18 ringgits).

Notices:

• how people give or receive money etc. With two hands or with a little bow
• fast escalators in Singapore
• people always talked to Steve as a Sir. Forgetting about my existance. Or if I paid the food or what ever they gave the change back to Steve. So annoying and offensing, their culture tho..

Singapore Zoo and skybar Ku De Ta

The next Morning was really lazy from us since we were dead tired and we were trying to figure out what was there to see. We chose to go to the Zoo which was supposed to be one the top zoos in the world! And it definitely didnt disappoint us!

We travelled there an hour, first by MRT and then by bus. We paid 37 dollars each to get in (with this stupid train included). The zoo was massive and most animals had big living spaces and no cages (yes, i know?!?) or boxes. The orang utans were free in there too! Climbing in trees, brilliant!

We liked the zoo a lot! Definitely worth the money. We saw chrocodiles, monkeys, elephants, zepras, giraffes, hippos, tapirs, white tigers etc etc. After spending most of the day and our budget we wanted to spend a chill out night at the hostel with some beer.

On our last full day in Singapore we went to eat breakfast at this 24 hour Kopitan place again where we got to choose what we wanted. Both mornings we ate around for 8 dollars both of us. Since we were leaving the next day we wanted to find this bus terminal and buy tickets alreadu. We walked around for ages!! Everyone was giving wrong directions! Eventually after like two hours we found this Golden Mile complex with bus companies. We bought tickets for 20 dollars each to KL.

Close by we found another MRT station and took it to Marina Bay Sands to see it in a day light. We ended up wandering in this massive shopping complex in Marina Bay with a river and an ice skating rink in it! We found out the dressing code for the skybar and figured that we needed to do some shopping... :D

We went to Orchad MRT station and to this mall called ION where we found shoes for Steve. We ate again in Chinatown and then headed to hostel. After showering and Steve sweating in his jeans and shoes on we headed to the Ku De Ta skybar. Ladies got in for free and Steve had to pay 28 dollars. Up in the bar Steve paid 24 dollars for 50cl beer... :D

The view was amazing with all them skyscrapers, lights and a night sky! At the skybar there were so many annoyingly rich people that made us or me feel so akward and like i didnt fit in.

Back at the hostel we had swapped dorm room because of some double booking. We put our stuff together (I did) and ate the food we had bought from Kopitan.

Next Morning we woke up at 7 am to hear this classical music being played. The previous night this music group had checked in and they had practised late at night and started early in the Morning.. How nice. Not.

The next morning when we were getting ready I was charging my phone when the adapter broke as did my charger lead and my phone.. I got so scared when it basically exploded in my hand. At first it still worked until I saw the battery dying really fast and then i couldnt open it anymore.. What a disaster! All my pics and our budget totally lost!! Thank god I had sent loads of pictures to my parents via whatsapp and I could get some of them back from there!

We walked to the Golden Mile complex to catch our bus at 9.15 am. We drove around 45 minutes and stopped at the passport control where we waited in line for 45 minutes. Back to the bus for a while and then through security check with our bags.

The Marina Bay, Singapore

The next Morning it was time to continue our trip once again. We woke up around 8 ish to leave for the "harbour" to get some boat tickets. There were two cats having a massive fight literally on our bags. The boat eventually came, we got in and no one asked any tickets.. We stopped at Tekek for 45 minutes?! So annoying! After that we finally had to buy our tickets.

Finally at the harbour after a sweaty and really fast walk to the bus terminal (15 minutes) we started comparing prices for Singapore! Transnational charged 48 to Singapore when this other company was only 12,80 to Johor Bahru.. Guess which we chose?

When we got off two hours later at JB we found this local bus to Singapore and bought tickets for 3,40 each. The bus ride took less than 10 minutes and then we had to take all our stuff and walk to passport check / control. Then back into a different bus and another ten minutes later and back out to security check thing with our bags. What a mess!

Then after that we needed to find this final bus to Queen Street that we had paid our tickets to. We waited in this line for the bus for ages and had a massive argument wheather we were at the right place or not.. Finally the bus came and dropped us of at Queen st from where we eventually walked to Bugis MRT, bought 3 day public transportation passes (30 Singaporen dollars of which 10 was a deposit). We took the MRT to Lavender to find this hostel we had spotted online called Gusti. Decent, spacious hostel with dorm rooms. We were asked to pay 26,5 dollars each / night!! Online it had "only" been 20 dollars so we asked to pay that.

Basically we had paid 50 ringgits for double room and now we paid 54 ringgits EACH! For a dorm! The place was really clean with a big livingroom area. We arrived to Singapore and the hostel around 6pm ish.

As we were starving we took the MRT to Chinatown and did it offer us different food options...! I struggled as usual to order anything.. I could only see green soups or fisheads in the foods.. No thanks. But most importantly we bought two big beers for 600 ml for 5 Singapore dollars!

Next it was time to explore the Little India where we didn't stay or enjoy much at all. Only staring indian men there and most places where shut already.

Then we decided to to go find the boat floating in the air :D Without a struggle we soon found it. Arrived at the harbour at 9.30 pm just on time for the night light show which lasted like 15 minutes. I felt so relaxed just sitting there in the silence feeling tiny in the middle of all the skyscrapers. We wanted to walk around the promenade (3,5km) and of course took lots of pictures of every angle we could get. The marina bay itself was really impressive as everything was built around the bay and the water.

After a long day and a sweaty walk it was time for bed in our 8 bed dorm. And what a night it was! Some guy snoring like hell and someone else doing this weird weird noise. Both of us and this other couple stayed awake till 3.30 am or so..

The island of Tioman

The next Morning we woke up at 8 am to get the 10 am boat to Tioman Islands. We ate the breakfast at the boat terminal, more roti canai and teh tarik. :P

The boat trip to Tioman lasted around 2 hours and we got off at the ABC -stop. The first impression for me was: what?! Where was all the sandy paradise beaches? The beach seemed (and it was) really rocky and there was absolutely nothing anywhere. We walked aloung the only tiny one metre wide road and compared couple of places and their prices. We ended up almost at the end of the beach in Mokhtars Place. We paid 50 a night for our own chalet.

Next door to us was this lovely English couple who had stayed there for over three months. They had travelled around for 15 years (!!!!) since their retirement. The woman was 78 years old!! It was so nice hearing their stories about travelling etc. They also told us that the monkeys visit daily outside (and also inside if you leave the window open). We missed the monkeys tho. :(

After we settled down we went to eat at our hotel's restaurant. Really good and simple food for decent price. Then it was beach time on Sunset Beach (the only half sandy beach). Nice beach with nice bar and friendly (!) owner. At night we wandered by the beach "road" to find nothing. We admired the stars together <3! We stopped to eat at Johan's Place and the food wasn't good at all and I didnt even get what i ordered.

After a hot but rather comfy night under the mosquite net it was breakfast and beach time again. After a while when we got bored at the beach i wanted to take a day hike to Tekek, the main hub on the island. It was said to take 20 minutes but we ended up walking closer to 40 minutes in the most hottest time of the day.. At the tiny center the restaurants didnt even have any food!?! A taxi ride back (5 each) and we went to eat at this nice Nazri's place. The place looked new and like it didnt fit in and the food wasnt tasty at all. We spent pretty much the rest of the day on the beach. We ate again at Mokhtar's and the Steve headed to Sunset bar for some football.