Singapore and Malaysia Summary

Well, as you should know by now, I recently returned from a 4 day trip to Singapore and Malaysia. I was both satisfied and unsatisfied by the journey, but overall it was a fun time.

Pictures can be found here.

The plan was for 9 of us (1 Singaporean/Hong Konger, 2 Canadians (me included), 2 Taiwanese, and 5 Japanese) to fly to Singapore, hang there for 2 days, grab a bus to Melaka, Malaysia, crash there overnight then go to Kuala Lumpur and then finish off with an overnight train back to Singapore for our flight.

What did I think of the two countries I visited? I dunno - I didn't get to see much of them. 9 people is a large group to move around. It's kinda like herding cats. You're ready to go, only to find out one person has disappeared. One person goes to look for them, and then the original person returns and you have to wait for the latter. You get the picture.

Besides the large number of people, the other problem was that none of us had planned for the trip. We unkindly left the planning to Bernard, who had grown up there. Most of us had been travelling and too busy to figure out what we wanted to see in the countries so we arrived with no clue as to what was special about either place. This meant Bernard was our tour guide, and I'm not a fan of tours. :(

Despite my apprehension about not knowing what was going on, we did have a good time. We got to see Burgis Village (a market-y area) and the Singapore waterfront... And apparently that's all there is to Singapore. LOL. Seriously, Singapore is like a smaller version of Hong Kong, but much less exciting.

The most amusing things were the "no drug" warnings on the immigration cards, no smoking signs on the streets, and the giant durian (a theater that accidentally looks like the giant stinky fruit infamous in Asia).

The next day we went to the small island of Sentosa. Upon seeing the beautiful beach, I immediately wished I had my bathing suit with me. (We didn't know we were going to the island or anything and even if we had known, we didn't have time to go swimming.) We ended up splitting up and going our separate ways in small groups.

Peggy, Limin, Ayako, Mayumi and I went to see some of the free shows and walked around the island for a bit. (The walking part was unintended - we got lost looking for an herb and spice garden.) It was a beautiful park.

The whole discouraging thing about Singapore was that it was so expensive! Correction: It wasn't actually expensive - it was Hong Kong prices, but when you exchange $1000HKD and only get $200SGD back, you feel like crying. Even more so when half of it gets taken away for the hotel expenses.

Anyways, the next day we grabbed a bus to Melaka, Malaysia. Cue more stress for our trip. Limin and Peggy knew they could apply for a visa at the Malaysian border. Well, nobody mentioned how long it would take. To make a long story short, they disappeared to some other building while the rest of us waited on the bus. 1 hour later, and 2 people gone looking for them later, the bus driver is threatening to leave without them. We finally decide to go on ahead and hope they can catch up later. They did manage to catch up with us about 3 hours later - they caught a ride with another Taiwanese lady to a bus station.

Our hotel in Melaka was so swank. It was a 5 star hotel with a nice pool and comfy beds. Plus the all you can eat breakfast buffet was faboo.

Anyways, in Melaka, we didn't do much either. We hit up a Church of some sort - I think it was a Confucius church, which was its unique feature. Nothing terribly exciting about it though. It was just a set of walls and a light house the British built upon taking over oh so long ago.

That night we went to "Satay Sentral," a satay house. Can I say cool? The food didn't taste all that great to me, but I did enjoy the novelty of the meal and the variety. Basically it was a "do it yourself" restaurant. You walked along and pick up various sticks (each stick held some kind meat or veggie on it) and brought it back to your table. There, you stuck your stick into a pot of satay sauce in the middle of the table. The sauce was really sweet though. But I really did enjoy the liver sticks and the okra sticks. :)

The next day we left for Kuala Lumpur (called KL from now on). Immediately upon arrival we hit up the strange toilet I mentioned in my previous post. :) Then we met some of Bernards friends at the KLCC mall (which 4 hours later we discovered was actually the base of the twin towers of KL. The best thing about the mall was hanging with Limin and eating Cinnabon. :) We also played Jenga (the tumbling tower game) in a park nearby. How many people can claim that? (Don't ask who would want to.)

I think my writing seems funnier/wittier to me right now because it's 4am and I'm exhausted. Anyways, continuing...

We had to catch a train back to Singapore, so we decided to go to the train station and hang out there until we had to depart. Well, I've never been so bored in my life. We walked aorund the train station, outside the train station, to nearby markets, but there was NOTHING there! Once again we had to rely on each other to remain amused.

The train itself was very similar to the one I took in Thailand, but it was much cleaner and quieter. (The Thailand train did have the bonus of luggage racks and hooks to hang your purses on at night.) We had more fun by playing cards and constantly shushing each other when we laughed too loudly and were trying not to wake the people on the train.

Singapore was still raining upon our arrival, so we dumped our luggage off at Bernard's friend's place and headed out to get food. We went to one of the random outdoor cafeterieas that I grew really fond of. You could buy so much different types of food and just chill outside. Unfortunately after our food, we split up and decided to meet at a certain time and place. Well, the time came and went, and everyone except for Peggy appeared. Uh oh.

30 minutes later, Bernard's friend found her - she had been waiting for the others (who had actually returned to the meeting point) outside the market they had been shopping at. Life was good and we managed to return.

Throughout the entire trip though, the one girl, Miki, was absolutely sick. I felt so bad for her. I think she had the flu because she was coughing, achy, constantly tired, and so on. On our last day, she had a bit of a fever (we think), but we managed to sneak her through the health checks in Hong Kong. (You walk through heat sensors upon leaving the airport.) She's doing better through now. :)

So as you can guess from my trip, I didn't see many cultural places in Singapore and Malaysia, but it was more than made up for by hanging with these people I didn't know too well and now enjoy immensely. :)