Malaysia and Singapore

The night train to Butterworth in Malaysia was mostly comfortable but we didn’t get a lot of time to enjoy our beds as the train was running late and didn’t collect us until nearly 3am, we then had to get back out of bed for the border crossing at 9am. It was one of the smoothest border crossings yet, a stamp out of Thailand and a stamp into Malaysia all within the same office and back on the train to find, most disappointedly, that the beds had magically turned back into seats and so the rest of the journey was a more normal train sleep, drooling against the window! From Butterworth we took a ferry across to Penang Island to spend the night in Georgetown. As a former colony it has some nice buildings, a nice park area at the waterside and a few bars to keep us entertained. With only one night here we didn’t get to see it all but we got a taste of Penang which was good as it’s another place I know my parents visited nearly 40 years ago!

The following day involved boat and bus to reach Kuala Lumpur, the exciting big city of Malaysia and home of the beautiful Petronas Towers. Arriving in the evening we headed straight out for a walk through the city, past the KL Tower and arriving ultimately at the beautiful twin towers. I was taken aback by their beauty, I’ve seen many fabulous buildings which stop you in your tracks (or not) and this one is definitely a highlight and a sight to behold, the lights shining out, the elegance, the way they command your attention and hold it. I couldn’t just take a photo and walk away; I had to allow my eyes to saviour it. The city is so clean and accessible, it was lovely to walk around at night time, I really enjoyed listening to the live music and taking in the lights and the atmosphere, Kuala Lumpur scored a lot of points that night.

After enjoying the towers so much in the dark I was keen for a daytime visit not to end as a disappointment, and I am pleased to say there was no disappointment in store for me. As stunning as they are lit up at night, the towers are equally eye-catching in the daylight, so much glass and silver metal draws the eye right in and once again I am captivated by the presence of something very attractive! Such a beautiful building! Walking around them also holds various pleasures, from the small lake to the fountains to the flashes of air conditioning blasting you as you walk past the doorways of the very expensive shops housed within. It’s like a small burst of heaven when you walk past an air conditioned doorway, a small but very enjoyable blast of freezing air to break up the monotony of constantly sweating! We’ve been sweating for a long time now, the last time I remember not sweating was China, there was actually a point in China when I had a fleece on!! That seems a long time ago now.

The rest of my Kuala Lumpur experience involved wondering around the city, and what a lovely city it is. It’s such a clean place, seems very orderly, there is of course a China Town and lots of Chinese food on offer all around the city, the Malaysian food is either well hidden, not advertised as Malaysian or it’s just a combination of Asian foods, I can’t quite decide.  We also spent a night in the nearby shopping centres theme park with all sorts of fun stomach-churning rides to play on, it was a lot of fun.

From KL we headed to Malacca for a couple of days of exciting discovery, and discover we did, mostly though we discovered that this seems to be a very odd place and I’m not entirely sure why so many tourists come to visit this town! There are fort remnants, and canons and a variety of churches and temples and of course a China Town but most of these we discovered on the first few hours of being in the town. As our time there expanded we then discovered that the pavements are a little secret known only to the lucky few, in the middle of China Town there’s a garden devoted to some brass animals and a brass statue of Mr Malacca (also Mr Asia, Mr World and Mr Universe, though who competes in that that didn’t compete in Mr World I do not know!!) and then there were the cyclos or rickshaws with their over-the-top flowers and flashing lights turning a normal mode of transport into something really quite different!  The best part for me was a beautiful church up on a hill, St Paul’s, which is the roofless remains of a church lending itself as a fantastic outdoor performance area.  There was some dancing on while we were there and what a great place to enjoy some visual arts, under the stars.  With some time to spare we took a wander along the sea front to take in the sights of the nearby boats afloat in the Malacca Straits, there weren’t loads to watch but I still like to see the huge barges being pulled by tugs and any container ships that might be at sea at the time.

The following day we took a bus to Singapore and that was the end of our time in Malaysia, a country which hasn’t lived up to expectations in my mind. I have enjoyed my time here and Kuala Lumpur was an easy winner as my favourite part but overall I am leaving Malaysia a little bit disappointed by my inability to match it with a fantasy.

Singapore is well known for all its rules and cleanliness but I think this time around (I visited Singapore briefly in 1999) I found it to be a little more relaxed and Kuala Lumpur had raised the bar with cleanliness leaving Singapore behind in second place. The highlight of Singapore was the coincidental occurrence of the Grand Prix which was taking place during our visit, this immediately gave the city an extra buzz and the atmosphere was easily passed on to the rest of the city. A stroll along the busy shopping area of Orchard Street proved to us the wealth of the city, we were passed by Lamborghinis, Porches, all sorts of fancy cars in among all the fancy hotels and posh shops there’s a lot of money floating around. Between the shops were formula one cars on display, podiums to have your photo taken on and temporary shops selling merchandise.

On the night of the final race two of us took a walk into the city centre, it’s about a 45 minute walk and along the way we became aware of a kind of buzzing noise, of course it was the sound of racing cars in the distance. As we neared the race circuit the noise got louder and louder and it was quite eerie walking a city at night with the background soundtrack. Eventually we reached the closed roads of the race course, we could stand just metres from the road and while we couldn’t see the cars the sound of them tearing past was immense, and very exciting, it soon became our mission to see the cars! The whole place is well sealed but we managed to find a building with a fairly climbable wall, a metre up and hello! There go the cars! It was too much for us, we both actually squealed with delight every time one went past! We lasted in our spot for a couple of minutes before security moved us along, but by then we didn’t mind we were elated with our success. Eventually we found a pedestrian bridge right next to a bridge the cars race across and we sat there for the rest of the race watching them flash past us, we then had a perfect view of the end fireworks. Sitting on the bridge, listening to the cars zooming past with the backdrop of a beautiful city, followed by a walk along the riverside, what a gorgeous night, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening out in Singapore.

The next day was just as exciting, we walking into the city again and headed around the riverside towards the marina. There are some really lovely buildings here painting a cityscape befitting of such a rich capital. Fortunately the route we walked was similar to that of the Grand Prix and so it was natural for us to walk the empty streets of the race-course while they dismantle the masses of concrete and iron in place. It was really quite special to have this opportunity to see the marks on the walls where wheels have connected, to see the skid marks and crash marks where a car had smashed into a wall and to stand in the place where Michael Schumacher had taken out another car and come to a skidding halt. Pieces of rubber remain strewn around the place and only a handful of tourists have taken to the race-course like we have, making it a pleasant dander around. These things generally wouldn’t be all that interesting to me, but it all added up to a far more enjoyable Singapore adventure than I had bargained for, I thoroughly excited myself and can declare quite truthfully that without the Grand Prix Singapore would not have scored nearly as high on the smile test. I leave here with a far more positive view of the place and can’t help thinking of it with a gentle buzz in my heart.

Sa-Wat-Dee Thailand

The journey into Thailand was uneventful, the main difference between this and any other was the sheer number of people at the border, I don’t think we’ve had any queues this long before, it’s funny to think that back in Pakistan, crossing into India we were the only people at the border crossing, we also had to sit around for over half an hour as they waited for the power to come back on so that they could process our passports! It was also the busiest no-mans-land we’ve passed through as there were people everywhere! Once through the border we were not able to continue on the same bus as we were then transferred to minibuses which made the country seem instantly posher!

It was with an air of excitement that we arrived in Bangkok, so much to see, so much to do and only 3 nights and 2 days to do it in. What a great city, I so enjoyed wandering around, passing through all the different markets, seeing all the various street foods on offer, wandering through our own touristy area with its busy market and pub life, Khao San Road is another fantastic place to sit and people watch. Especially as day turns into night and the scenes in front of you change accordingly, the people get drunker and some of the street vendors start to offer a different variety of wares, none of which you would want in your bag for any Asian border crossing!!

We took a trip out to the popular floating market near to Bangkok, and it was nice to be taken around the canals in a little boat, surrounded by other little boats, some full of tourists, others selling food and souvenirs, sometimes congestion halted our progress but any boat is always fun for me. What wasn’t fun? This is not what we all come to see! The place is packed to the hilt with tourists and tourist tat, all the stalls selling the same things (at bumped up prices) and sometimes when you don’t buy they don’t like it. Places like this make me wish I was not a cog in the tourism machine, what was once an amazing little local market is now yet another place in the world where the tourists provide the money and the locals are just slaves to the industry. Their previous way of life has disappeared and in its place they find themselves practically begging people to buy their goods, they get haggled down and get angry at tourists, tourists become unfriendly in return and the atmosphere is tainted. The whole thing is tainted and I hate being a part of it. These are the kind of places I sometimes want to avoid on my journey, but I have to experience this to appreciate the other places a little more, and like a good little tourist... I still took a photo!

That night we went in search of a ladyboy drag show, the best known and most talked about one is not open as they move venues so the only one we’ve found takes place in a nightclub and we have to entertain ourselves until it opens. We headed to the touristy area of Patpong, a great wee night market is in full swing and we headed to one of the local gay bars where we passed a few hours with some lively karaoke! After that with still a few hours to kill we headed for the tourist attraction (I use the word very loosely) of a ping pong show! Girls shooting ping pong balls and various other bits and bobs out of their bits and bobs! Here, the ladyboys only dance as clearly they cannot partake in the main attraction! It was a bit cringe-worthy, but funny also, best when the girls were laughing and looking like they don’t hate their job. The funniest part being when a ping pong ball hit me in the chest and stuck to me!! I had goo in my hair!! Once that was done we headed to our drag show and weren’t disappointed, several ladies took the stage in amazing make-up and sparkly dresses, miming their hearts out as others danced in the background. I really enjoyed my night. At the end of that the lovely sparkly compeer must embarrass some audience members and who better to choose than our very own baby-faced Dan! ‘Are you sure you’re not gay, are you sure?’ they taunt as they take him on stage and physically molest him! I take my hat off to him as not once did he let out his girlish squeal as he stood there, hands in the air, taking the various stages of fondling like a man! Bangkok lived up to its reputation that night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The next day we took a map and conducted a self made walking tour of the city, passing the palace, wats, gardens, Chinatown, bridges, various monuments and sitting Buddha’s. I’m delighted to see how much character Bangkok still has, it’s still very much an Asian city despite its richer areas with high rise buildings and fancy restaurants there are still loads of lovely little cute parts of the city bustling with locals. The highlight was the Sky Bar, though it wasn’t open. Once of the poshest high rise buildings in the centre is home to a 65^th floor restaurant and outdoor bar and there is a strict dress code that we failed as backpackers for several reasons! As the bar has been made famous in the film ‘Hangover 2’ the owners are happy to allow visitors up to that floor to take photos from inside and despite our current attire the lift attendant kindly points out that they open at 6pm should we wish to change and return, it’s lovely to not be judged ‘not good enough’ by someone in such a posh place. From there we headed down to the river to catch a ferry back up to our part of the city and got to enjoy the pleasures of another boat journey, seeing the city from another angle and passing yet more buildings which demonstrate the variety in wealth on display here. That evening was spent people-watching on Khao San road while trying and failing to find another show to go to. A fantastic day in a fantastic city, another couple of days would not have been wasted here.

We left Bangkok to travel to Kanchanaburi, home of the Bridge over the River Khwae and various museums dedicated to the Death Railway and war cemeteries. Another story which came as new to me, prisoners of war and citizens were used to build a very tough 415km stretch of railway linking Thailand and Burma during World War II by order of the Japanese. In the building of this around 100,000 people died from starvation, disease, accidents and mistreatment. The Japanese were fierce slave-drivers who forced people to work without enough food or medical supplies, even when someone was literally dying and could barely stand up from exhaustion, malaria, dengue fever, they were still forced out to help with the railway. Over 400km of railway including hundreds of bridges were completed within 16 months! While the original bridge was bombed parts of it have been used in the rebuild and the one that stands there today takes both pedestrians and trains across it.

We hired bikes to cycle around the area and ended up at some more Buddha caves, the best Bhudda caves we’ve visited yet. The path took us about 30 or 40 feet underground into deep caves which were great fun to explore, made better by the fact that around every corner there was a Buddha wedged into a crevice! Stalagmites and stalactites create beautiful surroundings as we clamber over and under the rocks. Nearing the end it opens into a large cave with a couple of bats flying around, off this is a smaller cave with even more bats flying around our heads! We’re then taken up steps and pop out into the real world again, sweat pouring off us but all the happier for finding such a fun little place to explore. Next stop was one of the 3 war cemeteries, they’re well kept, beautiful gardens and it’s really nice to see such care is still taken over them, there’s even a dog that seems happy to stay here and watch over the place.

We also hired a couple of small but fast boats to take us up and down the river for an hour. We split into two groups and raced each other along the River Khwea Yoi having a great time to ourselves, it was only lunchtime and yet we passed much bigger boats with parties going on aboard, loud music and dancing!! We hovered nearby to poach some music and then zoomed away on our fun boats.

Kanchanaburi is the first taste of really amazing Thai food. I am in love! The curries and the soups are just so delicious, while they’re all similar in that they have many of the same ingredients; they are all very different too. Tom Yum is the spicier coconut soup, Tom Kha is not spicy but a slightly sweet coconut soup, Massamai curry is a coconut curry, Patang curry is a more aniseedy flavoured coconut curry using an aniseed flavoured leaf we’ve found in a couple of other dishes. I was so preoccupied with these dishes it took me until the last night in Thailand to remember to try any of their better known coloured curries, the red the green or the yellow, tastes of which have left me wanting more! As far as culinary delights are concerned two weeks in Thailand is just not long enough, I cannot eat enough to fulfil my required intake of Thai flavours, I must endeavour to learn more about these dishes when I return home. Even my beloved pork porridge has been dumped at breakfast time in favour of Tom Kha! How can I ever go back to the western world where we don’t have rice for breakfast?!

Kanchanaburi  to Ko Samui was a longer journey with an overnight train, a bus, a ferry and then a minibus. Once we arrive though we have 5 days on this holiday island to relax, recharge and explore, relaxing being top of the list as we’ve been on the go quite a lot lately. The island has a ring road of about 100km and various other small roads branching off it, beaches dotted around, forested hills in the middle and various towns spread around, it’s fairly built up and there are plenty tourists. The nearest beach to us is a nice little bay with another small island at the end which you can walk to at low tide. Once again, the food adventure continues and we are lucky to be staying near a variety of street vendors who all serve fantastic local food usually between 50p and 2 GBP, I wish I could eat more than two meals a day while I’m here, but I am just never hungry enough!

We hired mopeds for a day to go around the island and see the local sights; the big Buddha (one of them) stands tall overlooking a gorgeous blue/green bay. The mummified monk, who is not mummified at all, is a dead body propped into a sitting position as was his wish, on display in a glass box outside his temple, it’s not an attractive sight made worse by the Rayban sunglasses covering his eye sockets! Continuing our moped tour we climbed hills, explored some forest tracks and got soaked at an alarming rate when we got caught out in a down pour. We then visited some well known rock formations of Ko Samui, the Grandpa and Grandma Rocks which are really just rude shapes found on the shoreline and turned into a must see tourist attraction.

For our last night in Ko Samui some of us went in search of some more ladyboy and drag shows. The nearby tourist haunt of Chewang provided us with a selection of shows to choose from and so we opted for two. The first was a tongue in cheek show on a tiny stage with all the feathers and sparkles we could ever have dreamed of. The second was a scaled up version of this on a proper stage with proper seating and beautiful flirtatious waitresses trying to woo the men into spending more money. It was a really great night, we sang our hearts out as they mimed at the top of their lungs and it fulfilled our need for Thai ladyboy entertainment. It was also interesting to see all their different glitzy costumes and to note how they have been adapted depending on what stage of physical alteration each dancer has reached, for example some have their cleavage out while others have it completely covered as maybe no operations have taken place. No matter, they all put a lot of effort into their performances and made our night amazing!

Leaving Ko Samui we get back in our minibus, onto the ferry and then board a bus to Surat Thani where we stop for a few hours to await our night train to Malaysia. A busy hotel housed us for those few hours where I sat people watching in the lobby and noticing all the single ladies arriving to keep people company for a few hours and then leaving later on, once again the adult industry is showing its face as night time calls to the lonely.

Asian Photos

 Mount Everest or Sagarmatha is the central mountain, Nepal

Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an, China 

The Bayan, Angkor Thom at Angkor Wat site, Cambodia 

Ta Prom Temple, Angkor Wat site, Cambodia

Helicoptering out of Lukla, Himalayas, Nepal

Sour Sdey Cambodia

What a pleasure the drive to Cambodia was! The driver and his crew were the friendliest ever and they took all our paperwork from us and filled in our departure and arrival cards for the border and handled everything for us, all we had to do was show up and wait for it to be processed. It was such a joy and made up for many of the grumpy bus drivers we’ve had in Vietnam. Our first stop in Cambodia was Phnom Penh, the capital city where there’s a bustling night market, a busy river side touristy street and as much people watching as you can stand. I thoroughly enjoy people watching and took an afternoon out to sit outside a cafe, write a blog, and partake in that very activity. The odd thing about this city though is that many of the westerners appear to be ageing single men, some of whom have a young local girl on their arm, some of whom gather together with other single ageing men through the day and then the night time would be anyone’s guess, mine being the adult industry which would appear to be in full swing in this place! I never expected it to be so obvious. All through South East Asia we have seen the occasional older white man with a young local lady but here there are way more of these men, and I’m trying hard not to judge what I see.

Our first day out here had to be to the Killing Fields, another country with an horrific story to tell, and so recent as it only happened in the late 70s. Cambodians flooded the streets in April 1975 to celebrate the end of the war when Pol Pot (Khmer Rouge) came into power, just hours later they were being evicted from their homes and sent to work in the fields. Over the next 3 years this regime massacred around 2 million people, nearly a quarter of Cambodia’s population, and threw their bodies into mass graves, 129 of which are spread across the country, they also terrorised those who remained. A school in Phnom Penh was turned into an interrogation centre known as S-21 where people were brought in and tortured for several months before being taken to the killing fields. S-21 housed around 20,000 people and I believe that only 7 people survived this by becoming useful to the Khmer Rouge. This place is now the main museum and walking around it is eerie and sad, makeshift cells still exist, blood can still be seen on the floors and photographs and paintings help us to understand some of the horrors that took place. Outside the city is the site of one of the killing fields or mass graves which is now an open air museum come park with an audio guide telling stories and a memorial stupa which has 9 floors of human skulls displayed within. Walking around what is now a beautiful memorial park gives us time to listen to the stories and reflect peacefully on the disturbing things we are hearing. When the rains come and shift the soil, relics continue to rise up out of the ground, as we walk around there are loads of rags coming through as well as some human bones poking out and once a month the staff collect them and care for them. The Khmer Rouge considered bullets to be too expensive and so used farming equipment from a nearby shed to kill the prisoners. These poor men, women and children were taken from S-21 blindfolded; they had already been tortured, they were thin and weak and scared, they were brought to the mass grave and made to line up along the edge of it where they were battered until they fell in. In the worst section the ‘killing tree’ existed next to the grave of hundreds of children as they had been hit against the tree and then thrown into the pit. The Khmer Rouge then sprayed the graves with chemicals, this would help kill those who were about to be buried alive but it also masked the smell of the graves which were surrounded by land mines in an effort to hide the evidence. Pol Pot was afraid of anyone who might rise against him and so killed anyone with an education; this meant that once it was all over rebuilding the city was very slow as there were no architects or engineers left in the country to do the work. Today the leaders of the Khmer Rouge are in custody and awaiting trial, Pol Pot died too soon to face charges and the others are so old they will never face the punishment they deserve. A terribly sad and tragic tale of needless suffering and death in an otherwise peaceful society.

A walk around Phnom Penh brought us to markets, indoor and outdoor, wats, lots of cafes and eateries, the river and the palace. It’s a nice city, small and lively and I enjoyed my time here but I’ve arrived at that awful place where I have little interest in the temples and the wats and the stupas. I still love the look of them and I still get a wee kick from seeing the monks walking around in their orange robes, it’s such a special sight for a westerner, but I have no desire to enter the temples or spend any time around them, I am becoming indifferent to them. After the killing fields my favourite part of this city has been the busy night market near our hostel, selling loads of food. There’re many types of fish, whole or chopped, buy a bag of fish heads? Crabs all bound up with reeds, giant (and I mean giant!!) prawns, eels, alive and dead. I couldn’t resist a skewer of barbecued chicken which the vendor then dusted with a salt and squeezed lime juice over, that was really tasty!

We moved on from here to Siem Reap, another fairly touristy town but that is mainly due to its close proximity to Angkor Wat (city of temples), the largest Hindu temple complex in the world dating back to around the 12^th century.  A sleepy 5am start to the day ensured we were there in time for a non-existent sunrise and able to start the long day of exploring ancient ruins and temples. The Angkor Wat building itself is recognised the world over by its 5 towers which also feature on the Cambodian flag. Along with Angkor Wat we also visited Angkor Thom and Ta Prom Temple, only 3 out of the many that are situated here. Angkor Thom is a small(ish) city containing many different buildings including the Bayon which is incredible, several rock peaks stand tall each with different faces looking out over the area. Ta Prom is also known as the jungle temple as the trees have grown into the building making it such a magical place to roam around, it all looks like something created by the imaginations of the film industry, such a fantastic place to spend the day. We spent around 7-8hours wandering around the sites, once again thanking the lack of Health and Safety for enabling us to rummage about in places deemed too dangerous in other countries, up and down ridiculously steep steps, under semi-collapsed archways, it’s the kind of place that makes you wish you were a child again because adventures here would be the best! What a fantastic day out, and like everywhere else, there’s food stalls dotted about selling their wonderful food! What more could I ask for?

Like Phnom Penh the rest of the visit involved markets and food stalls and wondering about. I treated myself here to a reflexology foot, hand and shoulder massage and what a treat it was at the bargain price of about 3 GBP for an hour. After he’d done my feet, my legs, my hands, arms, head, neck, shoulders and back I couldn’t help wondering what the full body massage involves?!

Along the road to the Thai border the Cambodian dream draws to a close, looking out the window of the bus the land is flat and there are miles of paddy fields and people working the land. I’d love to return to this country, I feel there is a lot more to explore here and it would be really great to get away from the touristy spots and get a better feel for the place. The people are smiling and friendly, the food is tasty and cheap and the land is green and fresh. With such a sad history I am interested to see how it continues to develop.