Welcome to Malaysia. Another
stop on our Asian adventure. This time we begin gently in the paradise island
of Langkawi before we use public transport to get ourselves across the country
and down to Singapore- no flashpacking with drivers here!
Langkawi is a
beautiful spot, white sandy beaches, turquoise water- you know yourself, the
usual! Quite a relaxing few days with a bit of touristing thrown in. Did some
island hopping between islands- there are 104 in the archipelago so got to see a
bit of variety, similar views to Halong Bay in Vietnam, gorgeous. Another day
we rented a car to drive around the island. Quick and easy way to do it, visited
a few of the less built up areas, some waterfalls and even called into the
hawker night market for dinner. 
When we think of
Malaysians we generally always think of the shawls they wear- it gives the women
a very distinctive look. One of the things that really surprised us when we got
to Georgetown in Penang was the lack of them around the place. When we read up
on it, we discovered that it’s primarily Chinese in Penang- on enquiring
further we found out that there are almost 7 million Chinese in Malaysia, an
insane number and it can be clearly seen around the place- they really are
taking over the world!
Georgetown was one of
our favourite spots so far. I described it as Asia’s version of Melbourne- famous
for their food, their street art and as mentioned above, has loads of Chinese! Since
2008 Georgetown has
been a UNESCO world heritage city, one of the campaigns they have run in the
last few years was to encourage artists to do street art around the city. There
are now fifty plus pieces around the city and has become a bit of a tourist
trail to go around and find as many of them as you can. As with all art, some
of it is very cool and clever while others is…….. an acquired taste. Most of
what we saw fell into the former category, really cool pieces with characters
painted to interact with the buildings and objects around them. Hopefully the
photos do them justice.
As I’m a married man
now, I’m always trying to impress my wife by bringing her to nice restaurants
in town and sampling the local cuisine- in Georgetown you can do just that all
while spending very little. Over our three days, we spent a total of $24 on six
meals out and the food was oh so good. Eating at markets or restaurants as
recommended by the guesthouse turned into a goldmine of good food.
To give you
an idea, the map of Georgetown that we had, listed 109 recommended food outlets
so we were not short of choices and thanks to the pricelist we were left with
plenty of money left over- I’m sure we’ll spend it quickly in future destinations!
Bus trips between
destinations in Asia are always entertaining, most countries have a network of
tourist buses or minivans that go between the tourist destinations for a
reasonable price. It doesn’t seem to matter which country you’re in- they
always seem to find characters to drive the buses and all of these characters
seem to abide by a bunch of unwritten rules to entertain or drive to despair
the unwitting tourists!
1- You will
always receive a pickup time, the bus will never turn up at that time, usually
allow 30-40 minutes after the suggested time. Don’t fret, this additional time
is always included when they calculate the arrival time
2- Do not
expect the driver to take a direct route when a circuitous route is far more
efficient! When picking up fellow travellers from other guesthouses, arriving
back at the same spot numerous times is to be expected
3- There will
never be spare seats on the bus. It seems to be a rule with these companies
that they somehow never manage to undersell a bus trip- it’s truly admirable!
4- Trips
usually are accompanied by the musical symphonies of the native country blaring
out
5- Expect to be
amused/ bemused in equal measure
Our driver on our trip
from Georgetown to Tanah Rata was not a let down and ticked all of the above
boxes- our favourite incident was just after he went through a toll booth on a
highway, he decided that was the perfect time to pull over and do some checks
on his van! So fifty metres past the toll booth, he pulls over, lights up a
cigarette, goes from tyre to tyre and gives each one a good violent kick to
(presumably) check the pressure then decided to check the oil, sure what else
would you do while smoking!? Thankfully all parts of the vehicle passed his
examination- not sure what he would have done had it not passed but it was a
perfect place to check anyway. Got to love Asia!
Next stop thanks to our
wonderful bus driver was the Cameron Highlands, a pleasant change from the 100%
humidity that welcomed us everywhere else- high up in the mountains so nice and
cool, main peak we visited was over 2,000 metres above sea level. Nice couple
of days seeing the countryside, beautiful tea plantations there, had a nice few
cuppas for myself as my wife tried a variety of flavoured teas- word to the
wise, there's a reason nobody sells chocolate tea anywhere!
So after ten days in
Malaysia we finally got ourselves to KL for a look. Our first big city of the
trip (neither Perth or Colombo are THAT big!). A nice city, very modern with a
touch of old school thrown in- old temples, market stalls in some parts of city
but overall its got more in common with Singapore then Colombo. Did a lot of
exploring on foot, so a whole lot of walking, pretty tricky city to navigate
through as (1) not very pedestrian friendly, (2) road layouts/ intersections
aren't signed very well (3) 100% humidity, (4) I have no sense of direction
whatsoever!
Thankfully Aoife is far better with a map and knowing her right from her left so we got around OK.
Certainly made me miss Melbourne's lovely grid layout!
With any trip to Sydney
we gravitated to the harbour to see the bridge and the opera house, in KL all
roads seem to lead to the Petronas Towers. A fantastic set of buildings that
tower over the city. At night especially they're an awesome site. They were the
tallest building in the world until 2004. Currently the Burj Khalifa in Dubai is
the tallest (almost double the height of the Petronas Towers!)- while the Burj
Khalifa is an amazing site its kind of bizarre as the views from one side of it
are mostly sand, it just doesn't really make any sense to have a building that
tall there. Contrary to that the
Petronas towers fit in the middle of this big city and are surrounded by other
skyscrapers also. It's got personality and personality goes a long way!
If you want a view of
the Petronas Towers then you couldn’t beat having a drink in The Heli Bar
Lounge- during the day it’s a helipad, at night it’s a bar! So you could say
that at night it’s a Health & Safety nightmare- Oh but what a view.
Fantastic having a beer and sitting ten metres from the edge of a 35 story
building protected by the might that is a velvet rope- Stay safe everybody!
Only in Asia could a place like this exist- could you imagine the paperwork and
the laughter in the public servants office if you proposed a bar like this in
the western world- we can only enjoy it while it lasts. Please note nobody was
hurt in the taking of this photograph!
Anyone who’s been to KL
knows that they could spend days thralling through the markets that are here
embracing their inner consumer searching for real genuine Jimmy Choo shoes,
Prada handbags, ray bans sunglasses, rolex watches etc. I reckon it’s a real
indication of when a product has “made it” that suddenly it’s in these markets
been hawked for ten percent (if you haggle!) of it’s western price. Since we
were last in Asia four years ago, the big product that is now everywhere are
Beats by Dre- fancy headphones by the rapper which retail at $400 but are
available (if you haggle!) for $30! Out of curiosity I inspected the goods just
to see what they were like- in summary the packaging was top notch but the
contents of the boxes was chronic, so badly made, they would have fallen apart
after a week if lucky, these were not the product that Apple would pay $3b for.
You certainly have to give the salespeople credit pushing this as if it’s the
real thing especially when everyone knows it’s only the handbags that are real!
Our final Malaysian stop
before we head off to Singapore is Melaka, another UNESCO world heritage city
(they applied with Georgetown on the one application, saves paperwork!)- a
colonial city with Portuguese, Dutch and British influences. A lovely city to
walk around but the real highlight comes not in the form of walking around and
seeing the history, the temples and the lovely buildings but in the form of the
souped up tricked out horror shows that are the trishaws that go around the
city! Hilariously kitsch, wonderful eyesores that they are, they are all decked
out in themes- “Hello Kitty”, “Frozen”, “Superman”, “Spongebob Squarepants” you
name it. Flowers, dolls, sound systems, flashing lights, they go all out to
haul you in! 
And if that doesn’t sum
up how Asia works, then you definitely must visit to see it for yourself!
Click here to see a selection of photos from our Malaysian trip
Click here to see a selection of photos from our Malaysian trip
Our route: Fly Colombo to Langkawi, Langkawi to Penang, Penang to Tanah Rata (Cameron Highlands), Tanah Rata to Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur to Melaka, Melaka to Singapore
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