I’m glad to report to anyone who’s interested that, despite the trials and many tribulations of backpacking (or should that read flashpacking??) and generally doing things on the cheap that we’re safe and well, well fed and yet to show signs of “Delhi Belly”.

Tue 3 Mar – Brisbane to Singapore
Wed 4 Mar - Singapore

The Jetstar flights from Brisbane to Singapore via Darwin came and went with few troubles, although mechanical problems at Darwin meant that our flight was delayed by over hour. Pity, as we’ve flown Jetstar a heap over the last year or two and their performance, particularly in maintaining schedules, had been getting so good that it was hard to justify any reason for spending extra for a flight with one of the more expensive airlines. The somewhat negative outcome of this for us was that we had to take a taxi from Changi International Airport to The Hive Backpackers, parting us with SGD (Singapore Dollars) 20 instead of a maximum of SGD 4 that would be incurred on the subway. I say ‘somewhat’ as the hostel might not have been the easiest to get to at that stage of proceedings. Nevertheless, the additional outlay was an ominous start to our ‘budget’ holiday.

I may as well insert here what is likely to become a familiar topic in my Asia 09 blog as we move from country to country. It is fair to say that the recent movements in the Australian dollar’s value will curb our spending ventures. As a meaningful comparison, as we encounter a new currency, I’ll provide both the AUD/local currency conversion rate that applies at present and the same rate quoted in Lonely Planet’s ‘Southeast Asia on a shoestring’, published March 2008.

AUD/Singapore Dollar:
Present: 1 AUD = 0.99 SGD
Lonely Planet March 08: 1 AUD = 1.28 SGD.
Ouch factor = 4/5 (it does make this small country more expensive than an Australian city, and it dramatically increases the prices of suits that I’d otherwise buy when we return here on our way back to Oz).

Singapore’s Changi International Airport is a sight to behold – this place, with multiple terminals, can surely rival any major international airport for size. Although unlikely to match NY’s JFK or London’s Heathrow for sheer human traffic, in plain square metres of floor space it well and truly holds its own. And to provide a very apt first impression of Singapore, it is spotless – not a speck of rubbish on the ground, not a visible smudged handprint on the numerous glass panes. Not surprising, it did take quite awhile to find the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit, aka the subway) station, which was a pointless adventure as the last train had left anyway.

Our room at the Hive Backpackers, located at the north end of the Little India district, was basic if not interesting. Featuring sliding Japanese double doors, our room has no windows but a very solid air conditioner. The light filtering through the quite thin doors was the same no matter the hour, thus we slept in until 9:30am without having any concept of the actual time of day.

We spent our full first day away from home (Wednesday) drifting through a number of the Singapore areas, in particular Little India, Kampong Glam (the Muslim quarter) and those parts hugging the eastern end of the Singapore River.

Amazingly, to prove the old adage that it’s a small world, in the vast Suntec City Mall (one of the numerous vast malls in Singapore!) we ran into an old PP mate Clayton Swain, on his way back to London from Melbourne.

Our drifting through the streets of Singapore did nothing to doubt that our first impressions of cleanliness were ill-founded, with the descriptions ‘ordered’ and ‘efficient’ also proving relevant. Although one must be concerned when, in one of the major dining and entertainment areas, a restaurant displays an illuminated VB sign on its rooftop. Surely a better Aussie beer could be found?? Just to top things off, a second sign on the same establishment was promoting Pure Blonde, the other brew from down under that I struggle to throw back.

The end of the day saw an overnight train to Kuala Lumpur. I failed to take a picture of our sleeping quarters but, although cramped and without a great deal of privacy, it completed the dual tasks of providing us with accommodation and transport to a satisfactory level.


Thu 5 Mar – Kuala Lumpur

The delay of our train arriving into Lumpy Koala (aka KL) made it none out of two for our long-distance transport providers (our Jetstar flight on Tuesday was the first), although we weren’t too concerned about this failure as the scheduled arrival time was 6:23AM. After some fun trying to find the Equator Hostel (the instructions probably aren’t the clearest on Hostelworld.com – free plug), we dumped our bags for the day and went and pounded the pavement. And did we pound some concrete!
Kuala Lumpur is quite similar to Singapore in that it is a real fusion of East and West – you could argue that its characteristics are more Western, not that that is ideal, but it does mean that you’re in instant comfort in the city. It is not a city with a massive amount of famous landmarks and notables, but it is one with a culture and a vibe undeniably its own. The Petronas Towers would be the most famous of its attractions, particularly if you’ve seen the movie Entrapment starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery. They dead-heated as the tallest buildings in the world at some time, before being overtaken in the 2004. Incredibly, the under-construction Dubai tower whose name escapes me holds the current record at nearly twice the size, so it’s been overtaken at a pace akin to Michael Schumacher driving past a snail.

Fittingly for our trip to-date, at the base of the towers is... a huge shopping mall.

Our walking tour (interspersed as necessary with rides on the very convenient KL Monorail) led us to Chinatown. This place contains very similar markets to those which so excited me in Hong Kong – in short, they are based on fake merchandise and haggling. There is famous brand name rip-offs as far as the eye can see; cheap-rip offs as long as you’re prepared to bargain hard and employ my patented walk-away techniqueÔ. Although nothing was purchased on Thursday, apart from a ridiculously cheap roast duck on rice (AUD 1.50 per person, including a soup!), I would be back there on Friday.

By the way, here’s the FROF (For-ex Rate Ouch Factor) for KL/Malaysia:

AUD/Malaysian Ringgit:
Present: 1 AUD = 2.37 MYR
Lonely Planet March 08: 1 AUD = 2.90 MYR.
Ouch factor = 3/5 (This is still a relatively cheap place).


Fri 6 Mar – Kuala Lumpur

We have an genuine early contender the best day of the trip. What started as adventure for two people to some remarkable caves on the outskirts of the KL metropolis became a six man party that took in all of the major items to be seen in this city. The party was expanded to three and then four over breakfast when Ryan from Geelong and Libe from Shailer Park teamed up with Lyn from Seattle and Simone from Wisconsin to head to the Batu Caves. This became six when Katie and Neil from Oxford, previously known to Lyn, met us at the bus stop awaiting our return trip to the KL centre. All four people were awesome folk to spend some time with, hopefully not for the last time!

This nearly became seven, eight, nine (etc, etc) when we were joined at our sidestreet food ‘restaurant’, encompassed by three tin walls and a tin roof, by a number of rats of a decent size. Although I’m sure the government health gurus back home might be concerned, I’m happy to say that it’s around 24 hours since eating that I’m typing this and the stomach feels as solid as a Mitchell Johnson on drive.

Surprisingly I think we saw more rats at this bargain-priced eatery than I’ve seen insects since we landed in Asia on Tuesday night. Where are they all??? Either Marc Melville’s unconventional fly trap has caught all those between Tallaroon Street and Thailand, or this area of the world is remarkably bug free.

Spending time here, KL (Kuala Lumpur, not Kristian Lawson) really comes across as a true indication of how large Muslim populations can easily co-exist with large numbers of peoples of other faiths. I’ve arrived at the general conclusion that where Islamic people are financially sound (which could be read as where they are ensured the chance to prosper) there is likely to be lower conflict between them and the people of other religions with whom they associate with. I can only highly recommend to those who have a opinion of Islamic communities and peoples to visit moderate Muslim societies such as KL and to consider afterwards what their prevailing perception of Islam is. Remember, we only see what is newsworthy in Australia, but good news isn’t what sells papers and attracts eyes!

It’s hard to believe that the population of KL is only 1.7 million. Looking out from the 360-degreee observation deck of the Menara KL (KL Tower) on Friday night, I was thinking that this city would have a greater number of people than Melbourne, particularly given the density here. Although, as suggested to us by Aysha from the Malaysian Travel Board, whom we met on the following night’s train, it may have something to do with the transient nature of the populace, a relative large percentage of whom come here for business without ever really switching their underlying residence to this city.

Or maybe the figure is only 1.7, which could be justified on the basis that the alcohol prices are by and large astronomical– refer to a picture taken on Saturday for evidence!

One of the quirks of this city is that although most of the population live in crowded places, particularly high rise apartment blocks, there is just as likely to be an enormous vacant lot next door to them, often as big as a few footy grounds, covered with long grass and not being put to any particular meaningful use. Or the lot may not be vacant, but instead has a shell of a building that is either numerous years into its slow construction, or has been permanently half demolished. It would not surprise me if a quarter or so of the city’s acreage is taken up by these wasted lots.

The density of the population is further increased by the fact that every second available property seems to be a coffee store, particularly Starbucks. Maybe KL is the city that never sleeps – if the population is actually 1.7 million they must just plough through a huge amount of caffeine per individual!

After leaving the hostel early and returning after midnight, via 7 Eleven to buy a couple of very expensive beers and to interrupt the shooting of a movie there (but that’s a completely different story), we were well and truly exhausted. Unfortunately my legs lasted longer than my camera battery, meaning that the opportunity to photograph the Petronas Towers at night went untaken by me. Plenty of great snaps were taken by the others in our tour group though and hopefully via the magic of Facebook we can share each other’s good work.



Sat 7 March – Kuala Lumpur

Unsurprisingly there wasn’t a large amount of energy nor number of must-see KL attractions left after yesterday, so Saturday was more about shopping and ambling around the inner city than previous days. Without the support of Neil that I had yesterday, the female-to-male ratio was further increased from 2:1 to 3:1, so I really didn’t stand a chance to avoid major shopping time. We managed to spend a fair bit of time in a claustrophobic supermarket in Little India where Libe and Simone managed to find some local textiles, while I managed to find a way to pass the time waiting without getting booted out by the manager (not really, I just wanted to use the word manage there again).

Our daily visit to Times Square occurred twice today, if that makes sense, after we found a shortcut through the carpark between our Hostel and the Imbi Monorail station, which are located on either side of the huge mall. The photos I’ve taken do portray its size to some extent but fail to show that there is also room for an indoor theme park in this place, supposedly the largest in Asia. The theme park include a full size rollercoaster, complete with the upside down loop. For around 25 Malaysian Ringgit (approximately 10.50 AUD), adults can drop the kids at the theme park to enjoy an unlimited number of thrill rides while the grownups hit the shops.

We would be leaving the Equator Hostel tonight and enjoying another overnight train, this time to Hat Yai in Southern Thailand. After saying near-tear inducing goodbyes to people who we’d only first spoken to 36 hours ago but who already felt like lifelong friends, we left the Hostel around 60 minutes before our train was due to leave KL Sentral Station.

What happened from there over the course of the hour between 7pm and 8pm turned what normally would’ve been a comfortable and easy trip through KL into our very Amazing Race. Factors that hurt our progress included Saturday night peak hour human traffic and the usual application Murphy’s law. First of all Libe had left her handbag at the Hostel, meaning yours truly made a dash back to reclaim it. Meanwhile, a monorail car heading in our direction came and went. After waiting a long while for the next service to come – this would be our longest wait during our stay in KL – we made the quick decision to head downstairs for a cab, only to get to the cab line to take notice its length and to recall earlier advice that it’s near impossible to catch a taxi in the early evening here. In the meantime, the monorail car that we’d been waiting for had arrived, but due to the delay between the previous car and it, few people of those waiting were able to sneak on. A further decision was made to actually head in the ‘wrong’ direction for one station, thus ‘jumping’ the queue at Imbi station. Although the monorail we needed to head back a stop came quickly enough, taking the wrong staircase to change platforms at the next station cost us the handful of seconds that made the difference between getting on the monorail car heading in the right direction and having to wait for the next one.

By this time things were getting quite desperate as the scheduled departure of our train was less than 20 minutes away. Missing the train wasn’t a great option as the trip was scheduled to take nearly 15 hours and that is a long time to make up in anyone’s language. We arrived at the KL Sentral Monorail Station with less than 10 minutes remaining but with quite a run (no time for walking at this stage!) to the Intercity train station and with quite a task to find where our train was. With sweat pouring off us like the recent rains in FNQ (Far North Queensland), we stepped onto the train at around 7.57. We settled in to our mobile overnight lodgings with undeniable relief, some exhaustion, and finally mild humour as the train failed to depart until 8.12 anyway.