We had a very early departure from Thailand to head to Malaysia with alarm clocks going off from around 4.30am or so! We had mini buses waiting for us to take us to the ferry port where we were meeting another bus which would take us on the ferry and to meet another bus on the mainland which would then bring us to the border. We had an early breakfast thanks to the wonders of a 7/11 shop at the port and then we got on the bus which drove us a short distance to the ferry. The ferry was about 45 minutes but after being up so early I pretty much just slept through it. The bus journey was fine and we provided some entertainment for some local school kids who were also on the bus with us! We changed from the big bus to two mini buses which drove us to the border and guided us through the process. In honesty there was very little they had to do. It was by far the easiest border we have done all along the way. We got stamped out of Thailand fairly swift and getting into Malaysia was even less hassle with s quick stamp and sticker in the passport. And then that was it, country 18 of 21! Back on the mini buses we got and then drove on to the island of Penang. Luckily getting to this island didn’t involve any ferry...so how did we get there??!! Well Penang has a 13.5km bridge linking it to the mainland! The bridge was huge. We were crossing it at dusk and at first I wasn’t quite sure what was going on as the sea and sky were just one blended grey colour. Then I copped on that it was a big ass bridge. Funny moment when, after about 5 minutes of driving on the bridge, Brian looked up from his laptop and said “Oh look, we are on a bridge!” We all laughed and informed him that we had been on it for quite awhile to which he replies “Well, just as well I pointed it out or else you all would have missed it!” so we got some little amusement before we got off our buses and headed into the hostel. Once we had dropped our bags we went in the hunt for atms and some dinner. We were successful in both missions and once we were fed and watered we all collapsed straight into bed.
The following day was our main day in Penang and in all honesty I didn’t find anything too exciting! I got up and headed out for a walk with Rhona and after an hour or so we hadn’t find anything worth taking our cameras out for except for a luminous green car that had Malaysia flags sticking up all over the roof of it! Rosie had been out that day too and did find some things such as churches and temples but she said that she is so templed out that she hardly bothered taking any pictures so I didn’t feel like I missed out too much! We attempted to go to a local food market that night but were directed to the wrong food market, so instead of ballroom dancing and line dancing to entertain us from the locals we ended up out a at a huge shopping mall with a tiny food market out the back. After having a quick look around a few of us decided there was nothing we wanted so ended up cheating and going into the mall and having something there. Oh Triona, they had a whole Korean type festival going on in the mall, I think promoting travel to Korea and I got really excited when I saw those Peppero Sticks (is that what they are called?). Didn’t get any but I did then observe them in pretty much every shop I was in after that throughout Malaysia!! And so that was Penang, a big bridge and peppero sticks! As Kev observed, it looked like Malaysia built a massive impressive bridge and when they reached Penang said “Oh f***, we put it in the wrong place!!” which pretty much sums it all up!
We left Penang the next day to head to Kuala Lumpur (KL) and I was excited. Everyone knows the Petronas Towers with the Skybridge and I was dying to see it. We got picked up from the hostel by the bus and we all got quite a shock when we got on and experienced a bit of luxury! At first I thought the nice bus was only taking us so far and then we were to change buses but when we got to the bus depot no one told us to get off so I settled into my seat. The bus we were on had, rather than two seats on either side of the aisle, had one seat on one side and two on the other. That’s because the seats were about a foot wider than normal, reclined, had a movable foot rest and they MASSAGED us!!! Yes I kid you not, we overlanders do it in style every now and then and this was style at its best in the public bus world!!! So we had a very comfortable journey to KL. When we arrived in the city I got that good feeling again! If there is one thing that this trip had made me realise, it’s that I am a city girl at heart! As much as I love beaches and a relaxing two week holiday, if I want to get a good feeling about somewhere all I need is amazing skyscrapers and a busy city atmosphere and I’m smiling! As we arrived in KL the heavens opened and it started spilling down but even this couldn’t take away from the city. The buildings all around us were amazing and I got a little glimpse of the towers but couldn’t get a proper look at them. When the bus got to the station we got taxis to our hostel, and this is when I realised KL is confusing!!! They have big massive roads but they all run on a one way system so getting from A to B involves driving through X, Y and Z first!! We did make it to the hostel eventually and got ourselves sorted. It’s one of the nicest hostels we stayed in on the trip. The bunk beds didn’t creak as they were all individually built into the wall, every bunk had its own little window with a shelf on it and we all had a little lamp and our own socket right beside our beds. I know that sounds like a list of rather mundane things but we have been in 14 beds dorms before and had 2 sockets...and we have a lot of crap to charge between laptops, cameras and phones so two sockets basically means there is a queue all the time! So having one beside our beds was like a little bit of luxury! Our hostel was right behind a massive shopping mall called Times Square (No I haven’t magicked myself to NY!!). I can’t really describe with any justice how big this place was...but I’ll try. It was 10 stories high, had an East, West AND Central mall, and had a cinema that was spread over the 3rd, 7th and 10th floors. Had a huge bazaar type market on the 10th floor too...and just so you can hopefully comprehend the size of it...it had a ROLLERCOASTER going through the 5th and 7th floors! Yep there ya go, a rollercoaster in a shopping centre...so yeah the place was massive!!! On the first day though we headed out to find an Irish bar to watch the rugby! Once the match was over a few of us headed to the cinema in the shopping centre and I came across a restaurant called Ireland’s Potato (I kid you not!!!) where they basically did a million different kinds of potato with a million different toppings!!! After the movie it was bed time and I discovered that the beds were as comfy as they looked and I passed out for a lovely sleep!
Alas, a lie in, in the comfy bed was not on the cards for me as I was up early to head out for the day. A friend of Joe’s had organised a friend of his to drive us around KL for the day to do some exploring. Lim (the driver) picked me, Joe, Rosie and Rachel us at 7.30am (!!) and off we headed. We all really wanted to do the Skybridge so Lim brought us straight to the towers to get tickets. They only hand about 1,600 tickets out in a day so it’s a case of getting there early and keeping your fingers crossed. When we parked at the towers we had a little adventure walking around trying to find the right escalator to bring us down to the ticket office. After doubling back a time or two we found what we were looking for...only to find a sign outside the door saying that from the 15th of September (that day!!!) until December 2011 the Skybridge would be closed for renovations!! I know typical luck really!! I refused to be too disappointed though and instead we decided to go to the KL Tower instead (think Fernseherturm for those of you who visited in Berlin!). We arrived there...to be told it didn’t open till 9!! So we had about half an hour to waste, so we grabbed a bite to eat and were first in the queue for tickets. This was actually a God send as when we got up there, there was none of the usual fighting to get at the window to have a proper look out. The lift to bring us up did 250 metres in about 58 seconds which was pretty impressive! The view was slightly hazy and we couldn’t see the whole way across the city, the audio guide was telling us to look at things that weren’t visible through the haze so I’d say on a good day the view is amazing. Having said that the view was still pretty incredible and I kinda liked seeing the buildings rise out of the haze in front of me. Once again I was waiting for a proper look of the towers...but they were positioned in such a way that from KL Tower one was nearly hidden behind the other and I still couldn’t see the Skybridge! We timed our visit brilliantly though as just as we were leaving a gang of excited school kids came running full tilt into the viewing area...so we promptly left as the chattering grew louder!! As part of our ticket we got to either had a pony ride (no thank you!!!) or go into the little zoo that was beside the tower. So we went for zoo!! The zoo was more a reptile and spider place with a few birds and monkeys around. They had a lot of snakes including a MASSIVE python and they had a big selection of “albino” reptile ranging from snakes, to a frog and lizard. The albino theme ran as far as a “Hairless Albino Mouse” which was in fact a disgusting trio of bald rats. These were beside a selection of bald somethings!! We all came across the cage at the same time and there was a chorus of “What the hell is that”...among other things as you can probably imagine. Even as I am writing about this I had a disgusted look on my face at the memory of those creatures! They also had some turtles, including a two-headed one that was a bit of an anti-climax after all the posters made such a huge fuss about it!! There was some monkeys, rabbits, including little baby rabbits (so cute!!) and we also saw a 14 day old parrot...which was kinda disgusting! It was in a little heated cage thing right as we walked in the door and we all wondered what it was. Guesses included a baby bat but then it moved a little and we saw its little beak and knew it was some kind of bird. It looked really funny, it had a body that looked too big for its head and yet he could barely lift his head as though it was too heavy for him. He was also slightly slimy and instead of nice colourful feathers he had black, well they weren’t even feathers they were just black stick type things sticking out of it!! I know it was only 14 days old and if I went back in a couple of years it would probably look amazing but the only was I can describe this parrot is to say that it reminded me of Voldemort from Harry Potter when he was just a creature i9n the first few films!!! Anyway, once we had had a look in all the cages we were on our way out when we walked past a snake box. Joe, rather calmly, stated “That snake is going to eat that gecko”. Us 3 girls whipped around and said “oh my God is it in the cage” and then we realise it was feeding time at the zoo!! The snake was probably about 2 foot long and was fairly skinny but as we watched it poised itself and got ready to strike, and then quicker than I could actually see it had got the gecko!! But the drama didn’t end there!! That little gecko was not going down (excuse the pun!) without a fight! He twisted around a grabbed the snake by the throat. The snake kept a good hold and a struggle ensued!! The snake at first just lay still and kept readjusting his grip, then he seemed to get a bit pissed off and he starting moving around, hitting the geckos head off the couple of branches in the cage, but even that didn’t weaken the spirit of the gecko and he would just grab onto the branch with his little hands! It was horrible to watch but for some weird reason neither me, Rosie or Rachel could stop looking (Joe seemed to have a bit more sympathy for the gecko’s plight and he went outside for a smoke!!!). Eventually the gecko’s body starting disappearing slowly but surely but still the little fella was fighting and covered the snake’s eyes as he tried to pull himself back out. We knew who was going to win the fight though and after about 15 minutes they gecko’s head disappeared with a last gulp from the snake and it was all over! I was slightly disappointed that there wasn’t a gecko shape in the snake but he just squished the little bastard to bits and he fit nice and neatly down the skinny snake!! And so we left the zoo with a slightly queasy feeling in our stomachs!! I guess I should have put a warning at the start of this story for people with weak stomachs but oh well, sorry about that!!!
Anyway, once the nature show was over we got back in the car and headed to the Batu Caves. The Batu Caves are about 13k outside of KL and they have been a Hindu Shrine since 1891. The caves have 273 steps to climb up to get to the entrance of the caves...but it is well worth the climb...as long as you manage to dodge the monkeys on the way up! Those monkeys were not shy and anything that was swinging they would make a leap for so it was a case of keeping bags and cameras close to us....one monkey still had a lunge at Rosie’s bag though! They are also clever monkeys! We saw one of them pick up an abandoned bottle of Sprite, twist the lid open and pour the Sprite out, catching it in his paw and drinking out of that!! When we did make it to the top the caves were pretty spectacular! Most of the caves I have been to in the past have had fairly low ceilings, these ones though had a massive high ceiling, my guess maybe about 30 metres high. And there was a few holes in the roof which let the sun shine through casting light around the caves. And as it was a shrine there were small temples and worship spots dotted around the place that made it seem so different to just being a big cave. We walked around for a bit and took it all in and then headed back down the steps. I should mention also that there is a 43 metres high statue at the foot of the steps which towers over the car park and the other temples that are within the little complex. Once we were finished at the cave we asked Lim to take us for some traditional food so he brought us to one of his favourite places. It was a street stall in an area we would not have seen had it not been for Lim. At first he thought the place he wanted to bring us was closed but after a second look he saw it was open so we parked up and went over. The dish we got was a mixture of different types of noodles with egg, string beans and morning glory (type of veg) and either pork or seafood mixed in with it. It was delicious. And as we had Lim there with us we were able to say what we did or didn’t want...in other words I got to say I didn’t want seafood and would just have it plan but then he said pork and tried to do an impression of a pig (!!!) to explain I had the choice! And not only did we have good food, we also had it cooked for us but a TV star!! Lim was very excited to tell us that the guy cooking our food (about 60 years old!) was on programmes on TV...granted he kept telling us the programmes were just aired in KL but he still seemed very proud of his famous friend! And when we mentioned it to the guy he blushed...I didn’t know that Asian people blushed but this guy did and got very shy all of a sudden!
When lunch was over we headed off to the Sultans Palace, known as Istana Negara. The royal ruling system in KL is exceptionally confusing and even after Lim explaining it to us and reading about it outside the Palace gates we still couldn’t figure it out. We THINK the way it works is that there are 9 royal families within KL and they take turns ruling. There is a constitutional monarchy on two levels; the King is the supreme head of the state and the Prime Minister is the head of the Government, and then in each state within Malaysia there is a sultan who is the head of that state and a Chief Minister who is the head of state government! There is a vote among the 9 Malayan sultans (one from each state) every 5 years and a new family is voted in as the king. Having said this after reading the information outside the Palace the confusion continued when we realised that every king is called the same thing; His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang Raja Permaisun Agong!!! Now to be honest I can understand why the Sultans don’t want to be king forever if they are going to be lumbered with a name like that!! The palace itself is less breathtaking than the royal palaces we have seen in other cities, such as Bangkok and Phnom Penh. We found out thought that the palace started off as a privately owned mansion that cost $150,000 to build. During the Second World War the Japanese used it as an officer’s mess throughout their occupancy and when the war was over the British then acquired it for RAF use. The mansion was finally used as the King’s Palace in 1957 when the Federal Government bought it for $1,408,000! In 1980 an arch at the gate was also added which would house 2 foot soldiers and 2 mounted soldiers who would guard the gate. We managed to time it right to see the changing of the guard and found it quite amusing to watch the mounted unit try to do their thing when there was about 100 tourists standing around in their paths as they tried to guide the horses through the correct choreography! One horse just did not want to cooperate and seemed to sense that his shift was nearly over as he was out of the arch and getting ready to leave before his replacement even came around the corner!! Once the changing of the guard was over and we decided that no matter how much we thought about it, it was possible we would never fully understand their ruling system we got back in the car and our next stop was the International Buddhist Peace Pagoda. I was expecting it to be somewhat like the Pagoda from Pokhara but I was totally wrong. Rather than being on the top of a mountain it was in the middle of the city in what I can only call the Religious Quarter as on the way to the Buddhist Pagoda we passed a Catholic Church, a Hindu Temple and a Zion Church! The monastery was founded about 1857 and the temple pagoda was developed around that. It was quite pretty and I liked that the old building from the monastery was shadowed by a new building behind it. KL seems to be able to mix the old with the new seamlessly well with the two eras mixing together rather than clashing! After a quick stop here we then headed to Thien Hou, a Buddhist Temple just outside of the city. This temple was what I imagined it to be with the colourful roof, glittering tiles and large gold Buddha statues that we have become accustomed to! We then had a look outside and found larger than life statues of all the animals in the Chinese calendar and found what each of us were...I am a tiger for those of you who are interested which means I am apparently brave, active, bold, optimistic, impulsive, humorous, frank, generous, pragmatic, responsible and tenacious! Anyone born in 1950, 62, 74 or 86 are the same! After this we got dropped back to the hostel after a very busy morning and afternoon.
Our day was not over just yet though! When we arrived at the hostel the day before the staff told us that we had arrived just in time for Malaysia Day (equivalent of Paddy’s Day). Usually it is on the 31st of August but it had been postponed due to riots as far as we could make out!! So that night there was a countdown to Malaysia Day (which was now the 16th of September) with a fireworks display at midnight. So we all got together headed out for some food and then hopped on the monorail (how many Simpsons fan are singing the song now!!) to the Petronas Towers. After all my wanting and waiting to see them I was not disappointed. As we walked from the station towards the towers my I fascinated. At night the towers are truly breathtaking once they are all lit up...plus we walked to them from a good direction so we got to see the Skybridge linking the two towers. I couldn’t stop looking at them and was completely in awe of them. We then went into the shopping centre to find out where the fireworks would be and went out the back to where there was dancing fountains and a stage had been set up on the pond with dancers and singers entertaining the crowd. I found the lack of people very odd!! There was a huge army and police presence and when I leaned on a barrier a soldier walked over and, very politely, asked me to please not lean on the barrier! It was only about 10 at this stage and the fireworks weren’t expected until midnight so I expected the crowd to get bigger and for it to get packed. Those of us who stayed for the fireworks found a nice step to sit down on and played IPhone Trivial Pursuit to pass the time...and not once did we get stood on or told to stand up as the crowd got bigger...cause the crowd just didn’t get bigger! Don’t get me wrong there was a good crowd there but all I kept think of was Skyfest during Paddy’s Week and the mayhem that descends upon the city as thousands of people spill onto the quays to see the fireworks! It was nice to not be squashed though and to be able to enjoy them without getting an elbow or two in the ribs!!! When the fireworks were over we headed back to the hostel and ended up walking through the city as the monorail (MONORAIL!!!) had stopped for the night. It was cool walking through the city as there was a festival atmosphere...and there was also a lot of little motorbike and moped posies zipping through the streets. They were rather loud and I felt sorry for the little bikes that couldn’t keep up with the rest of the bigger bikes when they all sped off when the lights went green!! I do remember coming across a group of men standing around and one guy was really tall with from about his elbows above the heads of everyone else. I thought he was standing on a box and had a look and realised that, no, the man had both his feet on the group! Couldn’t believe the guy was so tall...especially as we are in Asia where, well you just don’t expect to see exceptionally tall people milling about on the streets!!!
I had great plans the next morning to get up and head down to Merdeka Square (Independence Square) for the Malaysia Day Parade. However, due to the heat I guess they like to start their parades as 8am and after the early start, late night and busy day of the day before, when my alarm went off it got snoozed very quickly and that was the end of that plan!! So I ended up taking the day very easy...and even flaked on going to watch rugby match! That evening though we all headed out for a meal to mark Wendy and Greg’s last night with us. Wendy’s 6 weeks since she had joined us in Ho Chi Minh City had absolutely flown in and none of us could quite believe that it was over so quick...but I guess that pretty much illustrates how quickly the whole trip has gone for us all!! So we headed out for a meal and a couple of drinks and then headed back to the hostel early enough as Wendy had an early start the next day to go get her flight.
The next morning we were leaving Malaysia to head to Singapore. And no, I haven’t gotten it wrong; Singapore is an independent state to Malaysia with its own currency and all!! We were treated to another luxury bus so we settled in for a very comfortable journey to the border. The border was smooth enough again though not as quick as our entry into Malaysia. It’s weird; it always seems more difficult to get OUT of a country than into it!! In my mind if they have let us in surely they don’t have to think about it too hard to let us out of their but they always seem to think about it a bit more, and study the passports for that little bit longer before they run it through the system! Anyway once we got through the Malaysian exit point we had to go through the Singapore entry point which meant getting bags scanned. Singapore has a lot of odd restrictions, most notable not allowing chewing gum into the country! So anyone with it in the bags binned it before we went through the scanners. One of the guys on the trip though had bought two traditional Ghurkha knives in Nepal. When his bag got scanned he was asked to show the guards what he had in his bag. On the scan only one of the knives came up so when he took it out all the guards around came running over to have a look. They asked if he had anything else, and as he didn’t know what had shown up on the scan he said yeah I have another one and whipped it out! They all looked at them with great excitement and after a few questions were answered and a warning was issued not to go walking down the streets of Singapore with them in view (!!) we were on our merry way without any fines being imposed! When we got to the hostel Colin, the manager greeted us with great gusto and told us all about Singapore and what there was to do. He then asked had we any questions, my hand flew up with a simple question, “Where can I watch the Ireland/Australia rugby match?!” it turned out the hostel were showing all the matches on their TV so we dumped our bags and settled in for a nail biting match. Myself and Dee were a source of great amusement for the other guys and I was literally shaking for the last 15 minutes of the match terrified that they would screw it up!! But they held out and I was one very hyper girl for the rest of the afternoon!!
The following morning though it was time to explore Singapore and after an early wakening (5.30am) thanks to the other girls who were in our dorm most of us were ready to go exploring early enough in the day. We hit the subway and headed down to the Marina. Singapore has some amazing buildings in it and the Marina shows them off in spectacular style! The first building we came across was the Esplanade Theatre which, after some discussion, we decided wasn’t so much designed like a pineapple, but more like a durian (that disgusting fruit I have talked about before!!). We also saw the Art-Science Museum which is shaped like, em kinda like a split orange peel up in the air. I’m not sure that that makes any kinda sense but I don’t know how else to describe it. We also got a lovely view of the Singapore Flyer, Singapore’s answer to the London Eye (or the Dublin Wheel!!). Next on our tour of odd buildings was the Marina Bay Sands Hotel and Casino. This building I think was the most impressive of all as it was 3 huge skyscrapers side by side but the roofs were joined by what I can only describe as a ship shaped platform along the top of the 3 buildings! And we could see that in all likelihood there was a swimming pool and bar up there as there was palm trees and lovely flowers visible over the top! The last thing on our tour of the marina was the Merlion Park...and it is only as I am writing this blog that it has dawned on me why it is named as such! The main thing to see here was a large statue of what we said was a fish with a lion’s head, now that I think about it I guess that wanted it to be a MERmaid with a LION’s head on it...think I was a bit slow on the uptake there!!! It was cool though, it was spitting out water which was quite refreshing as the breeze was blowing the spray in the direction of the pier so we all got a nice little cool down...not that it lasted very long of course!!! When we were finished there we walked towards Chinatown where we stopped for some lunch and a cold drink. I headed back to the hostel at this stage as I was getting too warm! On the walk to Chinatown we noticed all the markings on the road in preparation for the Singapore Grand Prix. We were missing it by only a couple of days which some of the lads were really disappointed about but they seemed happy enough to get to see some of the preparations at least! The day didn’t end there though as most of us girls, and a couple of the boys, were heading to the famous Raffles Hotel to try a Singapore Sling in its home town!! We all dressed up a little with makeup coming out and hair straighteners...something my hair had not seen since a night out in Turkey!!! Once we were all dolled up we headed off. Raffles is a lovely hotel. I could tell without even walking into it that it was a fancy place...and this was confirmed for me when we walked in and saw a Tiffany’s in the hotel along with a Louis Vuitton!! We made our way up to the Long Bar and were shown to a table. First thing I noticed was that there were monkey nut shells all over the place! I was quite confused by this but it excited Rosie as she had read that this was all part of the Raffles tradition!! So we ordered our drinks (8 Singapore Slings in all!!) and waited for them to come. Once they did they were photos galore and once we were all satisfied we had a taste. Honestly...it wasn’t THAT amazing!! I mean it was a nice drink and one of the nicer Singapore Slings that I have had (not too much cherry liquor in it!!) but I can’t say that I felt charging 26 Singapore Dollars (equivalent of about €20 once you add on tax and service charge!!) was justified!! But as they say it was all about the experience so I wouldn’t do it again but it’s a box ticked.....and I’m pretty sure we ate enough monkey nuts to cover the $26 that we spent!!! It was then time to head back to the hostel to go to the local food market for food. The way food markets work over here is that you go in, find a table, take note of the number and then walk around all the different stalls and decide what you want to eat. You then order and pay for your food, give your table number and a few minutes later it’s delivered to you. I suppose it’s the equivalent of a food court back home in that you can decide to eat something totally different to your friends but still all eat together. When food was over it was then time for me, Dee and Joe to head off to an Irish bar to watch the All Ireland Final. As soon as I found Dublin was in the final I found out where we would be and found an Irish pub in the area that would be showing it. So after some research I found and Irish bar called Muddy Murphy’s and when we arrived in Singapore I rang to double check they were definitely showing it. As soon as the phone was answered I knew I was onto a winner as it was answered by a Dublin accent who assured me that they “most definitely would be showing the match”!! So we hit the subway and found our way there. When we walked into the pub me and Dee just smiled at each other. I swear to God it was like walking into a pub in Templebar. All I could hear was Irish accents; there was a trad band on and GAA jerseys everywhere!!! The placed was absolutely rammed so we grabbed a drink (definitely felt like home with the price of a drink!!) and found a quiet to corner to sit down in. Once it got closer to kick off we had a quick look and saw a guy in a Dub jersey sitting on his own just in front of the TV> I went over, asked if he minded a bit of company to which he said he was going to invite us over but he thought we all looked a bit rowdy (Irish humour!!). I assured him we were Dubs (Joe an honorary one!!) and we grabbed a couple of stools. His name was Martin and he had been working in Singapore for the last year and was going home to his family the following month. I think he appreciated the company and he was getting texts from his wife and sons the whole way through the match which was really nice. After the rugby match the day before I wasn’t sure my heart could take the GAA match too and I think it was even worse than the rugby match!! When we were down those 4 points, 10 minutes from the end I thought we were screwed. But when that ball went in the back of the net the place erupted!!! I’m pretty sure you guys probably could have heard us from home!! The place was on their feet for the last 7 minutes of the match and there were hugs all round when that whistle blew!! Once again my hands were shaking and my heart was pumping!! We headed home then and I got a quick call on Skype to home to see how the celebrations were going there...and was very happy to see my Lily White Mam and Royals dad smiling for Dublin!!!
After all the excitement of the rugby and GAA my last day in Singapore was spent relaxing and trying to restore my heart to a normal rhythm!! I really enjoyed Singapore, it had a nice atmosphere and it was cool getting to see the set up for the motor racing. I think my lasting memory of Singapore will be down to the weekend of amazing sport with results that made me smile all round!!
As I said earlier this trip has made me realise I’m a city girl and its skyscrapers that make my heart beat a little faster when I see them, so Malaysia and Singapore definitely kept me smiling for the 10 days we were travelling through them. KL has an amazing atmosphere...once you’re not in a hurry to get anywhere as the traffic is mental...would give the M50 a run for its money I tell ya! And it was great to be there on its national day and to experience some of the festival atmosphere that was buzzing around the city. And Singapore again was a city we drove into that I was gawping out the windows at the buildings that were surrounding us. I think KL is definitely on my list of must go back to, partly because I want to get up to that bloody Skybridge and also because, even though I know we saw so much on our drive around town, I know that due to my laziness on the second day that there is more for me to discover!!! Singapore I loved, but I think I can tick it off the list! I loved it and enjoyed exploring but I don’t know if it holds much more for me than what I saw. Perhaps one day I will realise I missed out on something major but at this stage my list of places to go back to is nearly as long as the list of places that I went to so I’m going to have to be ruthless!!
And so the next stage of our journey brings us to Indonesia....country 20 of 21!! Now that is scary!! Don’t need to tell you that it feels like only a week or two ago that I was saying bye to everyone and packing up my life in a little bag and now here I am, only two countries and 4 short weeks from the end!! Here’s hoping the last four weeks will be as exciting as ever!!
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