Singapore Inc.

After a week in Singapore, I have mixed feelings about the place. It's hard to explain. Ordinarily, I would write a chronological account, but in the case of Singapore, this would turn out to be one long and boring summary of things seen and done, and I want to do better.

First of all, our hostel was lovely. Up until Singapore we had always been able to afford a double room, but here that wasn't an option for us anymore. Remember how I told you about the many hours that Jochem and I spent behind a computer in the Cameron Highlands looking for a couple of dorm beds? It turned out that our efforts had not been in vain. The Travellers Inn is a small hostel where 6 people share 3 bunk beds in 1 airconditioned room. There is a small but cosy common room where you can watch movies or write. Breakfast and internet use are free. Most importantly, this is a family business and, as such, it breathes genuine hospitality. Patrons Daniel and Jenny couldn't have been better or more helpful hosts. If you need a cheap place to stay in Singapore, this is the place to go.

Moreover, there is just so much to see and do in Singapore! It's really quite overwhelming and almost impossible to make choices. The amount of neighorhoods alone worth visiting is difficult to imagine. Of course there is the Colonial District and the financial hub CBD. There are the Quays by the water. There is Orchard Road and all its diversions. Let's not forget about Chinatown, Little India and the Muslim quarter called Kampong Glam. And this is just the city center that I'm talking about - on the outskirts of the island there's even more to see.

We did lots of things during our 7 days in Singapore, but there is also a lot that we didn't do. We visited 0 museums. We skipped the world-famous Orchid Garden. We didn't pay 30 Singapore dollars for an original Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel. But we did watch the light show from Merlion Park. We rode the 165-meter-high Singapore Flyer. We tempted fate by riding a cable car over the city.

In short: Singapore is expensive, but there are many ways to enjoy the city cheaply. Here are a few of my favourites:

I guess that this is a bad first example, but a guided tour with the Original Singapore Walks is well worth the 30 Singapore dollars per person. The tours are given by quirky historians who know how to tell a good story. Soon you'll be mesmerized and hanging from their lips. Helena told us a great story about the Kampong Glam neighborhood, where she personally outfitted me with this pretty sarong. If I'd had the money, I'd have spent all on these tours. There is a different tour every day through a different neighborhood. If there is one thing worth doing in Singapore, it is this.



One of the things that I really loved about Singapore is that there is so much wild nature in the city. What can I say? The only thing I did on Orchard Road was see a movie - I couldn't care less about the expensive shops.

There is Sentosa Island, which I found quite weird. It's unnaturally clean, tourists are everywhere and there is always music playing from invisible sound systems. It's kind of like being in Disneyland, except that it's NOT Disneyland - this is 'just' an island. But we couldn't resist the (admittedly, totally scary) cable car ride and the sight of the beach. After seeing that and taking this picture, we ditched the island and went on a 9-kilometer hike on the Southern Ridges on the mainland, which ended in a beautiful canopy walk.



It seems that there are about 100 Buddhist temples, Hindu temples, Chinese temples, mosques and other places of worship worthy of your visit. To be honest, we had seen so many of these religious buildings in the past 2 months (does Angkor Wat ring a bell?), that we were simply too tired to do anything besides walk past and take a picture. We did make a stop at the Kong Meng San Phor Kark See Monastery up north, where we found this amazing Buddha sculpture. Or, 'supposedly', this is Buddha.



One of our last activities was a hike through the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve for a patch or urban primary rainforest and a visit to the Tree Top Walk at the MacRitchie Reservoir. It just baffles me to find things like this in a cosmpolitan city like Singapore.



But there is also something weird about all of this. There are so many beautiful places in Singapore, but there are hardly any people there. I never understood why, although I never dared to ask either. Perhaps the people are no longer impressed with what they see as a normal part of their surroundings? Or do the well-to-do people in Singapore look down on such simple pleasures as walking and having a picnic outside when there are so many more prestigious/more expensive entertainment options to choose from? Or are they simply too busy working in order to pay for their affluent lifestyle? Who knows, but it stuck with me. I have come to know neighborhoods like Chinatown and Little India like messy and chaotic pools of people. Is it busy? Of course. Is it sometimes overwhelming? Certainly. Does it smell? Unfortunately, this is also true. But there is also a sense of authenticity there that I missed in Singapore. Everything is just so CLEAN and ORGANIZED and devoid of proof of human life. Perhaps that's a little bit too harsh - the cleanliness and organization obviously guarantee a nice stay in the city and you'll always feel safe. Kind of like Asia for beginners, I imagine. From everything that you see and hear and witness, you get the sense that Singapore sees itself as a self-made Utopia, which I find a bit creepy. I bet that you expected me to love this kind of strive for perfection, but the truth is: it makes me a bit anxious. I once read in a guidebook that Singapore is managed by the government in the same way that an executive would run a multinational corporation - I guess that says it all.

Which is why there were not a lot of people at the beautiful Botanic Gardens when we were there, even though there was no rain for once and the sun was even showing its face. Where were all the students with their quickly-assembled fridge-leftover picnics and cool beers? Where were all the mothers with their toddlers? Where were all the runners with their dogs? It remains a mystery.







By the way: it was at the Botanical Gardens that I FINALLY found a good plate of pasta worth eating.





And this brings me to my absolute favourite thing to do in Singapore: EAT! There are many beautiful restaurants and bars with extensive menus while soft lounge music plays in the background and you overlook Marina Bay and the Singapore River. Skip all of these places. There's no time! Instead, get thee to a food court, also known as a hawker center, order up some local cuisine for a few bucks and start people watching. Because it's amazing - the way that the people in Singapore come together at these food courts. Young and old share in the meals. Old men drinking Heineken sit next to yuppies in suits. It was almost my favorite thing.



Because my favorite thing in all of Singapore was a little corner restaurant hidden on a busy street in Chinatown. This vegetarian restaurant, called Thousand Veggies, has got to be the BEST vegetarian restaurant in the world (or at least it was voted best in Singapore, which I think must say an awful lot in a city where eating seems to be the favorite pastime next to shopping and going to the movies). Because it's one thing to make good vegeterian dishes by leaving out the meat and fish, but to use fake meat and fish, and to make it almost indistinguishable from the real thing - that is craft indeed! I had laksa with fake shrimp that looked like shrimp, smelled like shrimp and tasted like shrimp. Our grilled fish had a slightly different structure from a real grilled fish, but it still tasted the same. It even had fake scales! Jochem (because he's being sympathetic, or so he says - I believe that he's turning into a vegetarian) ordered fake steak, and although he said it tasted more like a really good beef burger (which is a feat in itself!) you've got to love a chef who would put a thing like a vegetarian steak on the menu! The restaurant itself was splathered with names of famous vegetarians and quotes that leave little to the imagination when it comes to eating animals. I suppose that someone who isn't vegetarian could be put off by such an overly-present vegetarian vibe, but I loved it.





And now we are in Indonesia, on the island of Bali, in the town of Padangbai, on the eastern coast of the island. We celebrated first by having a beer on the beach, as it was our first encounter with a real beach (we strongly feel that Sentosa doesn't count). And we have some exciting things planned! Tomorrow we take a boat to the Gili Islands. There are 3 Gili Islands, but Jochem wants to go to Gili Meno to act out Elizabeth Gilbert's period of silent solitude at the end of Eat, Pray, Love. I'll be happy as long as there is beach and sun. After that we're going to spend a few days on the beaches of Senggigi on Lombok before going on a 6-day cruise through Nusa Tenggara with one goal only: to spot a Komodo Dragon! And, you know, to snorkel. After that we need to haul our hasses back to Bali, to Sanur to be precise, in order to meet my parents at the beautiful Respati Beach Hotel for a week of absolutely nothing. I'm not sure how I'll be able to keep in touch in the mean time...



If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

Melaka, Malaysia

On Thursday, then, it was really time to say goodbye to the Cameron Highlands. We took an early bus back to Kuala Lumpur and 5 hours later I was still in denial.


waiting for our next bus at Puduraya bus station in Kuala Lumpur

In the early evening we finally arrived in Melaka in southern Malaysia. Melaka is a lovely little town on the Straits of Melaka.


Sungai Melaka

Here you will find Komodo's little dragon brother swimming in the downtown river.


Sungai Melaka

We spent 2 days in Melaka. One of the highlights of our stay would have to be our guesthouse Emily Travellers Home. To get to the main area of this guesthouse you have to walk through a kind of tunnel, balance on a couple of stones set in a fish pond, and cross over a small bridge suspended over another fish pond. It is like entering a completely different world. We were staying at a small hut set in a tranquil garden. We had our own deck and mosaic bathroom. There is a lounge area where Malik, our hospitable host, appears to always be cooking something on the fire pit. His pet bunny, Mr. Playboy, hops around in the garden. There are jungle showers, which means that you are standing in a big room filled with rocks and plants, taking a shower under the clear blue sky. Sometimes you can see a rainbow when you shower in the morning. It was lovely.

Melaka is a surprisingly small city. Our first stop was the Menara Taming Sari, which is an 80-meter-high revolving tower offering views over the city. Matt and Aimee, fellow travelers whom we'd met in the Cameron Highlands (where else?), told us that it was quite an eyesore. At that they were right, but we went in anyway. It's actually a fun way to see the city and it was the first time that we caught a glimpse of the ocean in almost 2 months.


Menara Taming Sari

I would say that Melaka is famous for 2 things. First of all, the city is home to a beautiful collection of colonial architecture - sometimes intact, sometimes in ruins. It's all because of the Indonesians/Chinese/Portuguese/Dutch/British. Combined with the sunny weather it makes for some pretty pictures of downtown Melaka.


St. Paul's Church


St. Paul's Church


Sungai Melaka


Stadthuys

Since the Dutch were also involved in Melaka in the 17th century (they sure got around), and because this is still very much evident in contemporary Melaka, and because we couldn't resist, you end up with pictures like this.


Town Square

Another thing that Melaka is famous for is its Nonya food, named after the Baba Nonyas or Peranakans, who were Chinese immigrants who took the religion of the Chinese but the customs, language and dress of the Malays, according to the Lonely Planet. Still being a vegetarian (4 months and counting!), it took a while to find something, but in the end we succeeded and found these pretty vegetarian Nonya spring rolls. Mmm...


Chinatown

But, I must admit, that besides walking around a little bit, we did absolutely nothing else but eat. And get massages. But I trust that Jochem will post a little clip of that particular adventure soon in our picture gallery.


Town Square

Now we are in Singapore at the Travellers Inn. Singapore is the most expensive country in South East Asia and we plan to stay for a week so there was no way to get around it anymore: we are staying in a dorm room. Let's see what this city has to offer!

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!

A PS on the Cameron Highlands

What I forgot to mention is how NICE our fellow travelers have been in the Cameron Highlands! I'm not one who easily talks to other people and usually let Jochem do the talking, but here the people have been easy to talk to. We've even exchanged contact details with a couple of them. This I simply had to mention!

Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

view from our apartment of the hills surrounding Tanah Rata

We are in the beautiful Cameron Highlands! I added 17 pictures to this blog post, which seems excessive considering the fact that Jochem is adding our pictures to our picture gallery as we speak, but I really need pictures to do the Cameron Highlands justice.

We are staying at Father's Guest House in a small town called Tanah Rata in the midst of the Cameron Highlands. We arrived by VIP bus from Kuala Lumpur on Friday afternoon. The bus ride took just 4 hours and was incredibly comfortable, kind of like flying business class but then on a bus. In town we were awaited by a couple of employees and their minivan who took us to Father's Guest House for free.

Father's Guest House is situated up a hill just outside of the city center and is comprised of a couple of buildings - all are surrounded by a lovely collection of trees, plants and flowers. We're not staying in the main building but in the self-service apartment just a couple of blocks away. We only pay 17,50 euros for our double room per night and I think that it may be the nicest place we've stayed at during this trip so far (of course excluding our 4-star hotel in Phnom Penh). It's a very homey place. When you walk in there's a large living room and kitchen, including a bar with bar stools, a huge couch, a flatscreen TV with lots of English-speaking channels, 2 large tables with chairs, and a reading corner with books and magazines. We also have a terrace and a small balcony overlooking the hills. Our bedroom is cozy and our shared bathrooms are so spotlessly clean that I've even dared to walk barefoot in them. I consider myself to be a 'huismus' (a wonderful Dutch expression describing a homey person as a 'home sparrow' [literal translation]), so this apartment is a real find.

The apartment is not the only thing that we love here, of course. Tanah Rata is a cute little town that you can walk through in about 5 minutes, but still seems to offer anything that you could possibly want, including a Starbucks (I know - I could scarcely belief it myself!) and lots of Indian restaurants offering vegetarian noodles and roti, which, as you may remember from my last blog post, I've grown quite addicted to. The town is surrounded by rolling green hills from every side.

The weather is another thing to love about the Cameron Highlands. It's supposed to be quite rainy here, but despite a few rainy moments here and there we've had lots of blue skies and sunshine. It's not hot and it's not humid - we've had temperatures between 15 and 25 degrees Celcius and we've been wearing clothes likes jeans, shoes, sweatshirts and jackets. We don't need AC or even a fan - we just leave the window open while we sleep. It's incredibly nice.


enjoying the morning sun on our balcony

On Saturday we took a walk around town. We saw a Hindu temple, a mosque and a Chinese temple (which we thought was quite extraordinary, considering how small the town is). The Cameron Highlands have fertile grounds and a lot of produce is grown here. One of the funniest things that we saw were these statues of different vegetables and fruits all over town.



There are numerous hiking trails in the Cameron Highlands and we decided to go for a hike on trail # 4, just outside of town, to see the Parit Falls. We also chose this particular trail because, supposedly, this is the trail where Jim Thompson got lost on March 26, 1967. You may remember Jim Thompson - he's the rich American who was very succesful in the Thai silk trade and whose antique house we visited on our last day in Bangkok. He left Bangkok for a vacation in the Cameron Highlands, went for a pre-dinner stroll, and never came back. It's a big mystery because he was never found, so there are a lot of speculations about what really happened - perhaps he planned his own disappearance? Walking on trail # 4 nowadays, however, it's difficult to imagine how he got lost, because it seems like you'd have to try really hard to wander from the stone path. After this hike and a short walk through a Malay village nearby we went to one of the nicer hotels in the area to have a cup of tea in their English tea garden. We also bit into some homemade scones smeared with cream and homemade strawberry jam.



When we walked back into town we made another quick stop at a local cafe to try the locally grown strawberries in a different setting - Jochem had a strawberry milkshake and I opted for fresh strawberry juice. It was basically a walk & eat kind of day.



On Sunday we went on a tour organized by Father's Guest House. Our first stop were the absolutely breathtaking tea tree covered hills of Sungai Palas Boh Tea Estate.





Our tour guide told us a lot of interesting facts about tea. Did you know, for example, that tea without caffeine is not technically tea at all? Nor are flavored teas like strawberry or peppermint. After we snapped hundreds of pictures we went on a tour of the tea factory. We also tasted two types of locally grown tea and had blueberry scones.

Then we made our way uphill to the biggest mountain in the Cameron Highlands at 2031 meters: Gunung Brinchang. Here we climbed a watchtower where the views were absolutely breathtaking.



Then our guide took us into the so-called Mossy Forrest. Our guide was like a walking encyclopedia of local flora and fauna and told us about species like the carnivorous pitcher plant. The Mossy Forrest is a very surreal piece of forest to walk in - you are covered in mist, everything around you is covered in moss, and it's hard to walk on the forest floor, which is covered in layer upon layer of rotten leaves a couple of meters deep. Lose sight of the person walking in front of you and it's easy to get lost, which happened to us twice.



Our final stop of the day was the local butterfly farm. After that we were very tired!



On Monday we went on another one of Father's Guest House tours. The whole point of this tour was to spot the rare Rafflesia flower in bloom. This flower is actually a parasitic flowering plant that produces the largest individual flower on earth. The way I understood it, it takes months for the flower to come into being from a cabbage-like form, and then blooms for just 5 to 7 days. Interestingly, if you blow inside of the flower, a smell hits you that resembles decaying flesh. To get to this flower phenomenon, we first had to drive for over an hour to get to the jungle, not always on easy terrain.



We were guided by a young man from one of the local villages in the Cameron Highlands who's spent his entire life hiking the jungle. At first he appeared quite blunt - he seemed to dislike tourists on principle (which may be understandable - a couple of Indian tourists in our group kept throwing plastic bags and bottles on the jungle floor despite numerous warnings). Our hike started easily enough.



After about 30 minutes we saw our first Rafflesia flower. Our guide then told us that there was another flower on a hill 15 minutes away. But this is a steep and extremely slippery hill, he said, and if you can't keep up with me, you can't come. We went with him, of course, and tried our best to keep up with this mountain goat of a man in the jungle's heat and humidity while wearing jeans and having forgotten our insect repellent, on a hill that seemed to be more vertical than anything else, while climbing over bamboo obstacles. I felt great though - confident and strong and fit. When the guide saw that we were the only ones who could keep up with him, I believe he finally started to like us. He helped Jochem saw a wild deer and fed me flowers that function like toothpaste for the local villagers.



After a strenuous hike, we finally found it!



Luckily we were allowed a short break on the hike back to the jeep at these waterfalls.



Our final stop on that day was an Orang Asli village, where we were allowed to try the blowpipe. If I wanted to, I could now kill you with this 'silent killer' - I was quite good at it!



The tour was really cool and proved to be a nice progression in our activities here. Despite the fact that we were exhausted afterwards, we spent hours trying to book a couple of beds in one of Singapore's many hostels that were (1) not too expensive, (2) near, if not actually in, Orchard Street, Chinatown and Little India, (3) not situated in one of the infamous party hostels, (4) not in a room with 26 (!!!) other beds and (5) not infested with bed bugs. It was a horrible process, but in the end we did succeed (or so we hope for now). Afterwards we were so sad to have to leave the next day already, that we promptly threw away our cheap bus tickets back to Kuala Lumpur and booked our room for an additional 2 days.

Yesterday and today we haven't done much of anything except run errands and enjoy our beautiful surroundings. Deepavali, the Hindu Festival of Lights, is today so it's quiet in town anyway. I'm incredibly sad to be leaving this place tomorrow because it's just so lovely here. I wish I could stay, but Singapore looms and if we don't leave tomorrow we won't have any time whatsoever in Melaka, and I don't want to miss its Dutch colonal architecture and local food stalls. I've tried really hard to write a good blog post and to show relevant pictures but I still feel like I've failed in getting across just how stunning it is here. I guess you should find out for yourself.


with one of the 3 dogs at Father's Guest House

If you'd like to see even more pictures of the beautiful Cameron Highlands, check out our picture gallery here!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We waited it out for 3 days at our lovely guesthouse Ribbon Stayyz. I didn't go outside at all. Jochem was kind enough to bring me coffee for breakfast and Indian food for dinner (more on that later) and make me peanut butter and 'hagelslag' sandwiches in between.





On Tuesday, then, I finally felt well enough to venture outside, but we took it slowly and stayed in Chinatown and Little India. We mostly just walked around and looked around, because there's so much to see - Hindu temples, mosques, colonial architecture, street markets and coffee shops. It's truly a feast for the senses.


Sri Mahamariamman Temple


Masjid Negara

On Wednesday we took a train to the Batu Caves, a system of three caves just a couple of kilometers northwest of the city center. We walked the 272 steps to reach the Temple Cave, which was really very beautiful, but so incredibly touristy. There is trash everywhere, there are tame monkeys everywhere, and there are stupid tourists feeding the monkeys everywhere. Combined with the rain it was quite depressing. We also took a short guided tour through the Dark Cave, where we saw bats, spiders and snakes. It was quite scary because it was very dark and moist and smelly and my flashlight barely worked. It was amazing to see how big the cave was and how many animals live there.







And then, today, we took another train and then a taxi to the Forestry Research Institute of Malaysia. From the information center we took a hike up a steep hill past a waterfall to the so-called Canopy Walkway, which is basically just a hanging rope bridge made of wooden planks and ladders. It was suspended 30 meters into the air and felt somewhat flimsy, so I was kind of scared, but I tried to calm down and enjoy the view, which was really extraordinary.





It seems that our time in Kuala Lumpur is at last coming to an end. I feel like we've been here forever, but it sums up to 8 days in total - 3 of which I spent being sick. In retrospect it hasn't been that bad, I guess. Our guesthouse is lovely and we've had a good time here. There are several lounge areas and every day we watch a movie on the huge TV screen with our fellow travelers. The staff are incredibly nice and helpful and the overall atmosphere is very 'gezellig'.

Kuala Lumpur, I've come to find, has a lot to offer - authentic street markets, modern shopping malls, temples, mosques and a surprising amount of greenery - in what other major metropolitan city do you find actual rainforest? What I love the most about Kuala Lumpur, however (and perhaps this doesn't surprise you), is the FOOD. I can't even begin to explain the enormous amount of cheap food stalls right outside our door. Like that time when we wanted to hide from yet another thunderstorm at the Batu Caves and found this amazing vegetarian South Indian restaurant. Or when we went to look for Chinese tea in Chinatown and found a restaurant/antique store/coffee shop where the proprietor, Mr. William Hwang, kept bringing us tea pot after tea pot, including some lemon grass tea for my 'hotness' (which I assume means that I looked like I was sweating too much in the humidity). Or what about this meal of vegetarian noodles and roti that I've had every single day for the last 6 days. I'm serious - I've had the same Indian food for dinner for almost a week. IT'S JUST THAT GOOD! I can't even begin to explain these noodles - they're like thick spaghetti, but not as long as spaghetti, and they absorb the absolutely delectable sauce of who-knows-what like a sponge, but without turning into a soppy mess. They add tofu and green vegetables and it's. just. SO. good! Jochem is getting me more as we speak. After my noodles I usually have a plate of roti. I've had roti with fresh garlic, roti with onion and eggs, but lately my favorite is a sweet roti with at least 5 knobs of butter, sugar and fresh banana. Our roti guy makes it on the spot while we watch. Jochem is getting me more of that as well.

We bought bus tickets that will take us to the Cameron Highlands tomorrow. We finally decided on our next destination in Malaysia and concluded that we wanted to see more nature. Plus, according to my Lonely Planet, it doesn't get any hotter there than 20 degrees Celcius. I'm sure that my Dutch family and friends don't understand my reasoning, but 20 degrees Celcius sounds like heaven to me right now after 7 weeks of 30 degree Celcius heat and humidity. Perhaps I'll be able to bring some noodles and roti with me on the bus?

If you'd like to see more pictures of our world trip, check out our picture gallery here!