TravelStream™ news feed for member ericabg on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/ericabg en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:49:29 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219505520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219505520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219505520/tpod.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:49:29 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bangkok, Thailand

So we arrived in Bangkok on time. We grabbed a cab and went to the hostel that we had booked. It is actually the first hostel that we book since we arrive in Asia!! It had a deal ...stay 3 nights and get the fourth one for free and this is just what we needed! So we got dropped off by the cab...he tried to rip us off but we had already done the trip by cab from the airport before so we knew...he gave us back some money.

We had originally planned to do sightseeing on the Sunday but this lady on the plane told us about this crazy market taht only happens on weekends. WE decided to change our plans and go for the market instead. It was really crazy indeed. There are about 15000 stalls in taht market and they sell EVERYTHING. We saw pets, dishes, souvenirs, food, clothes, shoes, leather, cowboy boots, etc. NAme it and you will find it. We spent about 4 hours walking around the market and decided we had enough and then went to the night market. There we grabbed some dinner and treated ourselves to a foot massage. However, we were kind of disapointed with it but oh well it was about 9$! AFter our foot were rejuvanated from teh massage, we walked around that market for about two hours trying to find souvenirs/gifts! Then we found a live music show of thai and american music. We sat down and watched some of it while eating Mango with sticky rice. This is a traditional thai dessert that is reallllly sweet but also realllly good! WE then took a tuk tuk and got dropped off by the hotel.

Today we went to visit the floating market. The floating market is like any other market expect the people selling the goods are on a boat in the river and you have to flag them down if you want to buy something from them. It was really good. We coudl have rented a paddle boat to go on the river but Sean and I opted for just walking on the sides of the river. After that, we headed to Kwai River where we visited a World War II museum. Then we got back on the tour van to go to the Tiger TEmple...the highlight of the day/trip (especially for sean!). The tiger temple is a buddhist temple where they have several tigers including babies. You pay to go inside and there you can pet the tigers adn take pictures with them. It was insane. We were petting the huge tigers and we coudl see their teeth and claws. I was pretty freaked as you can tell on the pictures but it was really cool. After seeing the big tigers, we moved on to go see the baby ones. I was not so scared of those ones and we sat beside it for a little bit. AS you can imagine, this temple is very popular with tourists and you only get a very limited time with the animal as everybody wants to see and touch them. We were gonna leave the temple but the lady announced taht everybody needed to go in the gated area because the tigers were getting transfered from the open area to their cages. WE saw them walking with the guides to their cages. We then went back to the van and we drove back to Bangkok which is about 2 and a half hours. WE then went to walk on Khoa San Road, the Backpackers street where I got a sweet Thai cooking book!

That is about for now. Tomorrow is our last day in Asia and we are going to the different sites in Bangkok like the Grand Palace, the reclining buddha and other temples. I cannot believe that 3 months have already gone by but it will also be good to go home! Our plane leaves at 8 am on Wednesday morning so we have to leave at about 4 am from our hotel to get there 3 hours before. OUr plane gets in at about 10:30 am on Wednesday in Vancouver....will email from there
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219331520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219331520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219331520/tpod.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:32:00 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Singapore, Singapore

So it takes about 4-5 hours to get to Singapore, including the boarder crossing, from Melaka. We arrived without any delay or problem and started walking in Little India to try and find a guesthouse. That is when we realized our money wasn't worth anything anymore. The prices are about the same as in Canada and $1 CAD = 1.3 $ singapore dollars. Instead of paying 5-15$ for both of us for a night, we paid 50$ !!!! Although we had A/C, a tv, and dvd players to watch all those fake dvds that we bought already. The dorms are 20$ per night without A/C , tv, or private bathroom so we figured an extra 10$ would not kill us. After dropping our bags, we walked in the downtown area where they have some crazy buildings! Two of them look like durians( a spiky fruit). We also noticed that there are gazillions shopping centres, about one every 3 blocks, and the city is crazy clean. Until four years ago, Singaporeans were not allowed to chew gum in the country /city and you can get up to 1000$ fine for littering or 500$ fine for j-walking !! so needless to say everything is clean and organized in that country. Everything is also ultra modern..the buses and the train system are just incredibles!! So after walking and grabbing some food we went to see the biggest water fountain in teh world where there is a free lazer show every night. |The fountain is indeed very big and the show was pretty cool. We then went to another mall for the rest of the night and headed back to the hotel to watch some olympics on our TV.

The next day, we went on Orchard Road. That street is famous for its shopping as it is covered with shopping malls, even more than in the rest of teh city which is already incredible. WE had read in the Lonely Planet taht shopping was cheap in Singapore...not at all! WE got on Orchard Road and all we could see were Prada shops, Gucci, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, and they were selling real stuff unlike the rest of South East Asia. So needless to say we did not buy anything there. We walked back to our hotel and relaxed for a bit. Around dinner time, we walked down to Clarke Quay, the hip location of the town. It is awesome!! It is right by the water and has so many pubs/ bars/ clubs with crazy nice designs. One bar is called the Clinic and everything there is liek an hospital. The table are like surgery tables, the chairs are hospital beds or wheelchairs, and they even serve you alcohol in blood bags. WE did not go there because one blood bag of alcohol was 50$!!! WE walked around the area and had planned to go to Ministry of Sound, a club that is supposed to be realy sweet but we were turned out at the door because Sean was wearing sandals and not shoes!! The problem is that we do not have any nice clothes with us so we left and just continued walking around. In the end, it is probably a good thing we did not go since it is pretty expensive! There were also some fireworks that night that we could see from the Quay. After walking around, we just headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

On the third day in Singapore, we went to the Botanical Gardens which are huge. It was very nice and saw many flowers, plants, and trees. The only bad thing was that it was POURING rain but oh well, did not stop us. WE walked around the gardens for about 1h30 and covered about half of it! WE then took the train to Lau Pa Sat to get some food. Lau Pa Sat is a building with approximately 100 food stalls with ALL kinds of food. The guidebook recommended it and we were not disapointed. We then walked through Chinatown and went back to the hostel where we had checked our bags for the day. We then took the train to go to the airport. As I wrote earlier, the train system is awesome in Singapore. We took the train close to our hostel and went all the way to the airport and got dropped off pretty much inside of it for 1.50$ each!! It helps that Singapore is really small but still. Then we caught our flight for Bangkok at 22h00 and it was on time!!

Next entry...Bangkok!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219071300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219071300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219071300/tpod.html Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:10:57 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Melaka, Melaka State, Malaysia

HI all!!

so once again, we have fallen behing on the blogs but I will now enter the last three cities taht we went to in the last week. So after our overnight bus from Kota Bahru, we arrived bright and early in Melaka. Melaka is situated on the coast and has a really long history due to its geographical location. It was very popular for commerce back in the days due to its proximity to water. The indians, dutch, portugese, english, and malay all owned this piece of land at one point in the history. So the city has buildings with different architecture depending on who built it in the past. So it is kind of cool to walk around the city to see that. First, we visited teh chineese temples and then moved on to the melaka historic museum. We walked around to some other historic sites and then went back to the hotel to walk in chinatown during the night as all the streest are lit with lanterns. It was quite nice but we were very tired due to all the walking we had done that day. The next day was pretty chill as we covered most of the "attractions" the day before. WE thought we needed two days in that city but one coudl have been enough. We went to get our bus ticket for Singapore in the morning and then walked some more in the city through little india and visited some Portugese church. Then went back to the hotel and watched the new Adam Sandler movie that is not even out yet...gotta love the cheap fake dvds sold on the street!!

The next morning we shared a taxi with 2 other travellers to go to the bus station. The two other travellers wanted to leave at 7:30 from the guesthouse for the 8 oclock bus since our hotel was very close to the bus station. I said I thought it was a bit close if something went wrong but they reassured me everything would be fine. Of course, I was right...the taxi didn't show up....we finally foudn one on the street but it was already taken but the person inside was nice enough to let us the taxi since we were so late for the bus and we finally arrived at the bus station at 7:52 and ran for the bus just in time to jump in...next time i'll stick to my opinion!!! the blood pressure was really high!

next entry...crazy singapore!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219056360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219056360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219056360/tpod.html Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:57:27 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia

After getting off the boat from the Perhentians, we shared a taxi with a german to go to Kota Bahru, the capital of the province we were in. Although it is the capital, there is not much to see or do there. When we arrived we got a 4 person dorm shared with ze germans and then headed to the cultural centre for some traditional art demonstration. First they were playing this typical SE asian game where there is a ball made out of bamboo that you kick in the air with all body parts expect the hands in a circle. Sean had a go at it...not so bad! After that, they had kite flying and finally coconut drum. Sean and I also tried the drumming but had some trouble getting the more difficult beats! After that we headed to the night market to get some food and look at the shops. There was some olympics on and Malaysia had a final for gold medal in badminton. It would have been the first gold medal for Malaysia ever but the guy got dominated by a chineese!

The next day, we went to the central market and walked around town. We had planned to go back to the cultural centre to have another demonstration but got lost on the way and was not worth it to go after that. We caught the night bus for Melaka at 8 pm. The bus was about 12 h long and was fine beside the fact taht they blasted the AC the whole way. I think it was about 10C in the bus. Even Sean was cold ...we were very happy to come back in the heat when we got out of the bus.

Now we are in Melaka in the SW of Malaysia and tomorrow is our last day in this country. WE are heading to Singapore on Thursday morning. I will write the blog for Melaka after tomorrow so there is only one entry for that city. Only one week to go before the return!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219055100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219055100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219055100/tpod.html Mon, 18 Aug 2008 06:55:30 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Pulau Perhentian Kecil, Terengganu, Malaysia

So we arrived on the small island of the two islands that form the Perhentians. The smaller island is supposed to be cheaper so we opted for that one since we are tight on the budget! So we were told that the islands are pretty packed with people and cheap hotels don't take reservations so we coul dnot get anything before hand! The first place that we went to had an open room so we immediately booked it just in case. It was not luxury at all but it was a bed! We then went for a bit of a walk in the jungle and saw this place with an amazing view of the water and beach and with a balcony and a bathroom and same price as our place. We hoped so bad that it would be free for the next day where we could book it for hte following nights. So we spent the rest of the day on the beach and hanging around as it was terribly hot on the beach in the sun.

The next morning, we put the alarm and went to the place we had found the day before and thankfully it was still free. So we moved our stuff in and then quickly grabbed breakfast to go on a snorkelling trip around the islands. First stop: shark point! There we saw two sharks of medium size. Those sharks are not dangerous by the way. Then we went to turtle point where we saw several turtles about 3/4 of my size. It was amazing!! One more stop in the coral reefs with more sharks and many little fish all very colorful!! AGain very amazing. AFter lunch break, we got back on the boat to go to the lighthouse dive point. Sean and I notice a fairly large triangle sticking out of the water...just like a shark but that would mean a huge shark. Just at this moment, our guide spot another triangle and it was indeed a whale shark about 4m long. He told us to jump in the water to go see it but needless to say everybody hesitated for a little bit and by the time we were in the water, the shark was long gone. But still we saw it going under our boat and since the water is completely see throug, we could see the whole thing almost perfectly!!! We then hopped in the water for our 4th stop of the trip to see more fish. Our final stop was at romantic beach where we saw a stingrays!! Finally we got brought back to our beach at the end of the day. We loved that trip so much and we got to see so many different fish...actually probably more than on our actual dives in Ko Tao! We saw so many things that we decided it was not worth it to spend the extra many to go diving.

The next day, we just went to another beach (long beach) on the island for the afternoon alternating between laying on teh sand or going in the crystal clear water. It was so nice but also very hot that we decided to head back for our chalet earling than planned! LOng beach has really nice white sand to swim in. OUr beach (coral beach) has a lot of corals (go figure) so it's not the best to just swim around. AT night, we had a lovely seafood bbq on the beach.

On our 4th day at the beach, we rented a kayak to go around the island and to cross over to teh bigger island. Once again, it was a very sunny and hot day perfect (almost too hot!) for outdoor activities. We stopped for a litttle bit at another incredible beach on the big island. It took us about 4 hours to kayak around the whole island and stop here and there to relax. We were very happy to be charged 5$ for renting the kayak for half a day!

On the last day on the island, we rented some snorkel equipment and did some snorkeling around our beach. ONce again, we saw some new kind of fish and it was pretty cool .Thanks to our underwater camera, we took pictures of them adn we can show you when we come back! On that day, we saw two huge fish, so big that we were scared to get too close to them!

Finally, we left the islands yesterday at noon to come to Kota Bahru, the capital of this province.

The Perhentians islands are considered like one of the most beautiful place in teh world and i have to agree. The water is blue blue blue and crystal clear. The beaches are almost all white sand and the tourism industry is not too developped yet. Power is only available from 7 pm to 7 am when teh generator is working! There are about 2000 people living on the small islands and they have a reallllly laid back lifestyle. It usually takes about an hour at the restaurant to get your order of scrambled eggs!! WE had a really good time there and loved the snorkelling. But after 6 days on teh beach, we had enough despite our awesome chalet and its view.

next entry...kota bahru
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219030560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219030560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1219030560/tpod.html Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:59:10 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Georgetown, Pinang, Malaysia

Hi all!

Sorry again for not updating you for a while but i got lazy and then we went on the islands where internet was REALLY expensive. Anyways, i will start where I have left on the last blog.

So we left the cameron highlands in the morning to take a 5 hour bus ride to penang in the North West of Malaysia. Then we took a short ferry since Penang is an island (although there is a bridge linking it to mainland). WE were quickly reminded that we were back at sea level by the heat...OH my god!! so we found a hotel with A/C and a bathroom finally. Malaysia seems to like to separate the bathroom from the bedroom and makes you pay extra to have it attached. Then it was kinda late in teh afternoon so we just walked around a part of hte city and visited a fort built by the english. Then we went to a food court/mall and there was a love chineese song contest that night! So we sat down and watched about 1h30 of love chineese songs!! it was quite entertaining to be sure wiht all the costumes and passion on the singer's faces. Went back to the hotel and called it a night.

The next day, we had plan to go to the Penang Hill where you can apparently get a superb view of the city but as we were asking around how to get there, people told us the cable car to bring you up was broken and you could not go up!! There goes our plan for the day! So we walked around looking for some stuff to do but as we found out almost everything is closed on Sunday there. So we went to the shopping mall and walked around for a bit. Then we went back to hotel room and enjoyed our A/C for a bit since we paid extra for it. Finally, we went to some night market for food for dinner and then went to a pub to watch some olympics but it wasn't long until they changed it for european soccer. We asked them if Olympics could be put on and they nicely declined saying this was better. So we decided to just head back to the hotel as beer and drinks are really expensive in Malaysia and we didn't want to pay for somehting we didn't want to watch!

The next day, we decided to go visit the tropical fruit farm and the spice garden. First we took the public bus to get there and it was quite the ride all the way to the other side of the island. Then we were supposed to connect with another bus but since it wasn't there we started walking towards the farm. The map showed it really close...but little did we know the map was WRONG. THe bus never came and we ended up walking about 7-8 km uphill in 35C (very smart) but we kept telling ourselves that we should be close then! So we had a tour of the fruit plantation and tasted some fruits that we had never heard/seen before adn then the best part...an all you can eat fruit buffet of tropical fruits. We had quite the appetite by then from the walk and took advantage of it...especiall me. Then a couple on our tour offered us a ride back to town that we could not refuse. They were a couple from Lebanon and they were cousins, ie their dads were brothers! They told us that is quite common and not weird at all there to marry your cousin but they know that everywhere else in the world is quite weird! By the time all that was done we had little time for the spice garden and we were told that it was not that great so we decided to skip it and just head back to Georgetown. We went back to the mall where Sean got a haircut. The hairdresser tried to give him some style but really it looked like a mullet so SEan ended up cutting it some more when we got back!

Then we booked a minibus/ boat package to get to the islands on the other side of Malaysia. We left at 5 am and got there at about 11 am on the Perhentians....next entry about it but it will be for ntest time as internet time is up!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1218185160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1218185160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1218185160/tpod.html Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:14:03 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Cameron Highlands, Pahang, Malaysia

Hi all!!

So we left KL for the mountains on the 6th (Wednesday). It took us about 4h to get here. We found a guesthouse and then walked around the town. There is one street in the town we are staying in and it is very short...about 200m! The highlands are much cooler than KL and every other city at sea level, but since we are up in the mountains the temperatures are about 10C lower. It feels good and it is a nice change. So after finding a place to stay and grabbing lunch, we decided to head to a strawberry plantation. It was about an hour away by walk. We were very sad to find out that it is not strawberry season but we still bought some as well as some home made strawberry mr. Freeze which were of course delicious! Then headed back to the hotel grabbed dinner and watched movies in the common room of the hotel.

The next day, we decided to rent bikes to go to the various plantations. There are tours offered doing the same thing in a van but we thought we would get some exercice out of it. We forgot that we were in the mountains and that of course the road is hilly. So first, we headed to the main tea plantation in the region: the BOH tea plantation. It was pretty much uphill all the way and Sean's bike was too small for him so it was quite the ride. We made it finally, after several breaks of course, and it took us about 1h30. It was actually pretty cool there to see the tea plants all over the mountains. There is also a small museum to explain the history of the company and how the tea is made and then a SHORT free factory tour where you can actually see the tea being made. We then decided to try some of their tea and each bought a cup and sat down on the balcony of the restaurant with an incredible view of the tea plantation. The tea turned out to be OK but Sean and I prefer chinese tea. After that we slowly started to make our way back to the town by stopping at the rose garden and more strawberry farms. The rose garden had some pretty nice flowers and moms you would have loved it. The strawberry farms were not as exciting as we had hoped since it is not the season but we still bought some again!! We then stopped at a restaurant that makes all sorts of deserts and tea/coffee out of strawberry. WE tried the strawberry strudel with some white strawberry coffee. Both were very good and we had our sugar high to continue the bike ride. There was a huge rain storm when we were in the cafe and we had hoped it would stop by the time we would be done our snack but unfortunately it was not the case! We got all bundled up in our rain gears and hopped back on the bike to make it back to our town and hand in our bikes. After that just chilled around town some more and grabbed some hot pot dinner before returning to the hotel and watch more movies in the evening. This town is really small so there is not much to do at all at night and also with Islam being the main religion of Malaysia let's just say there is no real places like pubs or bars to hang out at night.

WE probably would have been fine with just spending one day and a half here but since we had already paid for the third night, we decided to stay for one more day. We slept in very late and then went walking in the jungle for about two hours. We thought it would be a little easy stroll in the woods but it turned out to be a pretty decent walk ! It is a gorgeous day today! WE bought our bus ticket for our next destination, Georgetown, for 9 am. WE wanted the 8 am bus but apparently it was full! Oh well the 9 am will have to do. Now just at the internet cafe and then dinner before watching the opening ceremony for the olympics. We think we are in the same time zone as Beijing so we shoudl catch it live! That is about it for now and we will blog it from Georgetown!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217937840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217937840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217937840/tpod.html Tue, 05 Aug 2008 08:23:26 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hey hey!!

So we stayed the last two days in the capital and I would say that we walked all over it and pretty have done it all. Yesterday, after sleeping in, we went to the central market. Tons of souvenirs and gooddies were there but didn't really buy any as we still dont want to log around for 3 weeks. After that we made our way to the National History Museum to learn about Malaysia but we we arrived, we saw taht it was closed permenantly! We decided to just walk around and make our way to little India and sure enough...there are lots of Indian products and food in Little India. Walked some more in the markets and malls and we were looking for something to do when we saw this movie theather playing the new Batman. So we went to see it. Anybody has seen it? Pretty good but pretty creepy at times. Also, here they take their A/C VERY seriously and put it down to like 5 C. The movie theatre was freezing and I had a jacket on with hoodie. Even SEan was cold!! Anyways, to warm up we decided to hit up some good spicy food from the indian restaurants! Once again pretty good food! By that time, it was about 6h30 pm and we started to walk towards to see the Petrona Towers at night when they are all lit up. For those of you who don't know what they are, you should look it up on the internet...they are pretty crazy, especially at night with all the lighting. So we got to them when it was dark and sure enough it was incredible to see the size of those towers. WE took pictures but they all look fake. The pics look like a 3D model on the computer. There is also a very luxurious mall right beside the towers so we went to enjoy the A/C there once again look at designer clothes!! (LV, ARmani, BCBG...etc!) Then we took the LRT make our way back to the hotel, watched a movie in the common room and hit the hay for an early morning the next day.

The Petrona Towers are free to visit. They are open every day of the week but Monday, hence us staying an extra day to visit them. The tickets are given on a first come first served basis and the ticket counter opens at 8:30. I thought arriving by 8 am we would be the first one there!! WRONG!! We got there a bit before 8 and entered the tower, I was all proud of my plan of arriving so early because I couldn't see any other tourists until that woman saw that we were tourists and directed us to the ticket counter on the floor below. There, a huge line was waiting for us. However, it was not big enough for us not to get in...we had it planned just right I guess. So we waited in line for about 1h30 to finally get our tickets to go up at 10:15 am. We went to grab some breakfast in the meantime and by the time we went up the tower, they were giving out the last sets of tickets available for that day! So if you ever come to KL, show up early to get your tickets!! Anywho, even tho the ticket is free, it is amazing. First, they make you watch a 3-D movie about the company, PETRONAS, and some history about the tower. Then you go through securtiy and then up to the bridge between the towers with a guide. You have about ten minutes up there and then out. AFter that, there is a free exhibition to get more info about the towers. By the time all that was done, it was about noon and we walk around the city centre. We then made our way to the craft centre to look at some artists painting, carving, etc. and then believe it or not, SEan and I decided to do some arts! ahaha we painted on silk with some water paint after tracing from a already done picture. WE ended up spending about 3 hours there by the time we were done painting and we are both very proud of our creation!! ahahah! WE then made our way back to the hotel by walking through the "hot" shopping places and the bus station to get our tickets for tomorrow morning.

That is about it for now! WE are heading to the highlands tomorrow and will blog it from there!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217690820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217690820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217690820/tpod.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 11:44:40 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Hi!!

So we ended up arriving quite late in KL due to our delayed flight and the hour bus ride to get in the city from the airport. It was about a quarter to 11 pm when we got dropped off in chinatown by the bus. It was actually the exact location that we wanted to get dropped off so all was good, now we just had to find a hostel for the night...but everything cheap was all booked up for the night, not too surprising for that time!, so we had to splurge for a 27$ room with A/C and TV. We then quickly went to get food at food stall on the street and then headed back to the room to get some sleep. We had initially planned to stay 2 days in the capital but we changed our minds last night as we had to shop for a memory card in the morning and change hotel, and the Petrona Towers that we want to visit are not opened on Monday and you need to be there really early in the morning to get a ticket as they are very popular. So we woke up not too early, found a room in the a budget hotel and moved our stuff in. Then, we started shopping for hte memory which didn't take too long. I ended up paying a bit much for it but I just wanted to get it out of the way! Sean was very happy to rub it in my face all day that if I had listened to him and waited a little bit I could have paid a bit less but oh well!! Then we shopped some more on the famous Chinatown market and more malls where they had A/C. We then headed for the National Mosque but we were disapointed to see that it was closed for non-muslim tourists at the time that we were there. We walked through a park that is in the west of the city and there was a free museum about the history of the Malaysian police so we visited that and then went to the planetarium and got to see a view of the city. After that, we continued our walk in the park and walked along the lake. It was gorgeous with so many flowers! We then went to the national monument and then decided to make our way back to the hotel to grab some dinner. We waited for the public bus for about 1h30 and then realized that it would probably never come so we just walked back!! Then just grabbed dinner and went back to the market to walk around. It is quite crazy at night...so many stalls and so many buyers!!

Malaysia so far is VERY different than everywhere else we have been. First of all, the main religion here is Islam so so many women wear the vale covering their head and a lot the whole face. Also, there are a lot of indians everywhere which is quite new compared to the other countries. Furthermore, Kuala Lumpur is a huge city with so many skyscrapers and is not nearly as poor as any other countries we have visited in this trip. Tomorrow, we are going to walk around the city some more and go to Little India for dinner to get some authentic indian food.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217508780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217508780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/ericabg/1/1217508780/tpod.html Sun, 03 Aug 2008 09:04:21 -0400 S&E in SE Asia!!

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Phuket, Thailand

Hi Guys!

So after my last blog we went on the boat trip to four islands. THe tour was well organized and got picked up early in the morning to get dropped off at the pier to go on the boat. Then we started heading for the James Bond Island where part of the movie for "The man with a Gold Gun" was filmed. It was very nice...until our memory card completely bugged. We could still take pictures with our camera but could not view them. When we got back to the hotel, we immediately went to an internet cafe but we could only see about 1/3 of the pictures that we had taken. All our pictures from Laos and Southern Thailand are on that memory card so it is worry some to be sure. We couldnt burn a cd either. Sean thinks the memory card is corrupted for some reasons but that we didn't loose any pictures because there is data on the memory card but we jsut cannot view it. We will wait until Vancouver to go to a trustworthy camera store and hopefully they can recover it! Let's all hope that nothing is lost! In the meantime, we got a new memory card for the rest of the trip!

Anyways, continuing with our boat trip. We then made two stops at two different islands to go in the lagoons. We went in little sea canoe where a guide was paddeling for us and bringing us in the lagoon. It was pretty sweet and relaxing. The lunch onboard was also pretty incredible with an all you can eat buffet. Our last stop before going to mainland was a swimming stop and was welcomed by all since it was a really nice day. Then, we got driven back to the hotel and just relaxed with andra and stefan for the rest of the night.

The next day, we went to Laem Singh beach, one of the beaches close to Phuket town. It was once again a gorgeous day and we enjoyed it at the beach. The beach was not too crowded and the waves were huge so it was pretty awesome. WE took the public bus to go there and back and it took about an hour each way. The public bus is really just a huge pick up truck with seats in teh back like in all of thailand! We spent the night looking for a new memory card but decided to wait for Malaysia to hopefully find a cheaper one!

The next day, we made our way to the airport pretty early because we were catching the public bus and it takes longer than with a taxi. We were there nice and early, maybe a bit too early, and our flight was delayed so we pretty much spent the whole day in the airport but it is still better than a 24 hour train ride.

Next entry for KL (Kuala LUmpur)...
]]>