My journey to Kuala Lumpur could get a post all to itself! I was supposed to fly from Singapore, but *someone* booked their ticket for December 29 instead of November 29 and didn’t discover this fact until after getting up at four am and taking a taxi to the airport. So, I ended up taking a bus instead, which was roughly a seven hour journey. The bus was quite nice though — my seat reclined and had a foot rest, and they served snacks and hot drinks! The boarder crossing was an interesting cultural experience. There was a massive line to get stamped out of Singapore. I chatted with two nice Malaysian ladies from my bus while we waited for an hour. There were hundreds (or more??) of Chinese tourists crossing the boarder by bus. My bus was all Malaysians and me, so when it was time to cross the Malaysian boarder, they all got in the local line and flew right through, and I had to get in the hours-long line with all the Chinese tourists! The bus has a helper to get you through the boarder crossing, and she wasn’t having any of that. First she tried to get me in the locals line by appealing to three different boarder control agents, and when that didn’t work, she just moved me to the front of the line! I felt a little bad (I think we all know I’m a rule follower) but I was also glad, since I didn’t want to hold up the entire bus for hours! 

On my first evening in town I had an experience that was one of the highlights of my trip… a food tour! A local foodie took us around KL to a bunch of popular street food stands to try some Malay foods. Some of the more normal things we ate were rice with toasted coconut, chicken satay, roti with banana inside, and beef rendang. Some of the more outrageous things were dessert squid (squid stuffed with sweet rice in a sweet sauce), cow stomach satay, and cow tongue satay. The dessert squid was one of the most disgusting things I have ever tasted in my life. But the experience was awesome. He also took us to the market. We got to try all kinds of fruits (my favorite part of the tour, of course). I loved the mangosteen! We also ate durian — we each had to take two bites because he said it tastes different on the second bite. That was true, but I still wasn’t a fan even after the second bite. It wasn’t as bad as the squid though! We also tried some vegetables, including dog fruit, which is eaten raw and looks and tastes a bit like garlic, and stink bean. He told us everyone will know if you eat a lot of stink bean because it makes your gas have a certain smell! We also tried cashew leaf, which made your whole mouth go dry when you chewed it! We went to the meat market too, and that was the most challenging part of the experience for me. Seeing the animal parts was difficult (we saw a man pushing a cart full of cow’s heads), but that wasn’t actually the hardest part. It was the hygiene conditions! Everything was just sitting out with no refrigeration and the scraps and run-off just poured into channels on the ground to flow out into the street. Apparently I have a hang up about food being clean. Who knew. The food tour was a fun and interesting experience and I loved it, even though I ate meat. 

Another highlight from my time in Kuala Lumpur was my trip to the Batu caves, which is a Hindu temple set in a natural cave. The site was under construction and everything was wrapped in scaffolding, so that took something away from the experience. But we decided to visit Dark Cave, which is a conservation site nearby, and that was really cool. We saw bats and insects in the cave and I learned a lot. I did some Christmas shopping at the Central Market (mostly tourist junk but I found a few gems), and visted the Textile Museum, which I loved for all the traditional embroidery and beautiful hand-made fabric on display there. I also took a walk in Old Little India, an area where locals do their shopping. I enjoyed seeing all the shops and fabrics. I got a lot of attention there. I’m guessing that they don’t see a lot of tourists in that area. I met two sweet girls who were visiting from Sabah (another part of Malaysia) for a school competition and they tried out their English skills with me. There were lots of giggles involved. 

Singapore was quite a change from Australia. On my first day in town I visited Chinatown. Why is it that Chinatowns around the world are all filled with tacky cheap souvenirs aimed at tourists? I ate lunch at the Chinatown Complex, which has a market on the first floor and something like a cafeteria on the second floor, except that it has many stalls, each one run by a different person and selling a different food. This set-up is called hawker stalls. To be honest, I really struggle with eating in places that look less than clean, and this was no exception. A lot of the food was sitting out at room temperature and the place was just generally really filthy. Once I managed to find some food that was being cooked fresh I was alright though. I had some pork dumplings that were being made fresh in the stall — I watched them being made and steamed. And for dessert I had longan and grass jelly with crushed ice! After lunch I went to the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, which houses an incisor that is supposed to have belonged to the Buddha. It was a beautiful temple. I also visited the Tiong Bahru wet market — a wet market sells food like veggies and meat. In the evening I went to a bar called Druggists and had a beer that became my new favorite beer of all time. The beer was Yeastus Christus, which is a farmhouse IPA from Tool, a brewery in Denmark. Good thing I loved it, because it was S$19 per pint! I chatted with the bartender a bit and he said it is so expensive because it is heavily taxed. 

The next day I visited Little India and the Arabian neighborhood Kampong Glam. I loved Little India — it was quite busy and chaotic, with loud music blaring from many of the shops. I visited the Sri Veeramakaliamman Temple, an Indian Hindu temple. There were so many people all over the place inside doing all kinds of things I didn’t understand. I really wanted to know what was going on and what the significance of everything was! I also visited the Abdul Gafoor Mosque, a mainly Indian mosque. I had an amazing conversation with a volunteer there that lasted at least an hour. I asked him lots of questions about what the muslim faith says about violence and women’s rights, and he invited me to stay to watch the afternoon prayers. It was a brilliant cultural experience. I visited the National Gallery, a great art museum in the beautiful old Supreme Court and City Hall buildings. The museum showcases Asian art and does a great job providing context with sinage. In the evening I went to the Gardens by the Bay, a city garden which has two massive domes with gardens inside. There is the Flower Dome, which is a more traditional botanical garden with different types of plants in different areas. I loved the succulents (of course). The Cloud Forest dome was really spectacular. It has a mountain covered in plants that recreates the cloud forest ecosystem, with each level being held at the correct temperature and humidity for the types of plants there. Then finally I went to see the evening light show at the Supertrees, which are these massive tree sculptures covered in plants that light up at night. The sculptures were cool, but the light show was underwhelming. This was an exhausting day. I slept really well!

My third day I spent mostly in the hostel, making some phone calls and doing some bookings. I did get out for lunch and I tried curry laksa, an important local dish. I loved the broth but couldn’t bring myself to eat some questionable looking meaty things that were in there (maybe some kind of organ??). 

I liked Singapore. It has mix of cultures, and I enjoyed exploring the different neighborhoods and sampling the different cuisine (when I wasn’t worrying about getting sick). The main problem I had there was the heat and humidity. It felt like Florida in August! I’m a northerner now and I can’t take that kind of heat! I really liked the hostel I stayed in while I was there. It was pod style, so I had a tiny little room roughly the size of a twin bed all to myself! It was so nice to have some personal space after months of staying in hostels. Also the sleeping room had AMAZING air conditioning. Singapore has an incredibly nice airport and excellent, reliable, clean public transit. It was strange knowing how restrictive and severe the government is there. When you enter the country, there are signs warning you that you that they have the death penalty for drug trafficing. I don’t agree with their methods, but things certainly are orderly there.