A cracking week in Singapore

After 11 weeks apart, I finally got to go to Singapore airport to meet my bestie! Once Amy had slept off her jet lag, and I'd slept off 11 weeks in Asia, we ventured out to go to the Singapore Flyer.

While the Singapore Flyer (basically the London Eye,) is the tallest wheel in the world, next to all the huge buildings it appeared a lot smaller. At 165m it's actually 30meters taller than the London Eye. 

       Us on the Singapore Flyer

The carriage next to us with a view of the 50 years of Singapore display

It was cool to see the whole city. It was really hard to not compare it to London- Marina Bay was just like Canary Whalf, the river could have been the Thames, and the architecture was very western. 

We decided to be a little indulgent and have a drink at the top of Marina Bay Sands, which is a very posh hotel. Even though drinks were really expensive, it was impressive to see the whole city from the top.

50 years since Singapore had become a city

       Us pretending to be posh

The next day we headed to Singapore Zoo. The Zoo doesn't have cages as others do and the animals have more room to roam around the enclosures. There were different sections for each part of the world and we got to see loads animals ranging from kangaroos and snakes to lions, giraffes, penguins and polar bears! 

     Driving the fake zoo car 

          The cute little penguins 

We watched the sea lion show. I was impressed by how clever the sea lion was, from fetching someone's watch to hiding it's face when complimented!

After a pretty mental NYE... (We went to a beach party, - I ended up wondering off on my own and somehow woke up at home, leaving Amy to in the foam party bit on her own!) ...we had a chilled day where we explored China Town and Little India.

                Little India

The beach party was on Sentosa Island. We went back there on the 2nd to do something called 'luge.' You're in a small go-kart type thing without wheels, and go around a track that's sloping down hill. It was lots of fun and to get to the top we got to go in a ski lift which was cool.

           The Luge car on the ski lift

After quickly checking out the beach, which looked very nice but quite man-made, we went to Gardens by the Bay. Naturally I got confused and we ended up at the Botonic Gardens first! It was nice to see that as well though. The Gardens by the Bay have lots of viewing towers which look like they could be some kind of giant flower, that would feature in Harry Potter! 

        The beach on Sentosa Island

The look-out towers at the Gardens by the Bay

Our final day in Singapore was one our best- we went to Universal Studios! There is 7 different sections all themed- Transformers, Madagascar, Shreak, Ancient Egypt, Sesamy Street, Hollywood and Jurrasic Park, and each had different rides and attractions. 

        Us by the Universal Sign

In the Hollywood section, they showed you how special affects are created in films, by simulating a tornado. As well as the rides, and a visit to the castle from Shreak, we watched the Underwater World show, which was full of stunts and special affects. We had a great day, running around the park like big kids! It was a great end to our Singapore trip, before catching a plane to Melbourne, Australia. 

    Us by the castle from Shreak! 

    The firework show at the end

Back to Thailand

After deciding that I didn't want to spend Christmas in the rain in Malaysia- where most backpackers seemed to be just passing through, I headed North to Thailand.

Thailand seems to have its own time and my boat and bus crossing to Koh Lanta ended up being an extra 3 hours more rather than the extra 15 mins I had been told.

        Not 15 mins boat ride! 

I met some guys on the bus from England, Canada, Holland, and Australia. We all spent the next day hiring bikes to explore the island. 

Koh Lanta was a lot bigger than I was expecting. We spent about 2 hours circling the top of the island in search for some caves, in the bottom part of the island. I think there must have been a small turning to access the other road. It was good to see the island nonetheless, and we managed to see some elephants at the side of the road.

            The elephants 

The rain stopped us from doing too much over the next couple of days, though I did get some much needed time at the beach and saw a nice sunset.

        Sunset on Koh Lanta

My original Christmas plans were to go to Koh Phi Phi, but after being pursuaded to join the guys in Krabi, I went to Phi Phi for the day to meet a couple of friends, before catching a boat to Krabi.

       The boats on Koh Phi Phi 

While Krabi isn't as nice as Phi Phi- which is a small, paradise island with incredible beaches and nightlife- it had more to do in the day, especially if it rains. 

We explored the island on bikes- there are a lot of interesting rocks, as well as beaches. We went to a beach full of monkeys. I can't say I'm the biggest fan so I kept my distance, and went for a paddle in the sea instead!

       One of the beaches in Krabi

We spent Christmas meeting Thai Santa, eating duck soup, seeing a bit more of the island and partying hard! 

           Me and Thai Santa

 I'm not the best with the selfie stick...

Duck soup... Still need my Christmas dinner! 

I headed to Phuket the next day, and got to experience another crazy bus driver on the way there. I spent the night in Phuket- I didn't see too much of it, but had a look around the night market. I caught a flight the next day to Singapore and enjoyed a night in a room with the air con on so much I might as well have been in a fridge! 

Experiencing Malaysia in a week

Kuala Lumpur was not what I expected from Malaysia. A built up city with many shopping malls and good transport links, it was definitely the most developed city of anywhere I'd been in Asia so far.

             Street in KL

I did quite like KL however, and spent the day walking around the city with some girls I'd met in the hostel. For sunset we went up KL tower. At 420 meters tall, it's not quite as high as the Petronius Towers (which at 452m were the tallest building in the world until 2004) but gives you a great view of the whole city.

By the towers

Me by the towers

The Petronus Towers from KL Tower

After I'd climbed the 270 stairs to the Batu Caves the next day, and took the picture of the big statue, I met up with Laura and Rich, and we saw the towers at night and a fountain show. They look so much better at night- there's something quite captivating about them. The fountain show was really good as well- there were lots of multicoloured water jets.

The stairs to the Batur Caves

Me with the Towers at night

        The water fountain show

Having ticked most of the sights in KL off the list, we headed North to Penang. The city is well known for its street art. Laura and Rich, and me and Hannah, (who we'd met on the bus,) hired Tandem bikes to get around. While this was hilarious at first, they are so hard to ride and our bike kept breaking! 

    Riding around on a tandem bike! 

The street art was really good though it was more spread out then I'd hoped and it was hard to locate on the map. It's rainy season in Malaysia so the rain made us less motivated to explore more.

    Some of the street art in Penang

           More Penang street art

We got the boat the next day to Langkawi, in the very North of Malaysia. I was expected a small undeveloped island, but we discovered that not only was it the opposite but did not feel like an island at all. 

Main roads ran around the island, and it was considerably bigger than I'd expected- at least an hour drive!

           Langkawi sign

The beach in Langkawi is really nice and once the weather had cleared up, we got to check out the beach. Hannah, me and Beth and Gemma, (2 English girls we'd met,) hired a banana boat which was really fun- you sit on a banana and a boat pulls you along trying to throw you off! 

          Us on the banana boat

        Langkawi beach

We spent the next day at the cable car in Langkawi. It is the longest free span, single rope cable car in the world, covering a distance of 950 meters. 

     Riding the cable car up

The view at the top was amazing- we could see all round Langkawi as well as some neighbouring islands in Thailand. 

Us at the top (was very windy) with the view

I got a boat to Koh Lanta in Thailand the next day- I wanted to go there as we'd missed it last time I was in Thailand.

Learning about Indonesian history in Jakarta

I had a flight to Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia) booked for the next day. After nearly missing my flight- I left my book in the hostel, so I had to go back for it!- I finally made it to Jakarta. 

      Sunset arriving in Jakarta 

I was really tired so it was nice to sleep in before exploring the city. As my sense of direction is so awful, I somehow managed to get right back to my starting point instead of to the museum! 

The National Monument - where I was trying to go! 

When I eventually made it to the National Museum, (I had to ask a few people and get a motorbike taxi!) I saw that there was some sort of army parade going on. One man told me that this happened everyday, but I'm not sure how well he understood me. They had lots of army tanks, and men marching.

     Some army soldiers by their tanks

The National Museum was joined to the National Monument- a tall pillar that gives you a view of the whole city.

The museum in Jakarta was very interesting and I learnt a lot about Indonesian history. They spent a long time fighting Western imperialists- first the Portuguese and then the Dutch- and managed to gain independence from the Dutch in the 1960's. 

      One of the models- protests

The Japanese also occupied Indonesia around the time of the 2nd World War.

Unlike other SE Asian countries, the efforts of the communist party to overthrown the government were unsuccessful. It did however weaken Indonesian politically and it took a few years before they managed to establish political stability. 

          The Indonesian Army

I went to the top of the monument after the mueseum. It was interesting to see the view of the whole city.

          View from the top

     The army parades from above

Jakarta as a city, doesn't have too much going on. Full of traffic and quite dirty, I found that even though it is the capital, I only saw one Western tourist outside of the hostel. The museum was interesting enough, however, to make it worth the visit. 

I was able to have a bit of time to relax before catching my flight to KL.