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Landed in hot & steamy Singapore on July 8th. Despite being 8pm we were pretty sticky by the time we got to our hostel. Aah, welcome back humidity! Our hostel was smack in the heart of Chinatown so we headed out for tasty (& cheap) noodles. Lots of things in Singapore are pricey, especially accommodation and booze, but luckily food isn't one of them.
The next morning we walked around the city and admired all the amazing and sometimes wacky architecture (see photo of the hotel with what looks like a boat plonked on top). We walked past a hundred massive shopping malls longingly, wishing we could afford to shop (or maybe that was just me ;-) ). Looked at some colourful temples in Little India and ate a great Indian lunch served on a big banana leaf. Later we went to the Night Safari at the zoo which was a great experience (and for the first time ever I saw hippos actually walking around as opposed to just submerged in a waterhole).
Visited Sentosa island the next day,which is a small island connected to the city by causeway with theme parks, beaches, restaurants etc. Very tacky but worth a visit. Later, we had dinner at the harbour, watched the nightly lights show on the water & finished off the night perfectly with a famous Singapore sling (Ali had a whisky because he thought the cocktail was a 'bit girly') at the swanky Raffles hotel.
Bussed across the border into Malaysia & straight for Kuala Lumpur. A very different city to Singapore - still very crowded but less 'Western' and more chaotic. Stayed in Chinatown here also - it was fun being right in the hustle 'n' bustle but soon got a wee bit tedious as we had to negotiate past all the market stalls every time we left our hostel. We were astounded by how cheap it was -- we had some dinner from a street market in little India for a grand total of £3 (and that was with Ali having a whole fish; my main was only 80p!).
The next day we wandered in the relentless heat and saw the Petronas towers, wandered through the beautiful Lake Gardens, and visited the Batu caves. These are enormous limestone caves with Hindu shrines built inside them, and literally hundreds of monkeys swarming around them.
Headed up north to the Cameron highlands for some cooler weather and some trekking. We hiked up Mount Brinchang on a steep and very muddy path. The summit was pretty unimpressive,and it was cloudy so the views not that great either. However, as we meandered back down via a different route, the sun peeked through as we passed all the tea plantations & lush rolling hills, which reminded us why we had wanted to come here in the first place. As usual though, we thought 'yeah, its not that far to walk back' and so walked about 20k 'by accident'. With our last shred of energy we crawled into a cafe for some local tea & scones. That night we shared a traditional 'steamboat' (the Chinese version of fondue); we were given plates of seafood, meat, veg & noodles and cooked them ourselves in a big pot of Thai tom yum soup on a burner. So good, but we were oh so stuffed! Went with a guide into the jungle to find the Rafflesia flower (the worlds largest flower) which was impressive, if not a bit stinky! We then headed back to KL for one night, before jetting north to Thailand.
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