After enjoying the cool climate in the Cameron Highlands we got the bus to Kuala Lumpur and returned to the hot weather.
We didn’t feel the need to get the tshirt though…
KL is huge, modern and very clean compared to the recent cities we’ve been to in Asia, but it still has some really traditional, interesting neighbourhoods, as well as the skyscrapers and shopping malls.
The market in Chinatown
We stayed in Chinatown and spent a nice few evenings eating Chinese street food again and wondering around the markets. It’s definitely more expensive in Malaysia than we’ve been used to, although it’s still not too hard to find cheap noodles.
On our second day we headed into the town to see the famous Petronus Towers and marvelled them from the ground, rather than paying the RM80 entrance fee! They are pretty incredible to see and are set in a lovely park.
The Petronus Towers
KL is also supposed to be a shoppers paradise, but there are so many malls, all interlinked that we got disorientated and a bit overwhelmed. So we had some giant iced coffees instead 🙂
The man-crèche in the mall
For our final stop in Asia we spent 2 days in the incredibly expensive but really fun city of Singapore. After a night train with just a seated ticket, rather than a sleeping one, we got to the city at 7am and immediately noticed how friendly everyone was, offering us sleepy tourists directions and tips of things to do. We headed out to wander around the marina, which is just full of incredible architecture.
The Marina Bay Sands Resort. We think we’ll stay there next time.
We had a great time walking around the waterfront and some of the malls, even buying some jeans so we finally look less like backpacker tourists.
We then cashed in one of our wonderful wedding presents (thanks Sharon and Charlie) and had a very extravagant but fabulous Singapore Sling at the Long Bar, Raffels Hotel. It was full of tourists like us, taking tonnes of photos and eating lots of free peanuts to make up for the $60 bar tab! Totally worth it though, it was a great experience.
Singapore Slings at the Long Bar, Raffles Hotel
On day 2 we went to Singapore Zoo, which was definitely the best zoo I have ever been too (recommended by Bex who is an expert on zoos)! They have over 2500 animals who are in really natural looking enclosures, rather than cages, including pigmy hippos, free ranging orangutangs, white tigers and even a polar bear. It was brilliant, we stayed all day.
Awesome polar bear
The elephant show at Singapore Zoo
A white tiger
Singapore was our last stop in Asia and tomorrow we fly to Sydney for the weekend. We will definitely miss cheap food, beer and hostels, but are looking forward to the next stage of our adventures.
Saying goodbye to Asia at Singapore airport
