Goodbye Asia

We ended the last blog (a long time ago) just before Koh Lipe as we lost some of our pictures, thankfully we were able to recover some of them but still lost a few sadly, anyway lets pick up where we left off...

Koh Lipe

Koh Lipe was amazing, the best island we have been so far. It was a little more developed than we thought it would be but still nothing compared to Phi Phi etc. The sand there was white, the sea was a light turquoise and crystal clear, even when we were swimming where we couldn't stand up you could still see the bottom perfectly. We stayed here 3 nights but didn't do too much other than laze on the beach and have a swim and snorkel. We had a little walk round most of the island one morning which took us around 2-3 hours and that included a few stops for swimming and snacks, so you can how small the island is.



Paradise



Not a bad spot to have breakfast

From Koh Lipe we got a speedboat to Malaysia and the island of Langkawi. You would think that the boat would be equipped with a gps, sat nav or at least a compass... it turns out no, it had none of this. After an hour on the water (the whole journey was only meant to an hour) the captain obviously had no idea where he was, and was scanning the horizon for any sign of land etc.

Trying to find out where the hell we are

We found a boat and pulled up alongside it to ask directions, that was a first, and then with the help of a small travel compass and a blackberry from one of the passengers we made to to Langkawi over an hour late. Apparently the captain does two trips a day and says he can usually see the island and doesn't know what happened. Note it was a beautiful, clear sunny day.

We only had a few days in Langkawi and to be honest it was probably enough for us. We went up to the top of a mountain in a cable car there which had some great views, although it was really cloudy for most of our time there. There was a suspension bridge at the top linking two mountain tops and when the cloud came across you couldn't even see halfway across the bridge.

The view across the suspension bridge

Other than that we spent a bit of time on the beach, there was probably more to see on the island but it was all quite far away from where we were staying, I think the island is probably more for holidaying families than backpackers.

We then made our way to Georgetown, Penang, food capital of Malaysia, so I guess you will already know we loved it there. It has a lot of local and Malaysian delicacies, I think we managed to get through most of them in our 3 nights in Georgetown. Malaysian food is mix of Thai, Chinese and Indian food...Perfect!! We explored most of Georgetown walking through Chinatown, Little India and the rest of Georgetown tasting seemingly everything we saw. Georgetown is really nice to walk around, the architecture is beautiful and as with their food and culture a real mix of different styles. On the same street there was a Church, Mosque and a Chinese Temple which gives a good reflection of how multicultural it is.

Eating from, street stalls, food markets and kopitiams (old Chinese coffee shops) we managed to eat:
Baba Laska (curried noodles), Assam Laska,  Cendol (an interesting dessert with ice red beans and jellies, it looked a little bit like sick), Roti Canai (the best breakfast ever, kind of like a mix between a pancake and a naan bread with a Daal dip), Nasi Lemak (rice with a spicy sauce and dried fish served in a banana leaf), amazing Samosas, tandoori chicken, Dosi (look back at the india blog), a few curries, beef rendang, satay sticks, chicken rice and Char kway teow. Not bad for 2 and a half days!! We estimated that all of that for both of us was probably about 20-30 pound.

Char Kway Teow

Aaah Satay sticks...and yes these are from the same meal, and only the beginning

And on our final night in Penang it was pancake day and luckily we didn't miss out and had the amazing Apom, a very delicate coconutty pancake. There are also a few variations, a fatter one, more like a Scotch Pancake with a banana or coconut filling. They are just served from street stalls that change their location nightly so we were lucky to find them on pancake day.

APOM

We were sad to leave Penang and our next stop was Kuala Lumpor, the capital of Malaysia. I was quite excited about visiting here but it was a bit of a disappointment, I can't really say why but it just didn't do much for us. We still had a good couple of days here exploring the city. On our first day we worked out that we walked around 8-10 miles around the city. We visited Petaling street(a famous street in Chinatown with a market running down it), a butterfly garden, the Central Market, a beautiful Mosque and an art gallery amongst other things.

Leanne with the Mosque behind her

At night we went to the top of the Menara KL tower to get a view of the city at night. It did have really good views and it was nice to see everywhere including the Petronas towers lit up but it wasn't very well presented and wasn't a great experience. It was a viewing floor in the tower so it was all glass windows but really close to the windows they had stalls trying to sell souvenirs which were lit up so you could hardly see through the glass due to the reflections. They could improve it a lot if they wanted to.

View of the Petronas Towers

We then walked down to Little India to an Indian restaurant, I was loving the Indian food again. The food at the restaurant was amazing, some of the best Indian food we have had outside India.

On our second day we woke up early to go and queue for tickets to go up the Petronas Towers viewing platform and Skybridge. We got a bit of a shock when we got there as instead of being free as we expected, it was in the Lonely Planet and all of the internet sites we had been on, it was about 20 pound each. Apparently they had only started charging a few weeks before, it wasn't too much so we still did it. The views from here were great and the whole experience was a lot better than the Menara KL tower.

Petronas Towers

One of the views from the Skybridge

After this we kind of felt at a loose end and weren't quite sure what else we could or wanted to do in KL so we just had a bit of a walk round and looked in a few shops. We left the next day and went to Melaka, another day in KL would have been too long.

Melaka is a small town about 2 hours outside Kuala Lumpor and it used to be under British and Dutch rule so again it has really mix of architecture styles.

The town hall and main square

The main street in Chinatown is Jonkor street which at the weekend is closed to traffic and street stalls set up along it. It was interesting to walk down but most of the stalls were just selling junk and tourist tat. There were a few more interesting stalls and some more different foods to try. On our way home one night it began to absolutely chuck it down, most people took cover and seemed to be waiting for the worst to stop but being only a few minutes from our guesthouse we made the wrong decision of running there in it. It is possibly the wettest I have ever been the rain was torrential and even though we were out a few minutes everything was dripping wet. The streets had huge drains along side them for weather like this and they quickly filled up and spilled over into the street meaning we were running through an inch or so of water. It was crazy how fast it got that high.
When running back to our guesthouse we seen a restaurant that, despite all the rain, had a huge queue down the street. The next day we decided to check it out and waited in the long queue. It was amazing, in the middle of our table there was a big pot of boiling Satay which was regularly topped up by the staff. There was then a bug fridge on one wall with hundreds of different satay sticks, chicken, prawns, beef, vegetables and anything else you can think of. So we went up and chose what sticks we wanted before taking them back to our table and plunging them in the the satay to cook them. A new and delicious experience!

Our seventh and final country in Asia was Singapore, only a 4 hour bus journey from Melaka. Unfortunately we only stayed there for 3 nights but we loved it and could have stayed a lot longer. We were lucky and grateful to stay with Leanne's family friends Geoff and Cathy and their 3 year old twin daughters. They very kind and showed us some of what Singapore has to offer and treated us to a few very nice meals and drinks. It was really nice to sleep in a proper bed and be in a home after 3 months of traveling. Their apartment was also in a great in a great location.

The view from our bedroom window

We packed a lot into a short time and got to see quite a lot. In the evening we had food and drinks at a few different areas across the city, such as Clarke Quay, Club Street, Robertson Quay and a hawker centre. We went to the top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel (the weird building with 3 towers and a boat on top) and experienced the great views of the city and ports. Unfortunately we weren't allowed access to the beautiful infinity pool and gardens at the top as that was reserved for guests.

The Marina Bay Sands hotel, city skyline and Merlion

View from the top of the Marina Bay sands

We also met up with Leanne's Auntie and daughter (more family friends) for lunch and they kindly showed us round more of Singapore in the afternoon rain.

Singapore is very different to the rest of the Asian countries we have been to, although they all have their difference the other countries are also quite similar. Singapore is very clean, modern and more western than the others. The other main difference is the price, it is so much more expensive than anywhere else we have been. It was about 12 Singapore dollars (6 pound) for the cheapest beer here compared with no more than 1.50 for the most expensive everywhere else in Asia.

After a busy last week of so in Asia trying to fit as much in as we could and spending only a couple of nights in each place we headed for the airport to get our flight to Perth, Australia which we would be staying with my cousin Paul, his wife Anne and their baby Dylan for a week. We were both really excited to see them and visit Australia but also sad to leave Singapore and Asia.