I’d met Chris in Siam Reap, Cambodia, back at the start of the trip, and kept in touch on Facebook. And when I said we were on our way to KL, he offered to let us stay at his apartment. Unfortunately, we only had 2 days to stay in KL, because we had promised our friend Rob in Singapore that we’d be there for a Saturday night on the town. So Chris and Alistair made the most of our 2 days, taking us around to some of the local tourist hot spots, all the while threatening to kidnap us and take us out of KL to where Malaysia was truly amazing!
This is a Hindu temple inside the cave at the top of the steps in the upper photo.
In front of the temple, they had snakes that you could hold for $4.
But we got to see some of the beautiful buildings around KL; the KL Tower, the Petronas Twin Towers,
With our friend Chris at a fabulous rooftop bar.
and all the Islamic architecture.
Also in KL, we gathered up all the souvenirs we’d accumulated thus far, and the clothes we decided weren’t useful, and anything else we didn’t want to carry anymore, and shipped it all home to Canada. An 11 kg box, first sent by mule and then set adrift on the ocean, guaranteed to arrive in about 2 months, only cost $15!
And we got to go shopping! KL is famous for its Chinatown shopping, where you can buy all sorts of luxury brand name knock-offs; Rolex watches for $100, Louis Vuitton handbags, Gucci shoes, energie jeans, etc. Up until this point in our trip, we’d been backpacking, wearing shorts and tank tops, and staying at the cheapest places we could find. But from here on in, we would be back in the civilized world, where flip-flops wouldn’t cut it. So we shopped; I bought a pair of Diesel shoes for $30 and two pairs of jeans for around $50, which, had they been real, and full-price, would have been around $250 each.
If we’d just had one more day in KL, we could have filled another box of clothes and souvenirs and shipped it off as well. But Singapore was calling. So we spent our Friday night shaking our groove thang at Frangipani, one of the local gay bars (in a country where being gay is punishable by death, or spanking, or something) and had an awesome time. Great people, great music, but the drinks were EXPENSIVE!! $10 each, or so I remember. But I did indulge in the local specialty, the gin&tonic. The story goes that tonic was invented in KL as a more enjoyable way to get your dose of quinine, to prevent (or treat) malaria, back in British colonial days. Jolly good!
The next day, we grabbed the bus to Singapore, an easy (and cheap) 5 hour trip to the tip of the peninsula, and the closest I’ve ever been to the equator. We arrived, and grabbed a cab to Rob’s place, where we changed and headed out to his friend’s apartment for a little house party before hitting one of Singers’ local gay venues.
Rob is a guy we knew from Osaka when he was an English teacher there. This year, he landed a fantastic gig teaching at the Canadian International School in Singapore, where he lives in a beautiful apartment complex with a pool, a maid, and has a fabulous group of 30-something ex-pat friends. Nice work if you can get it!
We had a great time at the club that night. The next day, being Sunday, Rob was off, so we wandered around the downtown and saw some of the most famous of Singapore’s sights; the Merlion,
… , yeah, that’s about it.
During our stay in Singapore, we didn’t really do much of anything. Relaxed in Rob’s beautiful apartment, got lost in rather expensive cab rides, and one night had some of his friends over for a little home-cooked dinner. Planned to go to the zoo’s night safari, but it was raining. And then it was raining the next day, too, when we thought about taking the double-decker sightseeing bus around town. So that’s about all there is to say about Singapore. Except that I smuggled gum into the country and even chewed it in public! A real scofflaw, I know!
Some of our assorted currencies up to this point!
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