Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

After Singapore we made the short flight to Kuala Lumpur. I had survived an entire month of travel with no health problems, but in Singapore of all places I picked up my first case of travelers stomach. I have a baby stomach to begin with. If I run too fast I throw up. If I take a shot I throw up. Really a lot of things make my belly ache, so it's amazing that I lasted so long with no problems. But this short flight was a test on my body, and I spent the entire time hovering around the bathroom. This made my first 2 days in Malaysia a kind of blur, I became much more familiar with the bathrooms of Kuala Lumpur than the sights.

The second day we were there we headed to the Batu caves, a group of caves outside of the city that houses Hindu temples. You have to climb almost 300 stairs to reach the caves, and the entire staircase is crowded with flocks of wild monkeys. When we first got there I thought they were really cute and watched as people fed them bananas, coconuts, or whatever snacks they had handy. I climbed the stairs but was feeling kind of weak because I hadn't eaten much the day before. I bought a Sprite at the top to get some sugar and was kind of in a daze as I wandered around the cave. Suddenly a monkey ran by me and grabbed the can right from my hand. An Australian family was walking behind me and I heard the woman say 'what a cheeky monkey!' Afterwards I watched as another monkey stole a soda bottle from someone. The monkey then proceeded to unscrew the cap and drink it like a human. Smart little monkeys!

This is the tallest statue of Murugan (a Hindu deity) in the world.

KL also has the Petronas twin towers, the tallest twin buildings in the world and the third tallest building in the world (after Dubai and Tapei 101!). Underneath is a shopping mall with any store you can dream of. My appetite was slowly coming back so I indulged in an Auntie Annes soft pretzel.

Kuala Lumpur is also a very multicultural city with a strong Indian and Chinese presence. On the street our hostel was on there is a Hindu temple and a Chinese temple. And of course as a Muslim country there are lots of mosques all around. I had read that you need to dress conservatively on the streets, so I pictured the city as being very serious and uptight. But it was very modern and felt just like any other city.

We went to visit the National Mosque where there are only certain hours tourists are allowed in, and women are given a robe to cover up inside. We wandered around for a while and when we were looking at the prayer room a volunteer came up to us to give us some information about the building. He ended up talking for over an hour telling us all sorts of things about the mosque and Islam. I realized how little I actually knew about the religion and it was a very interesting conversation. Some things I found very interesting and agreed with, and some things were a bit of a stretch. For example his argument against evolution was that if evolution existed people would have eyes on the back of their heads and wouldn't have to eat because we would have evolved to make life easier. He even pulled out pictures of things in natures spelling the word Allah in Arabic, just like when Catholics think they see Jesus in a piece of toast. He gave Helen a copy of the Koran, and for some reason I got pamphlets including 'Sex in Islam'. Overall it was a very informative trip.

The outside of the mosque.

The main prayer room. This room holds up to 3,000 people and the area outside can fit another 12,000! Non-Muslims aren't allowed inside.

Singapore

Singapore is a very strange city, especially arriving directly from Cambodia. The city has a lot of old colonial influences mixed with different Asian cultures and then topped off with intense tourist appeal. Everything is extremely clean and orderly in the city, and it all feels like it was planned deliberately. At times I felt like I was in an amusement park walking down the streets modeled after a country instead of really in a new place. They are very big on keeping the streets clean, and there are big campaigns throughout the city about being polite to one another. They have a special set of adds directed at public transport where three woman sing about proper etiquette. Right before the trains pull into the station you can hear them sing 'Train is coming, train is coming, please start to queue!'. You can see one of the videos here:

Video for trains

Here is another example of adds on being polite:

There are also lots of signs about not littering, and all the trash cans are painted in creative ways.

Here are some of the old colonial buildings. The first is the cathedral and the second is the old city hall. All of these buildings are grouped together in one area.

Right near the colonial district is an area geared more towards the average tourist. In the 60s Singapore came up with the Merlion as it's tourist symbol. It is half lion and half fish and sits on the river with a fountain shooting out from it's mouth. Singapore means 'lion city', and the old Javanese name was Tamasek which means sea town, so the Merlion I guess joins old and new.

Across from the Merlion is the new concert hall. It has a strange spiked dome the some people think looks like a durian (the smelly giant fruit of southeast Asia).

Also in this area is a new hotel/casino that has a giant growth connecting the roofs. It is in the shape of a boat and apparently has a big swimming pool across the top.

You can't go to Singapore without drinking a Singapore Sling, so we made a trip to the Raffles hotel where the delicious treat was invented. As soon as we walked into the bar we saw a crowd of other tourists also enjoying their pink fruity beverage, and it was obvious to the bartender what we wanted. We ordered 2 and joined in with the crowds eating peanuts and chucking the shells on the ground. Each drink cost $25US making it the most expensive drink I have ever had in my life. Just out of curiosity we asked to see the drink menu, but with 15 dollar beers we decided to stop after the first round. The bartender took pity on us a gave us a free drink.

We stayed in Chinatown and visited Little India, so along the way we also had some good food. This first picture is fried frog, and the second one is a shrimp and banana dumpling wrapped in dragon hair (which I think was fried noodles).

There were tons of cool temples all over as well. I got to see my first Hindu temple!

The river at night is really pretty and lit up with lots of restaurants along the side.

Most people only think of the city when they think of Singapore, but there is also a bit of area outside including a few islands and a small rain forest. One day we left the city and went to a monastery and a WWII graveyard.

Cambodia - Sihanoukville

Unfortunately after Siem Reap Pam had to return to her normal life and I was once again on my own. I still had a few more days before my flight to Singapore so I caught an overnight bus down to the very south of Cambodia, an area called Sihanoukville that I was told has nice beaches. I upgraded my bus ticket to pay for a bed which turned out to be pretty comfortable. The seats were two stories of reclining beds, almost in a beach chair position. I had the very front seat so I was kind of sitting over the drivers seat, sitting (or sleeping I guess) next to an Australian woman. I slept through most of the night and after 12 hours we were really close to the beach. I had just woken up when I heard the driver freaking out. All of a sudden we swerved around this giant truck in front of us and smashed into some stuff on the side of the road. Then I saw the entire door of the bus go flying off. It turned out our brakes went, and the bus couldn't stop. One driver jumped out and was yelling to warn people to get out of the way, and then the other guy jumped out too. Because we were in the front seats over the driver with a clear view of the windows we are the only people on the bus who could see what was happening, and we were also freaking out as we were on a bus with no breaks and no drivers. Fortunately we were on a flat road so the bus slowly came to a stop, and we all climbed out. Everyone was a bit shaken up but ok, but the front of the bus was totally smashed up. The cops arrived really fast, and all these moto bikes swarmed. We figured that another bus wasn't coming anytime soon, so me and the aussie girl jumped on two bikes and headed into town.

We found a place that was right on the beach and checked in only to realize the beach was disgusting and covered in trash. We were going to leave and try to find an island but instead walked down the beach about a mile or two where we found a much nicer beach with little bungalows and decided to move there. I again had to survive a terrifying motto bike ride with no helmet over this crazy pot holed road. Our new place was 5 bucks a night for both of us. It had no hot water, only had power from 7pm til 11pm, and I don't think the walls really met the ceiling. But the people were amazingly friendly, the food was delicious, and we were about 10 feet from the beach, so it all worked out. It is currently the rainy season so it's the low travel time, and on the first day we didn't see any other tourists at all. There were people patrolling the beach trying to sell the usual: bracelets, scarves, food, massages, etc. Because we were the only ones there who could actually buy anything everyone just camped out around us and continued to try to sell their wares for hours at a time. My Australian friend ended up having her leg hair threaded and I bought myself a full body massage for 5 big bucks from an old woman with very strong hands and a sincere smile.

Our bus after the crash

Sunset on the beach

This dog was my bff on the beach. One time I was petting her and stopped to turn the page of my book and she actually bit the page so I would keep paying attention to her. Reminded me of murphy!

One old woman was walking down the beach with this plate of shrimp on her head. We bought some each day and they were delicious!You can see the crowd around her as they tried to sell bracelets and convince her to get her leg hair threaded. She finally caved to both.

Cambodia - Siem Reap (Angkor Wat)

After our stay in Phnom Penh we climbed on a bus and headed north up to Siem Reap. Siem Reap is a small town in the north very close to Thailand, and is the jumping off point to visit the ancient Khmer temples, like Angkor Wat. It is a cute little tourist town full of delicious restaurants, guesthouses, and very cheap beer. The tour company that booked our bus gave us a free tuk tuk ride from the bus stop to our hotel, which was pretty much giving our driver the opportunity to have the first crack at getting our business as a driver for the temples. We accepted, and Ra became our tour guide for the next three days carting us from temple to temple and offering small tid bits or history in broken English.
Our guest house was this cozy little place with a garden and hammocks out front. I fell in loooove with hammocks on this trip and even decided to buy one at the market. It is was the very last thing I need to be carting around in my pack, but I couldn't resist the heavenly comfort.
The first night we went to a restaurant called the dead fish cafe. It used to be a crocodile farm, and they still have two of their animals remaining for entertainment. You can pay 50cents and feed them. An interesting thing about Cambodia is that all prices are listed in dollars. Even ATMs feed you dollars. They have their own currency but it is so weak that it is never used. If you bought something that was under a dollar the change would be in Riel, but that was the only time I ever had any cash.
Weed is not technically legal in Cambodia, but there are these 'happy' pizza parlors all over the place.
The first day we went to see Angkor Wat at sunrise. I wasn't a big fan of waking up so early, but it was definitely worth seeing it. I took about 5 million pictures of all the different temples, but here are just a few of my favorite shots. They are so huge and impressive that it would be impossible for me to show in just a few pictures. Unfortunately a lot of the carvings were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge during the war. A lot of the fighters stationed themselves in these temples as a kind of fort. At one point we went up to this river that had carvings along the bank and was a bit far away from town. Ra told us that until a few years ago it was closed to tourists because there were still a few Khmer strongholds in this area.

Some of the stairs up to the top of the temples were VERY steep. There was one set that Ra warned us was a little rocky. The steps were about 2 feet tall and maybe 6 inches deep and were not in the best condition. Going up was fine, but I was terrified to peer down. When you walked up to them from the top it just looked like a sheer drop until you were right next to it.

A few of the temples were kind of taken over by the jungle around them. There were a lot of giant trees growing up from the middle of the rocks.
At every temple there was a group of really cute kids trying to sell you bracelets, scarves, drinks, postcards, weird musical instruments, or really anything they could find. Both me and Pam were suckers for them and I ended up with way too many bracelets.
In both Cambodia and Vietnam I was really impressed with the things that people managed to carry on their bikes and motor bikes. In Vietnam we watched a guy load 3 full arm chairs and drive away. I don't know how this guy balanced or made turns.Our absolute favorite food was banana pancakes. I could eat them for every single meal.
This is amok, a kind of curry that often comes in banana leaves.
For our night out on the town we went to a bar called Angkor What? where you can sign the walls. We ended up making some friends and returned for a sequel.
Fish massage came with a free beer!