Malaysia - Islands and Singapore

PENINSULAR MALAYSIA, ISLANDS AND SINGAPORE ORGANISATION: DO-IT-YOURSELF with the help of the Bible "LONELY PLANET", all the websites about Malaysia, and all the people on the TPC forum who gave me useful advice.

------- FLIGHT from ROME WITH MALAYSIA AIRLINE RETURN EUR 600.00 EACH INCLUDING 1 DOMESTIC FLIGHT ------- HOTEL IN KUALA LUMPUR: SWISS GARDEN 4 STARS FOR 2 DAYS EUR 90 FOR TWO MANDARIN PACIFIC 1 DAY 25 EUR PER ROOM WITH BREAKFAST ------- 3D/2N TAMAN NEGARA: 145 EUR EACH INCLUDING EXCURSIONS ACCOMMODATION AND MEALS AND VARIOUS TRANSFERS -------- 7D/6N PERHENTIAN BESAR ISLAND 410 EUR FOR TWO INCLUDING MEALS, TRANSFERS AND SNORKELLING TRIPS

7D/6N REDANG ISLAND 300 EUR FOR TWO INCLUDING MEALS, TRANSFERS AND SNORKELLING TRIPS -------- 3d/2n SINGAPORE: ORCHARD PARADE HOTEL 5 STARS 175 EUR actually 150 then I'll explain..

Why Malaysia? Because I read an article in the monthly magazine "Partiamo" and we thought "why don't we go too?"... After almost a year planning this trip, 24 June has finally arrived! We take off at 14.30 with a 45-minute delay and the beautiful hostesses in their typically Oriental uniform hand out the wet wipes! And they also give us the form to fill in, ah how nice, just like at the Chinese restaurant, and then hand it over at passport control (you can quite safely avoid declaring your money). It's almost 12 hours of travel in the economy class seats, a torture, truly uncomfortable, and between a film, a few little games and a few naps here we are in Kuala Lumpur at 7.30.

At the airport we immediately change a few euros to buy tickets for the "KLIA EXPRESS" train (35 ringgit one way, roughly 7 euros) which in 28 minutes will take us into the city. We arrive at the KL Sentral station, this big station would be an extension of the airport where it's possible to check in and where the metro and local trains depart, here we change our first travellers cheque and where the money changer asks us "where are you from?" and we say "Italy, Rome" and he says "ah yes! Francesco Totti!" and so we discovered, also for the rest of the holiday, that if they ask you where you're from it's enough to answer Francesco Totti and even the Malaysian who lives in a hut in the jungle will understand that you're Italian!!

Well, the second means of transport we take is the monorail (the ticket fare depends on the stop) and so we arrive near our hotel booked online, after a few minutes walking we see the enormous Swiss Garden Hotel, a 4-star hotel located between the Bukit Bintang area and Chinatown. Once we've conquered the room we literally collapse from sleep and so we take a nap of about.. 2 hours and then off into the streets of Kuala Lumpur, very soon we realise that the climate is heavy, muggy air that takes your breath away. We take Jalan Bukit Bintang, packed with restaurants for all tastes and touts for foot reflexology massages, we duck into the LOT 10 shopping centre to make some amazing purchases and from here we'll only emerge at 18:00 and then take a taxi and head for the grandiose Petronas towers.

The towers are truly spectacular especially at night when they're lit up, inside there's the Suria shopping centre worth a little visit and also a little "purchase"!

26 Giugno: Kuala Lumpur

After a grand breakfast we decide to go to Chinatown to the NKS agency and book Taman Negara, we pass in front of the PUDURAYA station from where lots of buses depart in various directions across Malaysia and here the real chaos begins of people, cars, smog, confusion, mostly it's Sunday and there are loads of people around, we arrive at the well-known "Petaling street", the pedestrian street of Chinatown where there's everything and more, carts with fruit and food of indecipherable appearance, and stalls of shoes, watches, t-shirts, Chinese medicinal herbs etc. (very characteristic). Throughout the walk we're accompanied by a terrible stench, stench of what? Dunno! Of everything that's on the street, the pavements are terribly filthy, perhaps the filthiest we've seen in Malaysia...

anyway, having arrived at the Mandarin Pacific Hotel where the agency is, we realise that, since it's Sunday, the agency is closed, what a rip-off because we'd planned to leave the next day for Taman Negara, so we're stuck with another day in Kuala Lumpur, so while we're at it we book a room here for Monday night since the departure point of the bus for the park is in front of this hotel (116 ringgit per deluxe room with breakfast). The day continues with the arrival of a "great big pampering", I presume from the air conditioning, which forces me to stay in the room unfortunately until 3 in the afternoon... after which I recover and we go to see the famous "Merdeka Square" where independence from the British was proclaimed in 1957. It's a well-kept and very large square easily recognisable by the very tall flagpole. Opposite there's a park where the British once played cricket.

Having passed the square we wanted to visit the "masjid Jamek", the mosque, according to the L.P. "the most beautiful in KL" and indeed the architecture strikes us, it's a mix of colonial and Moorish style with beautiful domes and arches, but unfortunately we can't go in as it's SUNDAY and it closes earlier than on other days of the week, heh heh what luck eh?! What to do? We take a taxi and go to the Lake Gardens.

I don't remember the exact spot where the taxi dropped us, anyway we walked a lot to reach either the "Bird Park" or the "Taman Rama Rama" (butterfly park), wandering around we instead reach the "National Monument" on a hill surrounded by a fountain...(nice) we keep following the signs until we meet two lads whom we ask how much further we'd have to walk to the butterfly park, and as if they wanted to spite us they tell us that basically it was 100 metres away, that the park had just closed and that it's a marvellous spectacle...

ok, we resign ourselves to the bad luck of the day and head back to the centre mostly on foot because the only taxi that stopped wanted to fleece us for 15 ringgit and when we haggled to 7 he said "you can go walking, bye"!! guys, in Kuala Lumpur in certain areas taxis use the meter, in others they just play dumb and to get you from one place to another in the centre 6 or 7 ringgit is enough, they're really bastards!!! Anyway the Lake Gardens are a bit like our Villa Borghese in Rome, and there's a bit less muggy heat compared to the centre. The evening ends in a Chinese restaurant and then at the hotel!

27 Giugno Kuala Lumpur

A day dedicated to organising the next few days. We move with our luggage to the Mandarin Pacific, a clean room overlooking the Hindu temple Sri Mahamariamman with lots of brightly coloured decorations, the L.P. is right about the hotel, cheap and clean. We finally book the 3 days at Taman Negara, and then we head to the Ping Anchorage agency which sells packages for the islands at a good price (again as the L.P. says). By taxi we arrive in a very out-of-the-way area, I'd even say rather ugly, which didn't exactly inspire much confidence, we go up the stairs of a dilapidated building and how lovely, here's the agency!! So, we book 6 days at Perhentian Besar and 6 at Redang. All that's left is to go and get the Berjaya Air tickets for the flight from Redang to Singapore.

Whereas the domestic flight included in our plane ticket we couldn't use because Malaysia Airlines can't make changes of any kind since the purchase fare is economy... We finish with a bit of shopping at the Sungei Wang Plaza and BB Plaza shopping centres and strolling along Jalan Sultan and Bukit Bintang.

28 Giugno KL – Taman Negara

8.00 a.m. the NKS minibus fills up with young people of various nationalities heading for Taman Negara. After a 3-hour journey and a stop we arrive at the squalid town of Jerantut where we eat at the Sri Emas hotel, a real hovel where the stench of durian hangs in the air, but the food is decent, this is the NKS base where there's a kind girl and Mr Zimi who explain everything we'll be doing, bus, boats, guides etc. Here we buy the bus ticket for Kuala Besut which costs 25 RM instead of 55 because we organised everything with NKS. We set off for Kuala Tembeling where we're given the permit to enter the Park and the licences to take photographs, they urge us to always keep the permit with us because otherwise we could be heavily fined and expelled from the Park (scary!!).

At Kuala Tembeling we board the launch to plough the waters of the Sungai Tembeling, the view thrills us, the river is brown and all around us the greenest vegetation wraps around us: the jungle! Well, we spend 3 and a half hours on this launch before arriving at Kuala Tahan, the climate is even heavier and the hot air that arrives with the fast-moving boat gives us a bit of relief, we even manage to doze (for us the day started with a 6.30 a.m. alarm). Along the river we see a few groups of Indian buffalo lazily lying on the banks, and some children bathing who blow us kisses, could they be "orang asli"? who knows... At 18:00 we arrive at Kuala Tahan where the park headquarters is, we all get off and unload our backpacks, we're greeted by a guide who makes us all sit around a table to explain the place, the excursions and where the accommodation is.

So we take a little boat again to go to the other side of the river where the Mutiara Taman Negara resort we booked is located, and here we collect the key to our bungalow after leaving a deposit of 200RM which will be returned to us when we hand back the key, this seems absurd to us since we've already paid everything... who knows... Our bungalow is number 96, very far from the central body of the resort, it's all well-kept, along the way you hear bird calls of every kind and the buzzing of boat engines passing constantly along the river. Our bungalow is very nice and above all cool thanks to the air conditioning, we're both completely drenched in sweat, we take a shower and get ready again to go and eat. We make use of the little boats which for 50 sen per person ferry tourists from one bank of the river to the other, you should know that compared to the Mutiara T.N.

all the floating restaurants and the rest of the accommodation and the main road are on the opposite bank, we were happy with the choice, 1) because it's nice 2) because it's well integrated into the vegetation, basically there are only the bungalows and the jungle. After dinner of chicken and rice and some very good pineapple and carrot juices naturally with ice, the informative film about the Park begins which basically no one pays attention to... ourselves included! We then get to know our legendary guide Herman, a young man of very slight build, with his ramshackle but understandable English he will accompany us for all three days explaining everything we'll see.

At 21.30 we begin the night walk in the jungle armed with torches and ready to illuminate everything that makes a noise and moves! the first stop is an observation hut from which we spot some deer that come at night to look for food, and then along the path Herman points out the creatures of the night: a big hairy spider of the tarantula family, scorpions and other big insects (sorry but I don't even remember a single "technical" name of the species seen). For a few minutes we switch off the torches and stay in silence, the jungle is a concert of noises emitted by insects, bats and who knows what animals, chilling, a magnificent sensation, we feel a bit like Indiana Jones in the cursed jungle!! And after this night walk we return to the bungalow again completely drenched in sweat and... goodnight. (huge night storm... help! I start thinking "will the leeches come out?")

Taman Negara

Wake-up at 7.45 a.m., breakfast and meeting with Herman, the "Canopy walkway" awaits us and a bit of trekking and luckily the only leech attached itself to Herman's ankle sparing ours... Crossing the bridges was truly exciting and for me dramatic, when you find yourself halfway you'd want to run to get down as soon as possible... everyone seemed calm to me as if they'd done it who knows how many times, maybe they were pretending?! who knows...

After the bridges we do a bit of trekking towards "Bukit Teresik hill" to see the panorama of the jungle, the only thing we encounter is a very large green scorpion but no monkeys or other animal forms, apart from us of course eh eh!

In the afternoon we go to visit an Orang Asli village, a rather disappointing visit, these ethnic minorities are losing their traditions and peculiarities because to meet "progress" and tourism and therefore money they have to put on a show to make tourists believe that they live in the village supporting themselves with the sole resources of the jungle... yet to light the fire they use a lighter because they can't manage with wood, and this is what we saw, I swear!! We continued the excursion by boat through the rapids, and then we stopped on a beach along the river to swim, the only brave one was a Texan while we got wet anyway because it started pouring with rain, it was the only moment in the jungle when we felt cold!!

: Taman Negara – Perhentian Besar

8.00 a.m., we're waiting for the NKS bus that will take us to the Perhentian jetty at Kuala Besut... 8.15 the bus is nowhere to be seen, luckily there are 2 other English lads waiting too who confirm to us that they'd also been told the departure point was right in front of the "Ekoton resort", 8.20 here comes the NKS coordinator on foot and a bit weary, who nearly scolds us because they were waiting for us on the main road, and which the heck was the main road?? who knows.. anyway we get on the bus and spend 4 hours with the air conditioning and the television volume at full blast, on top of that we're in the last seats where there aren't armchairs but a kind of bench which will contribute to making the journey unbearable! We're so tired that we get the giggles...

At around 13:00 we make the lunch stop and at 14:00 we set off again, and they split us into two groups, one goes to the Cameron Highlands and the other (us included) to Kuala Besut. Since the minibus for KB is full we travel in a car with 2 other Swedish girls, it'll be 3 hours of panic, the man driving, of Chinese origin, makes risky overtakes, with every overtake our faces contort with fear but he looks at us in the mirror and says "don't worry, trust in me" and we had to trust him whether we liked it or not, anyway we arrived at our destination and we only relaxed when we got on the Simphony boat whose owner was the Chinese driver (got it eh?! The Chinese guy...)

Here we aaaare, we see our resort from afar, the TUNA BAY RESORT, we're the second to get off, a little boat comes towards us, we transfer the luggage from one boat to the other and a second transfer from the little boat to the beach. They give us the key and offer us the "welcome drink", we go straight to the bungalow, small but clean and bright, we immediately undress and finally throw ourselves into the waters of the beautiful Chinese sea!

1,2,3,4,5,6 LUGLIO

We spend these days idling on the beach, snorkelling and strolling. This island is a paradise, there are still few tourists, the resort staff are affectionate and always available. In front of the beach there's a beautiful coral reef where many colourful fish live, every time it feels like being in an aquarium. By boat we went to Shark Point twice but we didn't see a single shark, while at Turtle Point we swam with the turtles, it was beautiful and exciting.

Then since we hadn't changed enough money we went to the Perhentian Island Resort walking a short stretch of jungle whose path is found after the "NEWCOCOHUT CHALET", it took us a while to find it because it wasn't very visible, you come out at the Coral View and then pass in front of the Mama's and then come out in front of the beautiful and very wide beach of the PIR, the money exchange wasn't very advantageous but we were forced to otherwise we'd have run dry!

Next to the Tuna there's the "seahorse diving" where you can take diving courses for a few quid, unfortunately we didn't do it, and then there's "ABC Chalets" which looks rather scruffy, it almost seems like the structure is about to give way... instead to the right of the resort there are small kiosks that sell both sarongs and some very good fruit shakes. The only thing to do in the evening was to go back to the sun loungers where we'd been idling until a few hours before dinner and watch the extraordinary lightning in the distance or walk along the beach and admire the stars.

LAST DAY: wake-up at 7 a.m., at 8 we leave for Kuala Besut but not before saying goodbye to our PG, a young man from the staff we'd grown fond of during our stay. At Kuala Besut there's a very kind young man from Ping Anchorage who asks us if we were happy with our stay and then loads our backpacks into the car and a guy, I think of Chinese origin, who doesn't even speak English, accompanies us as far as Merang to take the other boat to Redang. After about an hour's journey with the air conditioning at full blast risking paralysis (as usual) we arrive at this desolate "river port" of the Redang Beach Resort. To go to Redang you necessarily have to buy an all-inclusive package in one of the island's resorts since each structure has its own ferry, in short it's all in the hands of the tour operators!

6,7,8,9,10,11,12 Luglio REDANG

Arriving by boat we see in the distance the turquoise colour of the sea that bathes the beach of Pasir Pajang, we can't wait to throw ourselves into the water!!

So the ritual begins: luggage, check-in and transfer to the rooooom! Here everything is different from Perhentian Besar, you understand it immediately from how the resort is structured, this is a real village with a mini market, souvenir shops, people coming and going, eh it'll be very hard to adapt to these rhythms and these noises after the tranquillity of Besar...

The shabbiest thing about the village is the restaurant, which we renamed "the canteen", it's all buffet (the food isn't that bad), you set and clear the table yourself, you deposit the plates, glasses (of hard plastic washed and rewashed), and cutlery in the appropriate big plastic tubs full of water.

We console ourselves with a long swim in the very warm sea and idling here too on the wooden sun loungers...

In the evening after dinner we throw ourselves exhausted into bed and..surpriiiise: music at full volume, it's disco night, how cool, we won't sleep until at least one, hic hic how we miss Tuna Bay!

Next morning: I'm hysterical and want to change resort, we view a few along the beach including the Coral which is decidedly classy, but we arrive at the Redang Holiday Villa, basically the last resort at the end of long beach, where we speak to the kind Miss Florence, who won't be so kind and then I'll explain, and we reserve a bungalow, naturally after having seen it, nice, clean, a bit dark but certainly quieter since it's perched on the rocks in the jungle.

So after talking with the other resort we move to the Redang Holiday Villas and from here on I won't go on at length telling you about the misadventures we had... but I must tell you this one: as soon as the light was off we heard noises and from behind the window curtain behold a huge rat of no small dimensions appears, we fight, or rather my boyfriend starts fighting with a broom against the rat, but the latter has the upper hand and as if by magic vanishes into the room and now what? Well, we changed rooms three times until we went back to the Redang beach without getting even a penny back, how kind Miss Florence was eh?!!!

On the plus side during the three days spent in the bungalow in the jungle we saw a nice big monitor lizard, lots of squirrels, the monkeys, a beautiful panorama and what else? THE BIG RAT!

But let's talk about nature, the coral reef in front of long beach is marvellous, stunning corals and a myriad of strange fish, big and colourful, little sharks and barracuda. Without realising it we'd stay in the water even more than two hours with our faces down admiring and sometimes touching this marvellous underwater world. We went to the Marine Park (you pay 5 ringgit) where there's a very beautiful house reef but in our opinion disfigured by a long concrete pier where the barges carrying tourists dock. Redang is frequented above all by groups of young Chinese, Koreans, and I think also Japanese.

A film was shot on the island that was very successful in Hong Kong and therefore attracted a strong tourist appeal, in fact near the enormous and somewhat tacky Laguna Redang resort there's a faithful reconstruction of one of the film's most important sets called "more more tea inn" where everyone obligatorily takes at least one photo (us too..).

You get to Redang via all-inclusive packages, so much so that the only restaurant open to outside customers that we found was the Coral's (buffet at 30 ringgit) and a kiosk of another resort where for 5 ringgit we ate some "wester food" i.e. hamburger and chips! The last few days we got used to the "touristy" atmosphere of the island but above all we enjoyed the marvellous sea, we basked in the sun lying on the white sand (watch out for the sandflies, they massacred our legs!)...hic, I'm getting emotional...:-(

Redang - Singapore

Departure at 8:00 by boat for Redang airport, a Berjaya Air attendant awaits us (we weren't expecting that!) who loads us into the car and takes us to the airport from where we depart at 9:50 for Singapore on a 4-engine, 48-seat plane. We arrive in Singapore in the rain, or rather, let me correct myself, in a downpour! By the time we reach the interior of the airport, we are completely soaked from head to toe despite the raincoat and umbrella. We get into the taxi soaked and chilled to the bone (air conditioning blasting as usual), the taxi driver welcomes us to the city giving a sort of promotional show for Singapore, "Singapore is a safety city, Singapore is beautiful" etc. etc.

and he also tells us we were lucky that it rained because the airport police called enough taxis for all the passengers since normally at SELETAR airport there are no taxis and you have to call them by phone (thank goodness!).

Upon arrival at the hotel, "the Elizabeth", we quickly change some euros into Singapore Dollars to pay the kind taxi driver. After a short wait, they inform us that the room is not available as many people have extended their stay and the hotel is full and that we will be transferred to another hotel, indeed they pay for our taxi and send us to the Orchard Parade Hotel, a higher category, right on Orchard Road — what luck once again!! And finally we are in the room, we put a few things in order and immediately go down to go around BEAUTIFUL SINGAPORE yeah! After various strolls through the numerous shopping malls we take a taxi and go to the Clarke Quay district, along the river there's one restaurant after another from Italian to Spanish, Mexican, Japanese cuisine, we're spoiled for choice, everything is colorful and very lively, on the river there are the typical barges for a romantic e

xcursion, everything is so perfect it seems fake! We stop at "Hooters" where we are served by pretty waitresses in tiny shorts.

SINGAPORE

After a breakfast in a chic setting straight out of an American movie, we ask the reception for information about buses to return to Kuala Lumpur, they offer to buy the tickets on our behalf, the service cost is a bit expensive so we decide to go to the station and buy them ourselves. The station is on Lavender Street where we purchase the Transnational tickets for the "economic bus" which cost $25S each, we definitely saved a lot of money by handling it ourselves. So we dedicate the morning to the Chinese quarter to buy some souvenirs and where we get a nice but painful foot reflexology massage. We visit a Hindu temple where we run into a French couple who were at Taman Negara with us, how nice it is when you see familiar faces! But they would have continued their trip in Indonesia, and us?... we're almost at the end, I can't think about it!

Afternoon at SENTOSA ISLAND, we were so happy to take the cable car... and instead, when we arrived at Mount Harbour they tell us that the cable car is closed for maintenance, what rotten luck, we were so disappointed. Oh well, let's go by bus, the ticket to enter Sentosa is bought when you arrive there, there are three or four colored bus lines that take you to the various attractions of the island, we take the blue line to go to the underwater world. We are disappointed by the aquarium, yes, the 85-meter tunnel where sharks, rays and monstrous sea creatures pass over your head is nice, but there's nothing else, we read it was the largest Asian aquarium... hmm.... Meanwhile it's pouring again, we wait for it to ease up a bit and then we go to the "musical fountain" where we watch a marvelous show of lights, sounds, fire and water, we were more enchanted than children!

The evening ends with another dinner at Clarke Quay then off to bed. Tip: always take the taxi, it's more convenient than public transport which anyway works very well, both bus and metro. The most we spent was 6 dollars (about 3 euros) at night.

The following morning we head to the station from where we depart by bus right on time. But first they give us the same form we filled out the first time on the plane to enter Malaysia. We get off at the customs exit from Singapore leaving our luggage on the bus, we go through passport control and get back on the bus a little further ahead. Throughout the journey we are always assisted by a Transnational attendant who always checks that everyone has gotten back on the bus. The second stop is customs upon entry to Malaysia, here we get off with all our luggage and hand in the form, then we all get back on the bus and off to KL.

We arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 16:30, we go immediately to KL Sentral where we check in, getting rid of our luggage, and then we stay around waiting for time to pass (we're too tired to wander around the city).

11:59 PM we're on the plane bound for Rome, vacation over, it's already becoming a beautiful memory, this time we close our eyes and will reopen them right upon arrival at Fiumicino......

CONCLUSIONS: interesting country, but without its own identity, the mix of ethnicities doesn't give a character of uniqueness and charm to the nation as one feels in other places. It's undoubtedly a place that offers numerous naturalistic attractions, and anyway the local people, whether Chinese, Indian or of other races, have always shown themselves to be kind and helpful.

TIPS: leave with an empty bag, you'll go wild shopping in the numerous mega shopping malls of Kuala Lumpur.

What else can I tell you? Go to Malaysia, it's really worth it. Happy travels to everyone!!!