Malaysia Part 3 - Petaling Street

Wednesday 11th July

The Chinatown area in Malaysia is hugely busy at night and is filled with tourists. The streets are crammed with hawker food stalls as well as shops selling knockoff t-shirts, bags, dvds and lots of other things.
The main and longest street with all these stalls is Petaling Street (Jalan Petaling).

Street food is great but you have to be careful as a tourist about hygiene. I think that things are better than before but I am still very careful about what I eat from street stalls.
One type of food I recommend in Malaysia is satay. In the streets around Petaling street, there are street vendors with food on sticks. You basically pick what you want and then either they cook it or you cook it in boiling water wok at your table. Because you are having the food cooked fresh - either grilled or boiled, it is less likely to make you sick.

We call the night markets with all the stalls "pasar malam". Bargaining is a must if you want to buy anything from any of the Petaling Street stalls. They will always start at more than double the price. My tip is to know how much you are willing to pay for something. Bargaining is good for both parties. You don't want to get ripped off but at the same time if there difference converts to something little like 20c then it's just a bit ridiculous to keep bargaining for the sake of it. The people are so poor there that 20c isn't going to kill you.

Malaysia Part 2 - KLCC

Wed 11th July

Decided to explore the city for a bit. Today was a shopping centre day because it was rainy and all you could do was stay indoors in a shopping mall.

There is a hop-on-hop-off bus that goes around KL city. It's 38ringgit a day (around AUD$12-13) which is a bit expensive for Malaysia but not so when you factor in the exchange rate. The bus is actually a bit slow and it takes around 2 1/2hrs to complete one loop. The advantage is that it brings you to all the tourist places of interest whereas public transport is a bit confusing and taxis might be expensive if you get caught in KL traffic (which is horrendous!!). The bus frequency is meant to be every half hour but is a little depedent on the traffic. The bus ticket is also valid for 24hrs so the time gets punched on your ticket so that if you but it in the late afternoon you can still use it the next morning.

There are quite a few places of interest. There is the Royal Palace but you can't go in. If you are lucky, you can witness the changing of the guard. Malaysia also has quite a few parks and nature reserves that would be really pretty but it was a pity that the weather was bad as I would have liked to wander around the orchid park.

Here are a couple of the stops on the hop-on-hop-off tour. I took these photos later when it wasn't bucketing down.

Little India

The old train station. This used to be the main station before they built KL Sentral

Petronas towers or Menara Petronas

Ended up at the Suria KLCC which is the shopping mall under the Petronas or twin towers. I think the mall is mainly for tourists. There are lots of American, English, European and Australian brands sold here. Again, I am guessing that the things at this mall are too expensive for the locals.

The towers are impressively tall and were the tallest in the world until 2004. There is a sky bridge joining the two towers. Tourists are allowed to go up to the sky bridge but they start issuing tickets at 9am. Apparently there is usually a long queue and even if you get tickets, you might not get up there until quite a bit later. They also only let you have 10 minutes on the bridge. My opinion is the towers are best admired from afar.

Malaysia Part 1 - Kuala Lumpur

Tuesday 10th July

Well the flight from Sydney was meant to leave at around 11am but there were major delays meaning we didn't take off until close till 12.30pm. The flight was fairly smooth and we arrived in Kuala Lumpur at around 6.30pm local time (8.30pm in Sydney). It ended up being quite late by the time we collected luggage and took the shuttle to the city.

The airport shuttle stops at KL Sentral which is their central station. From there we took a taxi to the apartments we are staying in. The taxi driver kept talking to dad in Malay as his English wasn't great but dad was having trouble understanding. Malay is a bit different to Indonesian. The Malaysians seem to have changed some of the words to simplify them to be a bit more like English. For example - the word 'bus' is more like 'bas' in Malay and 'bis' in Indonesian. They also slur their a's a bit more so 'apa kabar' sounds more like 'aper kaber' and 'terima kasi' is more like 'terima kasea'. The intonations are different and it is like listening to somebody speaking English with an Irish or Jordie accent.

The apartment we are staying in is meant to be 2 bedroom but there is an extra sunroom with a sofabed so I think you could have 5 people stay here. It's nice having an apartment as there is the convenience of space, a kitchen and laundry. We are also very easily situated in Bukit Bintang which is apparently the 'fun' part of town with lots of nightlife and shopping malls.

Had dinner and a bit of a look around the Pavillion shopping centre. It's a very upmarket centre. If you are after a brand name (Ralph Lauren, Armani, YSL, Tiffany's) then this is the place to go. I think a lot of locals don't go there as it is expensive.
The shops here close at 10pm but there are people wandering the streets much later. It is because only the main malls close and then they move to the many bars or even street market areas around the area.

Singapore

Sorry time got away from me and I just didnt have time to blog when I got to Singapore...
And then after I got back to Sydney life just got crazy. So here is a summary and the full photo album can be found here.

Things to do in Singapore...

Wakeboarding:

Catch up with relatives:

Shop:

Takashimaya!!!

Eat:

mmm rothi prata...

Singapore pepper crab...

Get pampered a bit:

exfoliating my feet... these fish eat the dead skin off your hands and feet...

Sightsee and take stupid photos:

Singapore merlion

London

It's been a long time since i've been to london. I really didnt like it last time so i planned to spend most of this trip away from the city. So i only had a few days in London before and flying back to Sydney via Singapore.

I must admit i was feeling quite road weary after travelling for the last month. So i just wanted to take it easy in London... sleep in and not do too much.

First full day in London, i slept in... then Celeste and I decided to go shopping. First stop Leicester square to have a look at theatre tickets. Will had wanted to see Sweet Charity... but by the time we decided there werent any tickets left... So next choice was Billy Elliott... I havent seen it in Aust and thought it would be good to watch as it is set in the UK - actually Newcastle which is where I had been.

We actually got a bit carried away with shopping (although i didnt buy anything)... and at 6pm Will was calling us trying to figure out where we were... we realised it wasnt 4pm as we had assumed but it was 6!! and we needed to scoot to the theatre... And i hadnt given poor Clive directions so he had to scoot to make it to the show as well... but all good as we snuck some food in...

I notice that there are lots and lots of West end shows on sale. Certainly more arts life than in Sydney...
But... this production of Billy Elliott did definitely disappoint. I have no idea why they decided to try to put on such a bad Jordie accent (the Newcastle accent)... but couldnt understand half the time. The singing was bad but the dancing was quite good. Victoria theatre was quite an old theatre which wouldnt have mattered cos the Capitol theatre in Sydney has a similar rustic feel. But... if I wasnt aware of it being a major London production I might have guessed that what i watched was an amateur community hall production put together in some suburb in whoop whoop Sydney. Definitely not worth the money...


The next day I decided to go shop a bit more and sightsee. I really like Gap clothing and there isnt a store in Syd (well actually one opened up whilst I was away... but there wasnt when i left). First stop was Harrods cos it's kinda iconic. The things in Harrods were pretty expensive so I didnt actually buy anything... just browsed. I loved the food court in the basement of Harrods. Windows of cakes... yummmm.... bought some cupcakes for Celeste and Will.

Went to the biggest Gap store in London that was in Oxford St. before deciding to go on the London Eye.

Then met Celeste and visited Tate Modern for a bit but I dont really understand abstract art. I've a very what-you-see-is-what-you-get girl so anything too deep just goes right over my head...

We then went to the Borough Markets that are near London Bridge which is absolutely LOVED!! Reminds me of the section of Queen Victoria Markets in Melb that has the food - fresh cheeses, pastas, meats, breads etc... yummmm
Celeste and I were quite naughty and bought heaps and heaps of handmade chocolates... yummmm

mmm chocolate...

I do know quite a few people from Aust. living in London... but anti-social me didnt really contact many people as i thought i would be tired and it would be too tough to be running around catching up with people. But I am glad that I did manage to catch Naomi and Tim for dinner cos it's been ages! Went for dinner at Brown's in Mayfair... the baked Camembert entree was soooo good!!

Sat 30th Oct:

ok I am a geek!! Not many tourists go to another country and visit an Anime/Sci-fi convention. But I love anime and Sci-fi so twas awesome!!
I do draw the line at cosplay though... no cosplay for me... but this weekend coincided with Halloween which is also quite big in the UK... so it didnt look too weird to have heaps of people dressed up. And some of the costumes were awesome.

There was an expo so i did have a look at some of the merchandise but didnt want to carry any of it home so didnt buy anything. And the dvd's would be the wrong region anyway.
Didnt stay that long as I was getting a really bad headache. I did stay long enough to hear some interviews with some people who had been on Star Trek - Tony Todd who played Worf's brother Kurn in TNG and also John de Lancie who played Q in a few of the ST series...

yes some cosplay crazies... although they looked pretty real...

Went home for a sleep in the arvo... which was a pity as it was such a beautiful day in London... but i had a really really bad headache.
Went out to dinner with Kelly and Greg in Soho... (we might have been the only straight people in the restaurant though... which was funny... but the food was great!!). Good catching up and hearing about their adventures in Europe. Will definitely miss them over the next 2 yrs...

Sunday 31st Oct was my last full day in London as I fly out to Singapore on Mon 1st Nov. Decided to go get some culture...
Absolutely LOVED the British Library. There is a literary museum inside and was just so awesome looking at all the literary history in the museum.
There were letters written by Shakespeare himself as well as first editions of his plays. There were letters written by Jane Austen as well as original music scores such as Handel's Messiah. There were 2 copies of the Magna Carta (I had already seen one in Salisbury Cathedral)...
There were letters written by Lewis Carroll and a bit of history. I didnt know that Alice in Wonderland was written after Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pen name Lewis Carroll) had a tea party with 3 sisters, one of whom was named Alice. He entertained the ladies with fanciful stories and eventually penned one for Alice...

So loved the British Library... took a walk around the area past St. Pancras church and then down Gower St. looking at all the houses. The British historical society has put plaques outside some of the notable houses... such as the location of the first anaesthetic delivered in London.

British Museum

Headed to the British Museum... it's HUGE and i think you could spend days even weeks there looking at everything. I only really looked at the 3rd floor that had some exhibits on the history of England and Ireland. It was quite interesting as I have just learnt so much history during my travels.
The ground floor has a heap of Egyptian exhibits and then there are Chinese exhibits... I figured I'd leave that until i travel again as my head can only handle so much history atm...

Decided to go to Camden Markets with Clive as he was looking for shoes... It's a trendy?! but i reckon dodgy part of town. So looking for shoes and I was wanting to get him to try on some ugly shoes but no fun as he wouldnt do it... Found shoes and then walked around a bit more taking stupid photos.

mmm donuts...

Every souvenir shop seems to sell these

My last morning in London... some last minute shopping and Madame Tussauds.
Had fun taking stupid photos with the wax statues!

Click here for more photos.

Dublin #2

I was trying to figure out the easiest way to get back to London from Belfast. Was originally going to catch the ferry from Belfast to Stranrar and the train up to Glasgow Scotland. But the ferry port at Belfast is a long way out of the city and it would have been a nightmare to get to. So decided to catch the train back to Dublin and then the ferry across to Holyhead and then train back to London...

Yes i know flying actually would have been easier... but i like to do it the scenic way and i also had a day left on my Britrail pass... might as well get my moneys worth and use it up on the trains around the UK...

After the intense boredom of not being able to go out much in Belfast I decided to just go crazy and do the craziest (or rather stupidest thing) i've done in a while.... get ticket to the Lady Gaga concert...

So i'm not really that big a fan but i've heard her stuff on the radio... i dont even own one album or have any of her songs on my ipod. But the buzz around Dublin was it was going to be a big concert... so i thought why not...

The concert had been sold out for ages so ppl were saying that i had no chance of getting a ticket... hahah little do they know... so i logged onto ticketmaster online from my hotel room at around 2pm the day of the show... and voila... i got a ticket... it was a tier 2 ticket too so not the most expensive ticket... but the location looked good on the seating map. i wasnt about to get standing tickets cos there's no way i'm standing around all night with young kids screaming in my ear and shorty me can never see in crowds anyway...

So the LUAS (light rail) station was just outside the door to my hotel cos i'd planned it that way with luggage. Caught the train to the stadium. The lady shows me to my seat and then takes a good look at me.
Then she explains that i have very good seats... which were actually a few rows from the front smack bang infront of the stage...
Apparently the row i'm in is usually reserved for celebrities or performer's guests. I guess they hold the seats and then if there isnt anybody coming then they release them for last minute sale... so it was pretty awesome... great view!
And then just before Lady Gaga took the stage, some girls started nudging each other and taking photos... i found out that there was some X-factor person sitting near me but i have no idea who he is...

Although she's not really my cup of tea, I'll admit that the show was fabulous. But i wouldnt let my teenage kid (well under 15) go to it... the swearing etc...
The support act was the worst... the guy got on stage yelling "are you ready you dublin motherf@#$ers" and kept going with calling the crowd "dublin motherf@#$%". i was getting pretty annoyed cos i'm not from dublin but there's no way i'd wanna be called that...

Back pretty late with few hours sleep cos i had to be up for a 6:30am pickup to go to the ferry port back to mainland UK...

Belfast - Titanic Quarter

Belfast is desperately trying to clean up its act....
To attract tourists, there is a new development on the other side of the river to the city buildings. The development proposed kinda reminds me of Cockle Bay in Sydney. They call it the Titanic Quarter.

model of the RMS Titanic

Belfast is where the RMS Titanic and its sister ships the Olympic and Britannic were built.
It's quite funny as people from southern Ireland say that it's crazy that they are claiming fame for a ship that sank. But the northern Ireland people just say "well it was fine when it left..."

Seeing as there wasnt much to do in Belfast, I decided to go and visit the Titanic quarter and do the tour of the docks.
The building of the Titanic commenced in 1909 and was completed in 1912. It was meant to be a very grand and luxurious cruise ship.

Visited the dry dock that they used to outfit the Titanic. The gates at the end are opened and water enters the dock. The ship is guided in by ropes that are wound around big cogs that are all along the side of the dock. Once inside the dock, the gate is shut and water is pumped out of the dock until it is gone and the ship sits on the log bed shown in the photo.


The pumps are very powerful and apparently it takes only 1 1/2 hrs to fully drain the dry dock.
The tour also took us into the pump room.

After visiting the Titanic Quarter I took a walk around the Odessy Arena and W5 Exhibition centre that are on the same side of the river as Titanic Quarter.
The arena is Belfast's multi-purpose arena and they frequently have ice hockey games there. One of the big sports in the are is ice hockey. The W5 Exhibition centre is kinda like a version of the Powerhouse museum. W5 stands for Who What Where Why When (well those are the W's but i'm not sure of the order...)
They have interactive exhibits and it just so happened they also had a Star Wars exhibition... so being the geek that I am... I was so there!

aliens from Star Wars

Click here to view photo album.