Highlands, this time in Malaysia

We both hoped that would be the last flight for a while. The flight from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur was not bad, but our idea was to be more free to choose how we gonna get to the next place.
From the airport we took a bus to get to our hostel in Bukit Bintan, first time we heard the name from the Ugandan guy in Singapore it sounded more like book it. Bukit Bintan is rather central and has many bars and restaurants, so a good place to find something to eat.
The first interesting thing we saw there was the Minibar, with a real Mini.

At the hostel we met at the room a guy from Egypt and started talking with him, after a few minutes we decided to get together into the central of the city. To get there we decided to take the bus, before we got to the bus station we walked through China town. A very busy place, but not as busy as little India in Singapore.

After a short ride with the bus we choose to walk along the street the rest of the distance, to see more of the city. Like the television tower, still far away.

Along the street we saw a huge building looking like a conference centre or a very expensive hotel, we were not sure what it exactly was. The sign on it was also not a good help

Across the street we saw a more typical land home. The way you may imagine the houses here should look like.

Then we arrived at the twin towers. The twin towers ? Yes that's not a joke. Here are towers having this name. Not only New York had twin towers.

Next to the twin towers was a very nice park with a fountain where we spent a lot of time talking and enjoying the time. We had some real good conversations about almost everything.

And after sunset this place was even more beautiful, with the lighting at the twin towers and the fountain. A great place to relax.

On the way back we realized that the public bus transport within Kuala Lumpur is for free, on the way to the centre Bernd and I were surprised that noone at the bus told us to buy a ticket and also we did not see any ticket shop around. That's pretty cool, especially when you think of the insane prices we have in Germany for the same service.
At the end of the exploration we walked through Bukit Bintan to a good food place, every felt like two metres someone offered us a massage, Bernd got annoyed about all this questions and offers, we told him to ignore them and not to look at this people and he could calm down a bit.

This day in a big town was enough for us after spending some days in Singapore. So we got the next morning a bus to the Cameron Highlands, we were thinking to go there for trekking in the jungle and do what else there is possible. At the afternoon we arrived after a long ride on a comfortable bus in Tanah Rata, a small city in the Highlands.

Bernd immediately went to bed when we got our room for the next night, how could he be so tired, he slept most of the time in the bus.
Next day early in the morning we got with a bigger group on the tour, not like Sri Lanka the only travelers. We got the feeling that the world is a village, on the tour was a guy coming from the same county I grew up and a couple from Erfurt, where I used to live the last years.
We left the bus and finally got into the jungle, away from the civilisation, well part of, because we kept on a well used path.

On our way up we got to get across some bamboo bridges, for some of the others it already looked like a big challenge to get across.

In the jungle we got to see many bamboo trees and also more normal trees. The jungle looked very nice and without a path it would be very hard to get through the jungle. Not like the deep woods in Germany.

Along the path were also several rivers we got to cross. Bernd almost felt into the water but one of the guides graped his hand and managed to safe him from falling into the water.

At the end of our long way into the jungle we got to see a special flower, Rafflesia arnoldii, the biggest flower in he world The flower is very rare and only blooms for about 5 days, before blooming it takes several years to grow.

When we came back out of the jungle we were offered to try a blow pipe, was a good experience and I almost hit the centre of the target. Bernd did not that good, at least he did not breath in the dart.

Last place we visited was a tea plantatiom and the factory, for sure the guides were also earning some money with bringing tourists here.

But a great day with a lot of nice people. And a good choice to come here for day.

Singapore, our planned entrance to Asia

Early in the morning we arrived at the international airport in Singapore. As expected noone was interested in seeing a flight ticket at the immigration. Always this lying at the airports.
From the airport we took the train to get to our hostel.
When we arrived there noone was at the reception, only a note at the monitor with a name, phonenumber and a bed number in a room. So the guy should be there. We checked the room but the bed was empty.
Because Bernd got hungry we went outside to the food court around our hostel and looked what for some good food we could get. At a restaurant we met a Christian priest from China who gave us the hint to take a special Chinese chicken curry soup. Easy decision for us. It tasted really good, we only had to get used to the bones still inside it. After filling our stomach and having a good conversation we went back to the hostel. Still not there. We checked the room again and started talking with the other travelers there, a view minutes later the girl working at the reception came in and was very upset about us being in the room and not waiting outside. She was extremely mad and did not stop messing around, we were already thinking to just leave and get to a different place. But we would not have anything to do with her after gettig our room, so wait until she calms down. Later we heared from other guests that she seems to be always upset and in a bad mood, so not special with us.
For the first day we decided not to do so much and more like relaxing and doing nothing. So we only got to lunch with a guy from India, had dinner with a guy from Uganda and in the evening we met a girl from Germany, who planned to go to Australia the next day in the evening.
After fixing some problems at her computer, we decided for the next day to go together to Sentosa, maybe using the cable car.
We had a good breakfast at another food place around the corner before we took the metro to our destination.

At harbourfront we first walked around at the mall, they were already makig big preparations for Xmas, felt so strange on a warm place like here thinking of Xmas. In our minds it's always connected with cold weather and sometimes with snow.

From the Vivocity mall we had to decide to get to Sentosa by cable car or by train, the price for the cable car was not really acceptable, so we took the train.

From the train we got to the beach and could relax there for a long time, go swimming and have great conversations. A great day.

To not be at the same place again and still having two days in Singapore we decided first to visit the bayfront gardens. Yes a big park with a lot of green.
Before enterin the park we checked out the marine bay sands mall, where you can get a boat trip inside.

Before we could leave the mall I had to drag Bernd away from a shop he did not want to leave. He was very upset when I got him out of there.

From the mall we took a bridge passig through the Marine Bay Sands Hotel, an amazing hotel with three big towers and a pool on top.

At the beginning of the park we went through different styles of gardens, like a Chinese or a Indian garden. The Chinese was the nicest one of all.

In the centre of the park was he most interesting attraction the grand trees with the skyway. For sure we got to get up there and enjoy the view above the park.

Next we decided to go to the cloud forest. Before we could enter it Bernd got threatened by giant ants, jumped on the back of a crocodile and from there he fled in panic not caring what is around him and ended up between two lions. What a big shock for him.

At the end I could get him out of there and took him with me into the cloud forest.
The forest is inside a dome and shows different plants in a jungle and also had a big waterfall at the entrance.

We spent felt like hours in the cloud forest, was absolutely worth getting in there. In the park we headed to the south were we found some footprints, making sure that somehing dangerous might be arround. Bernd did stay as close as possible to me, for sure he hoped that it will first attack me.

Down at the end of the park at marine bay we had a short conversation with a security guard who told us that if we want to take a good look above the town we should get on the sands skypark, it's better than the Singapore Flyer. And we followed his hint. We also were more interested in getting up the tower instead of sitting in a small cabinet. We had a great view from up the tower, too bad that the pool close by was only for hotel guests.

Back down from the skypark we went to the bay and walked to the Merlion. Before we got to him we saw a interesting sculpture for the Olympic games.

And also a big public fan, ran by solar energy. That should be used at many other places too.

The Merlion is one of the most visited sights in Singapore, also when it is not the biggest. But worth getting there, it's a nice walk along the river.

From the Merlion we went through different parks and gardens, because we wanted to see little India. The way to get there was rather long, but offered good thigs to see.

When we arrived in little India we were shocked of the crowd of people around here. The Indian guy at the hostel told us the day before that it really feels like Mumbai, so good that we did not get there. We both wanted to get out of that place as soon as possible.

For our last day we decided to go to Sentosa, there was still so much to see. And we did not want to spent to much time between skyscrapers and on the streets.
On the metro we had the company of the Ugandan guy, who had to take care of some business near vivocity. Again we took the train and first went to the universal studios.

Bernd loved to get in there but after seeing the price he changed his mind and wanted to do something else. We went to the maritime Museum and watched a Video about seafaring, the screen was the tail of a huge Asian chip with a cool dragon figure. Bernd screamed when it started moving and opened the red eyes.

Outside the museum we could see some old ships at the bay. Too bad that the sails were not set, but they also liked great that way.

From the museum we walked to the lake of dreams, it was at least a big deal of an artist to build that lake or better say fountain.

We kept on walking, passed by at a big lions statue and went through the jungle and ended up at the beach. On the way were several attractions, at the end we could not decide and took the sea to cool down.