Singapore & Kuala Lumpur

We flew from Sydney to Singapore last Tuesday as we eased our way into South East Asia.

Singapore, in many ways, is a city of contrasts where modern skyscrapers sit side by side with the 100+ year old two and three storey buildings in Chinatown and Little India, remnants of Britain’s colonial past remain in posh hotels like Raffles and The Fullerton and expensive eateries and bars around Clarke Quay full of expats are just minutes walk from bustling hawker centres where the locals eat and where you can buy a great meal for $5 (£3) or less.

The posh bars and restaurants are all very nice but it is Little India and Chinatown where you get a proper feel for the real Singapore and it is in these areas that we spent much of our time.

Singapore also makes for a nice gentle introduction to Asia as, though you can experience proper Asian culture, enjoy the sights and sounds of Asia and taste the spectacular food, everyone speaks reasonably good and most speak excellent English.

The weather is a bit unpredictable being in a tropical climate and it did rain for much of the time that we were there. However, that didn’t affect what we’d planned to do in any way (other than that we were a bit damp at times) and it had some positives in that it meant the temperature and humidity, which can be a bit much in Singapore at times, were kept under control.

We arrived at our hostel late on Tuesday evening so didn’t really see any of the city until Wednesday morning. We got up reasonably early that morning for a walking tour around Little India which is the area where we were staying. It was yet another really good walking tour, where our guide showed us around, telling us about the history of Singapore, what it is like to live there now, the colonial past, the original Indian convicts who were brought to the country by the British to work on construction and we visited our first temple in Asia.

The tour included a stop at our first hawker centre, of which we expect to visit many in Asia. These are essentially huge food courts where there could be 100 or more different vendors selling all types of different foods, each specialising in something, perhaps vegetarian food, rice dishes, noodle dishes, fruit juices, etc. These are the places to go for wonderfully cheap but delicious local food. Our guide bought us Indian dosas to share and for dessert, little balls covered in coconut and full of caramel in the centre. Mmmm… tasty!!!

As soon as the tour finished we went straight back to the hawker centre for second lunch and shared a chicken biryani.

That evening we went to Singapore Zoo to experience their night safari. We arrived just after sunset and the evening began with a buffet dinner with lots of tasty options from all around Asia. Afterwards we boarded a tram for a 40 minute tour around the park to see the animals after dark. Their enclosures are illuminated by dim lights that resemble moonlight but are plenty bright enough to be able to see them and in some cases we passed very close to the animals.

Often in zoos a lot of the animals are asleep or resting as, in the wild, they would only come out at night. On the night safari though, they were much more lively, most were out and about on the prowl and the highlights were probably the elephant with its huge tusks, the leopards roaming around their enclosure and the lion standing on top of a mound as though it owned the zoo as it opened its mouth for a big yawn.

It’s difficult to take a great photo in the dark but you can just about make out the leopard and elephant in these:-

The next morning we did our second walking tour, this one around Chinatown. It was with the same tour guide and some of what she had to say was a bit repetitive as it covered some of what she’d told us the previous day although was still very good. She did cover a lot that was specific to Chinatown such as the opium dens that used to exist in the area until only a few decades ago and the history of Chinese immigrants who came to Singapore seeking a more prosperous and peaceful future than they could hope for in their own country at the time.

Once again, we stopped off in a hawker centre, this one mostly offering Chinese delights. She bought for us a twist on a spring roll, basically vegetables wrapped in a pancake and then only lightly cooked rather than being deep fried like a spring roll. She also gave us some jackfruit to try. We’ve had this before in curries in Sri Lanka but never uncooked but it was really quite nice with a slight mango flavour.

Once again, after the tour was over, we headed straight back to the hawker centre and had some amazing dim sum.

One thing that we hadn’t expected much of in Asia is craft beer but it turns out that Singapore has about 15 craft breweries and after the dim sum we checked out one of these. It was a brewpub called Brewerkz and actually did some good beers, especially the XIPA.

That evening we headed to Gardens By The Bay, a relatively newly developed area. Here they have built massive man made trees with what they call “vertical gardens” growing up the side of them. You can go up and walk between two of the trees via a walkway over the gardens and at the top of the biggest there is a restaurant and bar. Also, every evening there is a light show which we went to see where the trees light up and flash in time to music for 15 minutes. It’s all a bit weird and surreal but also quite impressive.

Afterwards we hit the nearby Marina Bay Sands casino which was a bit expensive on our travel budget but we still managed to walk away $10 up which is enough for a meal for two in a hawker centre so we were happy with that!

The next day would be our last full day in Singapore and we started it with a visit to Kampong Glam, the old Muslim area. At the heart of the area is the huge Masjid Sultan mosque and we had expected this to be a Malay area, surrounded by Malaysian restaurants and street food vendors. It actually turned out to have more general Arab food, especially Turkish and similar. It also had a lot of trendy looking bars and coffee shops and stores selling expensive silks next to tacky gift shops! It was an interesting area to explore.

On our way back to our hostel we were passing The 1925 Brewing Company so stopped off for a quick one. Weirdly, though, despite being a microbrewery with about six of their own beers, they only had one of theirs available along with some from US and Australian breweries. We did try theirs though which was a dark ale and was quite good.

On our last evening in Singapore we went back to Chinatown for some Michelin starred food. One of the hawker stalls, Hawker Chan, has been awarded a Michelin star for its bbq chicken & rice. However, the stall is so popular that it has 45 minute queues and usually sells out by 2pm. As it only costs $2 (£1.10) this is not really a surprise. However, given his popularity, Mr Chan has also opened a small restaurant where you can sample his famous chicken although at the more expensive price of a whole $2.80! It was here that we tasted surely the cheapest Michelin starred food in the world. It was very good although we actually thought the bbq pork was nicer than the chicken.

We then went on the hunt for a couple of other brewpubs, starting with RedDot. We had a taster flight of six of their beers which were all reasonably good. The most unique was a green beer, an otherwise goodish pilsner which had been infused with spirulina to turn it very green! Interesting and certainly different!

After that we ventured to Archipelago Brewery and their Belgian Wit and Summer IPA were definitely two of the best that we had in Singapore.

On Saturday it was time to move on again as we were off to Kuala Lumpur. We travelled via coach and though there were long traffic jams going through immigration, otherwise it was a smooth journey and cost just $20 each, a bargain for a 400km journey in a far more comfortable coach than we’ve ever travelled on in the UK with extra big seats (just three to a row) and loads of leg room.

The next day we spent some time exploring the Central Market and KL’s Chinatown. Both of these areas are very busy and bustling though super touristy. Central Market has loads of stalls selling everything from tourist tat to local crafts to clothing. It also has a smallish food court where we ate lunch. Chinatown was similar but most of the stalls there were selling fake designer stuff, from clothing to watches to perfume.

That evening we went to a bar called Heli Lounge. This was quite a unique place as you go up to a bar on the 34th floor and having ordered a drink you can then go up another level and out onto the building’s helipad where they setup a dj booth, tables and chairs after 6pm. The drinks are relatively expensive for KL and having arrived just before sunset, we nursed our beers for an hour or so as the city lit up as darkness fell. From the top there was a great view of the KL Tower and a reasonably good view of the Petronas Towers.

On Monday morning we did a walking tour which started in the City Gallery. This is a museum which we were shown around and told a bit about the history of the city and its future including the government’s ambitious plans to build hundreds of new buildings, many huge skyscrapers. There was an impressive scale model showing the city as it is today and the many new buildings that will be appearing over the next few years.

The tour continued outside as we were shown around the old British colonial buildings and were shown inside a couple of them. We walked along the Klang River and saw the Masjid Jamek mosque.

That afternoon we were picked up for a tour to Kuala Selangor, about 70km from KL, to see fireflies. The tour was supposed to include a visit to an old fort, a burial ground, a nature reserve where we would see native birds, monkeys and other animals as well as dinner in a fishing village. Much of this either didn’t happen or was a disappointment. However, the fireflies themselves were spectacular and well worth seeing.

We arrived in Selangor and, after a short wait for it to get dark enough, boarded a boat on the Selangor river. There is a particular species of tree that grows alongside the river that the fireflies love and in each tree there were thousands of fireflies. Each one produces a tiny flashing fluorescent light. It’s really quite spectacular to see this and especially the ability that they have to synchronise their flashes so that all fireflies in the same tree flash their lights on and off at the same time and it therefore gives the impression of a naturally illuminated Christmas tree.

Despite several attempts, it’s impossible to take a photo or video of the fireflies as it’s just too dark.

The following day we headed back to Chinatown to explore a bit more, mostly to check out some of the impressive temples on the roads around Jalan Petaling, the main road through Chinatown that we’d visited a couple of days earlier.

In the evening we headed over to Kampung Baru, an area of KL that remains relatively undeveloped despite being surrounded by skyscrapers. We did a walking tour around here, exploring some of the remaining traditional homes and were told a bit about the traditional Malay way of life. As we walked we passed some spots with great views of the Petronas Towers.

As the evening wore on, the tour moved into some roads that were lined with street food stores and our guide bought us a few samples of traditional Malay food to try and talked to us about many other foods that we could buy there.

On Wednesday we took a train out to see the Batu Caves. The Malaysian railway proved a bit challenging, partly due to maintenance works, and we ended up on the wrong train which meant it probably took at last twice as long to get there as it should have done.

When we arrived though, it was definitely worthwhile. The main cave has an important Hindu temple in it and is a bit of an effort to get to as you have to climb 272 steps, a bit of an effort in 30C temperatures and 90%+ humidity. The view from the bottom of the steps is impressive as a huge 43 metre statue of Murugan, a Hindu deity stands next to the steps. Having climbed the steps we entered the cave which itself is impressive with the ceiling many metres above. In the first chamber there are various Hindu statues and as we climbed further into the second chamber we came to the main temple. This chamber had a huge hole in the roof of the cave which allows sunlight into the cave, illuminating the temple and various surrounding statues.

Yesterday was our last full day in KL before we setoff on our travels again. We spent much of the day and evening exploring KLCC Park and Bukit Bintang.

From KLCC Park we got one of the best views of the Petronas Towers in the whole city.

Also in the park they have a lake with multi coloured fountains which put on a performance in time with music three times a night. We were there for the 8pm performance and though not quite on the scale of the Belaggio fountains in Vegas was very good.

After watching the fountains and seeing darkness fall over the Petronas Towers, we headed to Bukit Bintang. This is a real bustling area packed with eateries and one street in particular with loads of street food stalls. We enjoyed walking around here, taking in the sights and the sounds, the aromas of the different foods cooking and dodging the waiters as they tried to persuade us to eat in their restaurant! We ate some amazing dim sum then stopped at a satay stall for some chicken and beef skewers. We finished off with ice cream that was made completely fresh in front of us from cream, strawberries and mango on a freezing metal plate. Great food!

So today we checked out of our hostel and it is worth giving the hostel a quick mention as it was a great place to stay. It was called 1,000 Miles Hotel and for £16 a night including breakfast we stayed in a really nice place, the highlight of which was the 5th floor roof terrace. We spent a bit of time here in the afternoons and evenings enjoying the unobstructed view of the nearby KL Tower. This was a particular highlight when the tower put on its lightshow at night with changing colours and flashing lights it was quite impressive to see and great free entertainment.

Today we travel south a bit to Malacca (also called Melaka) for a few days before heading back north through Malaysia towards Thailand over the next couple of weeks or so.