Malaysia and Indonesia

Wow! It's been one week since I left the U.S. and so far it has been an amazing amazing experience. The entire flight took about 22 hours with a one hour stop in Russia (I actually did a video while in Russia which I will post soon). We (the ILAP group) landed in Singapore early Wednesday morning. When I say early, I mean EARLY, around 6 a.m. and the day had just started. We actually never left the Singapore airport...took a shower at the airport and hopped on a plane to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We stayed in KL for 2 1/2 days, and then proceeded to Bali, Indonesia for roughly 3 1/2 days. To say my days are running together is an understatement. 

Since I've done/seen so much in the last week, I will section this post by destination.  

Singapore Airport

If you want to visit one of the cleanliest, prettiest, and extravagant airports in the world, visit Singapore! Ranked as the World’s best airport at the 2013 World Airport Awards, Singapore Changi Airport has a lot to offer. There are so many cool features just in the airport alone, like a movie theatre,  a slide/swimming pool, and a mini fish pond/nature trail to name a few. The airport looks like and feels like an upscale hotel. Unfortunately, we stayed in the airport for only about four hours before proceeding to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, KL for short, is the capital and most congested city in Malaysia. There are many places for tourists to see, but they still have some Western stores and concepts. For example, KFC is really big there.  KFC and McDonalds are everywhere in the city.

We flew on Tiger Airways to KL and stayed for 2 ½ days. As soon as we arrived in KL, we ate lunch at a Chinese Restaurant called Eden. During the first day, we visited Putrajaya and the Petronas Twin Tower. The city Putrajaya is named after the first Malaysian Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra; and the word “Putra” means Prince while “Jaya” means success. Putrajaya is not far from the capital and it is considered the Administrative Centre of the Federal Government of Malaysia. Putrajaya is a neat place to view with gorgeous structures and buildings. While there, we also visited the Masjid Putra (Putra Mosque); in order to enter the mosque you have to be properly dressed with clothing covering above the knees. Since everyone in the group had on shorts above the knees, everyone had to wear a robe which was so much fun and great for photos. From Putrajaya, we traveled to the Petronas Twin Towers which was once the tallest buildings in the world in 1998. It is now the 5^th tallest in the world with 1^st place going to Burj Khalifa in Dubai. This 88-floor towers comprise of an inside mall and Skybridge/Observatory deck; and of course we went to the very top of the towers! It was an amazing view and I felt a little off balance being that high up.

The next day we visited the Independence Square, National Monument War Memorial, Selangor Pewter, Batu Caves, Genting Highlands, and Petaling Street Chinatown. The Independence Square is where the tallest flag pole in the world (328ft) is located. Selangor Pewter is the world largest pewter maker. Pewter is a malleable metal alloy and this place makes ANYTHING out of metal. I bought a money tree while there which has 1 Malaysian Ringgit on each stem. The money tree reminded me of Kendrick Lamar and since I love his Good Kid, M.A.A.D city album and particularly the song-Money Trees, I had to get this souvenir. At the Batu Caves, which is a Hindu Shrine, we climb 272 steps in order to get to the top of the Limestone Cave and into the shrine. All over the shrine are cute little aggressive monkeys. I took lots of photos feeding the monkeys, which was a little nerve-wracking at first since the monkeys fight each other for food. DO NOT GET CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE. From the Batu Caves, we drove further out from the city of KL to Genting Highlands. It took about an hour to get to the top of the mountains where Genting Highlands is located. Genting Highlands is known as a City for Entertainment with its hotel, theme parks, casinos, etc. It has 10,000 hotel room and makes more than 1 billion dollars in revenue every day. While there we took a Cable car ride through the tropical rain forest; unfortunately for us it was raining so it was difficult to see the clarity of the rain forest. I’ve never been to a resort before but I’m sure Genting Highlands is the largest I will ever see. The day ended with a trip back to KL at Petaling Street Chinatown. It was very congested but also a lot of fun. Although, it is an area where people pickpocket so you have to be extremely aware and cautious. While there, I got called so many funny names when storeowners try to get me to buy their products. Baby, Sweetie, Beautiful\Pretty girl, Hakuna matata, and Sister were a few names.

On the 3^rd day right before we traveled to Bali, Indonesia, we stopped by the Instana Negara (National Palace). The palace is where the King and Queen of Malaysia live. I also took many pictures here as well and even got one of the guards to talk to me. As you can see, the trip to Malaysia was filled with many adventures but yet also very tiring. By the end of each day, we were glad to go back to the hotel (Radius International Hotel). Overall, the hotel was okay but interesting. My hotel floor smelled of soup and every night my roommate and I had to fight off the baby roaches. Ugh!

Bali, Indonesia

Bali, Bali, Bali, oh how I enjoyed this place. We stayed in Bali for 3 days and it was much more relaxing then the former half of the trip. By time we arrived it was near sunset, so we had an Indonesian dinner and headed to our hotel. The sun sets early in Bali (6:30 p.m.) and the sun also rises early (6:30 a.m.). During the trip to the hotel it was a lot of traffic with their only being two lanes everywhere around Bali. This is okay since majority of the Balinese drive motorcycles, even with children. The hotel we stayed at was called Kuta Station Hotel & Spa and it was a very neat place to stay. The entire hotel with exception to the check-in desk and rooms is outside.

The second day in Bali was the busiest. We left the hotel around 8 in the morning and first went to different Balinese stores. I bought some items for my family and a beautiful Batik painting for myself. From the shopping areas, we went to the Mengwi Taman Ayun Royal Temple which we witnessed something that the past ILAP (Internship and Living Abroad Program) groups never seen. There was a conference being hosted there among the priests and while leaving saw a procession of beautiful women hosting food on top of their heads for each of the priests. Before heading to Bedegul, a highland with a mountain scenery, for lunch we stopped at this place for Bali coffee tasting. What was so interesting about this place is the Kopi Luwak. Basically, Kopi Luwak is prepared by coffee beans from fox poop. We tasted a variety of coffee, one being the Kopi Luwak. I didn’t care for this coffee, but I did like the mocha and cocoa coffee and the rice and lemon tea. Next, we had a very tasty lunch at Bedegul and then went to Lake Bratan. From Lake Bratan, we went to another Monkey Forest where the monkeys were much more aggressive than in Malaysia. One of the group members got pee’d and pooped on. Ha! She also got one of her earrings stolen by one of the monkeys. Such a shame, I would have been too pissed if they took my jewelry. The monkeys would also jump on people, which happened to me quite often. One even pulled my hair which he or she must have thought it was food since I had it in twists. At the monkey forest, there were also bats, so of course I took pictures with them also. We stayed for about an hour before heading to the temple of Tanah Lot to watch the sunset on the beach. This spot also have many small shops for tourists. This was the last place we visited before dinner and going back to the hotel. The last day in Bali was an open and free day so I chose to go Kuta Beach for a while and catching up with family and friends on Skype. Later that evening we had dinner on the beach at Jimbaran Bay. By far, that was the best meal from the trip. Of course it was a seafood dinner, which is my favorite with crab legs, calamari, fish, shellfish, shrimp…yummm. It was sooo good.

The next day we left Bali and headed back to Singapore and met our host families. For pictures of my trip to Malaysia and Bali, click on the above tabs.