Singapore - Day 1

When I first told my boss at work that I was planning a trip to Southeast Asia that included Singapore, she laughed and told me that she always referred to Singapore as "Asia-light." Having traveled all over Asia, she said that Singapore is a good country to visit first as a stepping stone to others. After having been there myself, I know understand what she was talking about. Singapore is a very cosmopolitan city. While it certainly has an Asian "flare", it also has many more western influences than say Japan on Thailand. People speak fluent English absolutely everywhere, and the people living in Singapore come from all parts of the world. The city was immaculately clean (not unlike Japan), and one could find any sort of chain restaurant or shopping store their heart desired.

Our first full day in Singapore also happened to be my birthday! Like all of the other countries and cities we've visited so far on this trip (Bangkok & Chiang Mai, Thailand, Cambodia, and Malaysia), Singapore had steady temperatures in the upper 80s with stifling humidity. Fortunately, there are many indoor activities that we planned throughout the day.

We had breakfast at our hotel, and then started the day by walking across the pedestrian bridge to Sentosa Island. This island has many different touristy things to do on it (including Universal Studios Singapore), and it very much reminded me of Pleasure Island from Pinocchio. By the time we got there, we were already sweaty blobs, and it was still early in the morning.

Sentosa Island - Singapore

Our first destination for the day was Madame Tussaud's wax museum. I am a big fan of this place. I've been to the ones in Las Vegas, Washington DC, and London. I have to say, that I don't think I need to go to one ever again. They are a definite novelty, and they're really really fun if you've never been to one. Now that I've been to 4...I think I'm good. Haha.

Entrance to Mme. Tussaud's - Singapore

Part of our tickets to Mme. Tussaud's included a 40 minute "show" called Singapore LIVE. I actually really enjoyed this even more than Mme. Tussaud's itself. (It's crazy to think that it has been 10 years since I went to my very first Mme. Tussaud's in Las Vegas. What else happened on that trip in Las Vegas? Well, it's a pretty amazing story! You can read all about it HERE. Spoiler Alert: It's how I got engaged!)

Madam Tussaud's - Singapore 

After the wax museum, we hopped on the Sentosa Express to get back to Marina Bay. At this point, we walked around the Marina Promenade and found the Marina Bay Sands hotel where we had a reservation for high tea to celebrate my birthday. 

Downtown Singapore

Marina Bay Sands Hotel - Singapore

As we walked around the Marina Promenade (wondering if thunderstorms were going to hit us), J and I both made the comment that we felt like someone had taken our kidneys hostage and were squeezing them for torture. Little did we know that this was only the beginning of what people notoriously call the "travel bug". The crippling intestinal pain and stifling humidity put a bit of a damper on our experience of Singapore, but I won't offend my readers with the details.

Time soon came for our tea reservation, so we headed up to Sky on 57 at the Marina Bay Sands. The tea was not nearly as impressive as the one in Dubai (though it also wasn't nearly as expensive).

They started us off with the chef special. It was a mushroom dumpling with a truffle oil cappuccino. The dumpling was delicious, but the cappuccino tasted like you were drinking liquid mushrooms. I personally didn't care for it, though J found it amazing.

High Tea Chef Specialty at Sky on 57 - Singapore

Then the waitress brought out the traditional tea fare which they displayed on a tower shaped like the Singapore ferris wheel. Very cute. And delicious! I am definitely a fan of high tea!

High Tea treats at Sky on 57 - Singapore

The only thing that really disappointed me about high tea at the Marina Bay Sands was the fact that they were doing some renovations while we were there, and our seats had absolutely no view of the city or the bay. We were kinda tucked away inside which completely defeated the purpose of being on the 57th floor of this opulent hotel.

After tea, we walked over to the Gardens by the Bay. Here they had two things that we absolutely loved...because they were both inside and chilled. If you've been reading my whole series on Southeast Asia, I think you've figured out by now that being outside in super hot and humid temps just isn't for us, and after two full weeks of the worst heat and humidity I've ever experienced in my life, I was dying for any respite from the outdoors.

First we explored the indoor Flower Dome. This place is really neat and absolutely beautiful. I only wish my memories of the experience wasn't combined agonizing kidney pain.

Flower Dome - Singapore

Flower Dome - Singapore

Flower Dome - Singapore

Right next to the Flower Dome was the Cloud Forest. Smaller, but still inside, we also enjoyed this place very much...though we didn't see many clouds. We even climbed up the many levels of stairs to take the cloud walk, which unfortunately had no clouds. At one point, they turned on the misters which thickened the air a bit, but anything cloud-like dissipated as soon as the misters turned off.

Cloudless Cloud Walk - Singapore

Cloud Forest - Singapore

We hung around the Gardens by the Bay until sunset and light show at 7:45. It finally cooled down enough to tolerate being outside, so we joined the crowds and watched a bit of the light show before beating the crowds back to to the metro and on toward our hotel.

Marina Bay light show - Singapore

When we got back to our room, we saw this little cake sitting out (under a plastic dome) from the hotel staff. So nice!

Happy Birthday to me!

I remember going to bed thinking that I really hope we're both feeling better tomorrow. By the end of the day the worst of the cramping subsided but the traveler's bug wasn't done with us yet. This is a valuable lesson friends. Be prepared for anything! Foreign countries don't always sell the same types of medicine that we do. Fortunately, the bug hit us on our last two days, so we were ok with what I brought to get us home, but we would have been in an awful state if it struck us any earlier.

Only one more day left before this adventure comes to an end! At this point between the travel bug and the heat, I was really starting to suffer from travel fatigue. Two weeks is definitely my limit!

I hope you'll join me for my last blog post about our second day in Singapore. Until then my good friends...

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Train from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Singapore

For the last leg of our Southeast Asian adventure, we spent just over 2 days in Singapore. We could have easily flown from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, but we decided to take a train instead. Having no other opportunity to see the Malay peninsula, we decided it would be a good way to spend part of the day.

After another scrumptious breakfast at the Kuala Lumpur Hilton (which you can read about in detail here, if you're curious about this *amazing* breakfast), we checked out around 7:30 and walked across the street to catch our 8AM train. We had explored the area the day before, so we knew right where to go. Unfortunately, we didn't know what section to sit in.

We purchased first class tickets because they were still within a reasonable price point. We boarded the train, found our seats, and got ready for our 6.5 ride. The car was perfectly comfortable and clean, and our seats were very nice. When the guy came around to check our tickets, he informed us that we were in the wrong car. He directed us to the first class car, and we laughed because we couldn't imagine how the car that was supposed to be first class could be better than this one.

As we crossed into the next car, it wasn't all that much nicer (seats a little cushier perhaps), and when we got to our seats, we discovered another couple already sitting in them. They apologetically got up and explained that their seats were broken, so they kept moving from seat to seat until they could find one that wasn't being occupied. We felt guilty for "kicking them out" but the got up immediately.

The train ride was lovely. It was a refreshing change from the sketchy Air Asia flights we had taken over the last week and a half. We read, napped, wrote, and just enjoyed watching the scenery roll by.

Around 2:15, we stopped at the customs and immigration point for leaving Malaysia and crossing into Singapore. We had to take our bags and put them through scanners and essentially walk through this big, empty building where we signed a piece of paper saying we weren't carrying anything bad.

When we got back on the train, we only rode for another 5-10 mins before arriving at our destination: the Woodlands Station. We went through security again, and then we had 2 objectives: 1. transfer our Malay dollars to Singapore dollars and 2. find the right bus to take us to the Singapore metro. Although we were officially in Singapore, we weren't in Singapore city yet. We were still very much on the outskirts of this tiny country.

I had read ahead of time that getting Singapore dollars at this bus/train depot was a bit of a challenge. If you arrived by train, you had to walk down the street and up the hill a ways to get to an ATM machine outside of a minimart. We stood for a few minutes surveying our surroundings when we saw the exact bus we needed pull up. On a chance, we decided to ask the driver if they took Malay dollars, so we wouldn't have to worry about changing money just yet. The bus ride only cost about $1-$1.50 a person anyway. We stood half way up the steps of the bus and showed the driver our palms full of Ringgit. He shook his head negatively, and slightly embarrassed, we tried to politely shuffle past the people behind us on the steps to board the bus.

All of the sudden, a kind religious gentleman (of what religion, I don't know, but he was dressed from head to toe in some sort of religious regalia - sikh would be my guess) stopped us from getting off the bus, and offered the driver enough money to cover the fare for himself and the two of us. He didn't speak English but politely refused our offers to give him our Malay Ringgit or even the few American dollars we still carried. It may not have been more than a good deed to him, but such an act of kindness is something I will always treasure.

The bus took us to the MRT (metro) station, where we found an ATM and purchased tickets that would take us to the Orchard Station just a few blocks from our hotel.

In choosing a Singapore hotel, I considered many options. I looked closely at 6 hotels that ranged in price from $90/night to $170/night. All were under my $200 limit (not sure what I mean? Read one of my earliest posts that explains my criteria for choosing a foreign hotel. This is before Air B&B existed, mind you. I have absolutely no experience with that style of travel). Then it came down to location and amenities.

We ultimately chose the Royal Plaza on Scotts. For $150/night we enjoyed a hotel that was minutes from the MRT, included breakfast, the rate was refundable, and it had the highest star rating out of all the hotels I looked at. Mind you, all of the hotels were at least 4 stars and they all had stellar reviews. This one just seemed to fit the bill for our stay.

Orchard Station is also in the shopping district, so we knew that our hotel would have close proximity to good shopping and food. If money is no object, consider staying at Marina Bay Sands. It's comparable to the Burj Al Arab in Dubai. Like Dubai, we had no intention of staying there, but we did take advantage of their afternoon tea so that we could explore the hotel. (More on that in a future post.)

Royal Plaza on Scotts - Singapore, Singapore

After checking into our hotel, we went for a walk to find dinner. Singapore is a major cosmopolitan city, so we could have easily eaten in just about any food chain we wanted. Instead, we were walking down the street, and saw this little eatery tucked away down a couple of stairs. We peeked in and saw (what looked like) a bunch of locals and a small scale cafeteria-style restaurant. With maybe 3-4 different food vendors to choose from, we each picked one and enjoyed an authentic Singaporean dinner. Unfortunately, this would be the last meal of the trip that we truly enjoyed. Why? Oh...just you wait.

Singapore is not without its own adventure and missteps. Until next time...

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Day 2

On our full day in Kuala Lumpur (KL), we didn't rush to get up. Since we went to the bird park the previous day instead of this morning, we re-ordered things a bit for today. Breakfast at the KL Hilton was incredible! Beyond incredible! It was literally the most amazing buffet I've ever seen. Not only did it have everything you'd expect at an American breakfast buffet (made to order eggs, turkey bacon, chicken sausage (they didn't serve pork at the hotel) potatoes, baked beans (a British breakfast item), cereals, yogurts, breads, pastries, pancakes, waffles, donuts, french toast, oatmeal, and the most beautiful and exotic fruit assortment including pineapple, mango, orange colored watermelon, white cantaloup, star fruit, dragon fruit, and passion fruit. A breakfast buffet like that sounds amazing, right? But...BUT...in addition to this scrumptious and enormous selection of American/English breakfast foods, they also had stations for other nationalities. They had a Japanese breakfast station with sushi, fish, rice, and salad. They had an Indian breakfast station with assorted curry dishes that Americans would typically associate with lunch/dinner, and then they also had a Thai/Malay station with more fish, picked vegetables, etc. I've never seen so many authentic international breakfast cuisines at one buffet. In my diary, I wrote, "I'm so excited we get to eat here again tomorrow morning."

After eating our fill, we took the KTM rapid transit system to the KLCC station for the Petronas Twin Towers (once the world's tallest building(s)). We got our tickets for the 10:30 group (we didn't reserve these in advance) and browsed the gift shop until our time.

Petronas Twin Towers Elevator - KL, Malaysia

The elevators first stopped at the 41st floor where we could cross the sky bridge. See the photo at the very bottom of this blog post and you can see how high the sky bridge is. Once we crossed the bridge to the other tower, we then took another elevator all the way up to the 86th floor.

View of KL, Malaysia from the Petronas Twin Towers sky bridge

I really thought KL was a very lovely city. Not very walkable, but lovely to look at from high buildings. After the towers, we took the train a few stops back, so we could visit a place called the Central Market. I was very excited to visit this place for 2 reasons. 1. I love shopping. 2. I love air conditioning. Haha! I love browsing markets and getting souvenirs from stands and more "authentic" type shops. The Central Market was inside and air conditioned, so I was very excited to spend some time and Malaysian Ringgit at this place.

Inside the Central Market - KL, Malaysia

I absolutely loved this place. It had 2 floor that consisted of so many different types of shops. For various people, we bought cinnamon coasters, an adorable stone cat that you put on the top of something and it looks like it's looking down, a handheld mirror, some chocolate, a Christmas ornament, some magnets, and some coconut cookies.

To keep the chocolate from melting, we took the train 1-2 stops back and returned to our hotel. Since it was already 1:30, we hung around in the executive lounge of the hotel until 2:30 when they served tea, and made that our lunch. Yes, the magnificent breakfast we ate earlier that morning kept us full until nearly 2:00.

Around 3:00, we took the inefficient monorail system to the Berjaya Times Square Mall. This multi-story shopping mecca was such a wonder. It even had a roller coaster in the middle of it.

Roller coaster inside the Times Square Mall - KL, Malaysia

Up and up and up! The many levels of the Times Square Mall - KL, Malaysia

Our purpose in visiting this place was yet another Escape Room Adventure. You have to remember. This was 2015. The Escape Room craze hadn't yet come to the United States, and it was such a novelty thing for us. We just found them to be so much fun! The one in Malaysia even had a hallway with motion sensor lasers like you would see in a Mission Impossible movie. We still needed all of our hints. Haha!

After walking around the mall, we returned to the hotel for Happy Hour, and ate dinner. It's pretty amazing how ridiculously we took advantage of the executive lounge in Malaysia. We didn't spend a dime on food that entire day. The food in the lounge was just soooooo good! Looking back, I'm a little sad that we didn't make more of an effort to find a Malay restaurant and indulge in the local cuisine, but at the same time, I still salivate when I think of the food in that Hilton lounge. Sadly, I didn't get very good pictures of it.

As the sun set, we went back to the area around the Petronas Towers to try and get a picture of them lit up. As we arrived, we caught the last few minutes of the fountain show. The one in Dubai is better, but I loved all of the different colors they used.

Petronas Twin Towers fountain show - KL, Malaysia

From the ground, it was nearly impossible to get a good picture of the towers. I had the same problem in Dubai when we visited the Burj Khalifa (the tallest building in the world). I had to get to a place that was far enough away and at a high enough elevation to really get the picture I wanted.

Prior to the trip, I read online that the Sky Bar at the Traders Hotel gave the best view of the towers. I also read that they had a rooftop pool up there that only hotel guests could use, but that anyone could go to the Sky Bar provided they had a reservation. Well, we didn't make a reservation, but I figured that there was no harm in going up there anyway.

My husband thought I was completely crazy and wanted no part of my antics. So while he stayed down in the cool, dark lobby, I ventured up to the top floor of this posh hotel. (Side note - as a result of this experience, perhaps I'm not quite so timid as I once thought. Read on, and you'll understand.)

I walked right up to the host and hostess standing at the entrance. They asked if I had a reservation, and I kindly explained to them that I simply wished to take a picture of the towers. Would they mind if I came in for just a few minutes? They were very friendly, and welcomed me in with a smile. What I soon discovered, however, is that round booths lined the windows, and that the only way to get the picture I wanted was to scoot to the back of one of those booths and lean over the back.

So, I walked along the aisle passing red, plush booth after red plush booth, looking for an empty one where I could quickly hop in, snap my photo, and then be on my way. I walked and walked and got all the way to the rooftop pool and didn't see any empty booths. The windows leading out to the pool were steamy and full of condensation, not terribly conducive to a good photograph.

As I walked back along the aisle of booths, I spotted a man sitting in one by himself. He sat all the way to one side, leaving the rest of the booth empty. I also happened to notice that he was talking on the phone. Not seeing any other options, I hopped into the booth with this stranger, snapped a handful of photos of the towers, flashed the man my dazzling smile, and dashed away before he could say a word. My photos weren't perfect. Most of them still had some sort of glare or backlight in them, but I'm very please that I was able to get the pictures that I wanted of the towers all lit up at night.

Petronas Towers at night from the Sky Bar at Traders Hotel

Then we returned to our apartment sized hotel and called it a day. Up relatively early the next day to catch our train that we took from Malaysia to Singapore. Only a few days left in this Southeast Asian trip. I hope you'll join me for the last few posts on our Singaporean adventure.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Day 1

Got off to an early start on this Wednesday morning as we packed up and left Bangkok for the last time. We checked out of our hotel around 5AM and headed to the airport for our last Air Asia flight of the trip. The looming thunder clouds made us very nervous to embark on a budget airline, but our other flights so far had been ok. This flight also took off on time and landed slightly ahead of schedule.

Upon arrival, we changed our money to the Malaysian currency and then we took the KLIA Ekspres from the airport to the KL Sentral station and checked into the Hilton hotel. We pre-booked the KLIA Ekspres tickets and found it pretty easily from the Kuala Lumpur (KL) airport. This train is designed for airport travel, so they have plenty of luggage racks. They also sent me the barcode for our tickets via email, so I was able to save a picture and bring it up on my phone (I also had printed copies just in case).

We picked the Hilton Kuala Lumpur for 2 reasons. 1. It's within walking distance to KL Sentral which is the main hub for transportation anywhere in the city, and 2. we could use hilton points to stay there. Boy oh boy are we glad we did this. We got to the hotel around 10AM, but thanks to the Hilton Diamond status that J had at the time, the hotel upgraded us to a massive suite (with 2 bathrooms!) and let us check in early. We also got access to the executive lounge on the 33rd floor. The lounge was just as awesome (if not more so) than the lounge in the Bangkok Hilton. We went there several times throughout our short stay. From 2-4, they served cakes and finger sandwiches with tea, and from 6-8 they had canapés for cocktail hour. So yummy!

For sightseeing that day, we went on the commuter line out to the Batu Caves. This place is really neat, pretty easy to find/navigate, and I highly recommend it if you have the stamina to climb a lot of stairs. Hold onto your hats. Literally. The monkeys that are ALL OVER the place are notorious for taking loose items.

Approaching the entrance of the Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

Entrance to the Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

Monkey at the Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

Batu Caves - KL, Malaysia

After the Batu Caves, we decided to try and find the Kuala Lumpur bird park. We planned on doing this the next day, but since we still had a fair amount of day left, and since the bird park wasn't really near anything else we planned on seeing the next day, we took advantage of the daylight. We took the train part of the way there, and then tried to walk the rest of the way. It wasn't terribly easy to find, and we got caught in a pretty big thunderstorm. The worst of the rain started right as we arrived, so we only got a little wet. The storm brought such welcome relief from the heat, but delayed us going into the bird park until about 5pm. The rain kept the other tourists away, so we had the entire bird park to ourselves pretty much. It was also a Wednesday, however, so there were no shows or demonstrations. We didn't mind, but if you're ever traveling with kids or want to make more of a day out of visiting the place, you may want to consider a weekend.

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Making friends at the bird sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

Bird Sanctuary - KL, Malaysia

We took a taxi back to the hotel rather than try to navigate on our own. Then we got showers, ate food in the hotel lounge, and walked through the KL Sentral mall. Like everywhere else we've been in Asia, their train stations also double as mini underground shopping/eating complexes. They're so awesome! It's like this entire underground world.

Interestingly, when we got to Bangkok, we thought that the country was very influenced by Japanese culture and traditions. Malaysia reminded us more of Dubai. Perhaps it's the Islamic influence on those two countries. Both Dubai and Malaysia are still very modern and cosmopolitan. They're definitely considered more liberal Islamic countries with significant western influence. Still, I found it more appropriate to dress more modestly in Malaysia than I did in Bangkok. (Though the Buddhist temples in Thailand didn't permit bare knees or shoulders either.) We also noticed that Kuala Lumpur has much more green space than most other cities. The haze in the picture below is unfortunate, but it still gives you a sense for just how green the city is. Similar to Dubai, KL is also not a very walkable city. But we found taxis to be relatively cheap, and more law-abiding than Bangkok, so they are a good alternative when the train doesn't get you where you need to go.

View from our hotel - KL, Malaysia

Our decision to go to the bird park today made us re-order some of our activities for the next day. But we enjoyed the stay in our giant suite and were in no hurry to get up early. I hope you'll join me for my next blog which features some classic Malaysian sites like the Petronas Towers, the Central Market, and the Berjaya Times Square Mall.

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 4

On Tuesday, May 12, we awoke at 6AM in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We ate breakfast at the hotel's outdoor restaurant and couldn't believe how warm it was even at 6:30. In my journal from that day, I wrote, "As beautiful as the hotel grounds are, I won't miss the bugs and the transparent poverty."

Cambodia is an interesting place. The hotel did a brilliant job of shielding you from the desolate surroundings. I mentioned this in my blog from our arrival, but the hotel package we bought really considered our every need. And once we entered the hotel, we really felt as if we entered through a portal to another dimension. Each time we left the hotel to go into town, to the Angkor temple complex or even back to the airport, we couldn't turn a blind eye to everything around us. Although we felt there was little we could do at the time, we did make sure to tip Adam (our tuk tuk driver) generously. 

On our way to the Siem Reap airport, it finally dawned on me what those strange road-side stands were that had the 2-litre bottles with lemonade-looking liquid. Any guesses? They were makeshift gas stations. I kid you not. Imagine a long wooden bench with 6-10 soda bottles sitting out on those benches filled with petrol. No regulations. No way to check for cross contamination or purity. I'm still flabbergasted when I think about it. 

The airport also surprised me, although I guess it shouldn't have. Tourists only come to Siem Reap for one reason: Angkor Wat. The small airport shops were so expensive. We paid $5.00 for the smallest dish of ice cream from the Dairy Queen. And yes, the teeny, tiny airport in Cambodia had a dairy queen. 

We flew Air Asia back to Bangkok. The bumpy flight landed around 12:30 in the pouring rain. Something I noticed immediately but haven't mentioned until now is the advertising used on Air Asia planes. Look at the photo below. That is a picture of an overhead bin on the flight. Every, single, one had an ad on it. Can you imagine United or American Airlines doing something like that? In a way, it made the inside of the plane more colorful. And I wonder how much revenue the airline gets from the advertising, especially considering it's a budget airline. Does the advertising make up for the lower ticket costs? 

Air Asia in-cabin advertising

Our third Bangkok hotel was the VIE Hotel Bangkok MGallery which is near the MBK mall and the Siam shopping center. There was nothing fancy about this hotel. We paid $110/night, and I picked this hotel for our final stay in Bangkok because it got good reviews, had a reasonable price, and had a nice central location. You can read my Trip Advisor Review if you're interested in more. Of all the Bangkok hotels we stayed in, this was my least favorite, but it was certainly adequate and recommendable. Inside the bathroom, they had a sign that listed the toiletries they had available if we forgot anything. Can someone tell me one thing, however. What exactly is plaster? :-D I still laugh when I see that picture. I love funny signs in foreign countries.

Sign in hotel bathroom - Bangkok, Thailand

With only a couple of hours left to the day, we went over to the shopping district and played in another one of those Escape Rooms. This one was so much more difficult than the Escape Hunt from Day 2 in Bangkok. What I loved about these places was that you didn't need a special reservation. And you didn't need to pay extra for just 2 people to have the whole room. 

After the escape room, we did some souvenir shopping, and we passed a McDonalds. Nearly every country in the world has a McDonalds. That's not why I took a picture. Look at Ronald. His hands are folded like a Buddhist. THAT was picture-worthy. Haha. 

Buddhist Ronald McDonald - Bangkok, Thailand

Instead of dinner, since we ate lunch around 3, we treated ourselves to giant ice cream sundaes at Swensens.

Thai Ice Cream Sundaes

Just yesterday, we got up before 4AM to see the sunrise at Ankgor Wat. Tomorrow, we would rise nearly as early to catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Only a few days left on our trip. Malaysia and Singapore round out our whirlwind tour of South East Asia.

I hope you'll join me for my final few posts!

Thanks for reading!

- Foxy the Traveler