On the way back to London after the most brilliant summer in New Zealand (I know I'm skipping over several months worth of stuff - photos from Jordan etc. are coming!), I stopped over for a week in Malaysia. Discovering the joy of the stopover has been delightful as it means an horrendous experience of staying awake for over 24 hours (I struggle to sleep on planes) is broken down into infinitely manageable 12-14 hour stretches.
I also love Malaysian food, so it was a bit of a no-brainer to organise a few days there. Despite the pull of Borneo, I thought that a week would be best spent staying in the Western Peninsula (I'll get to the jungle sometime though!). I had three nights each in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
Kuala Lumpur was interesting, but it was pretty hot and humid, so that always makes things tough, and I was by myself (although met lots of nice people at my hostel), so those two things combined weren't the best. The highlight of KL actually was a walk I took north of the city with a guide called 'Happy' who was all about connecting with nature and taking time to smell the roses etc. We walked up this river, crossing it several times, and eventually got to a waterfall where we swam and jumped off rocks etc., it was great fun! He took me to some delicious places for food too - it's always good to be with a local.
I also really liked a visit I took to the Batu Caves, which is this really interesting temple just north of the city, where you walked up a whole lot of steps beside a massive statue, then into this natural cave formation. The monkeys there were so cheeky! I actually saw one steal a bottle of water right out of a woman's bag, screw the lid off, then drink it. They certainly know what they're doing...
Penang was a bit of a slower pace, and I spent most of my time wandering around the historical centre (Georgetown) with some other people from my hostel there who were really nice too (although everyone else was on these massive trips through Asia and couldn't believe I was only there for a few days!). I loved the food in Penang, lots of delicious noodle soups and things which were so yum. I also made my own pewter bowl at the Royal Selangor factory which was pretty cool and swam in the sea in Asia for the first time - it was like swimming in a bath it was so warm! Again though, it was super hot in Penang - so lots of ice-cream to help cool down was definitely in order...
The rest of the photos are here!
I also love Malaysian food, so it was a bit of a no-brainer to organise a few days there. Despite the pull of Borneo, I thought that a week would be best spent staying in the Western Peninsula (I'll get to the jungle sometime though!). I had three nights each in Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
Kuala Lumpur was interesting, but it was pretty hot and humid, so that always makes things tough, and I was by myself (although met lots of nice people at my hostel), so those two things combined weren't the best. The highlight of KL actually was a walk I took north of the city with a guide called 'Happy' who was all about connecting with nature and taking time to smell the roses etc. We walked up this river, crossing it several times, and eventually got to a waterfall where we swam and jumped off rocks etc., it was great fun! He took me to some delicious places for food too - it's always good to be with a local.
I also really liked a visit I took to the Batu Caves, which is this really interesting temple just north of the city, where you walked up a whole lot of steps beside a massive statue, then into this natural cave formation. The monkeys there were so cheeky! I actually saw one steal a bottle of water right out of a woman's bag, screw the lid off, then drink it. They certainly know what they're doing...
Penang was a bit of a slower pace, and I spent most of my time wandering around the historical centre (Georgetown) with some other people from my hostel there who were really nice too (although everyone else was on these massive trips through Asia and couldn't believe I was only there for a few days!). I loved the food in Penang, lots of delicious noodle soups and things which were so yum. I also made my own pewter bowl at the Royal Selangor factory which was pretty cool and swam in the sea in Asia for the first time - it was like swimming in a bath it was so warm! Again though, it was super hot in Penang - so lots of ice-cream to help cool down was definitely in order...
The rest of the photos are here!
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