Singapore is a great starting point for traveling. It has very good connections to all of the North-East Asian countries. The cheapest and fastest way is to fly with the low cost airlines such as: Air Asia, Tiger Airways or Jet Star. The prices stated at the websites are from 20 Euro, but even after adding all the taxes and credit card fees the prices are reasonably low. Therefore it is very tempting to travel around.
My first major travel was to Kuala Lumpur. We decided to take a bus since the capital of Malaysia is only 5 hours away from Singapore, and the price for a return ticket was only 25 Euros. The double-decker bus was a great choice – big, comfortable sits with a massage options were better than the business class in an airplane.
What to see in KL? One definitely cannot miss the Petronas Twin Towers (remember to be there no later than 7 AM because the number of entrance tickets issued daily is very limited), Batu Caves (huge caves with a temple inside which is just an hour away from the city), the Bird Park (where the birds are flying freely around you. At some point the parrot sat on my arm!). The only thing I would not recommend is the elephant sanctuary – very expensive and very touristic. Overall, KL is a big city that seems to be very Western. The main things that distinguished KL from Singapore are: trash on the streets, crazy traffic rules, and the restaurants that had frogs in the aquariums waiting to be cooked.
The next trip was to Jakarta. The flight took only 80 minutes and it was enough to fly over an equator from the north part of the Earth to the south. After paying the entrance visa fee we left the airport in order to find some kind of hostel (we didn’t book any beforehand because the cheapest one we found in the Internet was 18 Euro, while the one we stayed at cost around 1.50 Euro!). The hostel did not look very tempting, but since it was suggested in Lonely Planet – we gave it a chance.
Jakarta is a crazy city – 20 million people, dirt, poverty, lots of trash on the streets, no rules, crazy traffic (I called my friend to have a dinner with him in 30 minutes but due to the traffic it took us over 3 hours to meet up!). What is more, even though Jakarta is a capital, the people are still not used to the white faces. They would not leave us alone: taking pictures, yelling after us, touching, trying to have conversations while the only English sentence they knew was “Hello Mister”. I have to admit that Jakarta was the first culture shock I have ever had.
For the last day of our travel around Java we decided to take a ferry to Thousand Islands. During the 3 hours travel we met a person who offered us a room in his house. We were so lucky! The guy was very nice (the only English speaking person in the whole island!), took us snorkeling around the islands, and invited us to the BBQ with the locals (it was amazing to listen to this people talking, singing, playing guitar). I feel like I have learned a lot during the travel. I met up with many locals, got to know their culture and different habits.
These were the main trips I had so far. I am leaving for the next one to Hong Kong in a few days and there is a reces week in the end of September during which we are planning to go to Vietnam. I am looking forward to it :) This is not to say that there is nothing to do in Singapore – on the contrary – there is so many possibilities that it is impossible to be bored. I will describe all the Singaporean leisure activities in the next post. Until then - take care.
Joanna
My first major travel was to Kuala Lumpur. We decided to take a bus since the capital of Malaysia is only 5 hours away from Singapore, and the price for a return ticket was only 25 Euros. The double-decker bus was a great choice – big, comfortable sits with a massage options were better than the business class in an airplane.
What to see in KL? One definitely cannot miss the Petronas Twin Towers (remember to be there no later than 7 AM because the number of entrance tickets issued daily is very limited), Batu Caves (huge caves with a temple inside which is just an hour away from the city), the Bird Park (where the birds are flying freely around you. At some point the parrot sat on my arm!). The only thing I would not recommend is the elephant sanctuary – very expensive and very touristic. Overall, KL is a big city that seems to be very Western. The main things that distinguished KL from Singapore are: trash on the streets, crazy traffic rules, and the restaurants that had frogs in the aquariums waiting to be cooked.
The next trip was to Jakarta. The flight took only 80 minutes and it was enough to fly over an equator from the north part of the Earth to the south. After paying the entrance visa fee we left the airport in order to find some kind of hostel (we didn’t book any beforehand because the cheapest one we found in the Internet was 18 Euro, while the one we stayed at cost around 1.50 Euro!). The hostel did not look very tempting, but since it was suggested in Lonely Planet – we gave it a chance.
Jakarta is a crazy city – 20 million people, dirt, poverty, lots of trash on the streets, no rules, crazy traffic (I called my friend to have a dinner with him in 30 minutes but due to the traffic it took us over 3 hours to meet up!). What is more, even though Jakarta is a capital, the people are still not used to the white faces. They would not leave us alone: taking pictures, yelling after us, touching, trying to have conversations while the only English sentence they knew was “Hello Mister”. I have to admit that Jakarta was the first culture shock I have ever had.
For the last day of our travel around Java we decided to take a ferry to Thousand Islands. During the 3 hours travel we met a person who offered us a room in his house. We were so lucky! The guy was very nice (the only English speaking person in the whole island!), took us snorkeling around the islands, and invited us to the BBQ with the locals (it was amazing to listen to this people talking, singing, playing guitar). I feel like I have learned a lot during the travel. I met up with many locals, got to know their culture and different habits.
These were the main trips I had so far. I am leaving for the next one to Hong Kong in a few days and there is a reces week in the end of September during which we are planning to go to Vietnam. I am looking forward to it :) This is not to say that there is nothing to do in Singapore – on the contrary – there is so many possibilities that it is impossible to be bored. I will describe all the Singaporean leisure activities in the next post. Until then - take care.
Joanna
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