Back in KL

Our last stop is KL and it seems strange to come back here after our giant adventure. We seem to have acclimatized somewhat, as it's about the same temperature here as it was when we first arrived back in May, but we are able to deal with it so much better this time around. Even so, we decided to get a place with AC, as we've learned that much at least.
It was kind of sad that we only had a few days left to this great adventure. We made the most of it however & had a great last few days in this crazy city.

Just hanging out on a Sunday

We rode this roller coaster in the biggest Mall in Malasia

The July rains

Directions on how to use the hose

Cameron Highlands

From Penang we had planned to take a bus to the cooler climbs of The Cameron Highlands.

Penang-Georgetown

From Langkawi we took the ferry to Georgetown, the capital island state on the west coast of Malaysia where we would stay for several days. The ferry broke down after a couple of hours & we hung around on the ocean waiting for another boat to switch over to. I had visions of our luggage getting lost during this, but amazingly we found it at the other end when we reached the shore.

We'd booked a hotel recommended in The Lonely Planet named The Broadway Budget Hotel. Nothing good can really be said about this hotel except that it was in a good location in Little India. We had to move after the first night owing to a damp mattress & construction work going on outside our window. We moved to a lovely little colonial style hotel called The Hutton Lodge & it turned out to be one of the best hotels we'd stayed in during the whole trip.

We tramped our way through the city during the first couple of days until we got the main sites under our belt.
Georgetown retains much of its colonial remnants from decades past. It’s strategic location on the coast and previous reputation as a free port drew many immigrant populations, several of which–namely Chinese and Indians — remain a key part of Penangite (and Malaysian) culture today. Once again therefore, we were pleased to find a large Indian population & hence a large amount of great Indian food!

These kids were doing some good work on a sunday

Waiting for the bags off our ferry which had broken down in the middle of the ocean. We had to hop onto another ferry & collect our bags from the first ferry on shore at Georgetown

The obligatory hose

Dave really needed a haircut. but hadn't counted on the guy giving him a full head massage & ear cracking after wards

Breakfast

An incredible downpour occurred

I haven't yet explained the hose-present in most bathrooms in Malaysia

A scathing review is in order for this extremely rank hotel room at the Broadway Budget Hotel

Langkawi

After Singapore we decided to fly to Langkawi which is part of a cluster of islands in the Andaman sea. We'd heard & read that it is the most amazing beach resort in Malaysia. As we're not into beaches really we were going to skip it, only we were a bit intrigued so decided at the last minute to see this tropical paradise. 
After landing at Langkawi airport we took a 10 minute taxi ride (no buses or trains were evident) to Pantai Cenang. This is the island’s most developed stretch and we'd booked a hotel just across the road from the beach.
It turned out to be a kind of chalet with a porch we attracted some sweet mangey cats for some reason.

The water was warm but still refreshing

We sat under those white umbrellas

This is Dave underwater

Singapore!

So we were soon off to Singapore via another Asian Airlines plane. By this time we'd realized we'd spent vast amounts of $$ on the trip so far & so opted for a traditional Backpacking Hostel for a few days. We researched & found one with pretty good reviews called "PillowTalk". It turned out to be good enough & we ended up staying there the whole time we were in Singapore. I was bothered the 1st night by a snorer but from then on all was fine, apart from the rather rank bathroom.

Our good friend Lam

MRT

A local football match we went to see

Amazing buildings in Singapore but to be honest I expected more of them!

We learned that any place that had KTV in it's sign was basically a place where you can pick up prostitutes

The MRT card dispensers were too few & not efficient

The fish markets in Singapore were pretty disgusting

The guy selling these would not let me photograph him skinning them & chopping them to pieces

These girls were terrible dancers as were all the participants we saw during this dance competition held in a Mall

 

A mass of Hindu temples in Singapore. We spent a lot of time in Little India here.

Entrance to the main shopping district

This was our lovely hostel. The man you see inside is actually from Swaziland!

The public swimming pool nearby was fantastic