Orchids and temples galore, from Malaysia to Singapore!

Well I am very pleased to announce that this blog opens with a smooth, drama free border crossing! Yes we had to change buses twice (once more than expected) but it was a smooth journey. We were picked up from our hotel in Krabi and we met a guy on a bus who was staying at the same guesthouse as us in Penang so he negotiated a drop off at the guesthouse, so nothing to report here!

Our first stop in Malaysia was Penang, a UNESCO site, and we arrived on the first day of the hungry ghost festival, so as we were driving through the streets of Penang we saw people burning piles of paper money and leaving gifts of incense and piles of food on the side of the road. The Hungry Ghost festival occurs during the seventh lunar month and it is said that during this month the gates of hell are opened and ghosts will come out until the gates are closed on the 30th day of the month, so for the safety of ghosts and the living there is a Chinese tradition of worshipping the dead. So it is believed that offering ghosts sacrifices of burning paper money and food (to feed them as they are hungry) will stop the ghosts from causing mischief amongst the living. It was an interesting way to be welcomed into Malaysia!

Penang has a huge Chinese influence and as such has a huge abundance of Chinese temples which was fascinating for us to see as it was so different to anything that we have seen so far on this trip. Penang also has some very British style buildings from colonial times as well as very different quarters such as an Indian quarter – the smells and temples here took us right back to Southern India and I even found myself craving chai! We walked miles round the city exploring all of the different quarters, temples and hawker centres for dinner!

There are some interesting and unusual museums here, including the ‘cool ghost museum’ which we thought would be interesting to visit in light of the Hungry Ghost festival. This museum had displays of various ghosts and the stories behind them and why the tales were told – for example the water nymph story was told to stop children playing in dangerous waters. There was also the opportunity to dress up as some of the ghosts and take photos. There was also the cat art museum which was our favourite, there were thousands of examples of cat art, cat statues and paraphernalia all to be enjoyed whilst listening to various cat songs (such as Smelly Cat from Friends).

We had a day trip to Ken Lok Si temple, this was a beautiful, huge temple that looms down from a hill, it’s the largest Buddhist temple in Malaysia and has a huge statue of the Goddess of Mercy, as well as a 7 floor pagoda that you can climb with a Buddha on each floor, these Buddhas differ as they are in Burmese, Chinese, and Thai styles! There’s a lovely tortoise pond here as well which we almost missed but was great to watch those guys climbing in and out and climbing over one another. We tried to get the funicular up Penang hill but the queue was over an hour so we quickly abandoned that idea!

To leave Penang we took the free ferry to Butterworth (back on the mainland) and just bought a ticket for the next bus to Kuala Lumpur. The buses in Malaysia were really nice and easy to just buy a ticket for on the day. The accommodation in KL was looking to be pretty expensive until we read a tip about booking serviced apartments so that’s what we did! We were able to book a really nice apartment with a small kitchen, washing machine and a balcony with a lovely city view including the Petronas towers. The building also had a pool, gym and a couple of small grocery stores so we were happy! You can’t beat a bit of home comfort, especially just after staying somewhere with a shared bathroom! We walked around the city, visiting Independence Square, Chinatown and a very large mosque. The following day we visited the botanic gardens and I was a little disappointed to discover that the orchid gardens were temporarily closed. Ever since I’d worked for the RHS I’d wanted to visit botanic gardens in Malaysia and Singapore and see the orchids.

The main problem with both Penang and KL was that neither were particularly pedestrian friendly. Penang didn’t really have pavements and crossing the road was basically a dash across the traffic, KL did have pavements and pedestrian crossings but most of the time we thought they were broken as they would take MINUTES to change to green, so half the time we would take our lives in our hands and just run across. I eventually got the hang of commanding the traffic to stop by holding my hand up and it seemed to work!

We left KL early to catch a bus to Malacca, another UNESCO world heritage town similar to Penang. This one had a Dutch quarter which I really liked, it was full of buildings all painted red. We also stayed in a guesthouse within a Chinese temple which was different. Again the town was full of Chinese temples which we are really enjoying seeing. I actually preferred Malacca to Penang as I found Penang to be a little grotty.

From Malacca we caught a bus down to Johor Bahru, a town which borders Singapore. The purpose of this was to just stay overnight to give us an early start to get to Singapore the next door. Again this border crossing was straightforward – you book a train in advance to Woodlands, get there 30 minutes in advance and then go through Malaysian immigration, wait for the train, board the train, get off 5 minutes later and then go through Singapore immigration! All very straightforward. Getting into Singapore city itself involved a bus and then a metro. By sheer coincidence our hostel was in the district of Maxwell so we had great fun getting off at Maxwell tube station and snapping pictures of the Maxwell’s at Maxwell.

We’d booked dorms as Singapore accommodation was frighteningly expensive, we booked 6 days ahead and budget options were limited! It was a toss up between dorms or a capsule hotel bed and we opted for the dorm option and I almost cried when I realised it was two thirds of our daily budget! Definitely our most expensive accommodation so far. It was an ok experience, there was free drinking water and coffee so we were happy enough! Again there seemed to be a bit of a lack of fresh air and my sensitive nose can’t cope with all these smelly men I seem to end up sharing with. I was pleased though to finally have a dorm room where I wasn’t the only girl!

We only had two days in Singapore so we needed to hit the sights hard. We started off with another visit to a Chinese temple, this one holding a relic of Buddha’s tooth. The tooth relic is held on the fourth floor and not many people actually make it up there so we almost had that floor to ourselves! There was also a cute little roof garden. We then went to another Hindu temple and similar to Penang it was very South Indian in style. We walked to the river and to the Merlion statue from which you can view the famous Marina Sands Bay hotel. There are lots of sculptures along the river as well such as these boys jumping in and these little cats.

It wouldn’t have been a trip to Singapore with having a Singapore Sling, we couldn’t afford Raffles but we managed to find somewhere with a happy hour. This was just up the road from our hostel and Joey now has a video of me with me saying my made up tongue twister of ‘Maxwell sipping a Singapore Sling in Maxwell Singapore’ for anyone who wants a giggle! That evening we visited the Bay of Gardens for their Supertree light show.

The following day we were back at the Bay of Gardens for a walk around and we visited the flower dome, which also happened to have an Orchid extravaganza on so I finally managed to see orchids in Singapore! We then headed to the botanic gardens and to their orchid gardens! It was definitely worth the visit and I’m so happy to have finally seen these famous places.

From Singapore we were flying to Borneo and of course there’s a border crossing story to follow!