Day One - Brisbane to Singapore

Christmas morning looked a bit different this year! Ted and Michaela dropped us off at the airport in Brisbane at 7:30am- nice and early for our 10:40 flight lol. Our check in hadn’t even opened yet. I got the chance to FaceTime my family to wish them a merry Christmas before we boarded our flight. Was weird not being there on Christmas Day but we were excited for a new adventure.

The flight from Brisbane to Port Moresby was only 3 hours, we got beef and mashed potato’s for lunch. Once we landed in PM we had to line up to go through the smallest security check point. The international airport was tiny. We got on a different plane for our next leg from Port Moresby, Papa New Giunea to Singapore which was 6 hours. They served us Christmas Turkey lunch and even a little Christmas tree cupcake. We flew over all of Indonesia. It was crazy to look down and just see kms and kms of dense bush with no civilisation. We flew over alot of islands and reefs too. We circled over Singapore for over 20 minutes before we could land. There were hundreds of ships docked up surrounding Singapore.

The airport was HUGE. So flash. Immigration was very easy, all electronic. We connected to free wifi and quickly figured out the route to our hostel, 7 Wonders Upper Dickson in Little India. The train line was very simple and we trained straight to Jalen Besar station a 5 minute walk to our hostel. It was quite the culture shock getting off the train. It felt like we walked straight into India, not Singapore. Piles of suitcases lined the fence which looked like they had been stolen. There was scaffolding that was made from what looked like drift wood tied together with rope. We made it to our accommodation and checked in. We had to pay $10 each desposit for a locker key and could only pay in cash. Luckily my mom had given me some USD to use. The accomodation was interesting to say the least. The bathrooms were not very clean and there was water all over the seat and floor. Definitely somewhere that you wear jandals in!!

It was past 10 at this point. We ventured out to find some food. I was quite overwhelmed and tired and it was a lot to take in walking the streets of little India. We got some cash out and had a meal in a restaurant that the owner basically pushed for us to sit down in. I got vege fried rice $10.90

Once back in our hostel we got ready for bed. They hadn’t given me and ollie a blanket for our bed but we thought no one else had been given one either. So we slept with just our towels over us and in hoodies. Despite being hot and humid in Singapore it was surprisingly cold because we were right under the AC. The bed was very hard but we were so exhausted from a big travel day, we slept pretty well all considering.

Day Two - Singapore

We woke up and got ready for the day. The streets of Little India were a lot quieter during the day. We had our first breakfast in South East Asia - Chicken and Rice $4. Ollie got a prawn noddle soup which was a fishy choice for 9 am haha. We walked to the train and figured out how to get to downtown Singapore. We decided we weren’t going to buy SIM cards for mobile data in Singapore and just rely on free wifi. The train line was so simple to use.

We got off the train and walked to Gardens By the Bay. The city was so clean and amazing high rise buildings. We saw the marina bay sands boat building, ollie was obsessed with it. The gardens by the bay was very impressive. We paid to do the sky walk between the man made trees which had great views of the gardens and the city.

Next we decided we wanted to go up to the top of the marina bay sands building. It is appartments and a hotel with restaurants and an observation deck at the top. We didn’t really want to pay to go to the observation deck so we thought we would try sneak up first. We got on an elevator that took us straight up to the restaurant up there. The view was amazing and there was an infinity pool looking out to the sky line of Singapore. We weren’t allowed into the pool without having a key card but they allowed us into the restaurant to have some drinks.

The boys ordered a beer and and me and Laura ordered cocktails. We decided this was a way better option to pay for alcohol and get the view for free instead of paying $40 just for the observation deck. Laura and my cocktail was taking a bit to come out (only like 5-10min) but then the waiter turned up with champagne for us to drink on the house, while we waited for our cocktails. Felt too good to be true.

We stumbled into a very fancy mall connected to the train station with EVERY designer brand you could think of, Dior, Cartier, Gucci, rollex, Ballenciaga etc. We walked around and then took the train to china town to get lunch at a budget food court. Mine and Ollie’s meals together was only $11. We were all pretty exhausted so we decided to go home for an afternoon rest.

At night we went back into town. It was a completely different city at night and a lot busier!! We went back to the gardens to see the trees lit up and the Christmas lights display. I was craving western food at this point which was not a good sign considering it was day one. We had some boa buns and then decided to walk to the Singapore Flyer to go on. We got there just in time for one of the last rides. We even managed to get a capsule to our selves. They usual fit 28 people so was lucky to just have the four of us in one. It was amazing! Such an incredible 360 degree view of Singapore at night. It was a full moon too and the sky line looked crazy. The flyer is 163m tall so one of the best views in the city.

We made it back to our hostel all very ready for sleep we had walked over 16km today. We asked the reception for a blanket and they looked very shocked that we hadn’t got one the night before.

Day Three - Singapore

We got chicken rice at the same place again for breakfast although I didn’t get any and just had a few bananas we brought off the street. We made our way to Sentosa island for the day. The island is connected via a bridge. Sentosa island seemed like where all the activities were. There was an aquarium, universal studios, man made beach’s, bungy jump cable cars, indoor sky diving.

We went to the beach and had a swim. It was overcast but still hot and humid. There were a lot of fighter jets and military planes that kept flying over us really low. We think they were doing training (well we hoped). The island was cool but it started raining and rained for most of the afternoon.

We went back to the mainland and got some lunch/early dinner. I was craving vegetables as we hadn’t had any in couple days. The food court we went to had a lot of options. All different types of Asian cuisine.

We went back to our hostel and had a nap and got packed up ready to leave in the morning. The hostel life is definitely something to get used to. Sharing random peoples space. A guy last night just started arguing with someone very loudly in our room at Midnight. Waking a lot of us up. We went back out to the streets of little India to get some dinner and snacks for our bus ride to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow. We got hot chips for dinner we were all craving a burger and fries.

Day Four - Singapore to Kuala Lumpur

We woke up and got ready to leave our hostel, very much looking forward to a clean bathroom and our own room at our next place in Malaysia. We got a wrap from 7/11 for breakfast $3.50 and then walked to the bus stop. We had to go through immigration once arriving in Malaysia and get on a new bus. It was surprisingly easy, just stamped our passports and let us through. No visa or proof of onward travel needed.

We made it to Malaysia and our first stop was SIM cards so we could figure out how to get to our accommodation. While we were in the SIM card store there was a tv screen which was scanning everyone in the shops temperature and would send an alarm off if the temperature got past normal. Dions was 37.5C and it started beeping and security made him stand out of the line and then Laura’s started beeping too and she had to join him.

We made it to our accommodation which is very flash. Quite the upgrade from our hostel in little India. $35 AUD each a night too. We ventured out to get some dinner and saw the pertronas twin towers lit up. Dinner was cheap at the food court in the mall. $4.50 AUD for a noddle dish and $5 AUD for a pork chop with chips salad garlic bread and mushroom sauce.

We had a chill morning today and made breakfast at our apartment. We all did a wee workout at our appartments gym, which was very flash and then went for a swim. Our appartment has two pools one is on the roof with views of the pertronas towers.

We did some shopping at the mall today and had cheap lunch and dinners. It’s about $3-6 AUD per meal. We walked around the city and to the KLCC park. It was quite humid and hot but the weather hasn’t been too big of a shock for us, coming from Mackay. It’s been nice to have more of a relaxing day today.

Day Six - Kuala Lumpur

Today we went on an adventure to find Ollie and Dion’s Great Grandads gravestone. George at written us a map to find it. Their great grandad Dr John Reed he lived in Malaysia and was then buried here. He had an interesting life as he was captured by the Japanese in World War Two. He survived the war and prison camp luckily as he was a doctor and was useful to the Japanese.

We took a 30 min Grab (Uber) to the Cheras Cemetery. We followed George’s map and found the gravestone. Some Malaysian men who didn’t speak any English chased us down on their scooters once they saw us enter the cemetery. They cleaned the grave up for us and then expected us to pay them. We gave them 30 MYR and they tried to hustle us for more saying they would wash the stone down but we told them no. They weren’t very happy. We lay some flowers down on the grave.

Afterwards we looked at the commonwealth war gravestones of men who died a year after the war when the Chinese invaded. Most of them were only aged in their early twenties.

In the afternoon we took another Grab to the Batu Caves. This was very cool. I had to cover up my shoulders in a Tshirt as it was a temple and shoulders and knees had to be covered. The caves were impressive and there were monkeys climbing and running around the stairs. Was so different to see wild monkeys everywhere.

Day Seven Kuala Lumpur

New years Eve!! This morning we hung out by the pool. The pool was surprisingly refreshing as it must not get a lot of direct sun to heat it up. We took Lime scooters to the KL tower which looks exactly like the Auckland sky tower. We didn’t go up it though. Lime scootering around the city was very scary as the roads and footpaths are quite busy.

We scootered to a bar and had a couple drinks and then scootered to the bottom of the merdeka tower. It is still being built and is the second tallest tower in the world. We stopped at another bar afterwards and had some cocktails and dinner.

Laura and I didn’t pack any foundation so we went to Sephora and stole some free foundation testers for the night. We got ready and had some drinks back at our hotel. We tried to find a club but were quite unsuccessful. One club the boys couldn’t go In because they were wearing shorts and another one was fully booked. We then went to go to the park to watch the fireworks only to find out they had been canceled we think due to the unrest in Israel.

We went down to the bottom of the twin towers and there was SO MANY people. They had blow horns and it was very loud. At the countdown to midnight the twin Towers Lights changed colour and started flashing. It was a very different new years but good to experience.

We went home afterwards and stopped at a food cart right beside our hotel and ordered 7 burgers for $16. Was very cheap. We then went up to out roof top pool and went for a swim.

Day Eight Kuala Lumpur

First day of the year!! Today was a quiet day. We slept in and then went to our local food spot in the mall. We walked around the other fancy mall for an hour and then came home and sorted out our plans for our next destination. We decided to book flights and accommodation to go to Langkawi island off of Malaysia. Our flights were $53 AUD each and accomodation was $13 AUD each a night.

Day Nine Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi Malaysia

Travel day. We packed up to be out of our accomodation by 11am. It was a little sad to leave as this will probably be our nicest accommodation of the trip. We went to our local food place for the last time and then took a grab to the National Museum of Malaysia. We walked around here for a couple hours to kill time before our flight. It was interesting to see some of the history of Malaysia. A lot of the Malaysian population is Muslim and made up of Chinese, Indian and Malays. Malaysia used to be a colony of Britain until 1957 when they gained their independence. The Japanese also tried to take over Malaysia prior to this, in World War Two but retreated after the dropping of the atomic bombs.

We made our way to the airport and boarded our flight to Langkawi. The flight was only 50 minutes. As soon as we landed we noticed the temperature was a lot warmer. We checked into our next accommodation. It was definitely a big downgrade from our place in Kuala Lumpur. It was very run down and smelt weird but it was 50 metres from the beach. We got dinner right out front of our place on the beach. I got Tom yum soup. Looking out on to the ocean it was all lit up with green lights. Apparently these are on boats to try catch squid. It looked so strange and lit up the whole sky.

Day Ten - Langkawi.

We woke and started the day walking along the beach. As we arrived the night before and it was already dark it felt completely different walking on the beach this morning. The beach was very nice white sand and clear water.

We walked through the town looking for a place for breakfast and noticed how not a lot was open this early even though it was already 10am. Things open late and shut late around here. The Main Street looked quite fun down and had alot of rubbish lying around. There was alot of cheap shops with fake designer brands. We decided to rent scooters for the next few days and managed to get them for $10 AUD a day.

We went on a scooter adventure to the other side of the island. The scooters were pretty fun and a good way to get around. I didn’t drive though just sat on the back of Ollie’s scooter. Petrol is so cheap here! It was $0.64 AUD a litre. When we filled up our petrol tank we put too much in and it all started leaking out the bottom.

We watched a beautiful sunset back on the main beach. There was some entertainment along the beach with some young boys doing a fire show and people dressed up as transformers and King Kong dancing.

Day 11 - Langkawi

This morning we walked down to the otherside of the beach to get some breakfast. Breakfast foods don’t really seem to exist so I got a spicy chicken wrap. We lay on the beach and it was very HOT. We went swimming in the jellyfish net as apparently there may be jellyfish around.

We decided to go for a drive on the scooters to the other side of the island. We stopped at a food stall on the side of the road and got some fried rice. It was so spicy I couldn’t even eat it. The lunch spot was right on the water. We decided we wanted to go up the gondola to see the lookout at the top of the island. It was supposed to be 40 MYR but when we got there it pay it was actually 85 MYR for international toursits over double the local price. We were quite shocked but decided to go up anyway. The gondola was very steep and we found out after that it was actually the steepest in the world. The view at the top was great and we could see some of the southern Thai islands on the other side of the island.

Once at the bottom of the gondola we went to a beach to walk along but then we saw some jellyfish had been washed up on the beach so we didn’t go swimming.

We drove around the township looking at different accommodation to move to for the next few days. The place we are staying at was dirty and the beds were very springy. The toilet was also dirty and smelt disgusting but the smell was coming up from the drain. So we wanted to see if we could find something better. We found a place right in town that was $12 AUD each a night and looked a lot cleaner and didn’t smell so that was great. We found out that alcohol here doesn’t have a tax on it and a 1L bottle of Smirnoff vodka was $10AUD. We had fish and chips for dinner right on the beach front and watched the sun set again.