November 2018

Singapore and Malaysia

2 weeks trip to Singapore and probably Malaysia... Read more

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November 12, 2018
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Day 1
Monday, November 12, 2018 at 8:56 PM
⛅ 26 °C
Altitude: 26 m
Singapore Singapore River 1.28667, 103.851671°17’12” N 103°51’6” E
Arrived in Singapore
November 12, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Made it to Singapore after a 12 hour flight from Heathrow. I actually managed to sleep on the plane for about four hours and binge watched Netflix, not things I do very often.

Went for a quick stroll around the area when I arrived and had some food. I kinda like it here, just need to plan tomorrow before bed...Read more
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Day 2
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 10:46 AM
⛅ 26 °C
Altitude: 18 m
Singapore Victoria Clock Tower 1.28753, 103.851391°17’15” N 103°51’5” E
Asian Civilisations Museum
November 13, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Visited this museum and thought it was really interesting. It had loads of Chinese ceramics that were found in a shipwreck, then talked about how trade impacted on the goods that we being produced. It also has stuff on the impact of religions arriving in regions and being integrated, also locals creating things for that religion even though they don't believe in it. It was really interesting to see and read about.

Highlights though, for the wrong reasons... awful drawing of a bird on the Chinese ceramic bowl middle left (middle right is how it's done), upside down skull cup on top of three smaller skulls, and Groot.Read more
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Day 2
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 2:06 PM
🌧 29 °C
Altitude: 9 m
Singapore Merlion 1.28695, 103.854711°17’13” N 103°51’17” E
Merlion
November 13, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C
So apparently the Merlion, a symbol of Singapore, was made up by someone on the tourist board. They made it into a fountain and it is ranked in Japan as one of the top three 'major disappointments of the world'.

A Singapore must-see!

Had a decent view over the water to the Marina Bay Sands crazy hotel at least.Read more
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Day 2
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 3:59 PM
🌧 29 °C
Altitude: 14 m
Singapore Outer Roads 1.28386, 103.866011°17’2” N 103°51’58” E
Gardens by the bay - cloud forest
November 13, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C
Visited the gardens by the bay and I really enjoyed it. I think it just beats the living rainforest in Swindon...

I could probably upload a hundred pictures of the place, but I've broken it down into areas. The first was the cloud forest. So many flowers, including man eating ones. Came away thinking I need more orchids...Read more
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Day 2
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 5:27 PM
🌧 29 °C
Altitude: 15 m
Singapore Outer Roads 1.28454, 103.864621°17’4” N 103°51’53” E
Gardens by the bay - Flower Dome
November 13, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C
Next was the flower dome. Thinking back on it, probably lacking in flowers to call itself that.

Had some cool stuff though, including a flower pun with Aloes in Wonderland, Disney Tsum Tsum themed Christmas area, and rock plants, some of those rocks are plants!Read more
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Day 2
Tuesday, November 13, 2018 at 7:46 PM
⛅ 28 °C
Altitude: 17 m
Singapore Marina South City Park 1.28129, 103.863881°16’53” N 103°51’50” E
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Gardens by the Bay - Supertree Grove
November 13, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Last thing for the day was the supertree grove and the light show. It was cool being up high, as always. The view of the city as the sun was going down was really pretty too.

The light show was really good, pictures don't do it justice, partly because there's no 80's music.

... The was also a floating baby thing...Read more
Wanda Johns Looks amazing
11/14/18Reply
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Day 3
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 11:16 AM
⛅ 28 °C
Altitude: 24 m
Singapore Chinatown 1.28333, 103.843331°16’60” N 103°50’36” E
Chinatown
November 14, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
So today was less busy and had less main sights and more wandering and exploring.

Visited Chinatown, it was a bit early it seems, only 11am. I think most of them were still sleeping.

Did get to visit a pretty cool Buddhist temple, the Buddha tooth relic temple no less. His tooth must have been in there somewhere. It was big and looked cool.
Seems that for a small donation of £50 I could also get someone to do all the praying to my guardian deity for me too. Wonder how much it costs for full enlightenment...Read more
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Day 3
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 12:47 PM
⛅ 29 °C
Altitude: 12 m
Singapore Lavender 1.31333, 103.856671°18’48” N 103°51’24” E
Little India and Hindu Temples
November 14, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
While in Chinatown (weirdly) and also in Little India I got to visit some Hindu temples. Don't think I've visited one before. The towers are kinda cool, there's a lot going on, but the inside (if you can call it that) was a bit... meh. Based on that, it's not the religion for me I'm afraid. I'm out.Read more
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Day 3
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 at 3:32 PM
⛅ 30 °C
Altitude: 22 m
Singapore Mount Elizabeth 1.30493, 103.83191°18’18” N 103°49’55” E
2 2
Shopping!
November 14, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Everyone knows how much I love shopping. Singapore had a crazy amount of malls, so I had to visit some. Went to ION orchard on orchard road, almost bought some clothes too.

I did eat here at least, walked past a place that had katsu curry on the menu. Had to go in, it was called monster curry. The plate was huge, way bigger than my head... possibly bigger than my stomach, so I'm not sure how it was supposed to fit. I didn't finish it anyway.

There was also some Disney stuff around on orchard road, and I bumped into a Salvador Dali sculpture, homage to Newton.Read more
Alex Murphy Sausages with Katsu curry??? What’s that about?
11/14/18Reply
Alex Murphy I hope you took a photo in the carriage!
11/14/18Reply
Traveler I'm not sure, I could have gone for the normal one, but she offered the monster curry one... I gave in.
11/16/18Reply
Traveler I might not have, there were kids on it before the picture and kids about to get on. That's why I didn't, obviously I would have otherwise...
11/16/18Reply
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Day 4
Thursday, November 15, 2018 at 1:00 PM
⛅ 24 °C
Altitude: 32 m
Singapore Fort Canning Park 1.29519, 103.84791°17’43” N 103°50’52” E
Pokémon in the rain
November 15, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
Today I was planning on waking around and seeing a few different things along with playing some Pokémon Go. Unfortunately it was raining and pretty heavy at times. So I only played so much, but managed to catch some legendary Pokémon, won't mean much to most people but people in Singapore are still cool enough to still play!

Went to Fort Canning park, there were so many poké stops, unfortunately the top seemed to be closed. So I kept walking, saw a cockerel, more Disney things and almost bought a chicken katsu sandwich... until I realised what it came with... what's wrong with people.

Off to Malaysia this evening.Read more
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Day 4
Thursday, November 15, 2018 at 11:43 PM
🌧 24 °C
Altitude: 13 m
Malaysia George Town 5.41985, 100.330645°25’11” N 100°19’50” E
To Penang
November 15, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 24 °C
Left Singapore and traveled to Penang. It was tipping down with rain when I got here.

My room though, considering the box with no windows that I had in Singapore, this place is huge with numerous window choices. Also comes with a balcony.Read more
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Day 5
Friday, November 16, 2018 at 12:41 PM
⛅ 30 °C
Altitude: 7 m
Malaysia George Town 5.42167, 100.3355°25’18” N 100°20’6” E
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Blue Mansion
November 16, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Started the day in George town visiting the blue mansion. It was an impressive building and was interesting to see the combination of Chinese and Western styles.

The guide was really interesting though, she was one of the owners and not only talked about the house but also the politics of getting UNESCO listed, the eduction system in Malaysia being biased against not Malaysians, it was very interesting.

I would really like to live somewhere where I could have a big open house with courtyards. I also feel if Alex got to choose a colour for a house, she might choose blue.Read more
Alex Murphy Haha I think you are right! I’ll paint our house while you are away ;)
11/16/18Reply
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Day 5
Friday, November 16, 2018 at 3:03 PM
⛅ 30 °C
Altitude: Sea level
Malaysia George Town 5.41173, 100.340595°24’42” N 100°20’26” E
George Town walking
November 16, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Visited another mansion, this dude was also Mafia though. He had mirror's on both sides of the room so he could see anyone coming around the corner. Also had an interesting double bed so he could sleep next to his wife... but not too close obv.

Visited some old Chinese clan jetties, houses on stilts in the water. Also saw some Street art.Read more
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Day 5
Friday, November 16, 2018 at 3:22 PM
🌧 30 °C
Altitude: 5 m
Malaysia George Town 5.41468, 100.337185°24’53” N 100°20’14” E
Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi
November 16, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
Obvious from the name, but I'll explain anyway, this was a Chinese clan temple. Something about clans competing and outdoing each other, this is the best one.

Those Buddhists know how to make temples. It looked awesome inside and outside.Read more
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Day 6
Saturday, November 17, 2018 at 3:06 PM
🌧 28 °C
Altitude: 695 m
Malaysia Penang Hill 5.42333, 100.275°25’24” N 100°16’12” E
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Jetty, hill, and karaoke
November 17, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ 🌧 28 °C
Today was a fun day, it started slowly with some more waking around town seeing more street art and visiting some different jetties. It was very hot and the sun was out which is good weather for me.

I then headed up Penang hill and bumped into the awesome Nguyen and Rob. We walked around the top for a bit, not what I expected at all, couldn't really get to the top and there were so many tourist traps up there. Eventually found a canopy walk through the jungle which was cool.

Then meet up with the guys again in a bar for mocktails and karaoke... I'm not sure I've done karaoke before, and I'm sure we let the rest of the bar down, but we sang. Kelly Clarkson would have been proud of our efforts.Read more
Stunning. Quite a climb too
11/19/18Reply
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Day 8
Monday, November 19, 2018 at 6:44 PM
⛅ 28 °C
Altitude: 20 m
Malaysia Pasir Elok 5.47251, 100.246125°28’21” N 100°14’46” E
Relaxing
November 19, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
So for the last two days I've been relaxing in a fancy hotel with a swimming pool.

Nothing to report, except that I feel a bit more relaxed now.
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Day 9
Tuesday, November 20, 2018 at 2:46 PM
⛅ 25 °C
Altitude: 14 m
Malaysia Kampung Dua 2.19198, 102.246662°11’31” N 102°14’48” E
Malacca
November 20, 2018 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C
There seems to be at least two ways of spelling this place, but I'm here anyway.

Took a flight down from Penang this morning and explored the place today. There's not loads here, but whereas Penang had British colonial buildings, Melaka has red Dutch colonial buildings.

They also seem to have gone all out on tourism, lots of tourist trap places and a museum for everything! I could choose from history and ethnography, submarine museum, toy museum, democratic government museum, royal Malaysian customs department museum, prison museum, train station museum, chitty museum (hopefully not a misspelling), and of course the house of museums. You get the picture. Anyway, I went for the museum that looked like a boat!Read more
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Day 10
Wednesday, November 21, 2018 at 7:24 PM
⛅ 23 °C
Altitude: 36 m
Singapore Mount Sophia 1.30074, 103.84051°18’3” N 103°50’26” E
Back to Singapore
November 21, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C
Took a four and a half hour bus journey to Singapore today. It wasn't too bad, it was comfortable and was far from full. The decor inside was best described as... green.

Have an awesome room, with a window this time. It's a loft room which has the bed upstairs with everything else downstairs. I like it.

Did some Christmas shopping, got to see the Christmas lights in the dark, had a Nandos, then played more Pokémon Go. Ended the day near the pool, watching the lightning.Read more
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Day 11
Thursday, November 22, 2018 at 4:12 PM
🌧 29 °C
Altitude: 49 m
Singapore River Safari 1.405, 103.7951°24’18” N 103°47’42” E
Singapore Zoo
November 22, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C
Today is my last full day (I fly home tomorrow at 23:55). I spent it at Singapore zoo and then the night Safari.

It's a pretty good zoo, I mean there are zoos in the UK, but I mainly wanted to be here for the night Safari anyway. The white Tigers were good and they had like a million baboons.Read more
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Day 11
Thursday, November 22, 2018 at 7:44 PM
🌧 27 °C
Altitude: 36 m
Singapore Singapore Zoological Gardens 1.4, 103.791°24’0” N 103°47’24” E
Night Safari
November 22, 2018 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 27 °C
So the night Safari is great in allowing people to see the nocturnal animals actually awake rather than seeing them sleeping in a normal zoo. It's also great for blurry pictures of animals and it's probably a mosquitos dream.

It was really good, the trails were quiet too, I was waking around on my own for a lot of it. It was cool seeing the animals awake and playing.

I've attached my blurry pictures... the blurry sloth bear really wanted to eat me.Read more
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Trip end
November 24, 2018