Kuala Lumpur and Melaka adventures

It took around 3-4 hours to get to Kuala Lumpur from Cameron Highlands. The serpentine road made me feel uncomfortable and nauseous but luckily i survived without puking 👍 The less pleasurable trip was not too pricey, 35 ringgits/person if I remember correctly.

The driver dropped us at KL Sentral where we took LRT (or was it MRT..) to Masjid Jamek station. We stayed in Cosmo Hotel which was a gem. It looked like an upscale hotel but our first three nights where 20€/night and the two after that 30€/night. We didn't have a window or breakfast but that wasn't a problem at all*. The location was a huge bonus! At Masjid Jamek there is a lot of big fast food restaurants like KFC, McDonald's and Burger King which is nice especially when some of them are open 24h. But also closeby is for instance a historical beef ball place where people visiting KL should definitely go and eat. Place is called Soong Kee's Beef Ball Noodles and we went to eat there on our first day in KL. The place has a long history, it's been open since 1945. They have other branches also nowadays but this is the original one. And the prices are great! My soup of balls was 7 ringgits so little over 1€ and the soothing broth was so nice, warm and tasty. Thumbs up!

Beef balls

The next day it was time to see the Petronas Towers. I was surprised how much I wanted to see them. I guess because It's such a landmark and I never thought I'd see them or could be able to travel this far, but there I was! And I was excited because I knew beforehand where to take nice pictures in a less crowded area.. ;) Thanks for the tip Psychotraveller! (the photo below was taken later that night at the same spot)

Hello KL! 

After the photoshoot we entered the mall inside and ended up to Wendy's for a quick bite to eat. Then we measured with our eyes that the KL tower could be a walking distance away so there we went. Or well..actually we went inside the tower after a nice hike to the top of the hill but then after looking at the prices and the weather and comparing the pros and cons and our daily budget we decided to pass. Later that evening we went to Jalan Alor which is a famous street with street food stalls and restaurants. Matias had done his homework again and knew exactly what he wanted to eat. It was a bowl of glorious Bak Kut Teh. I say glorious because it was shiny and reflected light because it was so fatty 😂 Bak Kut Teh is meaty pork rib tea soup and this version had lots of the nasty (awesome) white stuff. I am not such a big fan of lard so I had Mee Goreng instead.
After the meal Matias had some space in his stomach still so it was time for us to taste the durian fruit for the first time (I've spend over a year of my life in SE Asia and I feel that I should have done this ages ago, but oh well.. - Matias) . There were many durian stalls in Jalan Alor and we chose a place with some locals eating there. The guy selling there was first trying to sell the whole fruit to us! Luckily when we said that's it's our first time, he went to get a smaller portion from the fridge.
He still stated that this durian that he is selling is 'the best'.
"Wow.." we thought.. I mean how lucky are we that from 200 different durian fruit variations we found 'the best one' immediately.. 😂🙈💩 Anyway.. Matias took a deep breath and gave it a go. It looked nasty! :) He described the durian to taste like rotten bananas, garlic and some old cheese. I have to say I wasn't excited to try the fruit, not after that analysis.. I was going to pass the taste test, but I figured I might as well to have a try. I took a tiny hint of it and can now cross it from my check list.

Fatty deliciousness (in editor's opinion ;D)  of Bak Kut Teh

Movember man with some durian

The next day we had a slow start and just walked around. We did go to wait for the train to Batu Caves, but it was quite late already and the train wasn't going so often so we figured we'd go the day after instead.
Well.. The next day we ended up at the same location but unfortunately my stomach was hurting and I had a feeling I wasn't ready for the stairs, monkeys and a potential runny tummy in the public.. So I decided to head back to the hotel for some rest and Matias continued to the caves.
The place was great I heard and you could climb the 272 stairs and see the huge statue (world's tallest Murugan statue) and the big Cathedral Cave for free. The Dark Cave tour cost a bit but Matias didn't go take it. But all in all, the place is definitely worth a visit if you're in KL.
Later that day I was feeling a bit better so we went to get some soothing beef ball noodles again and to get Matias a cheap haircut.
This one indian salon was just a block away from Cosmo and the haircut cost 12 ringgits (about 2€). Not bad! It even included little head massage and popping neck and ears.

Batu Caves entrance

Precision job

Horror House and the Monsoon 360 

Hmm the headline could be referring to Pondok and geckos or bad weather but not this time :)
Matias wanted to go to a water park last time when we were in Thailand two years ago but we missed it that time. He'd mentioned that it would be nice to visit one this time and there happended to be one in KL with some good reviews. So we took the LRT to KL central and worked our way to the taxi counter. We paid the taxi there and then we went outside the building to wait for the taxi to arrive. The trip cost 29 ringgits which was reasonable considering the distance to Sunway Lagoon.
First, two hints for you if you plan to go there.. Check their website for discounts. For example right now until the end of the year you can get tickets for one third of the normal cost on Tuesdays when booked online. Also before going to the park, buy the ticket online and PRINT it, you'll save 20 ringgits (4€). The ticket cost something like 70€ for two of us which felt crazy because for example the flight from Langkawi to Penang was cheaper!
The park consists of amusement park, zoo (with tiger, lions and so much more), extreme park and water park. So you get a lot with that one ticket.
The amusement park was maybe a hint more directed at the kids, but we did enjoy the rollercoaster and the river adventure. You should btw always believe the signs there.. If you think that "You will get wet on this ride" might mean just a few springles of aqua, well... 😅

You will get wet on this ride 

We also noticed a Ghostbusters building at the amusement park and lots of people were lining up there. I wanted to see what it was because I've seen the movies and they are fun and wicked (except John Malkovich.. He gives me the jitters). So yeah, I was expecting something funny in this house. It didn't even ring a bell that there was a sign that said 'horror house' in that building..  (hmm reading signs might not be my strongest side). We entered in and the staff member there said "do not touch or hit the ghosts. They are there just to scare you but won't touch you". "Wait, what?"😱 Omg where am I putting myself in to!? I mean I have played with the thought that it would be cool to visit this kind of a place were the wookiemans (and wookieladys) are real people but I could never ever actually go in one of those places! 😱 Wooopsie-effin-huupsie me 😂 I could not back down anymore so I just clinged on to Matias with my arms and legs and closed my eyes 😂
It took maybe 20 minutes and we walked in different spooky rooms and narrow alleys and got spooked. Many times. I also notice that I have a high pitch in my screams.. 😅 After making out alive from the horrorhouse we headed to the water park. The park was huge with  lots of fun and also very scary slides! Especially the Monsoon 360 was horrible in a cool way! It's a very kamikaze kinda slide. You step on to this ladder or plastic floor if you will and then you hear "three, two, one" and the floor under you just disappears and you go down! Fast. Very fast. 😂 Haha it was scary but also the feeling and adrenaline after you made it out alive was amazing!
But a Muslim country combined with water park aka less clothes.. it got interesting. There were a lot of people wearing swimsuits that cover their whole body... and not too many fellow caucasian people wearing less so you can just imagine that I felt kind of naked in my bikini.. I had a scarf with me so when walking longer distances I could cover up, but not everywhere.. There were signs that had pictures of outfits that are considered ok and luckily this was a sign I kinda understood. Bikini is ok at Sunway lagoon but maybe next time I would consider wearing something more covering like a sporty t-shirt.

The rides worth mentioning:

Monsoon 360 - you wear a sliding thingy on your back and go to a tube standing on a trap door almost a vertical drop under your feet. Then there's a countdown and off you drop. Adrenaline rising one!

Jungle Fury - riding down a slide with a big water tube. It accelerates greatly towards the end and does 180 turn. A fast ride but also a nice one.

Vuvuzela - Malaysia's largest water slide with a giant funnel. It was actually a quite violent ride so don't go if you have any back problems or similar conditions.

Monsoon 360. © 2017 Sunway Lagoon Malaysia

Melaka/Malacca

After KL we were heading towards Singapore by bus and we figured that the 6 hours journey was not for us. I had seen this place Melaka (also spelled Malacca) in Psychotravellers videos maybe a year before and the name kinda stuck in my head. The city is a UNESCO world heritage site and its 2 hours south from KL and the trip only costs 20 ringgits for two people (4€). Not too shabby. But after arriving to the bus station it occured to us that the taxi scene was crazy there! 5km trip cost 20 ringgits even though they were fixed prices and we felt that 10 would have been a sufficient price. The taxi people just laughed at us and said that they need to cover their way back to the station also.. "what!?!" :D We were accompanied by a Belgian guy and it dawned on us that Grab would be the way to go. But for us to use Grab (Ubers Asian cousin), it would be handy to have a local number and an access to the internet. We didn't have it at that time so 20 ringgit it was.

We stayed in SGI vacation club which was 30€/night. A nice hotel, excellent staff and ok location if you want to visit big malls and have some famous chicken rice balls (which you should do). But this area is a bit further from the famous Jonker street, the river and from the famous attractions like Christ Church, Stadthuys (oldest Dutch building there) and museums.. and Hard Rock Cafe. And the rickshaws with lights, Hello Kitty's and their 110 decibel music..
Melaka is a beautiful city and it has some homelike feeling also because the river runs through it just like in a even more beautiful city called Turku ❤️ (ok, I might be a little bit biased on this one).

Here is a link for the psychotravellers video that got me interested on this place.
Definitely worth the visit, but please.. get the local number (cheap) and use Grab.
And when you fancy something to eat, keep these places in mind:

Ee Ji Ban Chicken Rice Ball
Jeta Groves (have some Laksa and skyfruit coffee there)
Wild Coriander
The Geographer (for the beer and good times)

* KL - We didn't have breakfast at Cosmo but closeby there are some good cafes like LOKL and Lucy in the Sky 👍Nearby LOKL there is also a great 2hour express laundry service 👍

- Sini

P.S We want to say Merry Christmas to all of you! Hopefully it's a good one and there is enough snow in Finland so Santa and the reindeers have easier time this year ;) Ho ho ho!

Terkkuja tuulisesta Thaimaasta ja
Hyvää joulua! Lämpimiä halauksia perhe ja ystävät ❤️



Our route so far

Penang

I've lived in Penang for six months or so when I did my student exchange in USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) back in 2008. So if getting to Bangkok felt little like coming home, getting to Penang definitely felt like it too. There is a taxi counter in the airport arrivals hall and they have list of destinations with fixed prices. It's recommended to use the stand instead of hailing a cab outside the airport, because some drivers easily "forget" to use the meter and you can get ripped off. So we got our taxi tickets for 44 ringgits and got to our hotel in George Town. After checking in and chilling a bit we headed out to find some food. After 5-10 minutes walking we hit the jackpot as we found a little street filled with different stalls selling all the local specialties. Penang is a melting pot of cultures and it also means a diverse and delicious food culture. I ended up ordering some Hokkien Hae Mee from an old Chinese lady who didn't speak English almost at all. The dish consisted of some noodles, chicken, prawns, fish cakes and some other not-so-easily-recognizable ingredients in a savory broth. I had some Dragon fruit juice to go with that which actually cost more than the food but 14 ringgits (2.9€) for the whole set was not bad at all!

Some of the food stalls

Slurping it

After the meal we continued our walk, the next stop being KOMTAR. It is easily seen and recognized from all around George Town, but as far as shopping goes there is very limited options and many of the shops have shut down. We spent some time there wandering around in few interesting shops we found and then continued our way along Jalan Penang towards George Town nightlife. It had been two hours since the food stall stop and we were getting pretty hungry so we went to Red Garden, a hawker center with dozens of food stalls to choose from. I went with roasted duck and Sini had some Nasi Goreng Pattaya, both dishes tasting delicious. Our stomachs full we walked to the nearby bar area to enjoy some liquid bread before taking a taxi back to our hotel.

The following day we went to Gurney Plaza, a nine stories shopping mall with 380 stores. Beats KOMTAR. Other than that we just took it easy and stayed at the hotel and later went to Red Garden again. 

There's a ton of street art scattered around George Town and we went on a hunt to find some on the third day. Chinatown was a good place to start so there we went. Sini had saved a screenshot of a art map which we used to find some of the paintings. Locals were very interested about the art pieces also and there were many groups doing some spotting around the city's tiny streets. We also spotted Chew Jetty across the street and went there for a walk. There are Chinese clans living in villages built on stilts above the water and Chew Jetty is one of the most visited ones. The jetties were formed in 19th century when Chinese immigrants came to Penang and worked near the port and nowadays they have UNESCO world heritage status.

After spending some time in the jetty we slowly made our way to a scooter rental place I had spotted earlier online. This time they actually asked if we had international driving licenses and after presenting them we got our scooter pretty quickly. It was a reputable company with plenty of good reviews but it's still always a good precaution to take pictures of the scratches and other damage the bike might have so they don't blame you later for those and ask for money. We made our way towards my old hoods in Gelugor. During my studies we lived in Sunny Ville and although I've visited Penang after that I've not been to our old place since.  Luckily they didn't ask us anything at the gate and we got to the premises for a short visit. The cafe had changed a bit but otherwise the place looked pretty much the same as in 2008. From Sunny Ville we rode to Bayan Lepas, Balik Pulau and took the curvy hill road back to George Town. After returning the scooter we had dinner in Red Garden. Yes. Again. Hey don't look at me like that, if Anthony Bourdain has eaten there they must have some pretty darn good food!

We still had one stop before going to sleep. We went to KOMTAR's bus station and got our tickets to Cameron Highlands for the next day. Across the station I spotted a place selling Cendol and that was on my list for dishes to try so I got a bowl of it. As weird as it looks it's actually very good even though I'm not usually a fan of sweet things. There's coconut milk, grass jelly, shaved ice and tons of palm sugar. Malaysian version also contained some red beans, yummy.

This might take a while..

Sunny Ville :)

@ Red Garden

Cendol

A short stop to Cameron Highlands

We were supposed to be in front of the bus ticket booking office 10.30 am, but being too optimistic about how long would it take to get there we were running late. Our Grab (similar to Uber) was there around 10.45 am and then we run with the guy we booked tickets from to the minivan and it actually took maybe another 15 minutes before we left the station. The minivan took us to the other bus station and it took over an hour before our bus got there. On top of that the bus ride took over four hours so it was getting dark already when we got to Tanah Rata in Cameron Highlands. We had only rough conception of where our hotel (Heritage Hotel) was located so it took some time to find it. We asked around and after a few missteps we found the place. It was getting late so we looked for a place to eat dinner nearby and called it a night.

The next day we had some daylight to explore the city. It definitely has some Europe vibe to it as the buildings look like they're taken from some village in the Alps. The climate is also cooler and it was a nice change after the hot and humid weather we'd had so far. We looked for a taxi and asked how much would it be to visit the nearby tea plantation. The driver said 20 ringgits for the return ride and a hour of waiting there. That sounded good so off we went to the Cameron Bharat Tea Estate. The views were nice and we took a walk down also. After coming back up we had some tea at the restaurant there. When we got back and paid the driver insisted that the price was 20 ringgits one way. The guy seemed nice and it might be that he wasn't trying to rip us off but nonetheless it was a good reminder to make sure you agree on the price beforehand. All in all Cameron Highlands was a nice place to visit but maybe not worth it if you're just visiting for a one day because of the long bus ride. Luckily we have time :)

- Matias 

Tanah Rata

Life is like a box of chocolates

Our route so far

Bangkok vibes, peanuts and vaccinations

Our flight took only 9 hours but we were pretty tired for the first day. Not too much sleep in the plane. If you have only one-way ticket you might run into problems although it's not likely. I've been asked for onward ticket only one time when I was flying from Istanbul to Kuala Lumpur. That time the check-in agent had to make some calls but it was not a big issue and I could board the plane. This time we used an online service called bestonwardticket.com. I was a little hesitant about it because they don't have many reviews yet being a rather new site but it worked like a charm. They actually book you a real ticket which you can present if someone asks for it. Then they cancel the ticket 48 hours after purchasing.

Apart from being quite tired it felt good to be in Bangkok again, it felt a little like coming home after a long time. After taking the train from BKK airport to Sukhumvit we found our hotel pretty quickly. Staying close to Terminal 21 shopping mall we decided to make it our first stop. There's an excellent food court there where you have many tasty food options for less than 1€.

Made it! 

Loving street food and being allergic to peanuts is not always the best combination in Thailand. If you are in the same situation I recommend printing an allergy card translated in Thai. And actually using it if you're unsure about the dish which I didn't do so of course I got something peanutty :p I got away with an itch and somewhat swollen tongue but next time I might take my own advice.

Yesterday we took it easy because we still had some sleep debt. A little bit of walking in Lumpini park, strolling around in MBK mall and trying out some street snacks. Later at night we had some dinner at Cabbages and Condoms (that is really the name of the place, interesting concept and good food) It was also our anniversary few days ago so no better way to celebrate it than ordering some delicious pork neck!

Lumpini Park lizard

Suspicious pork balls put to the test 

Condom fashion

Today we headed to Hospital for Tropical Diseases after breakfast. There's a travel clinic (www.thaitravelclinic.com) where you can have all the vaccinations you need at a low cost. I booked an appointment there yesterday for my Japanese encephalitis vaccination. It cost me under 700 baht (less than 20€) whereas in Finland the cost would have been around 300€. So big savings here, I recommend!

Visiting Travel Clinic 

Our route so far