Down under in Brisbane

We traveled from Surat Thani to KL to Bali and finally to Brisbane on 9th of January. The trip took almost 24 hours (we didn't get any sleep) and then it was time to meet the infamous Australian border officers at 6 am.. Matias had a wooden souvenir from Bali so first time ever it was time to take  the red line. The process was quick and easy to our surprise. Few questions and sniffs from a cute lab and we were good to enter the country. After some coffee we pondered whether we should get our prepaid sim cards from Vodafone or Optus. Google search didn't give a clear answer so we ended up with Optus which had a better deal at the moment. With 15$ we got unlimited calls and texts in Australia and 10GB data. (It was more than enough, after 3 weeks still had 8GB left 👍)

We took an Uber from the airport and went straight to meet our new lovely Finnish friends Solei and Sirpa. We had been in contact for months with Solei but this was the first time actually meeting the sisters :) Also it was so lovely that they had Finnish coffee, cinnamon buns and Finn Crisps (with Salami) there waiting for us. We were in heaven!
We chatted quite a bit and got to hear the valuable local tips on what to do around the area. Thanks to these ladies we also got to experience the local life little bit as Sirpa had arranged us to be housesitters and dog watchers for a week.
Housesitting is quite common in Australia and I hear there is some pages where you can register and you might find free accommodation like that and end up spending part of your vacation petting cute dogs and chilling at the backyard in the sun with a pool. That's what happened to us anyway :)

We had a car in our use for the first week which was great. It was scary though.. to drive a MANUAL car for the first time on the other side of the road. The shift stick was on the left and the signal on the right and window wipers where the signal usually is... So like our new Finnish friend Mika says "the tourists always have the cleanest windows" 😂. Well we sure had it like that. We had some car trouble after visiting Aldi (local Lidl) for the first time.. After visiting the shop and buying all the food, the car didn't start! Oh crap! Luckily the car owner's dad lived nearby so I called him and he came to give some extra power for the battery and he had it replaced so we would not have the same trouble again.

Our street with the quirky car

The north Strafford Island and Brisbane city exploration - week 1 

Solei and Sirpa say that one of the best places to visit (on Earth I think :) ) is the Straddie island. It's easily reachable from Brisbane and especially from Cleveland/Ormiston area where we stayed. The ferry ticket costs total of 14$ or 20$ per person depending which company you choose. You could also take your car there but it's more expensive and there is no point if you are just visiting for one day. The ferry trip took something like 20-30min I think and then there was a bus waiting at the harbour, ready to take people to Point Lookout. The return bus ticket was around 10$ each and the trip to other side of the island took maybe 25min. At first the bus ride gave me a feeling that we were in Ruissalo Turku, with the exception of road signs about koalas and kangaroos 😎 When you get to Point Lookout you'll find a couple of restaurants, beaches and also good public toilets, but the absolute must is to do the Gorge Walk. I mean really, you gotta do it! Even after seeing the pics that Solei and Sirpa had, that could not prepare us for the views and wildlife we got to see.. It was astonishing! We ended up seeing two kangaroos, stingrays, seaturtles and one undefined whale/dolphin/shark creature. We could have spend longer time there, but we were worried about the little doggies so we just spent few hours on the island and went back to our petting and belly rubbing duties :) (these little dogs that were on our watch, Keksi and Pertti*,  were so cute and affectioned! we really fell for them ❤️
*The names of the dogs might have been changed due to protecting their privacy :) )

Doing the Gorge Walk

A roo

The next day we hopped on a train and travelled 50 minutes to Southbank which is the cultural center and quite laid-back urban city area with many restaurants and a beautiful riverside. We wondered around for some time and ended up enjoying some greek food at Zeus restaurant and some live music at a park. It was very nice and with time and more money, we could have stayed longer there. But again the belly rubbing duty awaited us.. or so we though!

We arrived back home around 6pm only to find only one dog in the backyard.. that was weird at first but after looking all over the place, we realized that Pertti had gone missing! OMG! I called the owner's mom and she calmed me and said that Pertti has done it before and we should not worry too much about it or go look for him.. but we worried and went out looking for him and called his name hoping so badly that he would appear from somewhere.. but nothing :( after returning home we just sat by the open front door and waited.. and waited.. and waited. We must have looked so sad and desperate there. I started to search local missing dog sites from Facebook and at first we got nothing, but then at 10pm I saw Pertti's photo on Queensland lost pet registers site!! OMG we found him! Maybe 15 minutes after that Pertti was back home with us. We were so happy! Pertti on the other hand seemed very nonshallant and was playing it very cool. We learned that he had found the tiniest and quite high up hole from the fence and escaped from there and wandered a bit until a neighbour from the nearby street found him. Pertti ended up having great time with the neighbours and enjoyed some BBQ and got lots of cuddles also. Hah.. that little furball! Phiuuff luckily this story had a happy ending 🙏

After that episode we weren't too keen on going far from home and it was 37 degrees out so pool and some BBQ suited just fine for us. It was a wonderful place to housesit and the dogs, like I said, stole our hearts a bit. We also felt really good having our Finnish friends and the owner's parents support there as we tried the local life :)

Keksi

Week 2 

I have been in Facebook groups like "Australian suomalaiset" and "Brisbanen suomalaiset" (local FB groups for Finns) and I saw this one guy telling that he rents cars with affordable prices. After chatting with him we learned that he also has a homestay option at their own home, also with affordable price and it includes the nice company of Mika and Elina, the other Finnish travellers and two beautiful dogs :) So with the help of Solei and Sirpa again and after saying goodbyes to the doggies, we hopped on a train on one afternoon and traveled to Kuraby, Brisbane. Mika came to pick us up from the train station so we didn't have to climb up the hill in the heat with all our stuff.
Their place in Kuraby is nice and it gives you a homelike feeling as it is the actual home for Mika and Elina. Mika has helped various Finnish working holiday travellers to get their things going when moving here down under so we highly recommend starting your Brisbane life from here.

We rented an automatic car from Mika and put it in very good use from the get go as we drove to the Gold Coast. Our friend in Finland has said that Surfers Paradise is a marvelous place so we had to see it for ourselves. And it was pretty! Amazingly long coastline, lovely city feeling with restaurants and shops and highrise buildings. We spend few hours there and then continued our way to Currumbin and oh I found heaven there on the beach! Some spots had silky smooth sand so I could not do anything than just lay there for a bit. I was so offline :)

Enjoying the silky smooth sand

Coffee @ Hard Rock Cafe 

The next day it was time to do our duty as Finnish citizens and we drove up to the consulate to cast our vote in the presidential election. It was our first time doing it abroad so it was really an interesting experience. After that we drove to Mount Coot-tha as we heard that it would have an awesome view of the city. I think it would been even better to visit there around sunrise or sunset but the view was pretty cool daytime as well.

Mount Coot-tha lookout

After playing tourists it was time to put the gamefaces on and play some frisbeegolf (disc golf). Around Brisbane area, there are few courses but what was odd was that we were the only ones playing! We visited three different parks and in one of them (Logan) we met a local lady who said that in her 10-12 years living near the park she has never seen anyone play this game.. :o what the heck! I mean it's not easiest to get proper discs here as they don't sell them in the local sport shops (we googled).. but still! Though I must add that the weather was maybe too hot so maybe it's more like a winter sport for the Brisbanites.. well anyway we were amazed but extremely happy we had the courses to ourselves :)

Can you spot the basket? 

Weekend fun at Eat Street North Shore 

We heard from one fellow Finn at Mika's that there is this awesome event that happens on the weekends at the Northshore. It's like a food festival kind of, with something like 70 different stalls and many options to buy food from different parts of the world and enjoy live music and other shows at the same time, maybe with a glass of wine or beer. It costs only 2.5$ to get in. We first walked around and checked what the place had to offer and then decided what we wanted to eat.
We started to get hungry so we first tried small hot dogs for starters and then headed to South American joint where I took a beefy bun and Matias had a plate full of everything. We finished the foods with a nice local Out and a Bout pale ale.
We highly recommend to visit this place!

Huge portions, happy stomachs

how to get there? 

If you have a car then you could drive there, but we definitely recommend the ferry option. I don't remember how much the ferry was because we payed with GoCards, but it was not more than few dollars. The trip took about 40minutes from Southbank and it was a lovely way to see the area. The way back especially was wonderful as you can see the city lights in the dark.

- Sini

Brisbane city lights

Our route so far

Koh Samui highlights

We spent 3 weeks in Koh Samui and had some days doing absolutely nothing, which is a good thing when you're traveling but doesn't give you much to write about. So instead of the usual day-to-day story I'm gonna share with you some of the best places we encountered. We stayed in Mae Nam, Chaweng and Lamai during our stay. Mae Nam is the most quiet one of those three. Chaweng and Lamai are bigger and more touristy with tons of restaurants and bars. They also have nicer beaches but it doesn't really matter where you stay if you rent a vehicle to get around.

Hotels

Ampha Place (Mae Nam) 

This was probably our favorite and we stayed here on two occasions, three nights when we got to Koh Samui and two nights right before we left. The hotel is located in Mae Nam and there is no beach within immediate vicinity of the hotel but the pool is great and they rent scooters so it's easy to get around. The owner is really nice and helpful if you need information or ferry tickets etc. and the breakfast is good costing around 150 THB. Be sure to try their jams, mango-passion fruit was our favorite!

Ampha Place's pool

P.S. Leave a comment if you stayed in Ampha Place and found our blog after reading a certain book..

Chaweng Cove Beach Resort (Chaweng Beach) 

We wanted a little something extra for Christmas so we splurged on a little more expensive hotel and had a room with a whirlpool one of the three nights we stayed here. The location was nice right on the beach and the breakfast buffet kept our stomachs happy for a long time.

Our whirlpool

The Spa Garden (Lamai) 

The hotel was located a little further away from the beach but they have a free shuttle service and scooter rental so it didn't bother us. Their restaurant had some tasty dishes and there was a pool on the premises. The weather was not on our side so we didn't spend time there but it looked good enough.

Chaweng Skybar & Hotel (Chaweng) 

Drinking beer and playing pool, that's how we spent our days in Chaweng Skybar & Hotel. It's right in the heart of Chaweng, short walking distance from the beach and other restaurants. They had some good happy hour offers, free pool and the room price was pretty decent considering the location.

Everyday routine 

PTK Residence (Chaweng) 

Staying two nights here was nothing special. The pool was nice but that's pretty much it. The hotel was not bad but there's better options for the same amount of money if you're staying in Chaweng.

Restaurants

Roman Turkish Restaurant (Mae Nam)

We got here on a quiet night but the place was quite lively. They had live music and the guy performing Nessun Dorma was VERY talented. The act alone was worth paying for so the fact that the pizzas were tasty was just an added bonus.

Bavaria (Mae Nam)  

Go German! This is your place to get your sauerkraut and wurst if you're tired of eating Thai food all the time. You can find this sausagelicious restaurant in the middle of the Mae Nam walking street. 

Wurst! 

Noi (Chaweng) 

We kept coming back to Noi again and again. Thai dishes were delicious and cheap and they also have a good selection of western food. I also appreciate the fact that they gave us fish sauce with chili without asking.

Stacked Samui (Chaweng) 

You know those times when you just want to forget counting calories and that six pack that is just around the corner and just enjoy the flow of that delicious grease? Luckily you have these kind of places when you most need them. They serve heart attacks on a plate disquised as juicy burgers and fatty fries. It's better to go here hungry as the portions are big.

More cheese,  please. 

Crystal (Chaweng) 

This little place is located right next to Chaweng Skybar & Hotel. It's a shame we didn't find it earlier as the food here was absurdly cheap compared to the ones around it. Besides being affordable the food was mouth watering and the staff was overly friendly. This is a must visit if you're nearby. Five stars *****

Green Cafe (Lamai) 

This was our hotel's restaurant when we stayed in The Spa Garden. Savory Thai dishes and good selection of European dishes with reasonable prices makes Green Restaurant worth a visit.

Pamon Thai (close to Lamai) 

Oh my, it makes my mouth to water just thinking about Pamon Thai. This is a small local restaurant just outside of Lamai. We were here two years ago and I was extremely happy to be back. Last time Sini didn't eat here but this time she didn't let the simple looks to fool her and had a go also. The dishes are amazingly tasty and they cost next to nothing. You have to have a car or a bike to get here but I highly recommend to give it a try and give your taste buds something to remember!

Delicious! 

Coco Tam's (Fisherman's Village Bophut) 

I don't know if it was because we were very hungry or what but the pizza we shared here tasted heavenly! I've eaten pizza all around the world including Italy and Sicily. I've had pizza to cure hangovers. I've had cheap pizza, expensive pizza, homemade pizza, all kinds of pizza. but still the one we ate makes it in my top 3, easily. The tropical cocktails and the setting were nice too.

Tropical Cocktails on the beach, not bad 

Disc golf

There are 3 disc golf courses in Thailand and two of them are located in Koh Samui so this is pretty much a perfect island :D

Samui Disc Golf

The place is easily reachable from Mae Nam and they have signs along the way. For 250 baht you can play as much as you want for one day and if you don't have your own plastic with you the discs are included for the price. The course is pretty easy and if you're not totally new to the sport there's a good chance for birdies. It's also suitable for beginners and they sell discs with unique stamps so bring some cash with you.

A beautiful place to play a round or two! 

Laem Sor Beach Disc Golf & Acoustic Cafe

This course is aimed more for enthusiasts and more advanced players. You can find it with a navigator but be sure to check your location from time to time if you're arriving with scooter as they don't have any signs on the road. You can tell that Dave, the owner, is really dedicated to the sport as he has done an enormous job making the place playable. He seems like a nice guy and showed us around the course. They have 18 holes but only 9 were available to play when we got there. It was 200 baht for using the course and the level of difficulty was a bit higher than in Samui Disc Golf. It was a funny "coincidence" that we run into Finns both times we visited here :p

He posed for us near the disc golf course 

She made that putt :) 

Good to know

Songthaews

Taxis are expensive, use Songthaews instead. They are pickup trucks with two rows of seats in the back of the car and they run all around the island. It doesn't matter how long are you going, the rate is 100 baht for farangs. For shorter distances you may want to bargain.

Riding the Songthaew 

Make it spicy! 

Many restaurants adjust their dishes to be more tourist friendly and cut down the heat. If you love spicy food just ask for fish sauce (Nam Pla)  with chili as every place has it no matter how westernized. The stuff smells horrible but tastes awesome, I love it.

Fish sauce makes it better. 

Fisherman's Village Walking Street market (Bophut) 

There's a ton of market stalls popping up in almost 1 km long Walking Street in Bophut. The market runs every Friday from 5 pm until late. You can buy pretty much everything here from sunglasses and t-shirts to souvenirs, spices, handicrafts, jewelry and much more for low cost. In addition to stalls there are free performances you can admire while enjoying the atmosphere. There's a big parking area if you're arriving with car or bike.

Friday night market

- Matias





Our route so far

Surviving Yogyakarta & Bali

We flew to Yogyakarta on 12th of December. We arrived late in the evening and all I saw from the taxi's window was empty streets, darkness and graffitis so I of course thought that this place would be dangerous. The taxi driver left us in some dark alley and said "walk that way" pointing in even darker and narrower alley. Well... ok cool I guess. We started walking and very soon we saw 'Pondok Ijo', our guest house's name on the wall. We checked in and I discovered quickly that our room and particularly our bathroom was open. I mean open like when you sit on the toilet you can see palmtrees (bananatrees), spiders and the sky. Someone might say it's romantic, cool and like a healing environment (because there is access to nature. And for the locals it's normal..). Not me. No no no. I hid under the duvet and wanted so badly to change rooms. I do not like mosquitoes and all the other creepy-crawlies there are. I thought to myself "Sini.. please, next time remember that if the place's name has "Pondok" in it.. maybe it's better not to go there?!". The staff member was a cool and understanding dude and we upgraded to a better room which still had an open toilet and shower but the bedroom was more covered. Ok, I guess I can live with this.

Our guesthouse in Jogja

Enjoy the nature while taking a shower

The first night we just visited nearby restaurant Warung Bu Ageng and ate the local speciality Nasi Campur ("mixed rice" with little bit of everything). After that it was mandatory to have a beer in our Pondok's restaurant. It was kinda nice there and we played with cards at least for an hour or so. There was soothing reggae playing in the background and all of a sudden I hear Finnish reggae playing! Whaaat.. :D it was Raappana's Kauas Pois and I was feeling all types of feelings then. I missed my family a lot but still it felt so cool to be there.

At night though I heard some weird noises which spooked me a little...

I had never heard such noise before but after a Google search and asking the hotel employee, we now know that it was just a big gecko! :) It was kinda creepy because we never saw it and didn't know what in the world was it but luckily geckos eat mosquitos so I was cool with that.

The next day we went walking and started our search for a post office.
It quickly started to hit me that Yogyakarta is actually a huge city! I wasn't expecting that at all after checking the place from Google Maps and from some YouTube videos.

But yeah the post office was important because I have a godson so I wanted to send something small back home ❤️. Before finding the post office it started to rain and a becak (local rickshaw)  driver appeared from a distance. He was calling us, offering shelter and telling that he would drive us around for one hour and it will only cost us 20000 rupiahs (1.3€).. Mad cheap. Our censors were on but the rain made us hop on and the first stop was the post office. The rickshaw driver mentioned some places we needed to visit but he talked so fast that we didn't quite get it (or cared so much at first). While we were in the post office Matias did some Google research (local prepaids are handy) that this cheap of a ride will end us up in a batik clothing store where we are almost oblicated to buy something. The rickshaw driver would get his share (commission) on the overpriced products. Then Matias paid the driver the 20000 rupiahs and said that we would continue by foot. The driver still tried that "No no no, don't you want to see the batik store..".. no we would not, thank you.

Riding the becak

We continued our way by foot (despite the heavy rain) and ended up in some shopping district. After some walking around we got hungry and looked up this legendary pempek restaurant nearby. (Pempek is a savoury fishcake from Palembang, South Sumatera.)
This particular restaurant was called 'Pempek Ny. Kamto' and we would definitely recommend it.
We selected three dishes and two bottles of water and the total price was 64000 rupiahs so around 4€.

Tasty Pempek

Later, after lots more walking we wanted to head back to Pondok and we happened to see a Grab pick up stand outside of a mall. "hmm should we finally try it..?".. "yes!" So that's what we did and it was so nice that we were able to see immediately what the about 20 minutes trip was gonna cost us. It was 25000 which is less than 2€. Cool! And just like that we were hooked on Grab :D (we had never tried Uber or anything similar before because it's not a consept that works well with the Finnish laws and regulations.. bummer).

Now how does this work..? 

Superstar treatment at Borobudur

For the next day we scheduled a trip to Borobudur which is a famous place and actually the biggest Buddhist temple in the world and rightfully a UNESCO world heritage site.

Usually sunrise at Borobudur would be the way to go but now, when it was the monsoon season it was better to go later (Or so our guide said and that was ok for us as we weren't too excited of the thought of waking up at 03 am..).
We left at 8.30 from Pondok Ijo with our drivers (on motorbikes) and the trip took maybe like an hour. (We were actually waiting for a van and more people to join us but the bike ride was a nice alternative)

The entrance to Borobudur was 600000 for us two and the bike trip 190000/person so in total it was something like 30€/person. Quite expensive in my opinion, but I guess this was a once in a lifetime type of a thing so going over our daily budget was justified.
When we entered in we noticed that people were staring at us and it looked like people were trying to catch us in their selfies. And then it didn't take long for a group of kids to surround us wanting to take pictures with us! I was overwhelmed by the situation. I'm guessing that this was something that could happen to a celebrity, but I didn't comprehend at first why it was happening to us :D

We learned soon that it was a school holiday and there were a lot of people visiting also from remote places where people looking like us don't often visit. So we were something new. I also later read that to some extent "Western" is considered to be something cool and a pale skin is something to be admired. Some might also believe that Western people bring good luck.. well hopefully we succeeded in that :)

There were at least 5 different groups of student that wanted to ask questions (practise their English with us) and to have pics with us. Of course we wanted to help them out! It was fun for us too :)
But it took our time a bit so it was little hard to concentrate on the actual location of Borobudur.
There were quite a few adults also grabbing us gently, wanting to take pictures with us. Some said few words and some only wanted to shake our hands.
But yeah, it was all good. The kids in particular were so wonderful! So polite and cute and they were smiling a lot! Now based on our travels I could vote Indonesia for the new Land of Smiles :) (Koh Mook could still hold the title for the Island of Smiles).
After Borobudur we just chilled and the next day ended up changing Pondok to an Ibis hotel closer to the airport. 

First of many groups who interviewed us

Borobudur views

The Earth is shaking

On the 15th of December I was having a chill video chat with my mum and granny when we felt the floor moving. It was bizarre. It felt like a cruise ship in Finland  approaching the harbour.. but now there was no harbour to approach.
It was an earthquake. I put my clothes on and said to my spooked mum that "everything is alright.. we are just gonna check what's going on and I'll call again soon..". I mean I definitely wasn't sure what was going on and how dangerous the situation actually was. This was our first ever earthquake but I just hoped that mum and granny wouldn't worry too much.
After some confusion I learned that the situation was ok and we were safe. There were hotel employees on the corridor with Walkie Talkies for some while but there was no panic after some screams from the initial tremble. It had been an 6,7 magnitude earthquake in Java (the same island) but it was 250km away from us so it was ok to breathe and go to sleep. But I read that there might be some aftershocks also.. Yikes.
I called my mum again and made sure all was cool. I got a little spooked and I slept with my clothes on and my small backpack packed that night being ready to escape if that was needed. Luckily we got to sleep peacefully.

Bali

The next day did not offer aftershocks for us luckily but we fled and flew to Bali. Yeahh.. that place with the infamous volcano. I must say I wasn't feeling too good about this. We stayed at Kuta beach, near the airport for a couple of nights. Unfortunately it was raining A LOT so we weren't able to explore the place as much as I would have liked. We did some walking around, shopping mall exploring and checking out the beach (so dirty that day!) but it didn't feel right to stay there longer as we had originally planned.
We debated for awhile what to do next. It would have been only 200€ to fly to Brisbane the next day but the living in Australia is pretty expensive so we started to look for flights back to Thailand.. We realized that we would have to spend 500€ more (each) if we just went back to Thailand but it also felt something that had to be done and that is what we did.

I feel like I missed out on many nice places in Bali, but now I have reasons to return. Though I have to add that I hate that the taxi scene is so effed up there. I felt that there are too many scamming drivers and that the price system should be clarified. Grab would be good there also, because you get to know the final (good) price immediately with no surprises so it's nicer to give a tip and it gives a good feeling also.. like I can trust the system and the people.
But they are trying to ban Grab in Bali and Matias read somewhere that some Grab drivers get their asses kicked there by taxi drivers so.. no feeling of trust there :(

All in all.. Indonesia is huge and it's so diverse. There are a lot of wonderful, polite and very hospital people in Indonesia so the good outs the scumbags and I will definitely recommend visiting Indonesia. But please look beyond crazy Jakarta and the touristy places in Bali, there are tons of places to explore, all different (try Lake Toba or Bukit Lawang for example -editor's note)

Selamat Jalan! (Goodbye in Malay/Indonesian language)

-Sini

Rainy Bali

P.S it was fun to learn that 'di sini" means 'here' :D I also saw signs at bus stops which said 'turun di sini' :) I understood that it means "jää pois tässä", "get out of the bus here".
Cool language.. I wish I could understand it more.



Our route so far

Singaponesia

There was a wild rumor that you wouldn't need to go all the way to the Melaka bus station to catch the bus to Singapore. So the night before we tried to find a place that sells bus tickets. After asking around and redirected three or four times we found a bus ticket counter inside Mahkota Medical Center but it was already closed. Next morning after checking out from our hotel we went back there and got our tickets before enjoying our breakfast in Jeta Groves. I also tried the skyfruit coffee there this time and enjoyed the bitter, kind of grapefruity, flavor.

The bus ride took about four hours and the bus stopped two times at the border. First in Malaysia's side and then in Singapore's. After border formalities we went to the exit and looked for our bus. It took us some time to go through the border since there were plenty of people and the bus left almost immediately after we had hopped on. There were still some people missing but the bus driver didn't seem to care so it's strongly recommended to take good care of your ticket, because you can just hop on to the next available bus. Also take care that you don't leave anything on the bus while crossing the border.

The final stop was at Golden Mile Complex, where we walked about five minutes to Nicoll Highway MRT Station. There we withdrew some money from an ATM and took the metro to Chinatown. Singapore is an expensive place and we're on a budget so we had booked our stay in a capsule hostel. I've stayed in few capsule places but what was neat about this one (Chic Capsule Otel) was that they provided smart TVs in every capsule with YouTube and other apps. Much appreciated. We left our luggage in the hostel and made our way to Gardens by the Bay near Marina Bay Sands. We strolled around in the beautiful surroundings and found a place for Sini to enjoy her Fazer Blue chocolate which she had guarded for all our trip. It was Finland's 100th independence day so the moment was on point. After taking our time enjoying the garden we continued our walk but couldn't prepare for what was waiting for us next..

Happy Birthday Finland! 

We were really surprised to see a 100th independence day of Finland celebration event there in the middle of Singapore. As we stood outside the doors taking some pictures, a lady came out and asked if we were Finnish. We said yes and after chatting a while she handed over gift bags to us which was a wonderful surprise. With the gift bags in our hands we went back to the hostel. I drank my blueberry lemonade found in the bag and we went to bed soon after. As I mentioned there were those smart TVs so it was time for YouTube and some Jomez Pro disc golf before getting sleep.

Gift bags

Disc golf time!

Unpleasant wake-up 

Waking up in the small hours guns pointed at you and police telling you to get to the lobby with your passport is not an ideal way to spend your night. Well beggars can't be choosers I guess so we went downstairs and waited with other guests for a while until the police said we can go back to sleep and apologized for the trouble. Later we found out that there was somebody with a knive in the other room they were looking for. He had robbed or stabbed someone in the street or so we heard. What a nice first ever hostel experience for Sini. :p

We survived the rest of the night without interruptions and made our way to the Maxwell Food Centre before noon the next day. Singaporeans love their food and the place was packed. There are over a 100 stalls serving various delicious dishes so there is no shortage of choices. If you google Maxwell Food Centre one thing you come across certainly is Tian Tian Chicken Rice. They're very famous and the lines for the stall are exceptionally long. Anthony Bourdain has praised their chicken rice and Tian Tian has been mentioned in the Michelin Guide under Bib Gourmand (excellent price-quality ratio) two years in a row. Sini got to the end of the line for the chicken rice and I went to get something more.. unusual. I found a stall that served cheap Kuay Chap. Pig organs, intestines, all that good stuff with some flat white rice noodles.

Suspicious piece of organ

After the meal we crossed the road and visited the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum. It has a free entrance and some interesting architecture so it's definitely worth a visit if you happen to be nearby. After the temple we took a metro to Little India and did some shopping in Mustafa Centre. There's all kind of stuff imaginable and the shopping complex is open 24 hours. 2 meter long usb extension cables were something like 5 euros a piece so we bought two of those. I'm using one right as I write this, very convenient when power outlets are sparse in the hotel rooms. It was raining outside so we didn't stay around Little India after getting out from the shopping center  but instead went back to the hostel.

I've had an itch for a good barbecue after visiting Best Beef in Bangkok. There was a Korean BBQ buffet restaurant within a walking distance from our accommodation and we were hungry later that night so that seemed like a good idea. The price wasn't too bad but the food was just mediocre. I had 5 plates regardless :D

We had to change our hostel next day because the one we stayed in was fully booked. We made our way to the new place located in Kampong Glam area and left our stuff there. Then we wandered in the area looking around for breakfast and later took the MRT to Marina Bay and walked there for a while. We also went to Marina Bay Sands and bought the tickets for the Skypark, then stayed on the observation deck through the sunset enjoying the views. We took a ride back to our hoods and went to a cat cafe we'd seen earlier. They seem to be quite popular in Asia so it was nice to visit one especially because the employees seemed to really care for the animals. It was getting a little late so after the cat cafe we had bitterballen and dinner across the road in a Dutch place.

View from Marina Bay Sands

Meomi Cat Cafe

Changi Airport was a place of joy. Sini found Finnish chocolate and there were free foot massage chairs which felt heavenly after so much walking previous few days. I read afterwards that there are also couple of full body massage chairs in terminal 3, so maybe next time.. Although the airport was good, we had a flight to catch and few hours later we found ourselves in the bustling city of Jakarta in Indonesia. There were plenty of people trying to offer us a taxi ride from the airport but we ignored them and got to the Blue Bird taxi line. It is the most reputable taxi company in Jakarta and they always use meter. Doing some research before arriving to a new place can save you a pretty penny. And taxi scams are one of the more popular ones.

Sooo good

We were greeted by a cheerful "Yello!" when we got to our hotel (Yello Harmoni Jakarta). The neighborhood was a little sketchy but the hotel itself was really nice with overly friendly staff. It was also raining almost all the time so we spent most of our three days in Jakarta in the hotel. We had the mandatory Hard Rock Cafe stop so I could expand my collection and we visited some shopping malls also. There was a free computer corner in our hotel so I made good use of it and updated the blog. It still took a surprisingly long time just for a one post even using a computer. The last night we got to admire a violent thunderstorm (myself in front of the window and Sini from the bed under the blanket) as our room was high up. We just hoped the weather would get better the next day when we had our flight to Yogyakarta..

- Matias

Storm approaching

Our route so far

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