Nilesh Vasave: 2007


"Singapore – The Lah Lah Land!"
Chapter 1: Malaysia!
“4 months in a one-city country, $12000… 40 days of trying for air tickets to anywhere (even Timbuktu) without any luck… $10 4 days of Chinese New Year holidays with no where to go… frustrating… Know that you can still get a visa for Malaysia in 1 day and go around Malaysia’s best destinations by road for 4 full days for less than $500… - Priceless…………… “
Malaysia - It was not my first choice, in fact it was last!! As the above Fake master card ad says… There was 4 days of holidays coming over in January end 22nd to 25th January, a super long weekend!! Every flight going out of Singapore was booked, even waiting list was closed month before!! Still tried to book tickets for India, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia (Yes!!) even Vietnam!!(Don’t ask why!!) The point is I was that desperate after 4 months in Singapore.. I really wanted to get out and have a good time in any of the country other than Singapore!! (Though it was a totally different matter that I went to Bali, Indonesia in Christmas )… It’s not that I have anything with Singapore. It’s a great country! Great place to shop around, nice, peaceful, some good night spots, golf courses, beaches (???!!), but hey how many times you go to the same place again and again.. As Singapore being a one-city country, population even less than Ahmedabad (My home town), It feels like ground hog day!!! (I have nothing against ground hog day as well!)… My colleague/friend Shailendra introduced me to one of his friend, Hiren. Seems like a nice guy. Told him about wanted to go to Thailand (first choice), he said… well, he wanted to go there too!! Wow, 2 are better!! Big savings!! So I said let’s try for two tickets, if luck’s with us then we might get the high priced last minute tickets (just for the information – My luck sucks!!) … So, we didn’t got the tickets… It was the last week before the holidays. I told him lets try Malaysia!! Went to Malaysian embassy, applied for visa and got the visa on 4th day (duh… weekend!!) so, Monday got the visa, called the travel agent, booked bus tickets for Kuala Lumpur!! $55 per person 1 way!!… Was feeling like I am in heaven!! Finally I am going out of Singapore for 4 full days!!! Well the big day arrived (Night actually..) we were catching an AC bus from Lavender train station, Singapore to Johar Bahru(JB), Malaysia which was only 45 mins away from there and from JB we’re changing the bus with more facility and wider seats… We boarded the bus at 10:30 from Lavender, reached Singapore border in 25 mins, the traffic was bad… took us more than 45 mins to clear customs and immigrations from both sides!!! It’s one bridge between Singapore and Malaysia. You cross the bridge and you are in Malaysia. We reached JB at around 12:00. changed the bus… the Seats was really huge, almost as big as plane’s business class!! The travel company gave us couple of Oranges as a good luck (I was puzzled when they gave us oranges for good luck.. is the bus service and roads in Malaysia that bad that we need a good luck, instead of a good driver and decently maintained bus!!!?) but, then I found out that in Chinese new year it’s consider as a good luck and it’s customary to give oranges to others!! Well, so much for a lesson in Chinese cultural. I was excited about the whole Malaysian experience. So! Malaysia, ready or not, here I come…………….. Though the bus was comfortable and specious, only one problem, the A.C. duct was right above over seat without anything to adjust the flow, and it was blowing too much. After an hour we both were freezing. I thought if I was wearing half sleeve t-shirt and a cotton pant, which I found out the hard way that was not appropriate for the bus journey!! I looked at Hiren, the bugger was sleeping like a baby!! I felt jealous of his thick skin and looked at my thin body and cursed the Gujarati dhokalas and khakhras my mom used to feed me for breakfasts and other non-meat(muscles) building Gujarati foods. Made a mental note about eating more meat in the future. Meanwhile the problem persists, forcing me to retract my hands in my small sized half sleeve cotton t-shirt which read “HardRock Café - Surfers Paradise – Love all, Serve all” “somebody please serve me!” I screamed in my thoughts!!! And folded my hands inside my t-shirts making me look like handless bagger on the streets of Mumbai! But it was comfortable, I was successful in reducing the amount of cold on my body! I found my salvation when bus stopped for a break around 2 am in some Malaysian town, where I bought a thermal blanket.. I was feeling like re-born with thicker skin!! Good Morning KL:
(KL bus interchange at 6:30 am)	Morning 5:30 we were in Kuala Lumpur, It was looking more like outside of Mumbai central train station except a partial view of it’s famous twin tower Petronas and some other good looking buildings on the background, but I was happy as I was finally out of Singapore and in some new country. Now the big question, how to plan our 4 precious days. With a brief discussion with Hiren, we came up with a rough plan, it was like this, Day 1 we will go to Genting Highlands, which is a mountain city with lots of entertainment and hotels to stay in, Day 2 go to Penang, Catch a ferry to Langkawi Islands, stay in Langkawi for two days, on Saturday comeback to KL, stay night in KL book bus to Singapore for Sunday afternoon, by that time see as much KL as possible. The plan looked all right.
It was 6:00 am in the morning after our agreement about going to Genting, the booking offices were opening at 7:00 am. We had full one hour to kill. KL bus stop was no better than any Indian State Transport bus stops, but as George Bush say in his lousy speeches “we will prevail” the queue was very long considering the fact that it was 6 am in the morning so we thought Genting must be very popular place. We took turn in using man’s room (which was horrible as no water and long queue) at last 7 am and the ticket window opened, suddenly the long line comes to life and every body started rushing towards the small window. Within seconds the line became uncontrolled mob and everybody was charging towards the small window, pushing and hitting everybody around, as Bush in Iraq and we at the KL bus ticket counter found out the hard way that prevailing in war or buying bus tickets in KL is not easy at all. In the end we got tickets for 8:30 bus. We were very satisfied by our hard work and we have prevailed. We boarded the bus at 8:30, as soon as we got out of KL’s bustling morning traffic; we saw hills with magnificent cave entrances. Later only I found out that they were the world famous Batu caves just outside KL. Batu caves are natural wonders and also there is a Hindu temple inside! After an hour’s journey we started ascending, after reaching some height we saw some magnificent mountain range, it was beautiful. Within half an hour we were near the top of the mountain and very close to Genting, suddenly we saw a white fog on the curvy road ahead. I thought fire in the jungle but to my surprise and amazement it was a cloud, very cool cloud, from there on our journey to Genting was like journey to heaven as there were clouds everywhere, and it was cold!! The buildings were all covered with clouds; we were unable to see beyond 2-3 floor, it was like magic kingdom. When we reached at the foothills of Genting, there was a huge crowd lining up to go up on the mountain in Cable car.
(Outside Genting Cable car station)	It was a long line with almost 500 people infront of us. We decided to wait and went to have some food as we were hungry, in nearby restaurant. There for the first time I have encountered the Indian ness exist in very root of Malaysian culture, many of the “authentic” Malay food names were like roti, daal, pratha etc are all Indian names and they were the same Indian roti, daal, parathas!! We had roti and daal as breakfast and some tea which also surprisingly made like Indian tea! Back in the line, it took us 45 minutes when we got chance to get a cable car, but instead the security guard took us in another direction, were he signed towards a bus and told us that cable car will take another 1 hour, if you want reach at the top early you can go by bus!! What the??! But in the end we took bus, When we reached to Genting there were big hotels everywhere and strangely no houses!! Hmm.. interesting.
When we reached at the bus stop in Genting it was at the gate of Genting Hotel, and bloody it was Freeeeeeeeezing…. And we were ill prepared for this kind of terrible cold, as we were never imagined in our wildest dreams (and also never bothered to ask anybody) that there will be a place near equatorial hit and humidity which will be this cold that we need winter clothing. But again my all-reliable Starbucks came to the rescue it was there inside the hotel, thank God and America for Starbucks – a life savior. After admiring the beautiful (and freezing)outdoor with the cup of cappuccino, we entered the hotel. Within 15 mins we knew why Genting was so popular. It’s a gambling capitol of Malaysia, which is pre-dominantly a Muslim country and gambling is banned in Islam. But rightly so and ironically too, the Casinos are banned for Malaysian Muslims??!! Only non-Malaysian Muslims and tourists are allowed		(Near Genting Bus Stop)
inside Casino (Run by Malaysian Muslims), but you can see lot of head scarves and Muslim caps inside casinos and you know that the law is just customary. We wanted to try our luck but as I mentioned earlier that my luck sucks, the bags were not allowed inside the casino and we both had backpack with us, and the lockers were full (and also too small for our backpacks) we decided against it. We started wandering around and found out that it’s also a shopper’s paradise with lots of shops and restaurants and café inside the hotel it self. The most amazing thing we found while roaming for hours is that Genting is nothing but cluster of big hotels with casinos and shopping, food and amusement parks, it’s an entertainment city! All the hotels are inter connected and there are shop after shops and you just forget from where you entered and where are you going, there is lot to see and lot to do. But first and foremost we went shopping for some winter clothes. We bought wintery jackets from Bum equipment!
(Inside Genting hotels)	Because of Chinese New Year the place was full of people. We reached a central area kind of a space which was really huge and had lots of rides in it with all the world famous monuments in one place from statue of liberty to Eiffel tower. It was fun. There were lion dance and dragon dance shows there, which we enjoyed very much. After spending 5-6 hours browsing through stores and fake monuments, we decided to go outside and see the scenery around. We got out of the area via exit from First World Hotel, which itself if very big and colourful building still mostly covered in clouds, it looked amazing. We came out and walked toward the edge of the mountain to see the valley below (about 5 mins walk!) and what we saw was beyond belief the whole valley was covered with white cotton clouds, there was no bottom in sight. It was like a white foamy sea with pockets of green islands. It was amazingly beautiful. We just stood there for half an hour and enjoyed the view, mystified
by the amazing nature we decided to take some photos, and we decided that we need a photo of both of us, there were 2 really beautiful girls in head scarves standing near by. So we asked them to take our pictures and they did. I thought Malaysia is really beautiful. By 4 pm we were arguing, we were unable to decide whether to go back to KL or stay in Genting. Tried some hotels but they were either full or very costly due to the holidays. So decided that we will go back to KL. Had lunch at one of the Kebab places. This hotel hunting had gave us one advantage was not all wasted, we found place to leave our baggage in safe custody without paying a single buck, at the lobby of First World Hotel, we have registered our selves as customers who wants a room for one night and left our luggage to their make shift open luggage room guarded by their bellboys. We roam around for couple of hours and came back at 6:30 in the evening to go back to the base bus stop using cable car.		(First World Hotel in Clouds..)
(at the edge of the Genting Mountain..)	This time we got cable car and reached base bus stop admiring valley below us with beautiful lush jungles and amazing sun set. We took 7:30 bus and reached KL around 9:15 pm. Now next big question, where will we stay the night?? The bus has dropped us near Chinatown; I told Hiren lets stay in some cheap Chinese lodge to save some money. We started walking towards Chinatown; we were both tired and stressed from traveling and walking in Genting for hours. But still dragging ourselves on the streets of KL to find some good cheap hotel. Saw one really nice hotel went inside, ask about a room with 2 single bed, got a nasty smile from the man behind the counter, told us with foxy smile “We are full just 1 small room with double bed is left, is it alright?” We were tired and wanted hot bath and wanted to sleep. So we said “ok show us the room”.
The room was alright but decided it’s too expensive for a double bad room it was 99 ringgets(Malaysian currency) per night (S$ 50, or INR 1350), said “thank you” and walked out. Finally found a real cheap hotel room with 2 single bed in just 55 ringgets (S$ 27, INR 700), it was not very good hotel but it was perfect for our budget. After an hour we went out for food hunting. Though tired we were very hungry too. The hotel door was opening in front of the famous china town market. Which was all bustling with tourist buying cheap imitations of Rolex watches and Nike shoes. But it was impressive. Found McDonalds in the corner had chicken burger meal (at that time there was Bird flu scare all around south east Asia, so people were avoiding eating chicken!). After feeling our bellies with potential bird flu infected chickens, , we went around window shopping in Chinatown market for an hour, where Hiren bought his sunglasses. I was looking for some souvenirs but didn’t buy anything at all. Went back to hotel at around 11:00 pm. Went to bed straight away. Within 1 hour we both were freezing…		(View from cable car)
the AC duct above our bed was blowing like hurricane wind, 100 miles per hour!! And there were no controls to adjust it!! After struggling to find a switch or something to slow down AC, Hiren went downstairs to ask the manager if he can turn down the arctic wind in our room. He came up angry and with lots of newspapers in his hand!!! I asked “what’s up dude, why do you want to read the whole weeks newspaper in one night???” he said, “This is the only solution my friend, and started covering the AC duct with the newspapers… I’ve started laughing hysterically… he joined in and we laughed like anything for about half an hour, before going back to sleep, as the AC has now very much in “control”. Woke up in the morning got ready and went to catch bus to Langkawi, again bought tickets in same fashion, but now were expert in pushing and punching, so it was easy. Boarded the bus to Pulau Penang (Pulau means Island). It was around 6 hours journey from KL to Penang. The plan was to reach Penang by 3:00 pm and then take ferry to Langkawi Island and stay in Langkawi for 2 days and explore the island and it’s white sandy beaches and amazing wildlife. We reached Penang as expected but there was slight problem, the ferry to Langkawi leaves only 8:00 am in the morning and there is no other ferry leaving from Penang to Langkawi during the day!! We were disappointed that means, we will be wasting 1 precious day in Penang. But there was more, me and Hiren lost each other in a shopping mall. We were looking for each other for more than half an hour before finding each other, it was tiring and frustrating as we were carrying our heavy backpacks and going up and down and round and round in the mall. But we found each other. Decided to buy ferry tickets for next morning and get a hotel room to dump our heavy burden. Hired a paddle rickshaw, and traveled in lightning fast 1 km/hour speed to our destination. I was so embarrassed as everybody on the street and road were watching us like we were some novelty item in some lame museum exhibition. The travel agent from where we bought ferry tickets and also our Penang to KL bus ticket for next night told us that, “Chulia Street” is best place to stay in Penang if we want to enjoy the real Penang, as it’s the hub for the backpackers around the world. Chulia street it is. We after leaving our supersonic ride we decided to walk from hotel to hotel to find cheap deal, finally found old, un-restorable, fractured from every side ancient Chinese pagoda type hotel, in just 30 ringgets.
(Our hotel on Chulia Street, Penang)		(Chulia Street, Penang 7:00 am)
To our surprise our hotel was a hangout for the backpackers, around 7:00 pm the “restaurant” in front of our hotel was full with travelers from all around the world, Americans, brits, aussies etc. the pool table was full too. we decided to play pool. After a game we went out for dinner in another Indian restaurant, it was not as good as the other but was alright and it was next to a cinema hall which was showing some Kamal Hasan starrer Tamil movie!! We wandered around the street and found one bar, it was small but the music was good and it was full of beautiful people stayed there for an hour, had drink (me coke, Hiren beer I think…), came back around 11 pm. Straight to bed. Next morning, got up early to catch ferry. We decided to leave our baggage in the hotel and took only essential stuff as extra t-shirt and swimming shorts etc. Took local bus to ferry terminal, the bus was really old and noisy, felt like it will going to break down in any second, but reached the ferry terminal without any problems, only to find out that the Terminal we thought was for Langkawi was for big commercial ships and Langkawi ferry goes from another terminal, which was 10 minutes walking distance.
(Pool in Penang Hotel)	It was almost 8:00 am, we were on the verge of screaming, we walked fast almost running towards to ferry terminal. Reached there and found out that the ferry has not come yet and will take another 15 minutes. We were relieved. There were about 300 to 500 people waiting for ferry with more than half looks like Japanese tour groups, with fluorescent color jackets and different color hats to identify them from others. After 15 minutes wait I saw a huge ship coming towards our jetty, I thought this might not be the one. Within 5 minutes I knew it was not it was coming from Indonesia. Our ferry arrived right behind the huge ship. It was 2 and half hours journey in fast ferry. It was sickening experience as the ferry was rocking almost like bumpy roller coaster ride. The on ferry movie was “The Last Samurai” starring Tom Cruise; we can clearly see that it was pirated copy, as the movie was not released in Asia. We landed in Langkawi jetty after 2 and half hour’s difficult sea ride.
(Langkawi Island - Eagle park)	First impression was “It’s ok, nothing spectacular”. The island looked all right. First thing’s first… Food!! Had chicken burger and cheese fries in KFC at mall adjacent to ferry terminal. Decided to hire taxi to go around Island as we had only 7 hours before last ferry departs from Langkawi to Penang. Went straight to Langkawi waterfall, which was decent track, bath in our undies and came back in 1 hour!! It was really fun! Rushed to the beach which was the main attraction for us as we heard lot about it. As soon as our taxi reached beach road I just screamed “Stop! I know this beach! It’s in many bollywood movies!!” (the immediate one I remember is “oh priya” song from the movie “Daraar”). It was beautiful, pure white sand and dark blue water with small green island in the middle of the sea… it was amazingly beautiful. The water was really calm and slightly warm as it was afternoon and the sun was blazing above. But it was worth it the beach is called “Tanjong Rua”. It was like peace of heaven. There was a resort near by called Tanjong Rua beach resort. After swimming for more than hour, we met a boat’s man who offered us 2 hour trip to near by island for snorkeling and island hopping.
We have accepted happily as he was charging 100 ringgets and we can have a new experience as non of us have snorkeled before and even went this deep in the sea. 2 slightly old English couple joined us in the boat. Then only we found out that the boat was originally hired by these two and we were hitchhiking so that the boatowner can earn some extra cash. The boat’s man has introduced us as his cousins J we have pretended like were actually related.. that was fun!! He took us near a small island where there were coral rocks, he told us that there were really good fishes in the water, so the English gentleman and me we jumped in the water (me with a life jacket ofcourse!!) I was unable to see anything as I didn’t had any snorkeling gears! So the kind English lady offered me her which politely accepted. From then on the sea was beautiful, I saw really beautiful fishes with all sizes and colours. The rock formation near the island were dramatic there were some cavings inside the rocks too. it was amazing experience after a while I heard a “thud” sound. Hiren was in the water too with the life jacket. We snorkeled around for an hour. During my snorkeling adventure I have did something which I’ve regretted later.		(Me at Tanjong Rhua beach)
(Me Snorkling)	There was a huge rock near by just for the fun I tried to climb that rock from the water.. o oh.. that was a bad idea. As the rock was very sharp it’s it was made of small needles.. I end up with bruises in both my hands and legs! We finished snorkeling and got back to our boat. After that we head to another deserted island where we said good by to the English couple who were planning to snorkel around that island and came back to the Tanjong Rua beach where our taxi driver was waiting. We rushed back to the ferry terminal and found out that our ferry was 1 hour late! Well waited for an hour. When we finally boarded ferry the sickening feeling started again..this time there was some Chinese martial art movie in our ferry trip. The boat was moving fast as well as my stomach. Finally landed in Penang, back to the hotel. Rested for a while and then went for dinner at the Indian restaurant.
Around 11 we left the hotel to catch our bus back to KL. We slept through the journey. When we reached KL we were really tired as it was the last day of our amazing trip. It was around 6:00 am in the morning and there was still an hour left for ticket windows to open. So decided to freshen up and store our luggage in safe place. Luckily we found a lodge nearby where we can store our luggage for 10 rinngets and also for 5 ringgets can have shower too.. that was good. After getting ready and putting our luggage at the safety of the lodge, we decided that we will go and see the famous Petronas towers. First thing’s first…We went to bus terminal to buy tickets to Singapore. There we had another shocking news. All the buses going to Singapore were full! So no tickets!! We were tired and just wanted to go back home, so me and hiren tried separately to find any means of transportation but no luck… after another half an hour hiren came back with one Indian guy, they have managed a deal with a taxi driver who was ready to take us to Johor Bahru for 300 ringgets (SGD 150), we were desparate and tired so decided why not.		(Me under Petronas - Kuala Lumpur)
(Sardarji under Petronas)	But at that moment somebody started shouting “Please queue here for tickets to Johor Bahru” we ran towards that direction where a lady with head scarf was standing outside a ticket window with a walkie talkie in her hand, we bought 3 tickets for JB. She told us the bus will depart at 10:30 am. We were happy and decided to have breakfast as it was just 8:00 am, went to Starbucks for coffee and some food. Didn’t forgot to take our new Sardar friend from India. Heard his story with our breakfast. He just came from Thailand 1 day ago, the hotel booked by his travel agent said there was no booking on his name though he has paid full money to the agent, so he has to pay again in Thailand, in Malaysia the stay was alright. His next destination was Singapore where he suppose to stay for 1 night and fly back to India. He was a police officer in town of Patiala, Punjab. After finishing the breakfast, we went to see the Petronas. Thought it was early in the morning there were more than 50 people most of them foreigners lining up to buy tickets to go up in Petronas. We took some photos around Petronas and it was ready 10 so came back to bus terminal.
Around 10:30 am the lady reappeared near the ticket booth and told us to follow her… we walk down on the main road and then she asked us to stop and form a group. After about 20 minutes wait a bus came and we all boarded the bus. It was not very comfortable but we were happy we were going back!! The journey back to JB was comfortable (except the part when I had to pee and the bus driver took around 40 minutes before stopping for a break!! It is very hard to enjoy the scenery with full bladder ;-) ) after “lightening” myself, I slept most of the time. We reached JB around 5 pm. We boarded bus number 170 which goes near bugis junction, Singapore. But when bus reached main road from the terminal, we saw the sea of vehicles going towards the same direction. All vehicles were going towards Singapore border. It took us more than 45 minutes to reach to Singapore boarder (normally 10 minutes). After clearing the Malaysian border we entered Singapore, woodlands checkpoint, again almost 1 hour for immigration and customs and wait for our next bus.		(The Petronas - Kuala Lumpur)
Reached Bugis around 7:00 pm. We have decided to help the Sardarji out in finding his hotel and making sure that everything is alright. So went with him to find his hotel which we found after 30 minutes in china town. There was no booking on his name, phoned his local agent and waited and argued with the hotel manager for more than an hour, we were tired, angry, frustrated and in the desperate need of a bath, finally out of nothing the agent called and settled with the hotel manager to keep Sardarji for one night and he will bare the charges and will settle it with the Indian agent. Felt happy and satisfied that helped needy fellow Indian. Parted with Sardarji with an invitation to come to his hometown “Patiala”.
In the end it was a journey full of excitement, difficulties, fun, heat, humidity, beauty, thrill, satisfaction and humility, which definitely made me slightly more tolerant, wiser and informed among other things. Hope you all liked my company. Please feel free to give me your suggestions in how I can improve my travel writing and how do you like the writing in general. Thank you for being with me in this journey. Hope to see you in the next adventure of Nilesh till then “Long Days and Pleasant Nights” (From Stephen King’s “The Dark Tower” series novels). - By Nilesh Vasave
To see picture gellary of my Malaysia trip please visit my Yahoo! Photo album or Go back to my home page .