Malaysia and Singapore

Hi Everyone,

Our trip started fairly hassle-free with an on-time flight from Lisbon. We had a 6 hour stop over in Frankfurt so took a ride into the city centre for dinner before checking in again for our flight to Kuala Lumpur. Another good but long flight later we landed in Malaysia and caught a taxi into KL during their Friday evening rush hour (not to be recommended). After a quick change we had a stroll around the area and had a meal washed down by couple of beers before returning to the hotel for a nightcap followed by a good nights sleep.

Suitably refreshed we tried the hotel breakfast - avoiding the curry and congee sections of the buffet. We had a whole day in KL but were a little disappointed at the concrete jungle it has become since our last visit. The city centre has been ripped apart and every available space now has a high-rise hotel, office block or shopping mall. In the middle of all this we spotted a small filling station with a large banner sign, the complete width of the frontage, stating "This land is not for sale".

After another day strolling around KL, recovering from the flight and time zone change - we are 8 hours ahead here - and we ere ready to continue our journey to Penang. The next day we had a fairly early start and caught a taxi to Sentral station which in fact was a 25 minute ride from the centre of the city! We joined the throng of people trying to find their train and after a 45 minute wait we boarded the 9:30 train bound for Butterworth. Butterworth is on the mainland opposite the island of Penang which is connected by both a ferry service and a road bridge.

CLICK ON PHOTO FOR LARGER PICTURE AND CAPTION!

The train was a new electric service which has only been running since last October. A vast improvement over the old diesel train service, making the journey in about half the time as before. Luckily we had chosen our seats online before we left Portugal so we had seats in the same carriage as the refreshments counter. The scenery was great, passing through farmland and old plantations with just a few stops at towns en route.

Eventually, we arrived at our destination and after leaving the train Lynne went walkabouts and then had trouble finding me and the luggage again. With the help of the station master she tracked me down. Then came the worst part of the whole journey - we had to walk to the ferry. The distance was only about 150m but involved climbing up a multitude of steep steps before descending again on the other side of the railway tracks. I was half dead at the end of it but Lynne had managed to cajole some local hunk into carrying her suitcase up the steps for her.

One 10 minute ferry ride and a 30 minute taxi ride later we arrived at our apartment. Hoorah.

Now we can relax and enjoy the sun.

We are doing a little bit of sightseeing in the next weeks so new pictures will be added as and when available. Next pictures are of our visit to Penang Hill - the highest point on the island.

The next pictures are from a visit to the "Clan Jetties" in George town, and other views of George Town. The more observant of you may have noticed that the sun seems to have disappeared - hence the visit instead of lying on the beach!

The clan jetties date from the 1800s when the chinese traders lived and traded from these jetties. There are 5 main jetties each belonging to a different "family".

We have just been hanging out near the beach recently so not many new photos this week. We are off to Singapore soon and will put a few more pictures on the site then. Also have had problems with the internet this week so, the first few attempts to update the site failed due to repeated "timeouts".

21 February - SINGAPORE

We are now in Singapore for a couple of days before returning to Portugal. More photos will be added before we set off back.

The following pictures are mainly of the bold new architecture around the reclaimed Marina Bay development - when we were last here in 2003 the majority of this area was under water.

Hi Everyone, we are now back home and "enjoying" the cooler weather. Will add a few more pictures and comments over the next couple of weeks. Otherwise, it's back to normal until 17th Mar when we have an outing to Sintra planned so should be a new posting soon afterwards. Cheers!