Hey everyone!
It's been a long time since my last blog, I know... So what has happened since then:
After I came back from the Phillipines, my exam period started. In the middle of June, exams were over and my family (my parents and my younger brother) visited me in Taipei for a weekend. The date they chose was a little unfortunate, since this was during 'natural disaster' period. In one week, we had a flooding and 5 earthquakes and the week after that a small Taifoon!
So, as you can imagine, I was very happy to flee from this end-of-the-world scenario to Malaysia, just before the Taifoon hit. I was going together with Jannes and the occasion of the trip was to visit an old classmate of ours (Felix) who was studying in Malaysia for a semester.
The first day, Jannes and I did some sightseeing in Kuala Lumpur. We took the train to the city and were surprised by how clean and modern the surroundings were. The highlight of Malayian trains: a whole carriage is reserved for women.
Here is one of the major attractions in KL: The Petronas Towers:
The next attraction: Masjid Jamek, which used to be the national mosque:
The special flair of KL comes from the very diverse cultural heritage. Next to Malayians, common ethnicities are Chinese, Indian and British/European. Most of these different influences are combined at the Merdeka square, where Colonial residences stand next to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, all with skyscrapers in the background.
Colonial residences: feels like a tropical Europe:
Jannes chilling on the Merdeka square:
The Sultan Abdul Samad Building: used both by the old Colonial as well as the current government:
After walking through China town, we ended up at an Indian temple:
In the evening, Felix had invited his classmates for dinner and we joined them. Food in Malaysia is even cheaper than in Taiwan and quite tasty. Next to good food we enjoyed the conversation with the Malayian classmates. We were surprised to hear that two thirds of students at the university were female. We also noticed this ratio at the dinner table (picture by Felix):
Afterwards we went to an amusement park, where I noticed that the concept of 'kitsch' was not lost on the Malayians: the highlight of the amusement park was a 'garden' filled with brightly glowing plastic trees. We also learned that Japanese and Chinese are not the only Asians who love to take pictures. After a one hour photo session with the classmates and being asked by several passerbys to 'model' for their pictures as well, we no longer had the wish to ever become celebrities.
One of the pictures: The girls and me in front of the garden (picture by Felix):
The next day we got up early and started our voyage to Tioman, an island close to Kuala Lumpur together with Felix and his room mate Hanno. It took us a whole day to get there, first taking the bus to Mersing, and then a ferry to the island. We didn't reserve a hotel room, so it took us a good hour to find one. In the end we still were done early enough to enjoy the sunset:
The next day we participated at a round-island tour. Here you can see our group in the boat:
Our tour wasn't off to a good start. After getting to the first beach, our boat stopped working and we had to wait one and a half hours for a replacement... Not a very promising beginning, especially since big chunks of oil were floating on the water and swimming was made painful by stingy jellyfish. Still, we enjoyed the beach:
Finally, a new boat arrived and we continued our tour:
And then it got a lot better! First, we saw some dolphins next to our boat (picture by Felix):
Afterwards we stopped at a jetty next to the forest:
On our tour through the forest we saw some nice butterflies, a giant spiderweb and a flying reptile. Here it is walking up the tree:
After a 15 minute walk we stopped at a waterfall. This time it really was a nice picturesque waterfall (not like the one in the Phillipines) and we cooled off a little.
Jannes and Felix in the middle of the waterfall:
Then we did some snorkeling at a coral reef and were positively surprised by the many fish and glowing underwaterworld.
Here is a picture taken with Hanno's underwater camera of me snorkeling:
And after we came back we enjoyed another beautiful sunset at the jetty:
The next day we relaxed on the beach and did some snorkeling again. We saw some nice fish, and took cool pictures of Nemo with the underwater cam:
...Another sunset (picture with underwater cam):
And after a last evening at the beach our vacation was already over...
Overall it was a relatively short and eventful vacation. Malaysia is an exciting country and I feel like there is still much more to see and to go back for.
