Em & Tola's Travel Blog

Wednesday we jumped on a bus and left KL for the mountains and the Cameron Highlands. The bus ride went very smooth and after 4 hours we reached the small town of Tanah Rata. The town is located at around 1400 meters above sea level and got chilly at night time (15 degrees celsius...brrr). :)

We had heard that February was not peak season, but we had forgotten that it was Chinese New Year, so almost all guesthouses and hostels were full. After a while of searching we managed to find the tiniest little attic rooms that were 6 square meters big with a mattress on the floor.


On our second day in CH we went on a countryside tour. We were driven around to a few beautiful places up in the mountains. The first place was the "rose centre", it was more of a botanical garden with all kinds of flowers and a great view from the top.


The second stop was a tea factory/tea plantation where we got to go on a short tour. Here we learnt how tea was made. We also had a cup of local made tea and a scone while enjoying the wonderful view of the rolling hills outside.


Our third stop was a bee farm and a market place. At the market place we had some strawberry ice cream made from strawberrys grown in the area.


Our fourth stop was the butterfly park. This place was amazing. When we entered, we were blown away by the huge amount of big and beautiful butterflies. They were literally everywhere. After we had taken pictures of almost all of the butteflies at the park we exited the butterly area and saw a group of people gathered around something. It turned out to be a huge scarab beetle. We got to hold it and pet it. After they put the scarab beetle back in it's cage they took out some more insects and animals for us to hold and pet. First I held a different kind of beetle, then a rare kind of gecko and then finally a big scary looking scorpion. Yes, that is my hand in the picure...



After the craziest insect experience of my life, we went to have some strawberries at a strawberry farm. Our last stop was at a Buddhist temple that was reeking of incense.


A great tour was over, but our day was not. We went on a small hike to a waterfall close to Tanah Rata. It was in a beautiful area but the waterfall was extremely dirty. We then continued up a hill, but decided to turn back before sunset.


On our last full day in CH we went on the biggest hike the area had to offer. The peak was at 2031 meters (6666 feet) above sea level. After walking for 20 minutes we got deep into the forest and it felt like we were walking through a jungle. The path was quite steep and we had to grab on to roots and branches to move upwards and forward. After 2 hours we reached the top that was apparently also reachable by car. The view itself was very pretty, but what made the hike memorable was the extreme jungle-feel of the hike going up and then down.




We ended our stay in the Cameron Highlands by a short walk to another waterfall. This one was also quite pretty, but as we had seen in other places it was very, very dirty.


Tomorrow we are leaving the mountains for the beach. We are going to the Perhentian Islands on the east coast of Malaysia. After the chilly mountains, I think we will welcome the sun and the heat.

Yesterday we took a local bus for about 45 minutes to get to the Batu Caves. They are a sacred Hindu place right outside KL where over a million Hindus go on a pilgrimage during January & Febuary every year. It is a beautiful place, but very overcrowded and dirty. Almost all of the tourist attractions we have gone to in Malaysia have had garbage everywhere which is really too bad.


The Batu Caves where very beautiful and it was great to see all of the Hindu people perform their rituals in their traditional outfits. Up a long, long flight of stairs there is a temple where people light coconuts on fire and later smash them against the cave wall. Next to the temple around 30 wild monkeys where running around eating garbage that all the tourists leave behind.


Today was the last full day we will spend in KL. We spent the biggest part of it with Daniel, a Malaysian guy that I had met in Seoul at summer school 2009. He first took us to an area called Bangsar to have lunch. We had Southern Indian food which meant food served with rice and curry on a banana leaf. It was quite delicious and made us look forward to our trip through India even more.


After lunch we went to Daniel's friends house. Since it was Chinese New Year, they suggested that we gamble for a bit. Apparently the two things you do on Chinese New Year are eat and gamble. It ended well with us winning a whopping 2 ringits (50 cents or 4 kronor).

After the gambling session we said goodbye to Daniel and went to pick up our old Finnish friend Antti who will join us on our trip for the coming 3,5 weeks. We ended the day together by walking to the Petronas one last time and having dinner in our favorite food court.

Tomorrow we are off to the mountains and the Cameron Highlands. It will be nice to go to the countryside after 2 weeks in major cities.

Oh, and if you notice that the pictures are a lot clearer and nicer than they used to be it is because we got a new camera at the Low Yat Plaza in KL. We love it!

We spent a few great days in Singapore, days that were quite packed with activities. It was nice to be able to sit on another train for a few hours, and at least I was able to get a little shut eye (Tola has a harder time settling down sometimes). :)


Arriving in Kuala Lumpur brought great surprise to both of us. It proved to be a great city from the start, and we began our stay in Kuala Lumpur by taking the local monorail to the center of the city. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming as we arrived in Malaysia, and Tola and I were both surprised by how at home we felt in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is quite small for a Southeast Asian capital, so it was easy to get around on foot (when it wasn't too hot). This allowed for many enjoyable walks along city streets.


As we became comfortable getting around KL, we discovered one of the best "food courts" we have ever been to. :) The average meal was less than three dollars, and it was located in a special part of the city. Our new favorite food court was attached to the Petronas Towers (the famous twin buildings in KL), and it had a wonderful city view. We enjoyed an early Valentine's Day meal together, and then we decided to go check out the cinema. I had been talking about the new movie "Valentine's Day" for weeks, and it had just come to the cinema, so we got in line to buy tickets for the movie. It was the day after opening day, so it sold out before we got to the front of the line; however, a sweet couple came up to us and asked us if we wanted their two tickets (for a cheap price). We were surprised by their generosity as we enjoyed the movie and a lovely evening in KL.


February 14th was a couple of days later, and for some reason we had planned on trying to get tickets for the sky walk between the Petronas Towers. People usually line up early in the morning to get tickets for the walkway because they give them away for free every morning. We hadn't really thought that it would probably be busy because of the Chinese New Year, so we weren't it too much of a hurry to get to the tower. Once we arrived, we discovered that the tickets were all taken for the day. Tola and I were a little bummed because we had wanted to go up the walkway, but we enjoyed the little museum anyway. As we walked around and read information about the Petronas Towers, a lady (one of the workers) came up to us and asked us about our tickets. We told her that we didn't have tickets, and after we told her, she took us to the side and told us that we could still go up the towers. We were excited and surprised again by another small blessing of the weekend!


After a wonderful afternoon filled with little surprises throughout the day, we ended Valentine's Day by enjoying a delicious meal at a lovely restaurant. Our time in Kuala Lumpur has been wonderful so far. We will be spending a few more days here, and then we will be meeting Antti during the middle of the week.

Our plan of an "Eco friendly"-trip ended very early with us boarding an Air Asia plane heading for Singapore. It did feel nice to recover with some comfort after a quite strenuous start on our trip through Indonesia.

The second we landed in our new destination everything felt very different. Singapore and Jakarta are worlds apart. It was like going from one extreme to the other. Singapore is extremely clean, safe and convenient. After we checked in to our hostel we jumped on the MRT and visited the Islamic and Indian quarters.


If Seoul is convenient, Singapore could best be described as an adult Disneyland. We were blown away by how clean and pretty the streets were, and this in the rougher neighbourhoods of the city. We ended our evening by having a picnic on top of Mount Emily. It seemed fitting.


Our first full day in Singapore was our walking day. First we checked out the shopping street Orchard road (very posh), Clarke's Quay and the colonial district. The entire day was filled with beautiful weather. Come to think of it we have been very lucky with the weather everywhere we have gone on the trip so far.


In the evening we met up with a professor from summer school at Sungkyunkwan, Raymond. He took us to Holland Village where we talked and talked over beers and Mexican food. Raymond is a very nice and interesting guy with quite a few stories. He apparently has animated Scooby Doo and was chased down by Tom Cruise back in the day.


On our last day in Singapore we went to Sentosa Island. I did not quite know what to expect before arriving, but when we got there I was surprised. It is a place where everything is so extremely beautiful and put into place, with long white beaches, nature walks with waterfalls, a monorail (feels like Disneyland again), zip lines, huge statues and fountains, etc. Everything on Sentosa is very pretty, but feels plastic and artificial. A very cool place to go to though. On the island they have an aquarium with a dolphin show with pink dolphins. It was a bit expensive, so we decided not to enter. Instead we went for a nature walk. And suddenly 5 minutes in, we heard a loud noise right next to us. It was the dolphin show that we could see right into. We felt quite lucky as the pink dolphins showed us their tricks.


After we left Sentosa, we went wandering through the city again on another beautiful day. We had dinner at one of the famous Hawker centres and then we went walking by the Singapore river all the way to the Merlion Statue, the symbol of Singapore. A half lion, half mermaid creature. Seeing the sunset next to it felt like a perfect end to a short, but packed visit to Singapore. One of the more futuristic and pretty cities I have ever been to.

Jakarta .. A place like I had never experienced.

To get to Jakarta, we took a 9 hour train from Yogyakarta. Our train ride ended up being a real experience, and both Tola and I had never seen so many vendors. It was unbelievable how vendors just kept coming, and they sold everything from nail clippers to fresh fruit (there were even people shining shoes). We were happy when we arrived in Jakarta because it was nice to stretch our legs and get outside after 9 hours in a hot train. The train ride was definitely a great experience, and we were able to enjoy the beautiful countryside of Indonesia. The landscapes were breathtaking as we rode past thick forests and serene mountains. Taking the train was a perfect way to view more of Indonesia.


Then suddenly we were in Jakarta ... The entire island of Java is quite populated and more than 50% of Indonesians (around 120 million people) live on Java, so we definitely didn't feel alone during while on Java, but Jakarta was even more crowded. Now Tola and I have both lived in Seoul, and the population of Jakarta is smaller than Seoul, so the people weren't a surprise .. it was all of the cars! Jakarta has some of the worst traffic in the world. There are cars everywhere because Jakarta's public transportation system is not very good. Jakarta is also the 3rd most polluted city in the world, so we definitely noticed that the air was different.


We had a restful time in Jakarta because Tola ended up catching a cold, but it was the perfect place to relax because of the many comfortable malls with free internet access. Of course we did make the effort to explore Jakarta a bit, and we were able to visit a national museum that was a good way to learn more of Indonesia's history. We stayed very close to major sites in the city, so we visited the president's palace and the National Monument (Monas). Taking the elevator to the top of Monas ended up being a great way to get a view of the entire city. Jakarta is very large and from above, the city went on forever.


To escape Jakarta for one day, we also ventured to Bogor (a city about 1 1/2 hours from Jakarta). We were excited to take the commuter train, as the commuter trains drive along with the doors open, and they are very crowded. People also tended to ride on the roof. I think the roof would have been a cooler place to sit, but don't worry (Mom), I would have never attempted. :) During our time in Bogor we walked around the city a bit, and we had a wonderful lunch overlooking all of Bogor. Bogor really felt like more of a normal city because Jakarta is still a business city with quite a few foreigners. It was good to get a taste of another West Java city. In Bogor there are also famous botanical gardens, so spent most of our day walking through the beautiful gardens. They were by far the largest gardens Tola and I had been to, and we really enjoyed exploring the different parts of the gardens.


Our time in Jakarta felt like it went by very quickly, but we did spend six nights in the large city. On our last full day in Jakarta, we were able to get together with Dimas who had studied at Kettle Falls High School as an exchange student from 2002-2003, and it was a great way to end our month in Indonesia. Dimas and I had a couple of classes together, so it was fun looking at some pictures from Kettle Falls. He showed us some sites in the city before we went to his house for dinner. His mother was very kind and welcoming and she made us a wonderful dinner. We had a very special last day in Indonesia (and in Jakarta), and it seemed to be the perfect ending to our Indonesian journey.

3 weeks really just flies by... The last few days we have been exploring Yogyakarta (or Jogja that it is more frequently called). Jogja is the cultural capital of Indonesia and the city to come to if you want to see old temples and palaces, old markets and older tourists. Jogja was the capital of Indoneisa for a few years around the second world war.


Saturday we went to the most famous construction in Indonesia, Borobudur. It is a huge buddhist temple built in the 800th century. The building itself was quite impressive, but we were really blown away of where it was located (on top of a hill between a few beautiful mountains).

The next day we walked down the main street of the city, Malioboro street. It is a 2 kilometer long market crammed with people and stalls that sell anything you can think of. In the end of it we reached a small fair that was there for the weekend. We did not dare to go on any of the rides because they were loud, ran on gasoline and looked like they were built during the era of black and white tv. We continued passed the fare and finally got to our destination for the day, Kraton, the old royal palace. Inside we got to see some traditional indonesian dancers accompanied by a 20 person orchestra playing all sorts of bells and gongs. The palace itself was not that big or mindblowing, but interesting in the sense that it mixed colonial dutch architecture with asian. The rest of the day was spent resting and then watching the Arsenal - Man Utd game in a bar next to our hotel with a loud-mouthed british guy and 7 indonesians. It was quite funny when the indonesians started to mimic whatever the british guy did (like applauding after every good effort or yelling at the tv).


Being in a good mood after the game we started the new week with going to the oldest market in Jogja. We could have spent hours in there just looking and smelling everything. The area where they sold spices was the most exciting. After the market, we checked out some dutch colonial architecture (the post office, the bank and a fort), when a bicycle taxi (here called beckak) driver approached us and wanted to show us the city. He followed us everywhere and did not take no for an answer. So in the end we got on and let him peddle us around for an hour. All he wanted was half a dollar (4 kronor). We did not regret it cause it was a lot of fun rolling through the small streets of the city.



He dropped us of at the water castle, a system of underground tunnels leading to a big bath house built by a portugese architect who was later killed so he would not give away the locating to the secret pleasure rooms of the rulers of that day. The buildings have been largely ruined by earthquakes but that just made it feel more authentic and unique. The area around the castle was old where they selled all sorts of animals. Cats, dogs, snails, turtles, snakes, lizards, hamsters, rats, birds, fish, etc. We felt sorry for all of them being crammed in to tiny cages. They had also dyed the small chicklets in different colours and painted the shells of the snails.



We have decided to buy a small souvenir from every country that we visit on the trip. We bought the one from Indonesia today, a small bell to remind us of the church bell in Batu that Emily's granddad Heinrich put there 50 years ago.

Tomorrow we are leaving Jogja to head to the last stop on our Indonesia trip, Jakarta.