& Singapore Expedition
April - 14th May 2000
Pre-Expedition Planning (Köln & Düsseldorf):
We started planning the trip 8 weeks in advance, by first checking return
flight prices from DUS (Düsseldorf Airport) to SIN (Singapore Changi
Airport) on the internet: http://www.flug.de
which we booked at http://ba-ticket-direkt.de/
for DEM 1,306 per person, since it was at least DEM 50 per person cheaper
than with a travel agent. We chose KLM since it was cheaper than Lufthansa
or British Airways for our requested dates.
The best deal for a Borneo tour was an 8 day package with Borneo Eco
Tours (http://www.borneoecotours.com/). We booked the Borneo 2000 non-climbers package for DEM 1,300 per person directly with them via e-mail. (Flights were DEM 500 extra).
The hotel prices with Meier's Weltreisen were comparatively cheap, so
we arranged some luxury hotels in advance for Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi.
Day 1 (Thur 20 April) (Düsseldorf)
We left work early at 14:30, drove back to my flat to get changed and then
took a taxi to Düsseldorf airport. We checked in 2 hours early to
make sure we had some good seats on the long haul flight. The short flight
to Amsterdam was operated by Eurowings (a BAe 146). We had a 2 hour wait
at Schipol Amsterdam before boarding the KLM Boeing 747-400 at 20:15. The
duty free selection and prices were very reasonable. The flight was OK,
obviously very cramped in economy class, but at least we could see a video
screen showing the films Stuart Little and The World is not Enough.
Day 2 (Fri 21 April) (Singapore)
We landed 15 minutes late at 15:10 and got through customs with no problem
(having spent 5 minutes filling in the immigration-form on the plane).
Our big rucksacks arrived with no problem. Alastair (a friend since school)
met us outside baggage reclaim and, as we stepped outside the terminal
building, we were hit by the weather: 30°C with 98% humidity. We got
in an air-conditioned taxi and drove to Alastair's flat at Nanyang Technological
In the evening we went to Holland Village, a great place to eat and drink,
where we sampled Tiger Beer for the first time and were immediately hooked
went to a few bars/restaurants and had Thai and Malay food, which was
nice (and some more Tiger of course).
Day 3 (Sat 22 April) (Singapore)
In the morning we took the bus and MRT (Mass Rapid Transport train system)
to Raffles Place and walked past Merlion Park to the Westin Stamford shopping
centre (Westin Plaza) and then to the Raffles Hotel where we had a coffee
in a posh café after browsing past the expensive boutiques. We went
down Orchard Road and checked out some of the shopping centers. Some salt-'n-vinegar
crisps and a 100-Plus drink were required to survive the heat when we got
to Marks & Spencer. We proceeded to Bugis Junction where all the fake
watch market stalls were, we looked at a large temple and drank a Tiger
beer nearby in a local foodcourt. After that, at Clarke Quay we bought
a load of crap cheap ties for future Carnival use in Germany (only 1 SGD
(Singapore dollar) per tie). At 18:00 we then met Alastair at Boat Quay
at the English pub, where we had some pints of bitter. On Boat Quay there
are loads of bars and restaurants and you can't go down that street without
being asked by several proprietors if you want to eat at their restaurant.
We went to an excellent Indian restaurant and were joined by one of Alastair's
friends as well to celebrate Alastair's birthday. The Kingfisher beer tasted
rather odd, it was the Indian bottled version which seemed to have loads
of additives in it.
Day 4 (Sun 23 April) (Singapore)
After a late breakfast at Coffee Bean at Orchard MRT shopping centre, we
headed to the East Coast Sailing Club, where Alastair kept his boat (a
Laser 3000 2-person boat). He and Michael went sailing for about 2 hours
getting quite close to some huge oil tankers and other cargo ships. The
weather was superb, blazing sun and a reasonable amount of wind.
In the evening we went on the Singapore Night Safari where we saw hundreds of different animals, i.e. leopards, lions, tigers, giraffes, owls, otters and huge bats amongst others. The admission fee was SGD 17.35, but it is well worth it. You get driven round on a tram and you can get out at various places to explore on foot. The restaurants there were excellent, serving Malay style food like Nasi Lemak, (you can also get burgers or steaks there). To get back to the flat we flagged down a Taxi on the Buket Timah Expressway, the driver was an absolute nutter with a crazy loud laugh. He was interested in English football, so we discussed Beckham's new (non-)hairstyle.
Day 5 (Mon 24 April) (Singapore)
Michael and I took the MRT to China Town where we saw some impressive temples
and browsed the market stalls where cheap T-shirts and copy watches were
on sale. Tailors offered to make us suits and shirts. We could probably
have had a good suit made for about SGD 250, but that was too expensive
for me. For lunch we had high tea (SGD 31 per person) at the top
of the Westin Stamford hotel on the 70th floor in the Compass Rose Bar.
The view over the whole of Singapore was incredible. We then proceeded
to Little India (via Bugis Junction where I bought a watch for SGD 18,
it still works). In little India we saw loads of old colonial style houses.
We drunk some more Tiger beer to recover from the heat (34°C and 90%
Alastair joined us at 18:30 and we went to the East India Restaurant
where we had a superb curry (chicken tikka masala, chicken curry, mutton
rara and aloo gobhi with biriyani rice and Tiger beer). Which was nice.
Back at the flat we booked a taxi for the following morning since we had
to get up extremely early!
Day 6 (Tue 25 April) (Kota Kinabalu)
The taxi bloke phoned up 05:00 and asked how to get to us. He eventually
arrived 10 minutes late at 05:40 and took us via the PIE (Pan Island Expressway)
to the Copthorne Orchid hotel Malaysian Airlines' check-in office. The
bus to JHB (Johor Bahru airport) took about 1.5 hours and cost SGD 12.
There is no ATM at JHB so we couldn't withdraw any Malaysian money. We
had just enough MYR (Malaysian Ringits) to buy lunch downstairs in the
small restaurant. Michael had some Nasi something-or-other noodle soup
which had, amongst other things, tiny fish with eyes in, which he didn't
realize until he had eaten half of it. The Malaysian Airlines' flight was
2h 20min in a new Boeing 737-400. We arrived at Kota Kinabalu airport (BKI)
on time and got our hold luggage pretty quickly. Outside we looked for
the Borneo Eco Tours guide. He was no where to be seen, so we waited for
a few minutes and just before I was going to phone them he showed up and
drove us to the Shangri-La hotel in town. There are apparently 3 Shangri-La
hotels in Kota Kinabalu and we were in the one located in the town center
and not one of the luxury beach resort ones. For the next 8 days we had
a set program, pre-booked with Borneo Eco Tours (BET) (http://www.borneoecotours.com/).
In the afternoon we walked south down the Lebuh Raya Pantai Baru, past
a dilapidated wooden village on stilts built over some polluted stagnant
water. Then, left at the traffic lights and we found the large State Mosque.
Following that we proceeded to the Sabah State Museum, which had displays
about the history, culture and wildlife found in North Borneo. In the evening
we went round the night market (fruit, vegetable and fish markets next
to the sea) and ate at a corner café where we had some sweet &
sour fish with rice, and large (625 ml) bottles of Tiger beer. The beer
bottles are most sensibly sized, but also rather expensive, since the tax
on alcohol in Malaysia is quite high.
Day 7 (Wed 26 April) (Kota Kinabalu / Pulau Sapi)
We were picked up at 09:00 in the lobby and driven to a jetty where a small
speed boat took us to Sapi island, about 20 minutes boat ride away. Sapi
island belongs to the Tunku Abdul Rahman Park and has a small white sandy
beach, with excellent snorkeling. Michael saw 100s of tropical fish, something
that looked like a sea snake and loads of different coral. The water was
extremely clear and he got sunburnt on his back, since he was so engrossed
in the fish he lost track of time. I explored the steep jungle paths in
the blazing heat, it was about 36°C in the shade. I saw a monitor lizard
and some aggressive long-tail macaques on the jungle path. The macaques
later came down to the beach and tried stealing everyone's food bags. We
left again just as it started raining at 15:00. Back at the hotel we wrote
postcards and later on went to the internet café to let everyone
know that we were OK and had not been kidnapped. Two days previously 21
people had been kidnapped on Pulau Sipadan (a small island off the east
coast of Borneo).
That evening we went to a food-stall restaurant in Sedco Square (on
the Julan Sapuloh) where we chose live fish and frogs from fish tanks which
they took away and cooked for us. It tasted excellent! The frogs tasted
similar to chicken. Several copy watch sellers came round and eventually
I bought one that looked reasonable for MYR 28.
Day 8 (Thur 27 April) (Poring, Kinabalu Park)
The BET guide from the first day picked us up at 08:15 and we drove 2 hours
past Kinabalu Park and Ranau to Poring. The road in certain places had
collapsed due to landslides, so we had to drive off-road in these areas,
but our guide was a superb driver and knew how to handle the mini-bus.
At Poring we saw the Kipungit waterfall (which wasn't that big, but had
large smooth slab rock channels), some huge trees and the butterfly farm.
After that we got changed into our swim gear and got into a hot spring
bath. Poring is well known for its hot spring, and there are several large
outdoor bath tubs where tourists like us can get in and relax and imagine
that the hot spring water is healthy. The air temperature in Poring was
about 32°C and sunny.
We then had lunch - an excellent curry - in a small restaurant in Ranau. The guide then dropped us off at a hotel about 20 minutes walk away
from Kinabalu Park Headquarters. The hotel Fairy Garden was quite basic,
but with an excellent view down into the valley. The temperature here was
only 20°C at a height of 1400 m. That afternoon we walked up to the
park headquarters and did one of the jungle walks. We saw quite a few strange
insects and kept walking into spider web strands. Flying insects were buzzing
around us and we were rather paranoid about being bitten or stung by something.
At park headquarters we looked at the insect museum and drank lots of beer
(Anchor). Which was nice.
Back at the hotel the electricity in our room didn't work and it took
the hotel manager and his caretaker 20 minutes to fix it. We had an excellent
Chinese set meal for dinner, and then some more Anchor beer.
Day 9 (Fri 28 April) (Kinabalu Park / Kota Kinabalu)
We got picked up by our guide at 10:00 and driven to the Kinabalu Park
headquarters building where he showed us the mini museum and explained
the history of the National Parks. We also learnt about the lifecycle of
the world’s largest flower - the Rafflesia (up to 1 meter diameter). After
that we went on a nature trail jungle walk guided by a local expert who
told us about the plants and wildlife. We also saw loads of wildly shaped
and colourful orchids.
Lunch was back at the hotel (Chinese style). In the afternoon we saw
a video about Mount Kinabalu (which I climbed last year with Alastair,
In the afternoon we picked up some other people who had climbed the mountain
and drove back to Kota Kinabalu passing a large mosque en route. We stayed
in the Shangri-La hotel again.
In the evening Michael had some excellent prawns and I had chicken curry
in the Sri Delima restaurant (in the Ruby Hotel) on Jalan Sapuloh. We asked
for some Tiger beer and they brought us a big teapot with cups and saucers
and hinted to us that it was "American Tea" (i.e. it was beer disguised).
Day 10 (Sat 29 April) (Sepilok / Sukau)
We got picked up at 05:50 from the hotel and drove to Kota Kinabalu airport.
En route we stopped off at the Shangrila Tanjung Aru luxury beach resort
hotel to pick up 2 more people (Alan and Jill, I think). We then flew to
Sandakan (30 minutes flight in a Boeing 737-400) and were met there by
another BET guide, John. He took us to Sepilok orangutan sanctuary, where
we watched the orangutans being fed with milk and bananas at 10:00. Sepilok
is a large jungle reserve where orphaned orangutans are nurtured back to
We then drove 2 hours to Sukau. The last hour was on a gravel dirt road leading through huge palm plantations. From the BET jetty in Sukau it was a 5 minute boat ride to the Sukau rainforest lodge. This wooden lodge built on stilts in the middle of the jungle was amazing. Joseph the large Sumo-style cook prepared the best food, it was outstanding. In the afternoon we went on a cruise up the Kinabatangan river looking into the jungle at the edge of the river for wildlife. We saw long-tail and pig-tail macaques, proboscis monkeys, otters and loads of birds. On our way back the petrol engine on the boat wouldn't restart for ages so we used the slow electric reserve engine. Eventually the main engine did start, after John had given it a good seeing to. We arrived back at the lodge in the dark, somewhat paranoid about being bitten by malaria mozzies.
In the evening, back at the lodge, we had extremely tasty tiger prawns,
lobster and fish (with plenty of Tiger beer). Brilliant.
The double rooms all had electricity and en-suite bathrooms with hot
water, so although we were in the jungle, it was really very comfortable.
Day 11 (Sun 30 April) (Sukau)
We left very early at 06:00 on a river cruise to the Kelenanap ox-bow lake.
It was just me, Michael, Alan and Jill (the couple who flew over from Kota
Kinabalu with us) with our guide John in the boat. John pointed out loads
of monkeys and birds that he saw. Many local fishermen were checking their
fish/prawn trap baskets for contents.
Before lunch we went on a boat and minibus tour of the tiny Sukau village.
After lunch Michael and I put Wellington boots on and we set off on
a jungle trek behind the lodge. We were at times almost knee deep in squelchy
mud. We saw loads of insects, including huge woodlice type creatures, armored
millipedes, stick insects and spiders (but no big hairy ones). It was extremely
hot and we got drenched in sweat, but it was definitely worth doing the
roundtrip walk, which starts behind the lodge. One of the guides found
a baby crocodile near the lodge which we photographed and took back to
In the late afternoon we cruised up a tributary where we saw loads of
Macaques, Proboscis monkeys and a black snake with dark blue stripes in
a tree (which John our guide spotted).
In the evening, after another superb meal, John the guide held a slide
show, where he explained more about the wildlife and history of the region.
Day 12 (Mon 1 May) (Sandakan)
We left the lodge at 09:00 in the boat and then drove 30 minutes to the
Gomantong caves. These were most spectacular for their huge cavernous size
and loads of bats and birds (swifts). The cave stunk of bat and bird droppings.
The walls and plank walkways were also overrun with hundreds of cockroaches,
which I thought was most amusing. The locals recover the bird nests to
make a local delicacy - bird nest soup, I tried a bird nest drink a few
days later and it was quite nice actually - it tasted like vanilla banana
with stringy noodles (which were the nest bits).
We then arrived at the luxury Renaissance hotel in Sandakan after 1.5
hour's drive for lunch. In the afternoon John took us on a city tour of
Sandakan where we saw the fish market, a local stilt village over water
and the huge Puu Gih Jih Chinese temple .
In the evening Alan and Jill (I think those were their names) flew back
to Kota Kinabalu and we stayed in the Renaissance hotel. We checked out
a local food hall, but then decide to have Nasi Lemak and Goreng (or something
similar) in the hotel, which was not bad.
Day 13 (Tue 2 May) (Pulau Selingan)
John picked us up at 09:00 to drive to the jetty where we took the BET
high performance speed boat to Pulau Selingan (turtle island). We had a
good room with air-conditioning and an en-suite bathroom. The island is
so small that walking round the beach only took 30 minutes. The coral and
fish were also quite spectacular.
In the evening after an excellent buffet dinner, we were led to the
beach by one of the park rangers to quietly watch a gigantic green turtle
lay 120 eggs in the sand. The turtle shell length was 110 cm diameter!
Later we helped release some hatchlings into the sea.
Day 14 (Wed 3 May) (Kuala Lumpur)
Back on the speed boat we reached the jetty again at 08:00. Since our flight
back to BKI was only at 14:45 we went back to the orangutan sanctuary at
Sepilok with another group. This time we also saw some cheeky macaques
fighting with the orangutans for the bananas, one orangutan also managed
to pour all the milk over itself.
That was the end of our guided Borneo Eco Tours package and we flew
back to BKI where we got a flight to Kuala Lumpur International Airport
(KLIA). We arrived at about 18:00 and then got on the express bus from
the main bus station at KLIA into town. For MYR 25 we got driven directly
to our hotel by a connecting minibus.
Our hotel was the New World Renaissance, which we had booked beforehand
for only DEM 78 per night (for a luxury double room) with Meiers Weltreisen.
The hotel was extremely posh and the bar prices extremely high. We had
an amazing view of the Petronas Twin Towers from our hotel room on he 21st
floor. The swimming pool was also pretty fancy.
In the evening we walked down the Julan Sultan Ismail and were asked
by several pimps "you want some young girl" or similar. Which was quite
funny. We walked to Julan Alor, a street full of food-stall restaurants.
We chose a sea-food one, Michael had a huge slab of tuna fish and I had
some squid (obviously with several big Tiger beers).
Day 15 (Thur 4 May) (Kuala Lumpur)
We got up late and walked to the shopping centers. We saw ginseng plants
for sale for several thousand Ringits in the Bukit Bintang Plaza, the more
human shaped the roots were the more expensive they were.
We then continued towards Chinatown where I bought some fake T-shirts at the market stalls. Then we checked out the crazy Pudu Raya central bus station. There were loads of small booths which all seemed to sell the same types of ticket. It wasn't clear what bus went from where and the whole place was hot, crowded and cloudy with diesel fumes. Excellent, it was just like I had imagined a busy bus station in SE Asia should be like.
Round the corner was Central Market, which is where tourists can find
a huge selection of souvenirs. Round the corner over the bridge we looked
at the world’s tallest flagpole at Merdeka Square opposite the magnificent
colonial style Sultan Abdul Samad building. We sat down next to a fountain
near a large cricket pitch and this local guy came over who gave us loads
of tourist maps and ideas where to go in Kuala Lumpur and the rest of Malaysia,
he said he was homeless, so we gave him some money to say thanks for the
In the evening we went to an Indian curry food stall market, and had
a nice selection of dishes. After restocking our hotel minibar with our own beer
we went to the Emporium Grand Café night club until early in the morning,
which was extremely full and had a live Australian band playing.
Day 16 (Fri 5 May) (Kuala Lumpur)
The Menara KL tower is a 412 m high transmission tower with a superb indoor
observation deck and revolving restaurant. We took a load of pictures of
the city from up there. Following that we went back to the Pudu Raya bus
station, past an old house with interesting graffiti, and bought our bus
tickets in advance to get to the Cameron Highlands. They cost MYR 13 at
any one of the booths.
We then went on a long walk as recommended by the freelance tour guide
we had met the previous day. We checked out the ASEAN Sculpture Garden,
National Monument, the Butterfly Park, the Orchid Garden, the Bird Park
and the National Museum. Then we tried to get to the King’s Palace, and
faced the problem that crossing roads was extremely difficult and that
pavements were non-existent. One can only get to the Palace via car! But
somehow we made it by illegally running across 4 lane highways and walking
on several grass verges.
In the evening we went to the posh Suria KLCC shopping center underneath
the Petronas Twin Towers, where we ate some superb tempura and sushi with
Kirin beer at an excellent Japanese restaurant. Which was nice, and only
half the price of what an identical meal in Düsseldorf would have
cost. Later we went to a cocktail bar and sat outside with loads of people
near the night club we had gone to the previous night (on the junction of
Julan Sultan Ismail and the Julan Raja Chulan).
Day 17 (Sat 6 May) (Kuala Lumpur)
Trying to find the right bus and where to get it to the Batu Caves was
not easy. Anyway you get Bus 11d at the square at Leboh Pudu in front of
the Bangkok Bank building. Batu Caves were quite spectacular and had loads
of mini temples built into them. We had a curry for lunch and drank the
juice directly out of a coconut.
We took the same bus back, it stops more-or-less where it let us off,
about 100m from the caves. There was no bus stop sign, so we hoped for
the best and luckily the bus stopped and we got back to KL center.
We had a posh cocktail in the Coliseum Café/Hotel on the Julan
Tuanku Abdul Rahman. The food there is also outstanding and has a huge
selection including huge sizzling steaks. Then we went to Chow Kit market,
where I bought some Durion!!!! Michael smelt it and that was enough for
him. I ate 1 small piece and it tasted very intense like a sweet onion
with a hint of banana. Anyway it and I smelt of rotting rubbish after eating
it for 24 hours.
We lazed around in the luxury hotel pool for the rest of the afternoon
and had the most expensive beer that we had during the holiday (MYR 18
for a small glass of beer). In the evening we had some extremely hot Thai
food at the Suria KLCC, it was hotter than (UK) vindaloo strength.
Day 18 (Sun 7 May) (Cameron Highlands)
We got up early and took a taxi to the Pudu Raya bus station where we got
on the 09:00 Kurnia Bistari Express Bus to the Cameron Highlands. The bus
was semi air-conditioned and a bit crap, but it got us there in 4.5 hours.
It stopped once at a local food place. Obviously public places like this
never have toilet roll in the toilets - so always have some with you!
We got to the bus station in Tanah Rata and first bought our tickets
for our onward journey to Penang. A 10 minute walk up the hill got us to
the Heritage Hotel. We booked this by phoning up 2 days beforehand. It
was MYR 150 per night for a good double room. You can get much cheaper
(grottier) places in the middle of the town, but we wanted luxury! We later
went for a longer than expected walk (number 9) down to the Robinson power
station past a waterfall and then back past tea plantations.
In the evening we had a steam boat - a local speciality which involves
throwing raw fish, meat and vegetables into a soup and letting them cook
in it (i.e. like a fondue). It was really good and rather filling.
Day 19 (Mon 8 May) (Cameron Highlands)
We walked to Brinchang (a small village just north of Tanah Rata) via a
back road, which was most picturesque. There we checked out the impressive
Sam Poh Buddhist temple.
After a quick drink in the village we took a taxi to the Sungai Palace
Boh Tea estate which was closed on Mondays. So we decided to walk to the
top of the 2000m Gunung Brinchang hill. We had no water with us and there
was nowhere within 10 km to buy any from, so we were slightly worried about
dehydrating. We reached the top and it was cloudy and about 20°C. There
was a fenced off Malaysia Telecom transmission station at the top. We spent
ages looking for the jungle path number 1. It was about ¾ of the
way round the perimeter fence next to a stone marker which said ¼
or something like that on it. Anyway, the path was very steep and required
a lot of holding onto trees to get down it. Eventually it got a bit easier
and we got back to Brinchang rather worn out 1.5 hours later. We
reanimated ourselves with 100Plus (isotonic drinks), bought loads of Tiger
beer and took a taxi back to the Heritage hotel in Tanah Rata.
In the evening we had a superb Indian meal served on a banana leaf with
loads of sauces and different types of vegetables.
Day 20 (Tue 9 May) (Penang / Langkawi)
The bus to Penang cost MYR 14.10 and was from the same company as before:
Kurnia Bistari. The bus was rather crap and underpowered, so it struggled
up the hills on the motorways, whilst other more luxurious busses were
overtaking us at 3 times our speed. Anyway, the bus stopped at Ipoh and
Butterworth. 6.5 hours later we got to Georgetown in Penang. We trekked
through half the city to get to the next bus station to get the bus to
the airport (which only goes once an hour). It was extremely hot 48°C
(in the sun, according to my altimeter, compass watch from Suunto) and
we were sweating loads having to wipe the sweat off our sunglasses. Before
that we had lunch nearby, in a curry place where Michael had spotted a
Tiger beer sign. I had chicken curry and Michael some strange Malay
unidentified noodle soup with soggy liver-like bits in. We survived it
and then waited ages for the bus. It took ages to get to the airport and
we eventually got there rather concerned that we may miss the flight 40
minutes before take-off at 18:40.
The flight was in a high tech Malaysian Airlines Boeing 737 - 200. We
had feared it might be a dodgy propeller plane, since the flight was only
20 minutes. We then got a taxi to our luxury (yes again, we spoilt ourselves)
Pelangi Beach Resort Hotel, which was amazing. Loads of small wooden chalets,
with splendid large double rooms, a huge bathroom and a nice balcony with
pond and sea view.
A few minutes walk south we founds many different places to eat. We
chose squid and fish, Thai style, not bad at all!
Day 21 (Wed 10 May) (Langkawi)Today we lay on the beach relaxing. I got sun burnt on my shoulders and front. We had a Malay breakfast lunch at 13:00 and then went to play miniature golf, which was quite difficult since the holes were up to 40 m long, with various obstacles including a crocodile where we had to play through its mouth. Michael was unlucky, hit the ball too hard and it ended up in the water. I got it out of the water after hanging upside down off a rock with Michael holding my legs so that I wouldn't fall in. Anyway I found a golf ball (not his) after a couple of minutes searching in the dirty, slimy brown turbid water. In the end I won 43 to Michael's 50 (par was 38).
Then we hung out at one of the nice swimming pools. I was reading "Looking
for Trouble" by General Sir Peter de la Billiere, and Michael was reading
American Psycho which he found rather gruesome. We also had a cocktail
at the poolside bar and spent quite some time talking to the staff.
In the evening we had an Indian curry in a place with no beer, so I
got a bit flustered. To make up for it we had several cocktails in the
hotel bar later on during live music! Wow! (errr not really wow).
Day 22 (Thur 11 May) (Langkawi)
In the morning we walked in sweltering heat to the Aquarium (Langkawi Underwater
World) which had quite a reasonable selection of tropical and other huge
fish and sharks in it. The whole island Langkawi is duty free, so the BEER
WAS DEAD CHEAP, which was nice.
In the afternoon we hung out at the pool again. For evening food we
had some superb fish and I had squid with some outstanding smokey style
Day 23 (Fri 12 May) (Langkawi)We hung out at our resort beach, had burger and pizza for lunch (in order to reacclimatize to home food). We left for the airport at 16:00 having observed the sign outside the hotel which said "No Durions". Quite right as well, having had the experience of the smell and taste the previous week. We flew via Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Johor Bahru, where we got on the 22:00 SPS bus just in time heading back to the Copthorne Orchid hotel in Singapore (MYR 16). From there a taxi took us back to Alastair's flat.
Day 24 (Sat 13 May) (Singapore)We went browsing round some shopping centres in Singapore with Alastair, who had taken the day off (since he has to work on Saturday's!). I got myself another watch at Bugis Junction, where we also had lunch. We all had something different - Malay, Indian and Chinese, obviously with Tiger beer.
We headed back to the flat and then took a taxi to the airport at 20:00. There were no aisle seats left on the 747-400 KLM jumbo allegedly, since they had all been filled with people continuing their flight from Jakarta. (Really, we believe that don't we? No.) The films on board were The
Talented Mr. Rippley and Anna and the King. The food was worse
than on the way out.
Day 25 (Sun 14 May) (Düsseldorf)
We landed half an hour late at Schipol in Amsterdam which meant we had
to run 2 km to get on our connecting flight. En route we had to wait 10
minutes at an extremely inefficient passport queue and then have our hand
luggage scanned AGAIN! We got on the plane 5 minutes before they closed
the gate. The stewardess on the Eurowings flight at 07:00 was extremely
miserable and never smiled. We were also not in a good mood since our luggage
could not have been transferred in time to the flight.
We arrived on time in Düsseldorf and were met by Michael's father. We then queued for another 10 minutes at the Aviation Handling Services counter to report our missing luggage, since our big rucksacks did not manage to get on our connecting flight at Schipol.
Anyway, Michael picked his car up at my flat and drove back in convoy
with his father. It was 29°C today i.e. extremely good re-acclimatization
My rucksack arrived at 18:00, delivered by an airport courier. Michael's rucksack arrived at his parents' house the following afternoon.
That's it. We had a great time and can highly recommend visiting Malaysia and Singapore! What a brilliant holiday. The total cost, including everything and what we bought was approximately DEM 5,000.
The following year (in NOV 2001) I continued my Malaysia Expedition to SARAWAK
Further travel tips for Malaysia can be found at
http://www.travel-library.com/asia/malaysia/ or for Singapore at
The photos were taken by me and Michael and are also available in much
If you have any comments or questions please e-mail me at:
Back to the my main page Updated 18 JAN 2002