Jason's Trip Around The World, and now life in Singapore - Malaysia

Mom's Visit. Continued

jason@willock.org (Jason Willock) — Thu, 07 May 2009 23:20:30 -0400

Here is just a quick recap of the rest of mom's visit. We parted ways with Tan and flew to Penang, Malaysia from Bangkok. I had never been to Penang, so I didn't know what to expect exactly. I was pleasantly surprised, it is a nice small beach city, and we stayed on a quite a nice beach, very clean, and nice sand. There were lots of arab muslims there, I never gave it much thought before, but I guess if you are a Muslim, and wanted to go on vacation, perhaps you would choose another Muslim country, like Malaysia, that can cater to your needs, (diet, prayer, and no alcohol). I still do find it funny to see the Muslim women, dressed from head to toe on the beach. It must be so hot, and uncomfortable with all the sand getting everywhere.

So we just spend two nights there, which is really enough, as there is not a whole lot to see, just relaxed on the beach, and had a pretty decent seafood dinner. Malay food generally does not excite me, but yet many Singaporeans flock to Penang to feast on it's tasty food. I guess just not for my palate.

It was then off to Kuala Lumpur, I thought it would be nice to treat mom to a nice hotel there, since it's one of the cheapest places to stay at a 5star hotel in the world. I booked the Novotel there, and was sorely disappointed, old, and run down. The hotel Maya me and Tan stayed at before, was so much nicer. So if your going to K.L. I would avoid the Novotel. We walked around Petronas Twin Towers, not sure if mom was impressed with them as much as I was the first time I saw them, they are quite amazing, especially at night. So we just stayed there one night, did some shopping, and then headed back home to Singapore.

I truly do like Singapore, after being in the major cities in Asia, but I haven't really lived in the other cities, so maybe it's not a fair shake. I just do like how clean and organized it is here though.

The last few days with mom were just taking it easy, eating in at home as we were tired from eating out everyday, and doing some shopping. I took her to Mustafa Center, I had never been there before, it is just a huge store that contains everything you could possibly need, think of it as a WalMart on steroids. Lots of great deals too. We also hit the garden center near my place, as all my previous plants had to be destroyed, as I somehow got a huge spider mite infestation, so I now have an orchid growing as well, which reminds me of my mom!

I think mom enjoyed her time here, it was nice to have her around, and hopefully she can come visit again soon. Just the 24 hour flight is rather long for her, or anyone for that matter.

Weekend in Malacca

jason@willock.org (Jason Willock) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:27:21 -0400

Again I have been lax in updating the site! We went for a weekend in Malacca Malaysia, or Melaka as they call it there. A nice port town with lots of history, it was occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch, English, and Japanese for 3 years during WW2. Oddly though it felt like Singapore, mostly Chinese there, and then tons of Singaporean tourists, as it is only a few hours drive from the island. So makes for a nice inexpensive short vacation, since things are cheaper there. They rave about the food there, but we didn't have anything to exciting, except for a nice seafood dinner, but nothing special.

We went to a night club there, very strange, they had a live band, and rows of small tables, similar to Bangkok, however there was no dance floor, and you could drink Beer or Beer, and since neither of us are very big beer drinkers, it didn't make for a very exciting night. Plus they still allow smoking in the club, which is gross!

I have started playing some sports, to shed some pounds, I play volleyball and tennis, slowly getting better at both, you work up quite the sweat playing in the hot humid conditions. I enjoy it though, and already I can see my waistline decreasing! It's also a good way to meet people as well, slowly making friends here.

The job hunt isn't going to well, I am not aggressively looking yet though, I am finding it a bit tough to get motivated at times, so I have to work on that. We are also getting more serious on trying to do some Medical Tourism website, just doing some competition research now, and then we will move forward from there.

My mom is also coming to visit for 3 weeks at the end of the month, so it will be nice to see her again, and show her around Singapore and a bit of Thailand, hopefully she likes it here, it should be interesting to see what she thinks of Asia, especially Thailand.

Kuala Lumpur

jason@willock.org (Jason Willock) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:19:29 -0400

Took a bus from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, pretty decent ride, a little long at 6 hours with the air conditioning on full blast, and me just wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Managed to keep warm, and make our way to the hotel. I must say I am getting a little spoiled staying at nice hotels that Tan can expense for work reasons. Sure beats hostel life, but I do often miss the spirit and atmosphere in a hostel, meeting other travelers, in a hotel everyone just keeps to themselves, and isn't overly sociable.

I am quite impressed with KL, very nice modern city, and the Petronas Towers are very visually appealing, especially at night when they are all lit up. It is also interesting being here in Malaysia, which is a Muslim country, unusual to see asians wearing head scarfs, and hearing the call to prayer bellowing out from the mosques five times a day! However there is also a large Chinese population here, so you can still get your pork if you so desire, unlike Turkey, Morocco and Egypt, where Pork is quite rare. The weather here has been quite nice, a little cooler than Singapore and Bangkok, gets down to 26 or so at night, which seems strange to call that cool. It's also very green here, lots of huge parks and green areas, which is very nice. Yesterday I took a stroll around the city, and saw the old colonial part of town with nice old Dutch, German, English style buildings. Then came across a large lake park, with a butterfly park, and flower garden. It was strange strolling though this huge park, as I only came across two other tourists, it's nice to be able to get away from the crowds sometimes!

I also took a quick visit of the KL Aquarium, quite nice, lots of sharks and colorful fish, which has reignited my flame to get my SCUBA certificate, perhaps soon, when we get back to Thailand.

We are here until Sunday, so will celebrate my birthday here, it's hard to fathom that last year I was in Romania, at this time, and to think of all the countries I have visited and seen in the past year!

Hopefully will be able to get out of the city on a day trip to see a Rainforest park, as getting away from the city and shopping malls would be a nice change!