Traveling 101

The major reasons for Ana and Simon’s move to Singapore have been laid out in the blog so far: Ana’s job experience in Asia and Simon pursuing his MBA. Moreover, to get a feeling for the culture here in South East Asia, they had the opportunity to experience Chinese New Year’s celebration and obviously, there is also some day-to-day experiences that are just very different than life in Europe (more on that in a later blog). One other advantage of being here in Southeast Asia is also that Singapore is a hub for the region and therefore traveling is made rather easy. Being a city state, Singapore is also so small which means that once you leave Singapore Island, you are already in another country. Since Ana and Simon will be here for the full year, they do not need to rush things (some of the INSEAD students seem to travel every weekend but they are only here for four months) and took their traveling plans easy: First, settling in, getting accustomed to culture and working / studying etc. However, they did leave the Singapore twice already.

One little getaway trip was on the third weekend in Singapore. About 35 INSEAD students had decided to go to Batam, an Indonesian island off the coast of Singapore, and Ana and Simon went with the crowd. Simon had classes on Saturday until 1PM and Ana came to pick him up. The total group had organized to stay in a down-to-earth resort which had large houses that would host 6 to 8 people. Ana and Simon’s travel group for the transfer and for the night therefore consisted of six other fellow students: Two guys (American and Indian) and four girls (Korean, Bulgarian, Russian and Lebanese). Talking about international student body! With the Spanish explorer and her German husband, there were eight nationalities in one house :-)

The international crowd on a speed ferry to Batam

Unfortunately, they had picked a weekend that would be rainy. And rainy, in Singapore and around means LOTS OF RAIN. They managed to get an early ferry but the boat ride was quite bumpy due to the weather conditions. They immigrated to Indonesia (which “costs” one and a half pages in the passport!) and transferred to their resort. With the weather being rainy, there was unfortunately not much to do. Going to a supermarket to buy “supplies” for the evening was already a big event. While Batam is probably a better developed part of Indonesia (it enjoys the benefits of forming a free-trade zone with Singapore), the differences that Ana and Simon could observe on their way around the island were quite significant. Nevertheless, the Indonesians were super friendly and rather liberal (being a muslim country, buying alcohol in the supermarket was not a problem!). 

The evening was lots of fun with eating in the hotel and drinking / partying and talking around the pool. The hopes were high that the weather would be better the next day since it didn’t rain at night but the hopes were crushed when breakfast was overshadowed by more rain. Well, they left Indonesia less than 24 hours after arrival so they will not claim that they’ve “seen it all”. But it was a good first getaway, lots of fun with an international crowd and a trip that provided them with new stamps in their passports. 

The INSEAD bag also works well to transport beer

Let's (pool)party!

 

The first real chance for a longer get-away was the Chinese New Year (CNY) weekend. This time of year, about everybody is traveling and therefore, flight prices were very expensive. Ana and Simon didn’t feel like paying more than 300 EUR per person for a flight so they considered alternatives. Also, staying here for a year, they didn’t have the “pressure” of seeing the coolest places immediately. After doing some research, they decided to give the other neighboring country of Singapore a chance: Malaysia. There are affordable bus rates to go to Kuala Lumpur and the highway between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur is quite well in shape. The advertised travel time was about 5 hours, even though it took the bus longer to cross the border and due to CNY, there was also a lot of traffic. However, it was quite nice to see the landscape of the tropical Malaysian peninsula and the bus was very comfortable (even though a bit too much cooled down by the AC). 

First view of the KL Tower

Ana and Simon left on Saturday morning and arrived in Kuala Lumpur in the late afternoon. The first impression of Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is commonly called) was not much different from Singapore: Huge sky-rise buildings, air-conditioned malls and modern public transport. Still benefiting from Simon’s work project in the Middle East in 2010, they spent two nights at a Sheraton Hotel, with a great view of the KL Tower, one of the largest TV towers in the world. From there, they went to Chinatown for a dinner and a first exploration. In Chinatown, they saw a few differences between KL and Singapore. Things were a lot less organized and a bit dirty, including a rat strolling by a restaurant where they just had a beer and skipped the food. Ana was a bit uncomfortable since she was wearing a pretty dress and felt that she needed some “explorer” equipment. She had already purchased some khaki pants in Singapore and she completed her outfit with explorer shoes in KL. So Ana and Simon were ready for the next day. 

Sunday, they went to a place outside of KL, the Batu Caves which has a series of caves and cave temples. The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to Lord Murugan which is a popular Hindu deity among Tamil Hindus, and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences (Tamils are from Southern India and Sri Lanka). Well, this is obvious much different than what they know from Western Europe or North America so it was quite interesting. They went up 272 steep steps to enter the caves, with a number of altars, religious figures and monkeys (yes, real monkeys). Obviously, there were many worshipers from India and this was a totally new experience for them. Some pictures can give the reader an idea of it. 

Ana (with her explorer pants) and Simon

The inside of the Batu Caves

Steep steps

After exploring these caves, Ana and Simon went back to downtown KL with a very friendly taxi driver (who even spoke some Spanish!). He dropped them near the Petronas Towers, the landmark of Kuala Lumpur. From their completion in 1998 to 2004, the towers were the tallest building in the world and an iconic structure, representing the rise of Southeast Asia to many. There was a nice park around the building and since it was super hot and humid, Ana and Simon were also happy to find an air-conditioned mall that was open as well. In order to see most of the city, they took a “hop-on-hop-off” tour of KL and learned much more about the Malaysian capital. Without getting too much into detail here, the major points of interests is that KL was founded relatively short while ago (in the 1850s) and soon became the most important city on the Malaysian peninsula. The British, who ruled the region until 1957 erected a number of impressive colonial buildings and left their cultural mark: The major square of KL was actually a cricket square. Obviously, the Malaysians wanted to change that and independence was declared on the cricket field, transforming it to Merdeka Square (Independence Square). Well, a few pictures of the city tour are attached. 

Simon and Ana with the Petronas Towers

Ana holding the flagpole

The Malaysian answer to Big Ben (or so the tour guide said)

Finally, Ana and Simon enjoyed their highest dinner ever at the revolving restaurant in the KL Tower. At 282 meters above the ground, they enjoyed not only a very rich buffet but also awesome views of the city, including the Petronas Towers. The funny thing is that while the Petronas Towers are so tall, the visitors platform is actually 100 meters lower than the KL Tower. So the vista enjoyed from there was definitely more impressive. 

The next day, Ana and Simon would already go back after a relaxing breakfast. So traveling 101 was passed successfully with the two small trips to the vicinity of Singapore. Now, they are ready for more. Next trips will be to the South of Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon and around) as well as a weekend in Phuket / Thailand. This will for sure be captured in a future blog entry. So far, this is it from Southeast Asia.

Many hugs from Southeast Asia’s melting pot

Ana and Simon