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 :-)
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| 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.
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| The INSEAD bag also works well to transport beer |
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| Ana (with her explorer pants) and Simon |
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| The inside of the Batu Caves |
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| 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.
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| Simon and Ana with the Petronas Towers |
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| Ana holding the flagpole |
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| 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
