Sentosa island

(I'm still running late on this post)

The weekend after the first week back at work. Saturday afternoon, we decided to go to Sentosa island. It's Singapore leisure island, a casino, Universal studio, lots of bars, restaurants and activities. But one thing to keep in mind, more or less everything is man made (including the beach).

So we took the Sentosa express, and extension of the MRT to cross the bridge to the island. We went for a swim on the beach admiring the lovely view on super tankers and the refineries of Jurong island.

Once bored, we went for a swim at the bar swimming pool!

Walking around the island, there are aquarium, fort, luge track, golf, observation tower, waves machines to practise surfing and luna park style rides.

There are even some houses and flat on the other side of the island.

It's a fun day close to home!

Kuala Lampur

After my long train trip and the visit of Bangkok, I thought I deserved to fly to KL instead of spending another 2 days in the train!
So Friday evening, I made the 2h flight down to Kuala Lampur. A taxi later and we were downtown KL, having checked in the hotel and looking for a bar. We must have been in the wrong area because it was difficult to find one, but obviously, we did manage!
After a nice breakfast and a swim, we head for the biggest mosque in KL which was ... closed (lunch time break) so we had a look around the colonial quarter, it is fairly small, just a couple of buildings and a cricket ground really, then we took a leisure walk under the burning sun (as you do around 1pm in the tropics…) to the old train station which is really pretty. On the way we admired the lighting posts...

We did return to the Mosque where I was offered a headscarf and a long robe! Then we wondered in Chinatown, admiring the art deco market and the colourful houses.

To cool down, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool where we could admire KL sky scrappers

The evening was spent at the Indian night market and finished getting bitten by mosquitoes looking at the Petronas towers.

2nd day: after a failed attempt to go up to the Petronas tower bridge, we decide to go to the famous bird park which is definitely worth a visit. I nearly got attacked by a monkey! To cut a long story short, he scared me by appearing from nowhere, me being scared scared him so he decided to show me his teeth which scared me even more, anyway, everyone got scared and survived! But I have found monkeys much less friendly since…

Bangkok

Arrival in Bangkok at 11.30 am. Just 40 minutes late. After 20h, it is not that bad! A taxi trip later and I’m in a very nice hotel in Silom. A shower and I’m out again trying to get to the touristy places. I’m being told by the concierge that taxi is not a good idea as the roads are extremely busy; his advise: a boat! The ‘boat station’ is just 300m away and it indeed has a direct connection to the temples. Destination Wat Pho
It is a huge temple with stunning decoration, especially famous for the enormous sleeping Buddha.
It takes a few hours going around. In the temple, there is also a school to learn Thai massage!

Once this first visit finish, I take a boat across the river to Wat Arun, the Indian temple. It is completely different from the previous temple, much smaller, totally different style, but the stairs are VERY impressive! Several people were stuck at the top, wondering how they were going to get down!
After an afternoon of temples, it was time for a break and a well deserved Thai massage!
On the evening, I decided to go exploring Chinatown, it is described in the guidebook as a Xmas tree lighten up and it is not far from true!

Second day, I had to move hotel as I had messed up my booking. I took the MRT and the skytrain to go downtown. It is a bit of a pain, the 2 systems are not well connected and they are not covered by the same ticket system but the roads are so busy that boat and metro seem to be the only way of actually getting somewhere!
Anyway, after a little bit of back and forward in the public transport, I’m ready for some more touristy things! Today is Grand Palace. Prices are back to European levels, the place is packed, yes that’s normal it is the most famous place in Bangkok!

The palace is now only used for formal receptions, the king does not live here anymore. It's the home of the Emerald Buddha, unfortunately, there was a ceremony on the day I visited the palace so I couldn’t see it.

On the evening, I went to the Arabic quarter where the language changes once more! People clothes change, shops change, food changes, it is like going to another country (but you won't get any pictures as I had forgotten to put the battery back in the camera...sorry...)

Final day in Bangkok.

My friend F gave me a book 'The backpacker' a couple of months ago and it was making reference to John Thompson so I took the opportunity of being in Bangkok to pay a visit to his house. It's beautiful, it's mainly made of reclaimed buildings, it's all teak and I even found a tour guide in french! (Not that I was looking but the queue was shorter than for the English one).

There is also an exhibition about chinese astrological signs, I discover I am a rooster and I pretty like the definition!

This was my last visit in Bangkok before heading to KL. See you there!