12 Hours in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hey There,

Over the past weekend Dan and I went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We left from Singapore at 12am on sleeper bus bound for KL. We had to go through customs a half hour into the trip but then quickly fell into a deep sleep until our arrival at Times Square in Kuala Lumpur at 4am. This trip was suppose to take 5.5 to 6 hours but took a mere 3.5 hours because of lack of traffic. We didnt get much sleep... The bus dropped us off at the times square bus stop, everybody seemed to have somewhere to go but us, if felt kind of weird. We had no food (besides some peanuts) and were soon to find out no money (couldnt exchange money until 10am). So we sat around watching the homeless sleep until about 6 when we asked a times square hotel security guard if we could use their bathrooms. We had gone in there earlier to see if they could exchange our money however wern't treated very nicely since we wern't paid customers. The security guard was friendly though and said to not worry, so we brushed our teeth and then left for Batu Caves, located 7 miles north of Kuala Lumpur (KL) via a cab who said he would

accept our singapore money. We arrived at the caves around 645, although they didnt open until 730am but got to see the morning religious ritual (Batu Caves is a Hindu Temple). A guy who appeared to be exercising stopped to talk to us while we sat on the street curb. He was very friendly and happy to see us. He recommended taking the tube, or the train back into the city for a cheaper method of travel, and so he exchanged some money for us so that we could pay for the train. He was awful nice. The caves were cool but dont have a whole lot other to say about them. By the way those are some 280 stairs to the left of the statue, used to get into the cave. Quite a hard task when you are really tired.. We then caught the train to the KL Center where we ate some breakfast and got some coffee which helped for a few hours.. Soon after, we rode the Light Rail to the KL Tower which had a 360 degree view of the city. It was really informative and had a tight view. After this we ate some lunch, and then walked through downtown KL to get to the Petronas Towers, 3rd tallest towers in the world, they were the tallest in 2004. To the right is a picture of the Petronas Towers, although not taken by me, it started to rain so I couldn't get a shot.. Tickets to get a view from the bridge half way up are very hard to come by. People wait in line starting at 5am and then sales start at 8 and all tickets for the day are sold out by 830am. I had read online though that if you go in during the afternoon and just stood by the ticket office, sometimes people didnt show up for their time slot and so you could take their spot. We were quite lucky, and sure enough two tickets were available, so we got to see the view, although not as cool as the KL tower, still really neat. The picture of the bottom is of Dan and I and a man from Nigeria who had to have a picture with us. He was really friendly guy. It then started to down pour and so we took a cab back to time square to eat dinner and catch our bus back to Singapore at 430pm. Overall the trip was quite an adventure, but I think just about the right amount of time. Gotta tell you though I was a little worried about how the day was going to turn out when we were dropped off at 4am and we found out about our predicament. If you want to see more photos you can click here. We only have 5 weeks left here, time is flying. My mom and cousin are coming next week, thailand the week after, finals, and then a mini trip to Vietnam before we hitch a ride back to home sweet home. Hope all is going well back in the states. Ill post again next week.

Until then, have a good one,

Brett

Quick Update

Hey there, I just thought I would write a quick update since I havn't posted in a while. School has been keeping me really busy. In the second half of the semester here is when all the classes do their labs, it makes life pretty hectic, but I am just about done with all of them. Other then school work I have just been trying to enjoy Singapore. Last friday I went climbing to a local boulder (climbing with no rope under 20 ft) spot here and had a real good time, the atmosphere was pretty tight and everybody was really nice. So I hope to do that more often. With that being said though, I only have 7 weeks left here, I have 4 more weeks of classes, a study week and then two weeks of finals. As far as expected upcoming trips. The weekend of the 30th of October we plan to go to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, the week after that my mom and cousin Laura will be coming here to check out Singapore. Which should be fun! The week after that is our study week which we will be spending part of in Thailand and then after our finals we are going to make a quick trip to Vietnam before our trip back to the states. It is all coming to an end real fast.. Dont have much other news then that, hope everyone is having a good fall season, I will post again after our trip to Malaysia in two weeks.

Until then, later,

Brett

BALI, Indonesia

Hey there, from the 18th through the 24th Dan and I were in Bali. It is an island located in southern indonesia known for its night life and tropical get away. Most of the visitors are Australians. It was a 2 and a half hour flight from Singapore. We arrived in Kuta on Saturday night the 18th and headed to a resort for the first two nights. Kuta is the heart of the night life in Bali and is located on the southern tip and is also known internationally as one of the best places to go surfing. Upon unloading our stuff we headed to a local bar called Uncle Norms, more relaxed type of bar then most in Kuta. Sunday we rented some surf boards on the beach and hit the waves. We were using the bigger boards, not the short boards, so within a short amount of time, both Dan and I were getting up no problem, it was alot of fun. The pic to the left is of me holding the money I converted to rupiah, the bills are 100,000, and I just so happened to have a little over 2.9 million in my hands, no big deal or anything.

Monday we decided to rent some mopeds to get around the island for

the next four days. Because of safety and liability issues most people opt to rent a driver and a car for the day, however we were looking for some adventure and freedom and a cheaper method of transportation. I never thought that I would actually be driving in the crazy no rules indonesian traffic. However after driving for four days, I have a new respect for their rules or lack of them when it comes to driving. Basically larger vehicles have the right away, and little vehicles like mopeds can weave in and out of traffic but use theirs horns with the larger cars help to do so safely. The horn is method of communication rather then a way to away to show your anger. The reason why I think they are doing it right, is because everybody has to be an active driver, no traffic lights, no stop signs, no rules. You communicate with the cars around you and everybody is alert, and so you are always ready for something to happen. With that being said it is quite a tiring process. To the right you can see my moped.

Monday night we stayed in Ubud, its a pretty large city. We only had reservations made for our first two nights in Kuta, so we didnt know what it was going to be like getting a room. However as soon as we arrived in Ubud, hotel managers were riding around trying to get us to come to their hotel, so we could barter as we rode along. It was very efficient, and after going with one and checking out the room, we batered even farther getting the room for 120,000 when he wanted 300,000 for it, they were really hard up for cash, and we found the walk away to be very effective. By the way 9,500 is about 1 dollar US. In the morning we got our free breakfast delivered to our room. Their were monkeys all around us on the roof of the hotel and running along the telephone wires, it was pretty crazy. Dan didnt want his papaya and so in a matter of seconds of him standing up, a monkey dropped from our roof and started eating, it was pretty funny (pic to the left). After breakfast, we checked out a temple in Ubud, and as if we hadnt seen enough monkeys, we went into a monkey forest to see hundreds more.

We then headed out for Mt. Batur with the plan of stopping along the way to see the rice paddies which can be seen to the right. They were pretty magnificent. Now, one of the down sides of riding a moped is that cops can pull you over for no reason and ask for millions of dollars if you dont have a international license or an indonesian license. (They are quite corrupt although they have been doing a good job taking out terrorist groups in Bali) Anyways, we read up about how to handle this situation before we left in case we encountered it. Dan read somewhere that you can try to convince the Police that your license from the US is international. So low and be hold, as we were climbing the mountain on our mopeds, we come around a corner, and there was 5 officers motioning us to pull over. After stopping we showed them our insurance, which thank goodness was in order, and then they told us that we didnt have the right license, and so we started our attempt to convince them otherwise. It was pretty humerous, although at the time, we were trying to keep a straight face, but the fact is they really didnt have a clue if it was or not, they just wanted money, but after 15 minutes they gave up and said we could continue on. We were pretty thrilled, although we had only about 100,000 in our wallets and the rest in our bags, so they wouldnt have gotten much.. We arrived at Mt Batur and instantly a guy names Tobali befriended us and showed us around, basically took us to his friends restaurants and hotels, but it was all good, he was really helpful and it was all cheap. He spent the whole day with us, taking us to the most sacred

indonesian temple on Mt Anung.

Wednesday morning we woke up at 330 am and were driven to the base of Mt. Batur, a 5 minute drive. Mt Batur is an active volcano and famous for its sunrise views from the top. We had to pay for a guide earlier the day before, since it is all monitored by the government. (another way to get money from tourist) Our group was compromised of a french couple, a german couple, two french girls from london, and another french guy (alot of French!). It was a really good group though, and we all became friends pretty fast, picture of group is in the photos link at the bottom. It was a very strenuous hike and we pretty much sweated all the way through all of our clothes (just t shirt and shorts at that time). It took about 2 hours to get to the summit, and we all got there around 6am, however we couldnt see more then a few feet because it was literally in the clouds. It was also really cold, but that was ok since we brought dry clothes and a sweatshirt, so all was good. Our two guides cooked eggs on the steaming rocks which was pretty neat and really tasty. We then started down a different, longer way with the hope of seeing a good view, since at this point we still hadnt seen the inside of the volcano. About 800 ft down from the summit, it cleared for a little bit so that we could get a pretty good view, everybody was pretty excited. The crater was HUGE, and actually a Sweden kid fell down and died last spring, (first death on the mountain) and so they told us about that, and showed us where it happened. About 6 hours from when we left we arrived back at the base, said good bye to our trek mates and then headed back to the hotel to pack up so we could continue are trip up to the Northern part of the island at Lovina Beach.

We spent a night at Lovina beach, watched a Bali Dance Show and did some swimming, and then thursday morning we started our trip back south to Kuta. Along the way we stopped at the Gigit waterfall, which was refreshing and then tanah lot temple on the south western side which had some pretty good views. We arrived in Kuta around 4pm thankful to be safe and without any incident with our bikes. The renters were also really relieved I think, since we had worked up a deal for a little bit more dough, that we wouldnt be responsible for anything, even the theft of the bike, they just wanted cash so bad they signed our agreement and probably prayed that nothing would happen. Thursday night we once again spent at Uncle Norms, they always have live music after 8pm which was really nice. Friday we went to the beach to get thrown around by the waves some more and decided to try our luck with the short boards which didnt go so well, but was fun none the less. We then hired a driver to take us to a temple on the southeast side and then the airport after that. The pic below is of me at the temple. Whenever you go to a temple you need to rent one of the little dresses as you can see, so we always looked pretty goofy.

Overall it was a really fun trip. One thing I wasn't expecting though, was the begging for our business, they dont understand the word NO, and by the end you just learn that you just ignore them or give them a wave of your hand. Although some, girls who wanted to give us massages, would follow us all the way down the street, rubbing our arms, as if we were going to change our minds, it was kind of annoying, but I guess part of the culture. I think Todd, the husband of the french couple that we climbed with summed Bali up pretty well, "Theirs three religions here, hindu, buddhism, and muslim, but they all have the same god... the RUPIAH." But with that all being said, everybody we encountered were very friendly, and one guy even took the time to draw us a map of Ubud, because we kind of got lost. More pics can be found here. I have got a pretty busy week coming up here with some midterms, so I probably wont post for another two weeks. But until then, have a good one, Brett

A Little Update

Hey there, Just thought I would write a quick update since it has been a while. This last Saturday we finally got our student pass which is shown to the right. It was quite an ordeal, they are quite particular about how things are done. We had brought a picture of ourselves since we were told to, but it was not adequate even though we had followed all the passport photo rules so we had to go get another one (looks a little more scary then my other one), in the midst of all the chaos at the immigration building. But after about 2 hours we were official with this card which is now scanned every time we cross through customs, making the process very fast. I'll finally be able to feel like a local at customs, wont have to wait in the long lines. After getting our passes we got some lunch and set out on an adventure to get Dan a backpacking backpack. We ended up at a place where there was a bunch of shops selling backpacks via bartering. We spent the rest of the afternoon bartering with the owners before finally making a decision. I brought my backpacking backpack from home but felt the need to get a small hydration pack as well. I had a general idea what the backpacks went for but was not positive, so when we got back to our rooms we looked online at an outdoors website and found out that we had done a pretty good job, Dan saved 30 US on his backpack, and I 10 US. It was a pretty good feeling. Not much other news though. Next week we will be leaving for Bali Indonesia which is about a 2 and half hour flight form Singapore. We will be there during our semester break and will be leaving on the 18th and returning on the 24th. We plan to do some surfing and then travel around the island, with the hope of climbing one of the volcanoes called Mt Batur.

Ill post again when we get back from the trip, hopefully with a bunch of pictures,

Until then, have a good one,

Brett

Closing Ceremony for Youth Olympic Games in Singapore

Hey there, Yesterday night (Thursday) we hit up the youth olympic games closing ceremony in downtown Singapore. We got tickets about 2 weeks ago for 15 dollars each. Upon arrival we got an official olympics canvas party bag which included a lit up hat (pictured at bottom), flags, food, noise makers and other little light toys. It brought back memories of birthday parties and the included party favors. Anyways it was a really neat ceremony and very motivational, although it was pretty warm and humid. There were shows and fireworks put on by Singapore and then the normal olympics closing ordeal and then China the next summer YOG host put on a little show. Some more additional info: The actual stage is a like a barge which floats in the bay. It is able to be moved around on the water and is called the float @ marina bay. The winter YOG will be held in austria 2012 and summer will be held in China 2014. For those of you who dont know this was the first youth olympic games ever, the people in Singapore are pretty proud of it. If you want to see more pics of this outing click here.

We dont really know yet what we are going to be doing this weekend, but whatever it is, it will be pretty chill. Ill plan on posting again in a week er so.

Until then have a good one,

Brett

Bintan, Indonesia

Dan and I went to Bintan Indonesia over the weekend starting on Friday the 20th. We wire transferred money to a man who owned the resort about a week before we left and then shortly after we started receiving emails about our reservation. They sounded very happy to meet us and said that there would be a man at the ferry terminal to give us a ride back to the resort. We left friday afternoon around 130 and started our journey to Indonesia, we had to ride a bus for about a half hour, then the train for about a half hour and then a bus again for about a half hour before we reached the ferry terminal on the eastern side of singapore. Upon waiting to board two ladies came up to us and asked if we were going to Yasin Bungalow Resort, which we were. They were very friendly and happy to meet us and happened to be the weekend manager and one of the workers. They told us there was another 7 visitors on the boat as well and that we should just look for them after we got through customs. We then departed Singapore at 630 bound for Bintan. Two hours later we arrived at the TG Pinang port in Bintan, made it through customs and hopped in to a van with 7 other guys from NUS who were german exchange students, as well as the resort driver, and the two ladies. It was about a 45 minute crazy drive to the resort. The city is packed with motor bikes and everybody weaves in and out of traffic at very high speeds, it was a little bit nerve racking. Upon arriving at the resort we found out that there was about another 20 exchange students there from SMU, another college in Singapore. We then spent the rest of the night and into the wee morning hours hanging out with our peers at the resort bar and diner along the beach. There were students from Germany, Canada, Malaysia, Spain, and France.

We woke up saturday morning to go snorkeling with a our new snorkels that we bought the day before at a Scuba Shop in Singapore. We went out pretty far to where there were rocks in the water, we didn't see anything huge, however did see a bunch of really cool fish and different critters. I dont know what most of the fish were called, but did see the yellow and white striped coral fish. They all seemed so calm and didnt seem to mind us which was neat.

The downside of this adventure was that I underestimated the morning sun and got a pretty burnt back and neck, although after lunch we spent the rest of the day hanging out on different beaches along the coast with sunscreen on. To get to different beaches we were transported for free by the resort in the vehicle to the left. We then hung out with the other exchange students (The night manager is a DJ and had music blasting all night) and then hit the hay. We had lunch sunday and then the resort took us to the port for departure at 130. The ride back was real interesting, since the night we arrived we hadn't seen all the shacks along the road outside of the city. It is definitely a poverty stricken country, although they all had big grins and waved to our driver. The city was packed just as friday night and was interesting watching the driver maneuver around everybody. Our boat left around 140 and we were back at our residence in Singapore by 630. The trip was a good get away, although we were happy to get back through customs in Singapore and then finally back to our rooms. Overall we spent 125 US on the room, visa, transportation, food, and drinks. It was a pretty cheap get away. More pictures can be found if you click here. The pictures at the end are right before we got to the port, they dont really do justice to the craziness, but through them in anyway.

As far as this upcoming week, we start tutorials, which are break away classes. There is alot of homework that I need to get completed before them. On Thursday Dan and I got tickets for the closing ceremony of the Youth Olympic Games, which should be neat. I will let you know how it goes.

Until then,

Brett

Downtown Singapore Clarke / Boat Quay

Hey there, I had my first week of classes last week. I am taking Statistics Engr based, Mechanic of Fluids, Environmental Engr and Micro Biology, and an art and history class. All of my teachers are really good and are real good at keeping their students attention, so it should be a good semester in the academic department. Last night (Saturday) Dan and I went downtown to see a part that we havnt yet. Its along the Singapore river and goes by the name of Clarke Quay and Boat Quay and is really where all the night life occurs in Singapore. We walked around for a little bit and then got some drinks and sat on the "bridge" which is in the center of Clarke Quay and where alot of our fellow classmates meet up and hang out for the night. While we were sitting there we noticed triangles flying over the river just a little ways up the shoreline. We decided to check it out and and found out it was actually rc planes made out of kites with led's all over them to light them up. They had a store near by that sold them and had info about them, so I picked up a business card so I could look at them back to my room. They are really cool, and if you want to watch a movie of them or see pics click here. Supposedly 3 years ago for Singapore's 42nd national day, they flew 42 of them over the harbor. Anyways I found it all real interesting. If you want to see more pics of our adventure at Clarke Quay click here. I probably wont post again until a week from this monday. We are planning on going to Bintan Indonesia next weekend which is about a 55 min boat ride south of Singapore.

Until then, peace,

Brett