Summary of Weekend from Sat, 9.7. - Sun, 10.7.

For our first weekend in Singapore, one of my German friends and me, we planned a trip to the rain forests Taman Negara, which are located in the North of Malaysia. Since Monday would be a holiday, we had enough time to do this. We booked a bus trip from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (KL), the capitol of Malaysia, a hostel for two nights and a guided tour to the rain forests.

On Friday 11 PM, we arrived at the bus station. As naïve as I am, I expected only one bus to be departing on this evening. I was massively wrong. During our waiting time of 1 hour, at least 10 other busses arrived, were boarded by 50 people and left to KL. There were so much going on. After some time, our bus arrived, too. As all the other buses, it looked like it is already on the road since 20 years. Inside, it smelled like an Indian cook shop. To this time, my friend and I, we were just joking about it while thinking it would get better after we arrived in KL.. Again, we were very naïve..

Crowds waiting for their bus to Kuala Lumpur

6 hours and e- & immigration later, we arrived in KL. During the trip, I tried to sleep, but when we arrived, I felt like I had been up for several weeks. Completely lost and without roaming data, we were kind of stranded. The first things we noticed were absurdly loud 125 ccm scooters. They sounded like their owners decided to wake up the whole city at once by demounting their sound absorbers. First, it just confused us, but later on it really started to annoy us. On top of that, we had a smell of stale water mixed with incense sticks in our noses. Unfortunately, this smell turned out to be everywhere.

At 6:30 AM we started our tour through KL. The CBD (central business district) consists of lots of skyscrapers and tall buildings. After some time, we reached a river which was brown and just did not look very healthy. We crossed it and entered a different world. The contrasts between the CBD and the places where people live were more than huge. At some corners, buildings even looked like slums (or at least my imagination of a slum since I have never seen one).

At 10 AM, we were already back in the CBD again. We continued our tour through the roots of KL´s skyscrapers. We started to get hungry and tried to get some food. But something good was very hard to find. In Singapore you find millions of Hawker stores (big canteen halls with many different cook shops) all over the city. But this was not the case for KL. At least, we did not find any. On Google Maps, we discovered KL´s China town near our hostel so we decided to go there hoping we could check-in a little earlier.

The way to the hostel did not really increase our mood. The further we went from the CBD the more increased this weird smell. Only few streets away of our hostel, we saw a group of people being busy transporting a cow`s body parts over the street. The head was stored in a box which you surely could buy at IKEA. Not the last time, we figured that things just run differently here.

Arrived at our hostel, we were very tired. So tired that we fell asleep on the couch in the lobby waiting to proceed with the check-in. Maybe, this was the reason why the hotelier let us into our room 2 hours earlier. The room was very okay. Surely, we still had this smell in our noses, but we were happy we had a place to stay. We then slept for two hours.

After waking up at around 4 PM, we noticed that we still did not got any food. Instead of China town, we went to the Central Market. We found some chicken with rice and a coco nut and made a plan for the rest of the day. We heard of the Batu Cave, a Hindu temple outside of KL. Google Maps estimated a 1:30 hour drive by bus.

So we started our tour and followed the route of Maps. But the first bus stop, we were lead to just did not seem to exist. There was no sign or else. Locals told us, though, that we were right. After some time a bus arrived, but the only thing indicating its direction was a ticket officer standing in the doors of the bus and shouting something in Malaysian. Helpless again. Despite, we went on board. Some bus stops later, the ticket officer came to us and asked for 1 MR each (about 20 cents). He then told us that we were on the wrong bus. So we left.

Something which also made me think was this picture. Advertising fuel as F1-Technology in a country as I have Malaysia experienced just seems false. Seems rather exploitive.

Unfortunately, this game continued for two other times until we got to a bus stop at which no other bus would arrive in the next 20 minutes. By coincident, we found a cab driver who was willing to bring us to the caves. On the way, he warned us that today would be not as many cab drivers around as usual due to holiday. Later that day, we would know exactly, why he warned us.

Batu caves were not as exciting as promised. Again there was this weird smell with a larger proportion of incense sticks. Many Hindus were around and prayed. (Batu caves seem to be one of the most important Hindu temples outside India.) We climbed up the big number of steps and found ourselves in a big cave. With us, there were many Hindus but also shop owners trying to sell cheap souvenirs. It reminded me of the story in the bible where a church in Jerusalem was filled with lots of market stalls and people who were dealing with animals which were then thrown out by Jesus. Soon, we decided to leave.

Inside of Batu cave temple - souvenir shop on left side

But the way home turned out to be the biggest challenge of the day. There was no cab available as the driver earlier prophesied us. So, we went to the nearest train station. Unfortunately, the ticket officer went for a prayer and did not come back any time soon. At this point, we really had no idea how to get back. We started to ask strangers in cars whether we could hitch hike with them to the city. A very kind local family finally offered us to take us to the next LRT-station (light rapid transit, comparable to European trams). There we could get a free ticket and finally get to KL again. We were so thankful. Since this day successfully made us not being interested anymore in exploring KL´s food diversity, we went to the nearest Mc Donald`s. After dinner and due to our excitement for our tomorrow´s rain forest tour, we went to bed being very happy.

But as usual in KL for us, things should turn out differently. Together with the organization with which we booked our tour through Taman Negara, we agreed on a pick up at our hostel. On time, my friend and me, we were waiting outside to be picked up at 7 AM. After ten minutes and no information from our tour guide, we tried to call him. No answer. Then, a little later I checked my mails again to find a cancellation information in my inbox. The organization cancelled our tour right at this morning since Taman Negara was closed due to holiday. It was so ironic. We just could not believe that the responsible who confirmed our tour was not able to double check with the calendar before confirming our booking...

At this moment, we were so happy that while booking our trip to KL, we accidently booked a return trip to Singapore one day earlier which we could not cancel. We immediately decided to take this bus. Another day in KL just seemed wasted for us. Back in Singapore, we perceived everything as so clean and so calm. It just felt good to be back.

“Back in Singapore, we perceived everything as so clean and so calm. It just felt good to be back. ”

In retrospective, I am so happy about this trip to KL. During my first days in Singapore, I had trouble finding the right connection to the city. I was disappointed since my expectations were not fully met. But now after visiting a city with much more discrepancies, I can really appreciate and enjoy living in Singapore for the next few weeks.

Another thought which wondered through my head all the time was: it seems so out of place and reality that all industrialized countries are trying to develop systems and processes which achieve efficiencies of 90% and more while people in the rest of the world are living in much lower standards or are even fighting for basic human needs. I did not see anyone on KL´s streets with whom I would have liked to discuss on climate change and ways how they could improve e.g. their carbon footprint (not that I am an expert on this; just as an example!). This is not meant disrespectful in any way. I would just have felt being disrespectful to them.

Trip to Malaysia`s rain forests - or maybe not

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