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Batu Cave; Putrajaya; Malacca; Singapore
Dec. 2nd, 2005 04:15 pmMonday evening I spent in a backpacker's bar whose (surprisingly ineffectual) customer-luring gimmick was to offer ladies free vodka until midnight daily, chatting to a couple of Vancouver surf-dudes and a couple of newly-qualified Danish teachers. They'd apparently qualified to teach cooking, though their explanation of Danish food was "Pigs. Also potatoes."
Tuesday, accordingly, up late; to the Batu Caves, which are impressive limestone caves containing a major Hindu temple, with lots of dioramas of scenes from the Ramayana done in painted statues. Fresh coconut for lunch: a disappointment. Met up with the tour group in the afternoon, Chinese food - I had deep-fried giant frog with ginger chips. Very crunchy, inconvenient bones, though the ginger chips were nice. And back to the backpacker's bar; there are apparently entertaining photos among the current batch on my camera.
Wednesday morning to Putrajaya, a new city being built as the administrative capital of Malaysia, and looking like a Sim City scenario whose player had been over-quick with the 'showpiece building' button but whose layout had failed to attract inhabitants. There were three showpiece bridges across the artifical river; steel-and-glass skyscrapers for the Ministries, vast domed palaces as Prime Minister's Residence and Prime Minister's Office, a white-domed Palace of Justice, a giant conference centre and a giant red-domed mosque. Weird place. In the afternoon, the Museum of Islamic Art, the butterfly park (hot and humid by Malaysian standards!), and a trip from one end of the monorail to the other and back again, which would have had splendid skyscraperscape views were it not for the torrential rain.
Thursday we went to Malacca, which failed to be as attractive as Whitby in the rain; you can visit the mouldering walls and sad tombstones of the colonial church, or the Malacca Maritime Museum which pointed out how Malacca had been the hub of world trade until the advent of Singapore and had gone downhill since. It did have a decent second-hand English-language bookshop, much as small English seaside towns tend to.
It's Friday; I've just got off the six-hour bus trip to Singapore, arranged my finances for the next part of the trip, and booked a taxi at 0600 to get me to the airport to go to Bali. From what I saw from the bus, it doesn't seem quite as impressive as KL; the timing's sufficiently wrong that, if I want to see any of Singapore, I'll have to come back again. The advertised attraction here is the zoo, I may well end up on the zoo-by-night tour after the tour-group's goodbye supper.
Tuesday, accordingly, up late; to the Batu Caves, which are impressive limestone caves containing a major Hindu temple, with lots of dioramas of scenes from the Ramayana done in painted statues. Fresh coconut for lunch: a disappointment. Met up with the tour group in the afternoon, Chinese food - I had deep-fried giant frog with ginger chips. Very crunchy, inconvenient bones, though the ginger chips were nice. And back to the backpacker's bar; there are apparently entertaining photos among the current batch on my camera.
Wednesday morning to Putrajaya, a new city being built as the administrative capital of Malaysia, and looking like a Sim City scenario whose player had been over-quick with the 'showpiece building' button but whose layout had failed to attract inhabitants. There were three showpiece bridges across the artifical river; steel-and-glass skyscrapers for the Ministries, vast domed palaces as Prime Minister's Residence and Prime Minister's Office, a white-domed Palace of Justice, a giant conference centre and a giant red-domed mosque. Weird place. In the afternoon, the Museum of Islamic Art, the butterfly park (hot and humid by Malaysian standards!), and a trip from one end of the monorail to the other and back again, which would have had splendid skyscraperscape views were it not for the torrential rain.
Thursday we went to Malacca, which failed to be as attractive as Whitby in the rain; you can visit the mouldering walls and sad tombstones of the colonial church, or the Malacca Maritime Museum which pointed out how Malacca had been the hub of world trade until the advent of Singapore and had gone downhill since. It did have a decent second-hand English-language bookshop, much as small English seaside towns tend to.
It's Friday; I've just got off the six-hour bus trip to Singapore, arranged my finances for the next part of the trip, and booked a taxi at 0600 to get me to the airport to go to Bali. From what I saw from the bus, it doesn't seem quite as impressive as KL; the timing's sufficiently wrong that, if I want to see any of Singapore, I'll have to come back again. The advertised attraction here is the zoo, I may well end up on the zoo-by-night tour after the tour-group's goodbye supper.
