Homeward Bound (2-9 February 2010)

A Roundabout Return: Singapore – Malaysia – Singapore – Malaysia again – Hangzhou – Shanghai….

Finally, it was time to head home to Shanghai. We’d chosen the slightly unconventional and geographically illogical route of going via Singapore as we’d been railroaded into buying our return flight last minute at the airport (Filipino customs don't like you not to have an onward international ticket – understandable as it is an awesome country and we could easily been tempted to stick around longer) and Singapore was one of the cheapest options. We then planned to take a snoop around Malaysia before taking a budget flight from KL to Hangzhou.

So off we went to Singapore, where we stayed for a couple of days with friends, enjoyed the beautiful Botanic Gardens and did a bit of shopping. Flo had a meeting scheduled with his soon-to-be new company but in keeping with the process thus far, it was postponed to the following week. This turned out to suit us nicely as my good friend from school, Eleanor, and her man, Mike, were in Malaysia, in the first weeks of their epic journey back to the UK from Oz. I hadn't seen Eleanor or Mike since they’d moved to Melbourne 5 years ago and had missed their wedding the previous year so was determined to see them somewhere on the Asia leg of their trip. Just a few days behind them in Singapore and KL, we were glad to have the chance to catch them and flew to Penang where we spent a night in Georgetown before heading to our rendezvous point in Batu Ferringhi the next day.

It was the first time in Malaysia for both Flo and I and we spent sometime exploring the streets of Georgetown with its old colonial architecture (much of which looked sadly rundown and in need of a paintjob but still had the majestic air of times gone by), Little India, filled with colourful saris, the smells of delicious spices floating in the air and bhangra blasting out of every other store-front and of course, Chinatown also abuzz with activity. After a couple of hours under the blazing hot sun, the life and sightseeing spirit had been sucked out of us and, far more excited about an ice-cold drink than the old colonial fort, it was time to head for the beach.

Batu Ferringhi is not the place to go if you are looking for a deserted paradise. If you are looking for a beachfront consisting almost entirely of very large, very expensive international hotels with equally large swimming pools and pricey beer, then this is the place for you. Eleanor and Mike had won a prize of a weekend at a ritzy hotel which was very nice but where many of the guests, on what was presumably the holiday of a lifetime, looked frankly bored out of their skulls and a bit fed up. There was one guy in a wheelchair who whizzed passed us on the ramp down to the swimming pool, neatly swerving away from the water, and leaving the pool attendant with a very panicked look on his face.

“That’s the most fun I’ve had all week,” the guy chuckled at us as we walked past.

Flo and I stayed in a rather less salubrious place set back from the beach where baby mosquitoes bred behind the wall in the bathroom, coming out to feast at any opportunity, but at just 20 bucks a night, it was a bargain. We dined at the local restaurants on the beach anddiscovered the joys of breakfast roti and fresh pineapple juice in the early morning, before the jetskiers and parascenders were awake. Every now and then, we were reminded that we were in a Muslim country as mothers, encased head to toe by their heavy black burkhas, looked on as their husbands splashed about in the water with the children - two very different worlds indeed.

As well as hanging out, eating, drinking a lot of beer and reminiscing, Flo, Mike and I went out to do a circuit of the island on motorbikes. Eleanor was sick and stayed behind to suffer in 5-star comfort. I’m sure in those few hours we can't have seen all that Penang has to offer but we managed some hiking and a quick swim, saw some quite disappointing waterfalls and, from a distance, an enormous Chinese temple under construction.

We later all went back to Georgetown together before going our separate ways, glad to have caught up after so long.

We returned to Singapore for two days then took a bus back into Malaysia and up to Kuala Lumpur. We found ourselves a hostel in Chinatown that wasn’t in the middle of Petaling Street and the intense atmosphere and noise of the enclosed street market – not quite the Chinatown I was expecting, it was more like a nightmare version of Shanghai’s old Xiangyang Market choc-full of fake designers bags, sunglasses and more watches than you could shake a stick at. In the surrounding streets we found a more chilled out vibe with plenty of street restaurants and stalls, the whole place seething with backpackers.

I think KL would be a pretty cool city to live in but as tourists, three days here was plenty. We took in all the main sights, Chinatown of course and another Little India, the old mosque on the river, some museums, the Petronas Towers, the KL tower set amidst a tropical park and Central Market. Here we had our feet nibbled by Doctor Fish, an excruciatingly ticklish but very amusing experience though as far as ridding our feet of dead skin goes, I think they’d need to munch for a lot longer than 5 minutes.

We didn't make it up the Petronas Towers having not understood the ridiculous ticketing system where you have to queue from 7am to secure a time slot and returnlater that day to visit so by the time we rocked up at 4pm there was no chance. We weren’t too bothered though and were admiring them from the outside and then from the park that sits just behind, when the heavens suddenly opened with a vengeance and a wall of big black clouds appeared, completely obscuring them from view. We found ourselves a spot in a bar with a covered terrace on which to have a beer and wait out the downpour, smug in the knowledge that we hadn't wasted our time queuing only to go up and not be able to see a thing because of the rain.

The best view came later though when, taking the advice of Eleanor and Michael,we made our way up to the rooftop bar of the Trader's Hotel (a little nervous they might turn us away, waterlogged scruffbags that we were). There was no need to worry, it was still early and not too busy and being an mostly open bar, it was about as wet as us. We made our way around the swimming pool that sits in the middle (how cool is that?) to a window booth where we could enjoy what is probably the best view you're going to get of these amazing buildings. We enjoyed it so much in fact that we stayed till long after dark and spent about a weeks worth of hotel money on G&Ts.

When it was time to leave KL, we were both quite ready to get back to Shanghai, sleep in our own bed and catch up with our friends. It was a long journey given that we were flying into Hangzhou airport, a good 3 hours outside of Shanghai, but eventually we made it home, tired but happy.