Shoping Spree in Kuala Lumpur

The trendy shopping district Bukit Bintang is to Kuala Lumpur what Orchard Road is to Singapore but with one major difference. Everything is cheaper in Bukit Bintang. So after a steady breakfast at the Pancake House we hit the new Pavilion mall. It was a successful raid for the whole team. Nelly got away with most stuff as usual, she is after all our MVP. But mom and dad also scored. Dad got a new sweater from Ted Baker and a shirt from Paul Frank. While mom invested in a brand new laptop from Samsungs N-series.

Swedish flag burning in Kuala Lumpur

As we're sure you know (cause apparently it's front page news in Sweden) a Swedish flag was set on fire outside our country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Friday. Protesters demanded action to be taken against cartoonist Lars Vilks and newspapers that published his caricatures of the Muslim prophet Muhammad.

Don't send the marines just yet though, we're safe from harm! But thanks for your kind heads up and shown concern. Here in Kuala Lumpur the event is not even reported by the news. If you try and search The Star Online which is Malaysias biggest newspaper you come up empty. All Swedish related news here are about Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

However it's good to know that the Malaysian government keeps a watchful eye on the media here. News that are not considered to qualify to be public knowledge do not appear in the papers and are not discussed on TV. We don't watch much Malaysian TV, but we spotted immediately that some Amercian movies are being censored here, for example the naughty classic "Sex and the City".

Nelly plus entourage on the move again

We have crossed the border once again, gone from Singapore to Malaysia. The trip went smooth, just under one hour. Nelly is such a good sport when we're on the move and travelling with AirAsia is a breeze, Lufthansa has a lot they could learn from them.

Singapore was great, we were sad to go. Really expensive though, that's the down side but apart from that we loved it. They have a nice mixture of old and new that harmonize well! People are kind, everything is clean and the whole town just run like clockwork.

Our hotel Sheraton Imperial in Kuala Lumpur is great which is a breath of fresh air cause we really didn't care much for the one we stayed at in Singapore, The Rendezvous.

Here at the Sheraton in KL we have for example a walk-in closet which we turned into Nelly's master bedroom. She's sleeping there right now at the time of writing this, exhausted after a long day. Another great thing about our room is the huge window that goes all the way down to the floor, perfect when traveling with a small one. The view from 27th floor keeps Nelly occupied, sometimes for over 5 minutes. It takes a lot nowadays to amuse her after two months of adventure in Asia.

Singapore by day - Singapore by night

After exploring Chinatown we took the subway to Clarke Quay for a nice slow cruise on the river.

The Singapore river divides it's host in two equally beautiful parts, the River Planning Area and the River Valley. Practically all land surrounding the river is commercial hot spot. Thus making the river cruise a perfect starting point for those who want to get a quick overview of Singapore.

























Singapore by night

After a nice dinner at Clarkes Quay it was time for one last adventure before we'd call it a night.





The Singapore Flyer is the world's largest observation wheel, each rotation takes 30 minutes.

It was a real bitch getting there though cause the free brochure we found at the hotel said the closest subway station was City Hall but failed to mention that you then have to take a special shuttle bus. When we learned this we asked some guy who apparently was a complete idiot how long the bus ride was and he said we could easily walk it. Wrong! We did maybe half the distance but by then we had completely run out of curse words so we had to surrender and jump into a cab.

The hassle getting there turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Night time must be the perfect hour to take the ride actually. The land is dark and there's nothing but glittering city lights beneath your feet, it's urban beauty at it's best!

Chinatown - Singapore

Last full day in Singapore for us today. And even though we love the place, the great distance between Stockholm and this part of the world makes it a little uncertain when we'll see it again. Therefore we decided to be really busy bees and try to see as much as possible starting with Chinatown.

The Chinese people are by far the largest ethnic group in Singapore, composing approximately 75% of the population, which makes it perhaps a little bit silly to talk about a Chinatown part of town. However there's a certain district here called Chinatown that does retain buildings of historical and cultural significance. Large sections of it have been declared national heritage sites.

Sentosa Island

This morning we got a great start at the Coffee Bean Café, located not far from our hotel, the Rendezvous.



Since we arrived in Singapore we have tightened our belt strap and done free stuff like visiting the Botanic Gardens and exploring Little India. Today we felt it was time to let the dollars roll again. We took the train to Sentosa Island, Asia's favorite playground. There are an endless array of activities here, we had our eyes set on the Underwater world and the dolphin show.

The Underwater world has a really cool 83 meter long under water tunnel. We had ourselves a close encounter with sharks, sting rays and scary jelly fishes. It's not every day you see a shoal of piranhas swimming by if you look up! But to call this place a "world" is very misleading, it's more like a big room if you ask us. So we had 90 minutes left to kill before the dolphin show would start. They don't let you leave the underwater "world" to explore the rest of Sentosa Island so we had to stick around because the entrance is not the kind of fee you'd be willing to pay twice (read we were robbed).











Since we would have to wait for the dolphins we decided to do so in the what I guess you would call the VIP lounge. They have like 10 seats with comfortable armchairs. We get there and learn that there's a cover charge to sit there, you have to spend at least 10 Singapore dollars per adult, (50 SEK or 20 PLN). Fair enough, we do so on coffee and a sorry excuse of a cake. Martin jokes that he hopes it's gonna start raining now when we've paid extra to sit under roof. Two minutes later it's pouring down. Martin wishes for a million dollar and a house in Italy but it seems the gods are not granting us any more wishes today.



After a wait that seemed way longer then 90 minutes, the show finally starts. Ten minutes later the show wraps it up. We're still in chock. If you're gonna call it a show you really have to put on something longer then 10 lousy minutes. At the Singapore Zoo a show was 30 minutes plus (so go there instead). Not much left for us to do but leave. Obviously it's still raining. So kids at home, let this be a lesson to you all, be careful of what you wish for, it might come true.







Oh, and here some graffiti we spotted on our way back, seen in VivoCity, Singapore's largest waterfront shopping mall.