Waiting for Visas in Malaysia (31st November - 7th November 2006)
First of all was an early flight to Singapore and then from the airport we took the metro to the bus station where we booked onto the evening bus to KL and left our bags with the friendly ladies in the bus office. From here we were heading to Orchard Road in search of a new camera and some generl retail therapy. Singapore is so different compared to the rest of SE Asia, everything is so clean, there are warnings everywhere (don't walk here, don't sit here, don't run here, it's great to be back in a country where people can sue!!), trains run on time, you can understand the timetables, ahhh. There are even fixed price shops and this was the first place that we went to to price up camers. From here we went across the road to the guys where you had to haggle. In the end we got a good deal on the camera, spare battery, case and memory card. Well, I think we got a good deal, I'm sure that the guy in the shop thought that he got a good deal as well. Either way it was over $100 less than in the first shop. Then it was to the supermarket to buy a picnic dinner for the bus (oh the joys of shopping in a supermarket in Singapore) and back to the bus station. The bus to KL was great, the biggest comfiest chairs I'd ever travelled in. I like Singapore.
In the morning we got a cab out to the Indian embassy, eventually (nearly every cab we stopped had a "broken" meter) and stood in line waiting for the doors to open. We were approached by a friendly tout who was offering his services helping people fill in the visa application forms. After hearing stories of the Indian ruthlessness when it comes to red tape, we decided it was probably a good idea to use his help in case we got something wrong and were told to come back the next day or something, when we really wanted to get this done ASAP. Inside it was hot and sweaty, but our number was eventually called and they took our forms and told us to come back on Monday to pick up the visas - easy! I remember KL being a dirty city, especially around China Town where we were staying, and we didn't want to stay here for a week (especially as we were coming back here in December for a friend's brothers wedding), so as soon as we got back to town we booked ourselves onto a bus to the Cameron Highlands. It's about 6 hours drive north, the last hour and a half up some really twisty roads, according to the Lonely Planet over 600 turns in this last stretch of road. The Cameron Highlands are great, it's nice and relaxed here, it's a lot cooler with the altititude and there are some nice walks (not that I was even going to try to get Kamay on one after the trek in Laos). We found a really nice place to stay called the Jurin Hotel with an incredibly friendly owner, Zein, and just relaxed for a few days. In town we quickly found a couple of restaurants that we liked and pretty much camped out there for every meal - fantastic curries and indian breads. On Friday we went on a tour of the area that took in the tea platations, tea factory (tea is a massive crop here), Mount Bitang, a mossy forrest and a small village. It was a good trip, and although we were part of a group, there really wasn't any easy way to do it on our own. I think that the only other thing that we did in the Cameron Highlands was try to book train tickets for India. We'd been warned that the seats can go really quickly so the earlier you book them the better - so it was good that Kamay found out you could do this online. In theory it should be easy, but the website doesn't offer you a suggested route between the towns that you want to travel between. You have to know exactly which towns the train travels between and which stations in the town it stops at. If you get the wrong station it will just tell you that no train exists. It even tells you this if you ask for a class of seat that isn't available on the train. So it actually ended up taking over an hour to book each ticket and it involved about 2 different websites. We did eventually manage to book most of the trains that we needed, but some of them were already full, nearly a month in advance. So glad that Kamay took control of this rather than relying on my idea of just sorting it out when we get there.
Gutted to be leaving the CH but we thought that we should see something a bit more cultural during this week in Malaysia so we took a bus back to KL and then on to Melacca. This is a very old port a couple of hours drive from KL. By the time we got there and found a hotel it was too late to see anything, so we just ate and slept. In the morning we took a walking tour of the old city through lots of interesting old Chinese streets and past the Chinese temples stopping off on the way to talk to try some of the pineapple tarts that are famous here - Kamay tried the Chicken Balls - also a delicacy here. Turns out that the Chicken Balls are actually just pieces of Chicken served with balls of rice. So not as leg crossingly scary as I was expecting. Oh and there is also an old cobbler that still makes the tiny shoes that the Chinese ladies with bound feet used to wear. Thankfully most of the people that buy these now don´t actually wear them, they just put them on the mantelpiece.
From here it was back to KL to pick up our passports and visas which meant another early start to get to the Embassy where we had to stand in line to pay for the visa and to hand over our passport, we would then have to come back in the afternoon to pick up the passports which would then have the visas stamped inside. Such a pain in the ass to have to keep going back to the embassy, but we were told last week that this is the way that it would have to be done. There were another couple of westerners waiting with us so we got chatting to them. They were both ¨living¨ in India now, both unofficially I think so every six months or so they have to apply for a new visa, this time they were in Malaysia to do it. The elderly Australian was really nice, but the Moroccon guy was a bit of an idiot, telling us that if you work in an office it´s guaranteed that you´d get cancer and the only way out was yoga!! In between our trips to the embassy we did a bit of relaxing in the shopping malls of KL. The place is so much better than I remember it from 1997. I guess that the whole country has experienced a huge amount of investment and growth recently and it really does show. Surprisingly, well for me, we had a really nice time in Malaysia, so we´re both looking forward to coming back here in a months time for the wedding.
The following day we were back on the bus to Singapore, where we had time to do a bit of shopping on Orchard Road, and then it was out to the lush airport to catch the flight to Delhi.
In the morning we got a cab out to the Indian embassy, eventually (nearly every cab we stopped had a "broken" meter) and stood in line waiting for the doors to open. We were approached by a friendly tout who was offering his services helping people fill in the visa application forms. After hearing stories of the Indian ruthlessness when it comes to red tape, we decided it was probably a good idea to use his help in case we got something wrong and were told to come back the next day or something, when we really wanted to get this done ASAP. Inside it was hot and sweaty, but our number was eventually called and they took our forms and told us to come back on Monday to pick up the visas - easy! I remember KL being a dirty city, especially around China Town where we were staying, and we didn't want to stay here for a week (especially as we were coming back here in December for a friend's brothers wedding), so as soon as we got back to town we booked ourselves onto a bus to the Cameron Highlands. It's about 6 hours drive north, the last hour and a half up some really twisty roads, according to the Lonely Planet over 600 turns in this last stretch of road. The Cameron Highlands are great, it's nice and relaxed here, it's a lot cooler with the altititude and there are some nice walks (not that I was even going to try to get Kamay on one after the trek in Laos). We found a really nice place to stay called the Jurin Hotel with an incredibly friendly owner, Zein, and just relaxed for a few days. In town we quickly found a couple of restaurants that we liked and pretty much camped out there for every meal - fantastic curries and indian breads. On Friday we went on a tour of the area that took in the tea platations, tea factory (tea is a massive crop here), Mount Bitang, a mossy forrest and a small village. It was a good trip, and although we were part of a group, there really wasn't any easy way to do it on our own. I think that the only other thing that we did in the Cameron Highlands was try to book train tickets for India. We'd been warned that the seats can go really quickly so the earlier you book them the better - so it was good that Kamay found out you could do this online. In theory it should be easy, but the website doesn't offer you a suggested route between the towns that you want to travel between. You have to know exactly which towns the train travels between and which stations in the town it stops at. If you get the wrong station it will just tell you that no train exists. It even tells you this if you ask for a class of seat that isn't available on the train. So it actually ended up taking over an hour to book each ticket and it involved about 2 different websites. We did eventually manage to book most of the trains that we needed, but some of them were already full, nearly a month in advance. So glad that Kamay took control of this rather than relying on my idea of just sorting it out when we get there.
Gutted to be leaving the CH but we thought that we should see something a bit more cultural during this week in Malaysia so we took a bus back to KL and then on to Melacca. This is a very old port a couple of hours drive from KL. By the time we got there and found a hotel it was too late to see anything, so we just ate and slept. In the morning we took a walking tour of the old city through lots of interesting old Chinese streets and past the Chinese temples stopping off on the way to talk to try some of the pineapple tarts that are famous here - Kamay tried the Chicken Balls - also a delicacy here. Turns out that the Chicken Balls are actually just pieces of Chicken served with balls of rice. So not as leg crossingly scary as I was expecting. Oh and there is also an old cobbler that still makes the tiny shoes that the Chinese ladies with bound feet used to wear. Thankfully most of the people that buy these now don´t actually wear them, they just put them on the mantelpiece.
From here it was back to KL to pick up our passports and visas which meant another early start to get to the Embassy where we had to stand in line to pay for the visa and to hand over our passport, we would then have to come back in the afternoon to pick up the passports which would then have the visas stamped inside. Such a pain in the ass to have to keep going back to the embassy, but we were told last week that this is the way that it would have to be done. There were another couple of westerners waiting with us so we got chatting to them. They were both ¨living¨ in India now, both unofficially I think so every six months or so they have to apply for a new visa, this time they were in Malaysia to do it. The elderly Australian was really nice, but the Moroccon guy was a bit of an idiot, telling us that if you work in an office it´s guaranteed that you´d get cancer and the only way out was yoga!! In between our trips to the embassy we did a bit of relaxing in the shopping malls of KL. The place is so much better than I remember it from 1997. I guess that the whole country has experienced a huge amount of investment and growth recently and it really does show. Surprisingly, well for me, we had a really nice time in Malaysia, so we´re both looking forward to coming back here in a months time for the wedding.
The following day we were back on the bus to Singapore, where we had time to do a bit of shopping on Orchard Road, and then it was out to the lush airport to catch the flight to Delhi.
posted by Shippo at 2:16 AM
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