Welcome to Malaysia!

I have actually shouted this sentence more than once, and that alone describes the incredible hospitality of the Malays. I entered Malaysia on February 26 and will stay until March 31. I have experienced a lot and will share this post in 3 parts. Here I will tell you everything about the mainland and my trip to Singapore. Part 2 will be about my experiences in Borneo and Part 3 will be all about my 3-day tour on the Kinabatang River in Borneo.

*Quick overview of how my trip went, because I will not be reporting synchronously. Georgetown, Cameron Highlands, Kuala Lumpur, Borneo (6-22 March), Singapore, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur. And in this post I will skip Borneo and jump from the first Kuala Lumpur stay to Singapore.*

My first stop was Georgetown on the island of Penang, located in the northwest of Malaysia. Georgetown is known for its historic old town and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2008. Chinese pagodas, Christian churches, mosques and Indian temples characterize the city.

Every few minutes you discover new artworks that bring the partly worn-out house walls back to life.

I'm not really a fan of cities, but Georgetown really impressed me or maybe I'm just getting old... Another attraction to visit in Georgetown is the Chinese Clan 'Jetty'. They live in villages built on stilts in the sea.

However, they are not only found here, I have seen many villages, especially in Borneo. Here too, I noticed the enormous friendliness of the people. When I also walked away from the souvenir shops, I always received a friendly smile and a 'hello'. I must also say that the Malaysians are extremely good at English, unlike the Thais and Vietnamese. I mean even people who have nothing to do with tourists. Next, I went to the Cameron Highlands. Tea is extensively cultivated here, and as the name suggests, the area is located at an altitude of 1500-2000m and is part of a mountain range.

Therefore, it is also noticeably cooler and therefore optimal for tea cultivation. The 20 degrees felt very good, especially to wear jeans again! On the first day, I met Sarah from Northern Germany. Together we hitchhiked about 7km and walked the last 3km along the tea plantations. What we saw was simply beautiful! While the other cars were constantly stuck in traffic, we leisurely made our way and could stop and take photos as much as we wanted. Thanks to the navigation queen Larissa, we missed the turn of our planned track and ended up at a visitor center that was slightly overcrowded. We weren't really happy and didn't want to go home, so we decided to take the original route after all. We got a ride for a while and then walked along the plantations on a steep but much quieter path.

The path also led to a special forest, a 'mossy forest'. We didn't necessarily want to walk the 2km either, so we hitchhiked again. It was a bumpy ride but super funny :)

Arriving there, we paid the entrance fee and went into the forest.

The path was well built, there was even a small tower. Overall, it was really nice, but I had imagined more hiking trails/footpaths. At the 'end' we actually saw such a path with an open gate in front of it, where 2 men were tinkering. When we asked if it was open, we walked in. What awaited us there really blew me away.

I had never been in such a cool forest. Every few meters we felt like stopping to take pictures. But it also looked damn mystical! Every now and then groups passed us, totally sweaty, and were completely perplexed that we were alone here and asked if we also wanted to go up the mountain. Yes, alone, mountain...? Hm, yes? We didn't really understand what they all meant... When the first ones started telling us to be careful not to get caught in the darkness, we got a little suspicious. It's only 1-2km and it was around 3:00 p.m. We certainly didn't want to take any risks, and I, in my jeans, also started to breathe slowly. Eventually, we decided to turn around, but we were overjoyed that we had even found this hiking trail.

The staff gave us a ride back, and at the main road, we hitchhiked one last time. And the guy seemed to have the utmost trust in humanity. He had to do something on the way back and left us in the car, with the key in the ignition and his phone lying around. Hats off. The next day, Sarah continued her journey, and I rented a scooter and visited a few other plantations. I probably had the hottest ride - sorry Loui Xavier (faithful companion of the Ha Giang Loops).

First, I went to Cameron Valley Tea Plantations and was extremely impressed by the sight.

Unfortunately, I already bought tea here, but the famous tea is BOH Tea, which was available at the place where I was with Sarah the day before, but there was also another location, 10km away. So I also drove there. I drank a green tea with passion fruit flavor and really enjoyed the time and especially the view.

It started drizzling on the way back and not even 10 minutes later, when I was in my bed, it started pouring heavily. Thank God! Then it was time for me to move on to Kuala Lumpur. I stayed only 2 nights because I saved 3 days in KL for the end. Luckily, because I got a terrible hostel. The rooms smelled disgusting and there were no young people or other backpackers there. I didn't do anything really exciting either, just checked out the Twin Towers from below and chilled in a park.

On the next morning, I got up very early because I was flying to Kuching, Borneo. And we will skip this part. On March 22, I went from Borneo to Singapore.

Originally, I didn't plan to go to Singapore, but in this case, it actually made sense, so why not. If I were to say something about the first impression, I could write a novel. No, seriously, it was a pure sensory overload! Starting with the airport. Huge halls with floating artworks, everything sparkling clean, there are employees responsible for maintaining the queues at passport control, and the baggage claim area is surrounded by plants. And what sets Singapore apart is its many huge malls! There is one at every metro (MRT) station. And of course, there's a lot of food. I took the train to my hostel and immediately bought a 2-day pass so that I could travel around the city. It's pretty cool. And the train network is incredibly well-developed. My hostel was ok. Not the nicest and cleanest, but it was only 2 nights. After resting a bit from the flight, I set off. In Singapore, there are Chinese, Malays, and Indians, so of course, there is a Chinatown, but I didn't like it at all.

Souvenir shops everywhere and far from authentic. I read on the internet about an Arab quarter, where there are supposedly many smaller shops. Nope! I don't know if I just didn't have the knack for it, but I only saw 2 or 3 big - surprise - malls and otherwise ONLY restaurants. Just food! No matter how full you are, you could or I could always feel like eating something. It starts when you get off the MRT and find yourself directly in a mall's food court.

In the evening, I went to Gardens by the Bay, one of the main attractions in Singapore. But it's just cool.

Just before nine, there is a light show every evening, which was really good! The next morning, I met a German and we met in the evening because she had some university stuff to do. Meanwhile, I went to a botanical garden, but it wasn't really that exciting and because of the unbearable heat, I decided to visit the largest aquarium in the world, located in Singapore. I'm really not a fan of things like that, but I just needed to cool down. Here and there, it was quite well done, and they also included climate protection. For 'lunch', I had frozen yogurt because Miss Larissa becomes very picky when she's hungry and then can't decide what she wants. Moreover, the Malaysians really like to eat meat, especially seafood. Being a vegetarian is not an option. On the way back, I got horribly lost in a mall. I walked around for about 20 minutes in circles. Later, we met at Gardens by the Bay. Together, we watched the light show again and then a water show at Maria by the Sands (the famous building).

Well, that show was completely over the top. What they did was so crazy! I have never seen such a cool and good show.

The next day, I already left Singapore to go to Malacca (below Kuala Lumpur). So either Singapore didn't want to let me go yet or they just wanted to screw with me for fun. I'll keep it short, I booked a bus the night before, went there through the city. Bus doesn't exist. Money gone. Funny. I drove back 40 minutes to another place where apparently one should leave from. I knew that the bus would leave at twelve, so I was a bit pressed for time. Instead of a bus terminal, as expected, I found - surprise surprise - a mall. After a long search and a few desperate tears, I found the ticket office, bought a ticket, and got on the bus. But actually, the bus doesn't go directly to Malacca. The bus driver mumbled something angrily, ran back with me. What's going on here?? Doesn't matter, back again. At the border, super hectic, said bus driver runs back and forth, in the end, he switched me to another bus, which was very nice, but why all this hustle and bustle? But eventually, I arrived safely. And the hostel in Malacca is very stylish and relaxed, which unfortunately means that I don't really do anything... oops. Malacca is also not that beautiful, and I didn't even want to come here in the first place. But there is a very cool night market here with great food.

I actually had my last one in Thailand. I stayed in Malacca for 2 days, and I will spend the remaining 4 days in Kuala Lumpur in a great Airbnb with an infinity pool. I'll treat myself to that before going to Sri Lanka.