Emma & Ben… Far From Home

4th – 13th March 2017

I’m going to start this post by writing something which I know will make me sound like a spoilt westerner…. I was dreading South East Asia. There are lots of reasons why we decided to go travelling, but I guess the main ones are because we wanted to see first hand the places we have read about, experience and learn about different cultures, challenge ourselves (prove that we can deal with more than we think we can) in the hope that we would gain a better perspective when we returned home. 

Therefore, South East Asia is an important part of the trip because it’s likely to be the place where we will actually feel like the we have achieved some of the above. However having briefly travelled around Thailand and Bali in our youth, we know just how different places in Asia are to the UK, and although the trips were memorable, we did find them pretty tiring and trying at times, hence the apprehension. 

Despite the traveller nerves, one thing that I was very, very excited about was being reunited with my mom! I was lucky enough that my mom was able to fly out to Kuala Lumpur (KL) and spend the first 2 weeks of our South East Asia trip with us. 

We had timed it so mom flew into KL the same day as us (albeit us early morning and mom late at night) so we spent the first part of our trip catching up in our Air BnB apartment. 
We had 4 nights in KL which in hindsight is probably one night too long, as there isn’t really much to see, but it suited us as it gave us time to get over the jet lag and have some quality time together. 
To avoid this post being too long, I’ve decided to list the main things we did, in order of what I think was worth doing/good value:

Watching the fountain light show in front of the Petronas Towers at night in KLCC Park – it was free and had a feel-good element to it

Visited Jalan Alor for some very tasty (if spicy) street food – we all agreed it was great value and good atmosphere 

Went for a dink at the Helipad bar – this had been recommended to us by lots of people as a good value alternative to paying to go up the Petronas Towers – views were amazing!

Visiting China Town and Central Market – great for souvenir shopping! 

Going up Menara Tower, ok but quite expensive 

Visited Lot 10 Hutong for some more street food – this was a slight failure as we didn’t know what we were ordering and poor mom ended up with some weird beef tripe dish with some other ingredients which were unidentifiable – probably a better experience if you go with someone who can give you advice on what to eat

Trip to the Batu Caves – the gold Buddha at the entrance was pretty impressive

Treetop walk in KL Eco Forest – it was ok but we did it in the middle of the day so it was very hot!

From KL we headed to Ipoh (pronounced E-poh) after reading several blogs, we decided the best way to get there was by train, and it was pretty straight forward – we purchased the tickets the day before from KL Sentral station and the train was modern, clean and the journey was very smooth. It took about 2hours. 
If I’m honest, I hadn’t really heard much about Ipoh before we got there, it was actually my moms suggestion to stop there after she had seen that Lonely Planet had rated it as a 2017 must see destination – and I’m so glad we did! It ended up being my favourite place that we visited in Malaysia.

It’s a place which hasn’t yet been effected by tourism but you can tell it’s a city on the up! There are lots of new cafes, restaurants and independent shops opening up. They have a great heritage and street art trail (I thought the street art was better than the more well known Georgetown) which we followed and allowed us to explore the city and although 2 days is more than enough, I would say it’s well worth a visit!

From Ipoh we travelled to Georgetown in Penang. We got a coach as far as Butterworth and then a ferry across to Georgetown (the ferry terminal is just a short walk from the coach drop off point). We had treated ourselves to a lovely little heritage hotel, Ren i Tang, I can’t recommend it enough! Great location and lovely staff!
Again, here is a summary of the things we did in Georgetown which we would recommend:

Trying the local food – we tried street food and the local Indian restaurants – so cheap and tasty! 

Free walking tour organised by the tourist information office – our guide was hilarious about how he explained the towns colourful history 

Chew Jetty – eye opener about how the local Chinese community lived and make a living off the sea 

Penang Museum – best value museum we have visited for 1RM – about 20p. 
So after being so anxious about South East Asia, Malaysia really surprised me. We had a lovely time! It was easy to travel round, lots to see and do and the food was amazing! 

(Posted by Em)