Enjoyed another great night’s sleep at Matt Tow’s. Woke up and finally briefly met Matt’s parents – Wendy and Mike (who both have much stronger South African accents than Matt). They were both very friendly and we thanked them for their hospitality. We had another lazy morning, which is a bit of a novelty for us now… In KK (I guess, not so much KL actually) we would be out by 10 at the latest, purely because there was nothing else to do. The lure of TV and a reclining sofa delayed our depature a bit. As ever, was great fun to chill with Matt.
Eventually headed off to Orchard Street – the Singaporean equivalent to London’s Oxford Street. Rather than full of shops, the stretch was full of shopping malls, side by side. Much greener than Oxford Street but Matt said he found it claustrophobic. I guess the tall buildings and overhanging roofing for shade might do that, though, to be honest, we were in tourist mode and in complete awe. It was a much nicer day today and the sun was shining through and off the tall glass structures. The city looks brand new…
We eventually settled on 313 and went to their foodcourt for lunch. We chose this mall purely because they had waitresses who drove around on segways! Food was delicious as ever and the tables were cleaned immediately. Going back to KL, we’re definitely going to miss the cleanliness, especially with regard to the toilets… Was interesting just looking around at the advertising here – much more provocative than Malaysia with a more ‘sex sells’ attitude. This observation is probably more a reflection on Malaysia actually – hadn’t noticed it too much before but it really is that little bit more conservative. That’a not to say Malaysia is backward or anything but definitely, having been therr for so long, we were a little shocked by it all!
Headed over to the Novena bus station and struggled to find the ticket office. Disasterously, they were already booked up but they told us we might have a chance to make it to their other bus terminal and get the bus from there. We raced over in a taxi and, after some frantic searching, booked ourselves on that bus. That could have been pretty awful… Sad to say bye to Matt – he has been a complete legend looking after us these last few days. What a hero.
Much nicer bus than on the way down but we now had to go through immigration and customs… Got through immigration without too much fuss – though there was some conferring amongst staff, which was unnerving to say the least. Next: customs, which, though particularly busy, let us through without any hassle as well. Such relief! It was all so easy this time…
Roads in Malaysia not as smooth as Singapore. There are a million fold more motorcycles on the roads here (in Singapore there were a good number of cyclists), all weaving in and out of cars – insane! We stopped off at service station and recognised those differences between Malaysia and Singapore – toilets, level of service and clothing.
Arrived back in Subang Jaya, where Sunway Lagoon is. We were actually dropped off at a really nice hotel. The hotel staff were very helpful and arranged a taxi to take us back home, as the trains were not running anymore. In fairness, even if they were running, based on our last experience, we might still have opted for the taxi anyway… Taxi driver was nice and dropped us off at the Pavillion. We had used up all our singaporean dollars on the bus tickets and spent the last of our cents on some water so were a bit proud of ourselves. Got out some ringgit, which we felt much more comfortable with. Even in Singapore, we would convert dollars to ringgit!
Claire (and I to be honest) really craved some morrocan food. The kebabs and couscous really hit the spot, as did the garlic sauce. Stuffed, we were able to stroll home – we had been rushing around Pavillion, such was our hunger. We were greeted by a new face at the Sahabat – Raymond. He was very friendly, in typical Sahabat manner, chatting to us about our travels and his travels too… Lemongrass awaited us in all its glory and we so we showered and fell into bed!
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- Segway!
