Malaysia – Aperture & Wanderlust

The Batu Caves

Selamat malan!

Today I would like to share with you my Batu Caves experience.
I already talked about Kuala Lumpur in general in my last post, today I would like to talk specifically about the impressive Hindu Caves in the north of KL.

You can easily take a train to the Caves from KL Sentral and it costs about 3€ in total.
The station is called „Batu Caves“ and when you get out of the train, you are almost there. At the end of the road you will find a hill with a huge golden statue in front of it, which is dedicated to Lord Murugan. If you want to enter the series of caves and temples, you need to climb lots of stairs and you will be kindly asked to wear a sarong, but no worries, you can lend one for 5RM.
They will also be very pleased if you carry a bucket full of sand to the top of the stairs, since they are still working on the temples and the caves.

The Batu Caves complex consists of three main caves, one of these is the Dark Cave with lots of bats. You can book a tour at the entrance of the cave if you want to visit it.
Besides the three main caves, there are still a few smaller ones.

I really loved the caves, since the view from the top of the stairs is really stunning and entering the caves is simply magical! Furthermore, you will have a lot of monkey encounters, they are just everywhere! Be aware of these little creatures, even though they look cute, they can be mean and take your sunglasses, cameras, bags and food.
Short after we went out of the subway station, a monkey climbed up a man’s clothes and stole his whole bag of peanuts and ran away with it. Nevertheless it is nice to observe them and to take pictures.

Batu-3 — The stairs and the statue of Lord Murugan

What do you think about the caves? Would you like to go there?

Have a good week,
Sophie

11. Oktober 2017

Sophie B.12 Kommentare

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hello World,

this is gonna be a quick Kuala Lumpur Update, since I have to admit that I do not really have a real „KL-Travel-Guide“ for you. To be honest, I am often too lazy to bring my Reflex Camera, consequently my KL pictures are not the best.

Anyway, I booked a „Nice Bus“ for 44RM to KL on Easybook, the company is seriously called „Nice Busses“. However, these busses are really cool, since you have a huge seat with a tablet where you can watch movies and TV shows. I really enjoyed the ride.
Additionally, I can highly recommend taking busses, as you will be able to see some nice forests and plantations.

I arrived at 4:00pm and took a Grab to my hostel Reggae Mansion. The hostel is really nice, is has a rooftop bar, a good restaurant, a cinema, nice bedrooms and you can do your laundry in 3 hours for only 15RM.
After I had checked in, I walked around KL and later went to the restaurant, where I met four very nice girls from the UK.
Later in the evening I went up to the rooftop bar and met Roger, a guy from Holland and we planned to explore KL together.

I woke up quite early the next morning because one of the staff members came into the room and started to sing. I was slightly confused and thought it was my roommate.
I slept in a 16 bed room and shard the room with only one girl the first night, her name is Charlotte.
We met Roger for breakfast and went to a local food court where we had Nasi Goreng for only 5RM. I love the food courts in Malaysia, they offer amazing and fresh dishes!
Later we decided to walk to the Petronas Towers, which takes approximately 30-40minutes from Reggae Mansion.
There is a huge mall inside the towers which is called Suria KLCC. I had to buy two shirts and a pair of shorts there, since the laundry turned my white T-Shirts yellow/brown.

Around the Petronas Towers you will find a nice park surrounded by many business buildings. There is even a swimming pool near the towers, but only children are allowed to use it.

The next day Charlotte and I went to the Batu Caves together, I will write a separate post about it, since I finally brought my camera!!

Furthermore, we had to buy sneakers and explored China Town while looking for a nice pair of shoes. It is really impressive how many different markets, people and cultures they have in Kuala Lumpur.

In the evening we went up to the rooftop bar again, where we met other nice people from all over the world. Our little group of six people decided to go to the main road for food in Malaysia and I can just encourage you to do this!

There are so many different stands and restaurants where you can get every type of asian food and also western food. I ordered Nasi Goreng and it was delicious! Unfortunately there are many Salesman who want you to buy little accessories while you are having dinner, which really got on my nerves after a whie.

I only spent two days in KL and then took a bus to the airport because I promised my friend Lina to pick her up from the airport. So far so good, we booked an accommodation near the airport which was also really good. Although taking the flight to Bali was a little complicated, we finally made it!!

Stay tuned

4. Oktober 2017

Sophie B.14 Kommentare

Taman Negara Pulau Pinang

Hello everybody and welcome back to my blog!
Today, I will share with you my hiking experiences in Penang, Malaysia.
As you know from my last posts (click and click), I spent five days in Penang after I went to Langkawi.
I met a really nice girl from Holland and we decided to explore Penang’s National Park together, good decision.
Since you should be prepared for everything when you go hiking, we bought two huge bottles of water for each of us and also brought bananas and different kinds of street food to-go.
There is a very cheap bus in Penang, which will take you from the center of Georgetown to the National Park, the bus also stops at Batu Ferringhi. It took us about 10 minutes to get to the Park from the beach and the ticket is only about 1.40RM.
Having arrived at „Taman Negara Pulau Pinang“, you will have two hiking options: Turtle Beach and Monkey Beach. As other travelers told us that Monkey Beach is pretty busy, we decided to go to Turtle Beach and I do not regret it. It took us two and a half hours to get to the Beach and the hike was simply beautiful. You do not need to be super fit for it, but some good shoes are advisable! Be prepared to see a beautiful rainforest with lots of trees, palm trees and even waterfalls. Additionally, you won’t need a guide for this tour, since it is quite obvious where you have to go. I loved that we were able to walk on our own and were not part of a group of screaming tourists.

Around noon we had made it to Turtle Beach and seriously, there were just about five other people there. We walked down a long „bridge“ until we reached a small hut that was standing in the sea. We sat down for almost an hour, listened to the sea and relaxed.
In these moments I always try to appreciate the moment, to be aware of my surroundings and know how lucky I am to be there.

Unfortunately, it began to rain later and we went to a small beach house where we met locals and three travelers. It was amazing to see the rain in the middle of the see and realize that the clouds were about to move towards the mainland.
While the locals offered us hot tea, we sat around and talked to each other, we were stuck in a beach house on a lonely beach at the other side of a National Park.
Reminder: Be prepared for everything!

Normally you can take a boat from Turtle Beach to Monkey Beach, however the rain probably made it impossible for someone to pick us up.
Later we decided to walk to the Turtle Sanctuary, which I cannot recommend.
There are turtles in tanks without anything than water in it, very sad.
Since it was slowly getting darker, we decided to walk back, even though it was still raining. Actually, this was not the worst decision, since it was adventurous to walk through a rainforest while it was raining. We heard lots of animals and had to climb around in order to get over the floated paths.
You will have to be very cautious if you want to walk through a flooded jungle, as you might slip and hurt yourself.
After one and a half hour we finally arrived at the entrance with soaking wet trainers and clothes.

Looking back, it was an awesome adventure. I really hope that I will be able to do more hikes in tropical rainforests and experience more adventures like this one.

Would you like to go hiking in a jungle? Let me know in the comments!

xx, Sophie

27. September 2017

Sophie B.10 Kommentare

Batu Ferringhi, Penang – and what I’ve learned in two weeks of Solo Traveling

As you know from my Solo Traveling Post, I planned to go to Malaysia on my own. My first stop was Langkawi, two days later I went to Georgetown, Penang.
Although Georgetown is a really nice city with great food an amazing street art, I was not able to enjoy it as much as I wanted to.
Why? Because I did not give myself the time to settle in, to deal with my culture shock and to calm down.
I have always been very enthusiastic when I came to another country.
When I arrived in Langkawi I wanted to do everything at once and totally forgot to care for myself and to listen to my body.
Please do not get me wrong, I really enjoyed my time, but there were two days in Penang where I felt really lost, lonely and overwhelmed. Even though I have never suffered from homesickness before, I started to miss the people around me.
I met really nice people in Penang, but it just makes a big difference if you are traveling alone or with a friend.
These two days I was afraid to walk around alone.
Many people will talk to you in Malaysia, since they are really friendly. But it also happened to me that groups of men were asking me where I was staying and if I was traveling alone, which made me feel quite uncomfortable. I always answered that I am traveling with my boyfriend and smiled. Fortunately they just smiled back and said „Okay, good bye!“.

Do not get me wrong, I do not think that every stranger might be dangerous, but it is still very important to be cautious and do not take to many risks when you are alone.

The next thing that caused a little bit of trouble was transportation.
Personally I feel that it is so much easier to take busses, planes, taxis or an Uber with a friend. At the beginning it really scared me to do all these things on my own but you know what? I got out of my comfort zone and now I know that you can also just walk to a hostel and ask if they have a bed for you, I can take busses, planes, ferries and Ubers on my own because I got used to it.
You will learn to deal with new situations every day! The moment when you realize that you have spent a certain time completely on your own, that you met new people and went out with them and that nobody but you makes the decisions is simply amazing.
After a while you know how to negotiate and how to deal with weird taxi drivers. It is an adventure and you are doing this challenge completely on your own.
If you go on a trip on your own, you will not regret it! Embrace the moment, be aware what you are doing and what you have accomplished.

Additionally, traveling alone does not mean that you will be alone. I recently talked to a friend from the UK about this. People are not the same when they are traveling. They make friends within minutes and behave like they already know each other for years.
When I was in Penang at the beach, Anna from Langkawi texted me and gave me the number of a girl from Holland. We met in Penang and had a great time. She showed me that I do not have to me the highly organized girl from Germany, but that I should be more spontaneous and enjoy the moment. While I planned my whole trip, she just decides from day to day what she wants to do and where she wants to go, which is really cool.
Now I slightly regret that all my flights are already booked and that I will probably not be able to go to Vietnam or Myanmar this year, even though I would love to go there!
On my next trip to Asia, I will just book my long distance flights from Germany to Asia and back. This can save money and you can actually go wherever you want.

Anyway, after having explored Georgetown, I went to Batu Ferringhi, which is located at the beach. The beach in Penang is nice in general, but it also depends on the weather.
I can highly recommend watching the sunset there!
Hope you enjoy the pictures, my next post about Penang will be published very soon!

xx, Sophie

24. September 201724. September 2017

Sophie B.12 Kommentare

Georgetown, Penang

As you may know from my last blogpost, Langkawi was great. However, it would not stop raining and I decided to continue my journey and take the Ferry to Penang.
Penang is an island in the south of Langkawi and its capital, Georgetown is connected to the mainland through a bridge.

On my third day, I went to the local taxi stand at Langkawi. I met three girls from Japan and we shared a taxi. I would really advice you to take an Uber in South East Asia, since it is way cheaper!
Anyway, the Japanese girls and I took a taxi that brought us to the ferry. I sat in the last row of the little bus and had to find out that there were several holes in the roof and the rain poured down the seats. Many streets were flooded and it was hard to get through the humongous puddles. After we finally arrived at the harbor I checked in immediately and went to my seat in the ferry. The ferry was old and had two decks, there was not enough place for all the luggage, so we placed it in front of us. The monsoon was not over when the ferry started, the waves were very high and many people got sea sick. A guy who was obviously part of the staff went around and gave plastic bags to the people who got sick. I just tried to sleep but I felt like a was on a carousel.
After almost four hours of horror I finally arrived at Penang and took a taxi to my hostel.

I stayed at the Ryokan Muntri Beauty Hostel in Georgetown, which was apparently really nice, although the walls were paper thin and the WiFi was not that good. The next morning I got to know my roommate, he is from Scotland and we did our laundry a couple of minutes from our hostel. I was really happy that I met him, since I felt a little bit lost in the hostel. While we were waiting for our laundry to be dry, we went to the “Purrfect Cat Café“ which is a place where you can have a coffee or smoothie and chill out with cute kittens and cats. You have to pay 13RM if you want to go upstairs where the cats are.

We decided to go for it and we had to read a rule book, wash our hands and take off our shoes first. The rule book contained rules like don’t disturb sleeping cats, don’t feed them and treat them with respect etc. Although the plan was a little bit too small, the cats were treated well, as far as I could see. They probably got some of the cats from the streets, since there are many sick cats on the streets in Malaysia who lost their tail or cats who are starving.
At first, I thought it was a joke but I was really surprised when there were actual cats in the café.

When we had our laundry done, we went down the street and I discovered the first temple, a Chinese temple apparently. You have to take your shoes off before visiting a temple by the way.

We also just wandered around the streets and had a look at all the different houses and buildings.

If you are interested in architecture and art, you will love Georgetown! We discovered so many beautiful buildings when we were exploring Georgetown by foot, I really wish I had taken some photos with my reflex camera.

In the following picture, you can see the St. Georges Church, Georgetown is named after King George III.

The next temple we saw was a Hindu temple. Unfortunately we were not able to go inside, since the people were queuing up inside the building and we assumed that it would take us a while to get in.

Next stop was a huge mosque, they even had a canon in the garden.

I can also highly recommend going to “Chew Jetty“ which is like China Town. There is a small wooden path with lots of little shops and food places at the sides. At the end of the path you will find yourself on a terrace, looking at the beautiful sea.
Unfortunately it was a little cloudy, even though, the view was amazing.

After we had explored Georgetown a little bit, we were looking for a restaurant to have dinner.
On our way, we stumbled across a little fire show, maybe a lost backpacker who is saving money for his flight to go back home.

Make sure to walk down the streets of Georgetown by night, when all the lanterns are turned on and people are selling bracelets, necklaces and other stuff on the streets.

Georgetown is also very famous for its street art. You will find many beautiful wall paintings at the walls of random buildings in the city. This one was my favorite:

If you have the chance to visit Georgetown, definitely go for a walk an explore the city!

Have a good week,
Sophie

20. September 2017

Sophie B.4 Kommentare