Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

After a pretty terrible night sleep on our sleeper train, we arrived at Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station. We left Singapore in such a hurry we forgot to look up directions to our new hostel from the train station. However, our three new friends, Huzair, Azhar, and Ash, that we met on the train knew where it was. Luckily for us, they were staying at the hostel right next door so they helped us find our way to our new home for the next couple of nights. 

We dropped off our bags, and met the three amigos for breakfast. They took us to an Indian/Malay place where we had roti and tea for breakfast. Roti is very similar to prata, just thinner and more like a crepe. The roti with bananas was the one to get. The egg was good too when dipped in curry sauce. The roti was served with two kinds of curry sauce, fish and vegetables.

After breakfast we dropped off our laundry, bought bus tickets to Langkawi island, and took the free Go KL bus to check out the Petronas towers. We didn't go up to the skybridge because it was $20 a ticket and we're on a $30 a day budget. 

Afterwards, we took the subway to the Batu Caves. There were a few caves and a couple temples. The golden statue marked the largest and most impressive cave. The stairs to the cave were steep and high. There was a temple full of monkeys inside.

That night we met up with Huzair, Azhar, and Ash for dinner. Strangely enough, we went to the food court in a new mall a block from our hostels. The options were endless and the prices were actually great. We had our choice of any kind of food imaginable for around 10 ringgits each. They brought us to their favorite duck stall. 

The following day we headed to Chinatown to the famous and overrated Petaling street. It was all repetitive stalls of handbags, T-shirts, and sunglasses without much of a choice for food. We heard Little India was much better for food but since we spent so much time in Little India in Singapore, we skipped it. We found a small food court and I tried biryani for lunch.

After lunch we went to the Central Market that was full of handicrafts, art and antiques. We bought a last minute gift and another small piece to add to our gallery opening in June in NYC.

On our way home, we met a Polish guy on the Go KL bus who we later bumped into while exiting our hostel and we decided to explore food street together for dinner. Food street was a block away and full of delicious touristy choices. The prices were high due to the outdoor atmosphere. 

Beers were once again outrageously expensive in Malaysia due in part because it is a Muslim country and alcohol is heavily taxed. At this point we hadn't had a beer in Singapore or Malaysia as it was out of our budget. 

The next morning we hopped a bus to Jerantut and a van to Kuala Tahan, the gateway to Taman Negara (national park), the oldest rainforest in the world. 

Next stop Taman Negara.

Singapore

Singapore is the most expensive city in the Southeast Asia circuit. Because of this, we only booked one night at the Mittra Backpackers Hostel. We stayed in a 6 bed mixed dorm for $15 a bed. The staff was incredibly helpful and friendly. The first night we went the food courts of Little India which was a short walk from our hostel. The smell of curry and incense filled the streets as we passed by stores with windows full of gold chains and silk fabric. 

The food was spicy and delicious. We tried a few different things and were pleased with the prices. We did not, however, enjoy a beer as they were outrageously expensive, especially in comparison with the prices in the Philippines.

After eating, we continued walking to Little Arabia, which was the adjacent neighborhood. The scene was hip, relaxed and class beyond our budget. There was outdoor hookah, acoustic music and street art. I was still hungry so I got my second prata of the evening to hold me over. Prata is a fried stretchy bread that is often cooked with egg or onion. Alex recalls there being prata with cheese or chocolate but this information is suspect.

The next morning we had an incredible breakfast at our hostel. They served hard boiled eggs, bananas, toast with an option of peanut butter, nutella, jam or butter. We helped ourselves to as much as we could eat as backpackers on a budget in an expensive city would. 

That slowed us down quite a bit. We finally started our only day in Singapore at noon. We checked out the three temples on our block that were on our way to the metro. Once on the train, we noticed a couple of other westerners. They asked us if we were going on the nature walk because they thought we looked crunchy. We were not. However, we decided to follow suit as we are in fact crunchy and love a good nature walk. We emerged from the forest 4 hours and 15 kilometers later after seeing monkeys and lizards.

We grabbed some food at another food stall and then rushed through the Botanical Gardens. We had plans to go to Timbre, a new bar that I read about on a tech blog that is serving its food and drinks with drones. We also wanted to get to the light show at the marina. However, due to our change in plans earlier, we ran out of time. We made it to the Marina to see he skyline and quickly walked through Chinatown. After that we headed back to our hostel to get ready for the first train ride of our trip.

The train left at 11:30 PM and arrived at 7:30 AM. We met three incredibly nice guys from Mauritius on the train who let us borrow Malaysian Ringgets for water and helped us find our hostel. 

Next stop Kuala Lumpur.    

Cebu, Philippines

After our 2 day epic journey to Cebu from Boracay (see previous post) we finally made it to our mediocre pension (hotel) in Mactan (also Lapu Lapu city). We stayed at Ace pension across from the Gaisano Mactan Mall as it was the cheapest place we could find online for the island. We still paid $55 a night and our friend Audra was forced to sleep on a cot. We paid only $11 each to stay on the 1,000 times better island of Boracay. Mactan is real built up with resorts which drives the price of everything up. These prices increased our drive to find cheap, local foods. Every morning we ate a delicious mango for about fifty cents each (85-100 pesos per kilo and 4 mangos per kilo) and some bread. 

The next afternoon we went in quest of a resort that would let us use their beach and pool facilities for a decent price. We hopped on a Jeepney (local bus) for 12 pesos and were dropped  off near the resorts on the south side at the Maribago stop. We walked a bit, inquired at a few places and finally found a great place for 600 pesos each. We spent the day getting our moneys worth, 7 hours of pool, beach, pool, rinse repeat. Once the sun had set, we headed back to Ace.

Once we got back and the girls had procured their lotion to quence the sunburns they had acquired that day, we happened on a man selling balut on the street. Balut is a hard-boiled fertilized duck egg. Ours was aged about 18 days. It costed 17 pesos each. It was dry and chewy and kind of good. There were different textures throughout the egg which was weird, but once you got past it, it was rather tasty. We drew a crowd of Philippinos who seemed entertained at how much of a production we were making out of tasting our first balut. Whatever, it's not everyday you eat your first fetus. For some reason, they only sell balut at night. We had heard about it and were glad we had the chance to try it our last night in the Philippines. 

The Philippines is such a nice, cheap, friendly and exciting place. I strongly encourage everyone to check it out. The people and the food both far exceeded my expectations. I was blown away. I hope I have the chance to go back someday and explore more. I'd love to go to Palawan as we heard great things and I could definitely see more of Manila and Boracay. If resorts and swimming with whale sharks are not in your budget, you can probably skip Cebu. 

Next stop Singapore. 

Ferries from Boracay to Cebu (island hopping)

Our plan was to take an overnight ferry from Boracay to Cebu where we had a reservation for 2 nights and would then fly from there to Singapore. In order to do this, we took a ferry to Caticlan Jetty on the mainland. We then got in a van to Iloilo where the ferry leaves from on the south side of the island.  The vans are faster than the bus because they drive like maniacs passing cars and trucks and shooting narrow gaps to gain the lead. The van takes 4-5 hours and the bus takes around 6. Both were 350 pesos.

The van ride was cramped and hot. A bus would have been a lot more comfortable but we couldn't reserve ferry tickets online so we wanted to get there as early as possible. We got there at 4 (3 hours before the ferry was to leave) and it was already sold out. People began coming up to us providing us with diffferent options. It seemed like they were taking advantage at first but once we saw other Philippinos joining their van, we realized it was probably our best option. We needed to take a van from Iloilo to Damangas to catch a shorter ferry to the island of Negros which is in between our departure and eventual destination. The van ride was about 45 minutes and we then took a ferry to Bocolod which took 2 hours. i think we paid 400 pesos each for this part of the trip. At this point it was late so we decided to grab a hotel, cut our losses and continue the journey the next morning. 

We met two very cool Philippino men who helped us throughout this journey, Alan and Eugene. At Bocolod, we all headed to a bbq chicken dinner together. Alan made sure we were all safe on the tricycles (tuk tuks or moto taxis) and insisted on paying for everything. He  was so kind and generous and seeminly typical of the Philippino culture. Everyone we met along this journey was incredible.

The next morning we bought tickets for 560 pesos from Bocolod to Cebu at the bus station. We left at 9:30 am from Bocolod on bus to San Carlos which took almost 3 hours where we took a 2 hour ferry at 1 pm to Toledo. We traveled with Ceres bus company and the bus went on the ferry with us. After getting off the ferry, we got back on the bus for another 3 hours. We arrived in Cebu City at 6:30 pm where we took a taxi to the ferry port for Mactan/ Lapu-Lapu City. These ferries run constantly until around 10 pm. The ferry took about 20 minutes. We disembarked and hopped in yet another cab and were at our hotel within 10 minutes.

2 days, 2 vans, 4 ferries, 2 bus rides, and a few friends later, we finally made it. We saw just a little of the beauty of the Philippines on this trip and we need to come back. 

Boracay, Philippines

Boracay is an incredibly beautiful and suprisingly undeveloped island with cheap food, cheaper beer and incredible beaches. This is probably the best beach destination I have ever seen.

In order to get there from Manila, we took a 3-4 hour bus to the port at Batangas and boarded a cruiseship-like overnight ferry with 2GO travel. We booked a stateroom for the three of us which was $35 each for a comfortable private room. We had a bathroom, a TV, a double bed and a bunkbed. There were cheaper options in large rooms with up to 200 people. We paid more to be comfortable and it was worth it. We also got access to the VIP dinning room for our complimentary dinner. The boat sold cheap beer and there was even kareoke and live music. Since it was from 9 PM to 6 AM we turned in early to get some sleep.

We arrived at Caticlan Jetty Port as the sun was coming up. There we boarded a much smaller ferry to take us across to Boracay.

We stayed at Frendz Resort, which was a cheap hostel. We stayed in 6 person dorms for $11 a night. The hostel had a great vibe and setup. The common area was very chill and open and everyone seemed to talk to one another. Solo travelers easily joined in with larger groups and hung out throughout the time we were there. It was located a 3 minute walk to the beach and there were beach chairs reserved for people staying at the hostel. A restaurant served the chair areas and would bring drinks or food if you liked but didn't once hastle us to do so.

The main beach is White Beach and it is crazy long. The whole beach is lined with restaurants and bars, all offering a different vibe and pricerange. At night, the lounge chairs were swapped out for various group seating where you could go for a 60-70 peso beer (about $1.50) and see live music, smoke hookah, see fire dancers and watch the sunset. The sunset was ridiculous.

Boracay, Philippines. I didn't edit this photo in the slightest to show the natural beauty of this place. 

A fire dancer shows he can handle the heat

If sitting on the beach isn't your thing, there are tons of activities for the restless. You can go jet skiing, banana boating, sailing, snorkeling, scuba diving, parasailing, kite surfing and cliff diving. We unfortunately stayed 3 nights and we only had time (and money) to choose one. So we chose cliff jumping at Ariel's Point. We paid 2,000 pesos eac ($40) for a day at the point. We were taken there by boat and arrived after 30-40 minutes. They served beers and rum and cokes faster than we could drink them (don't worry mom, I took it easy before the cliff jumping). When we arrived, people began kayaking, snorkeling, and lining up for the jumps. There were 3, 5, 8 and 15 meter jump points. I did the 5 once, then the 8 once, and then went straight for the 15 meters. Even the 8 was intimidating and it seemed to take a while to hit the water. The 15 was a different animal. We were told there have been serious injuries when people don't hit the water correctly. I had a near flawless jump but my legs recoiled the split second I hit the water. I felt a little banged up for a couple days but that was totally worth the thrill. I highly recommend the cliff jumping if you end up in Boracay. 

Alex had a style of her own

So did Audra. 

Falling 8 meters (26 feet) to the sea

My splash from the 8 meter jump. 

Our Scottish friend jumping off the 15 meter board in style. 

Going for it!

Falling 15 meters (about 50 feet). It took a long time to fall and that force of the water was something I may not volunteer for again.

Great idea guys. The people in back are amazed. 

The crew was really pushing the Philippino rum on us. They made us play spin the bottle. If it lands on you its your turn to drink. Too much.

The ship's crew got in on the action. This was just crazy.

We unfortunately had to make our way to Cebu for our flight to Sigapore coming up so we couldn't stay. I could spend a lot more time chilling in Boracay.

The food: how can I forget? I thought things would be a lot more expensive on such a well known island paradise. However, we managed to find great and cheap options. Our last night we ate in D Mall at a popular placed called Smoke. The place was packed and we had to wait for 20 minutes or so. We had great fish and stuffed squid for 150-200 pesos ($3-4). 

If Boracay had waves it'd be the beach I want to live on. If waves aren't your thing, this is your heaven.