Life on the fast lane

22.9.2010 | Day 53 | 19 784 km | Singapore, Singapore

After spending almost a month in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos - where things happen like being stuck on the first gear - we really changed gears, all the way to sixth! In just 8 days we have already seen three different countries and have toured the cities every day until the sunset and then some. So, as I didn’t have to write with the all sightseeing, this blog entry is a long one.

The world's biggest reclining
Buddha statue in the world...

We boarded an overnight train from Thanaleng, Laos to Bangkok, Thailand, which felt like winning a lottery after all the buses and minivans we used the month before. But sadly, we were a little behind the schedule coming to Bangkok and only had a day to spend there before a flight to Singapore. Thailand wasn’t really in our interests compared to three countries before it, but obviously it would have been fun to see the city at least one more day. We saw the biggest Buddhist temple in Asia (or at least I think it was) and did some other quick sightseeing, before it started raining heavily and the rest of the day was just resting and preparing ourselves to the next two countries.

The journey continued with a flight to Singapore and from there, a bus to Malaysia and Kuala Lumpur. This time, the 5 hour bus journey was a bit different. It was a first class 16-seater luxury bus, which was really something! Every passenger had a massaging recliner with a personal TV and a gaming console. So there we were, taking back massages, playing games, watching movies and even meals were served during this trip. The feeling when arriving to Kuala Lumpur was… “Already in KL?”. I can’t really think any better way to travel than that! And the best of all was, it’s completely affordable.

In a luxurious Transtar Travel first-class bus, feeling pretty comfortable

In Kuala Lumpur, we continued our luxury part of the journey by checking in to a 5-star hotel on the last day of our stay there (two previous nights were in a hostel). It’s hasn’t really been a common thing during this trip to have a spacious room with a balcony, a bathtub and amazingly comfortable beds. But for one night we had that luxury and in the morning we headed to the swimming pool and relaxed in a Jacuzzi, while watching Petronas Twin Towers on the horizon.

I am so short compared to the
Petronas Twin Towers

But rewinding just a little, Kuala Lumpur was a very nice city to explore. After seeing hundreds of Buddhist temples in the countries before, it was a joy to change religion and go see some mosques in KL. These were different than normal mosques though, as they were really big and designed differently. We also visited the famous Petronas Twin Towers, once the tallest building on earth. The visit to the skybridge was free, but included a stop to a movie theatre to see how amazingly excellent oil and oil related products are. Man, that was some brainwashing lesson… Although, still it’s better to have Malaysian company drilling in their waters than example Shell or BP.

It was time however to leave Kuala Lumpur behind and return back to Singapore, again in the Transtar Travel luxury bus. Another joyful journey watching Megan Fo… I mean Transformers II from the TV and playing some Super Mario :) It was a total coincidence that our time in Singapore was during the same week when the Formula 1 circus came to town, so you could really feel the glamour arriving to the city. But that was just the top of the iceberg. Singapore has to offer pretty much everything you can imagine. Luxurious cars driving everywhere (but I call them junk, because I didn’t see a single Ford Mustang), skyscrapers at the Marina Bay, of course Chinatown and what was our absolute favorite during our stay, Underwaterworld and Singapore Zoo.

Especially the zoo was amazing, during the first day we did a night safari on a tram, which takes you through the park and sometimes you were only a few steps away from the animals. There even was an area where you walked in through doors and were surrounded by fruit bats flying around freely, more than couple of times missing your head by inches. The next day we returned to the zoo and walked about 4 hours through the park watching tigers, leopards giraffes and all kinds of animals. Last time I visited a zoo was a long time ago in Finland, and animals there were pretty much just put on a concrete prison, but Singapore Zoo had done things with class. Even though the animals live in captivity, there were no crappy concrete prisons, but everything was done to resemble their real habitat. If you ever travel to Singapore, be sure not to miss the zoo!

A tunnel in the Underwaterworld, where sharks, rays and all kinds of fish swim left, right and above you

White tigers relax after being fed at the Singapore Zoo

Eventually, all good things come to an end and this is where Asia and us part our ways. It was a helluva journey through Southeast Asia and something we never will forget (until Alzheimer). Now, it’s time to change the way of travel and start road trippin’ through Australia and New Zealand. From now on, we decide our schedules but I also need to learn how to drive a car from the passenger’s seat.