..:: kaz's blog ::..

merry xmas and a happy new year

i'm back in freezin' cold japan after a nice warm vacation in singapore and malaysia. this trip was something new for me and i really learned a lot.

don't feel like recappin' the whole trip (i'll try do that with pics) but here's a short summary:

the trip got off to a bad start when this guy sittin' next to us on the flight over to singapore decided to drink like a madman and then vomit all over the place. after 2-3 times, we finally moved to business class (with like 10 min left)

got into singapore and stayed at the conrad (dope hotel). next day, went to chinatown and tried to find a way to get to langkawi. was really tough to find something all the way to langkawi so we took a bus in the evenin' to KL (kuala lumpur). got there @ midnite and took a cab to our hotel. walked around kl, went shoppin' @ the petronas towers. still couldn't find a way to langkawi, so we ended up bookin' a flight to penang and try to take a ferry to langkawi. got to penang but just missed the first ferry. decided to take taxi to kuala kedah (1.5 hrs = $15). from kuala kedah, we took a 1 hr ferry to langkawi.

langkawi was my favorite place of the trip. supposedly it was high season, but when we got to the beach, there was barely any ppl there. it was so peaceful. our first hotel was right on the beach. we had tons of great food (thai, malay, indian, fusion, etc), most of which we ate on the beach.

went island hoppin' one day and got to: visit remote islands, feed eagles and check out a lake within this one island.

another day we rented a car and cruised around the whole island. not only was it cheap to rent a car (24 hrs = $13), u don't need a license!?! it was also kinda strange to drive on the right side as well as drive stick at that. lark and i kept on reachin' for the stick but we were actually reachin' for the driver side door! we went to this one beach that was literally our own private beach. there was no one around. we then headed to this waterfall which was so beautiful.

on the mornin' of da 31st, we left langkawi and worked our way back to penang (ferry to kuala kedah -> taxi to penang) and flew straight to singapore. got into singapore and it was rainin' a little bit. this time we stayed @ the hilton and we really put our concierge to work. we asked bout parties, they recommended some, then we decided, they sent someone to pick up our tickets, we got movie times, directions to restaurants, band-aids, etc... walkin' around singapore on new year's eve was crazy. mad number of peeps. we ate at a vegetarian chinese place and then headed out to the nye party. we ended up goin' to the zouk(a popular club)'s nye party which wasn't at their club but at the expo center. felt kinda weird to be in this convention hall, but it was aite. smuggled in a flask of bushmills and we were good. the crowd was about 95% natives which was nice cuz we didn't want to be around a lot of tourists. another great thing was the music. they totally brought it back with tons of 80's and 90's. drinks there were a little bit of a pain but i could see why they did it the way they did. you have to buy drink coupons ($5) first, then give that to the bartender for a drink. let's just say, tons and tons of hennessy was consumed. lark even got a free drink from a local kat. not sure how we got back to our hotel, but i kinda remember grubbin' on room service before passin' out...

next mornin'.....i mean afternoon, headed out for some dim sum. took a taxi and at the gate of this hotel, there was a security check and they looked inside the trunk. felt kinda weird, guess ya'll would have to be there. the place was pretty good. got to use my cantonese for food for the first time in a long time since there's mostly mandarin speakin' ppl in japan. ate tons and tons of food.

checked out and tried to watch a movie since it was pourin' rain but the movies were all booked. so we just decided to chill at this outdoor cafe. had dinner at this food court and then got our stuff and headed to the airport. bought lots of お土産.

my impressions of singapore:

- great food
- lots of japanese stores
- like tokyo
- way too many chinese ppl
- tons of shoppin' malls
- american music is played everywhere
- prices are about the same as da US
- pretty good dim sum

my impressions of malaysia:

- great food
- nice ppl
- interestin' to see such a mix of diversity all livin' together
- dopest beaches
- cheap

comin' back to japan, it was freezin' cold. goin' from 85F to 42F was pretty drastic. chilled most of the time in japan. went to the place that has this grubbin' veggie tenpura and did some karaoke; met up with b & kyoko in shimo-kitazawa for coffee and dinner; had dinner at my mama's place.

here are da pics:

.: SINGAPORE PT.1:.

the conrad centennial

the bathroom @ da conrad

xmas illumination outside the conrad pt.1

xmas illumination outside the conrad pt.2

the view from our room

at some hindu temple

chinatown

more chinatown

even more chinatown

the travel agency complex

.: KUALA LUMPUR (KL) :.

a rest stop somewhere in between singapore and kl

chicken rice, southeast asia's staple

room service in kl

at a train station

awas = caution. saw this word EVERYWHERE in malaysia

the chewin' gum and track intrusion are funny

patronas towers

one of the biggest malls that i've ever been to

huge xmas tree inside the patronas tower mall

tryin' to position myself to take a pic of...

this

.: PENANG :.

the docks

.: PULAU LANGKAWI (LANGKAWI ISLAND):.

the kuah harbor

pantai chenang (chenang beach)

doesn't get better than this...

this is how close we were to the beach

the lunchtime view of the beach from tomato

salad & garlic toast

margherita pizza

larky lark

yours truly

just chillin'...

the sunset from our hotel

grilled barracuda, satay, potato salad, veggies and rice dinner on da beach all for 25 ringgit (=$6.60)

brunch @ tomato

yummy avocado

tomato's special omelette

hash browns with garlic butter

the server brought out the food plate with the other food, but since we were goin' to wait til after to eat it, she came by and put it on ice and took out the bananas (lark doesn't like bananas)

me & lark

island hopping tour

posin' on da dock

lark's turn

first stop, pulau beras basan

monkeys started to appear out of nowhere. these german guys we were with had all the stuff in their backpacks emptied out by them...

next stop, eagle feeding

it started to rain hard on the way there so it gave the area a mysterious, lotr kinda look...

on our way to the 3rd island

aren't these guys cute?

could you imagine any of these guys attackin' anybody when they're just chillin'? but for some reason, they decided to attack lark

and then these guys who were comin' back to the docks yelled to her to hide the plastic bag she was carryin'. didn't know why...

until we saw this sign

on our way to the lake

an interestin' sign we saw before the lake

me and lark

do i look photoshopped in?

for some reason we stopped in the middle of all the islands. couldn't figure out why until our guide said (really, really broken english) that this formation looks like a woman layin' down on her back. what do ya think???