Day 334- Singapore

SINGAPORE ZOO AND ORCHARD ROAD CHRISTMAS LIGHTS (01/12/09)

Liz had visited Singapore Zoo when she came here as an 11 year old and remembered it being very good. We decided to make a day of it and were not disappointed. The Zoo really is special, quite unlike any zoo we have ever been too. Many of the animals are free ranging, those that aren't have large, well designed enclosures which simulate their natural environment. The animals are well fed and obviously healthy, the exhibits are well thought out and educational and the walking trails around the zoo are varied and interesting. Anyway, we really liked it in case you haven't gathered already.

Siamang Gibbon.

Two of the Zoo's beautiful White Tigers.

No we aren't yet bored of Orang Utans. This baby entertained us for quite a while investigating this old tree trunk.

Feeding time.

The zoo has a large enclosed rainforest exhibit in which live many butterflies and birds as well as various mammals.

This Sloth shared his branch with dozens of butterflies.

Also living in the rainforest exhibit are a number of Flying Foxes or Fruit Bats.

The Africa section.

A large, inquisitive Ostrich.

The Zoo's Orchid Garden.

A False Gharial, a crocodilian species which has recently been discovered to be more closely related to the Gharial than at first thought.

Another of the large False Gharials (it's behind glass).

We used Singapore's clean and efficient metro system, the MRT, to get to and from the Zoo. It has a light up map which shows where you are and where the train is going. Come on London Underground- it's the 21st Century now you know!

Once it got dark we walked down to Orchard Road again to see the Christmas lights after dark. They are amazing! The first section of the road is lit all in red...

...and the middle in orange and purple.

At some points of the road the lights from all around are so bright that it almost feels like daylight.

The various shopping centres had done their best to outdo each other although none came close to this one shrouded completely in gold and lit up with millions of yellow lights.

And finally... the far end (from us) of the road was lit entirely with blue lights.

Days 332 & 333- Singapore

ORCHARD ROAD (29/11/09 & 30/11/09)

After a relatively short bus journey and a surprisingly easy border crossing we arrived from Malaysia into Singapore. We spent our first day looking around the upmarket main shopping street of Singapore- Orchard Road.

We knew that Orchard Road is famous for it's shopping but nevertheless we were astonished by what we found. There are almost no shops on the road just massive (and we mean really massive) shopping mall after massive shopping mall, there are more than 20 of them with several more being built. It is quite hard to comprehend that people really need this much stuff and are willing to spend so much money on it. We felt rather like fish out of water and regarded the whole experience as being rather surreal. Great Christmas decorations though, even better at night (see tomorrow).

Day 331- Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (28/11/09)

Elinor had a morning flight out of Kuala Lumpur which is why we had travelled here from Penang the night before. Once we had dropped her at the airport we decided to spend the rest of the day having a brief look around the city of Kuala Lumpur. We were not particularly impressed, the city centre was sterile and uninteresting whilst the outskirts seemed filthy, grey and uncared for. This is one of the twin Petronas Towers, formerly the tallest skyscrapers in the world (452m 0r 1483ft) until surpassed by the Taipei 101 building in Taiwan in 2004.

Away from the sparkling clean centre the city is very different. Rubbish lines the polluted streets and the scenery is concrete and very little else. We had the pleasure of crossing this filthy, sewage filled river.

The view of the Petronas Towers from our hotel window. We always like to have a look around everywhere we visit but we were both glad that we had a bus booked to Singapore the next morning.

Days 326-330 - Penang, Malaysia

PULAU PENANG (23/11/09-27/11/09)

After the intense natural experiences in Borneo we decided to do something completely in contrast. After spending the night in Kuala Lumpur we got on a bus and travelled four and a half hours to the island of Penang and it's main city; Georgetown. Penang is famous for it's incredibly diverse range of cultures including Indian Hindus, Chinese Buddhists, Malay Muslims and Christians of all nationalities. What makes it so special is that all these races, cultures and religions all coexist completely harmoniously on the same streets. For us it meant several days wandering around a fascinating array of shops, restaurants, buildings and people.

A Malaysian chocolate boutique with try-before-you-buy samples of absolutely everything. Note the large smile.

Also on our list of foods to try was the infamous Durian. We had previously only smelt it's pungent odour in shops and markets- kind of a mixture of off fruit and sewage. Anything which smelt that bad had to be worth trying. It is considered a delicacy by many and consequently is fairly expensive. However we spotted a small one on a roadside stall and the stall holder was kind enough to cut it open for us and let us sit at one of his tables.

To be perfectly honest we had not expected to like it but it really took us by surprise how bad it really was. How can anyone actually like this stuff?! Imagine if you can a kind of slimy custard covering a large stone with a thick, rubbery skin covering it. Then imagine that the custard tastes strongly of cheese and onion and that the cheese it considerably off. This will only get you half way to how revolting this fruit is. Don't expect to see this in the exotic fruit section of Sainsbury's any time soon- this will NEVER be exported to the UK.

Elinor trying, and probably failing, to hide her instantaneous nausea from the from the stall holder.

Having recovered (almost- the after taste lasted most of the day) from the trauma of Durian we went to the Penang National Park where they have suspended a canopy walkway in the tree tops. More fairground ride than nature experience we nevertheless had lots of fun bouncing the rickety bridges to try and make each other fall over.

On such a religiously diverse island there obviously has to be many mosques, churches, synagogues and temples to cater for everyone. We visited Kek Lok Si, the largest Buddhist temple complex on the island, which includes this seven story white and gold pagoda.

The complex as a whole is huge. There are many wealthy Chinese businessmen in Penang who regularly make generous donations to the temples allowing them to be constantly renovated and expanded.

All the statues and buildings are extremely brightly coloured. Most are really quite garish although some are genuinely beautiful.

Hundreds of incense sticks are burnt in large bundles as offerings.

A rather half-hearted impression of a Buddha.

Kek Lok Si is sometimes called the 'Temple of Ten Thousand Buddhas'. No one seems to really know the exact number but there certainly are hundreds of pictures and statues wherever you look.

As long as it is brightly coloured it seems to be acceptable. Well crafted seems less important.

Having said that this 10m (30ft) gold warrior was as well made as any waving cat that we have seen.

Another example of the immense amount of funding the temple has is this 30.2m (100ft) bronze statue which was erected in 2002. It is of Guan Yin, a female Bodhisattva or enlightened being.

The highest point on the island is Penang Hill at 833m (2,723ft) above sea level. From sea level a funicular train takes you all the way to the top- an unpleasant 30 minute trip in which the operators cram in the passengers tighter than a tube train at rush hour.

A view over Georgetown from Penang Hill. In the distance you can just see the massive Penang Bridge which connects the island with the mainland and spans 13.5km (8.4miles).

Adam was happy to find some Nephila- very large tropical orb-weaver spiders.

Right at the top of Penang Hill is a small Hindu temple. Looks like they employed the same architect/painter/sculptor as the Buddhists though.

One of the upshots of staying in a town with such a large Indian population- great curries!

Day 325- Borneo, Malaysia

KINABATANGAN RIVER (22/11/09)

Dawn on the Kinabatangan. We got up early and were straight on the boat.

Thick mist still hung in the jungle but as the sun came over the horizon it quickly burned it away.

Just as the sun started shining we spotted this Gold-Ringed Cat Snake. It was the first wild venomous snake of our entire trip which was very exciting (for Adam). It is rear-fanged, however, which means that it poses very little threat to humans.

Blue sky! It seemed like quite a while since we had seen such a thing.

Yes it's another monkey, but one we hadn't seen before- A Silver Langur.

As we navigated down a narrow channel we spotted a large family of Otters- at least 15 of them. They were extremely quick and disappeared in an instant although we managed a couple of snaps before they did.

We came out of the channel into a large Ox-Bow lake on which grew many types of lily and fresh water plants.

Amongst the water plants Macaques searched for seeds, fruit and anything else remotely edible.

As we got closer in the boat this large male, probably the leader of the troop, came out of the upper branches and gave us a warning not to get any closer.

The attractive purple flowers of Water Hyacinths.

Back on the main river we spotted another troop of Proboscis Monkeys making their way along the river bank.

The alpha male of the troop. This huge male was so certain of his dominance that he let us get quite close to him. In this picture you can clearly see his enormous nose which is used to attract females and as a resonating device to amplify his territorial calls. The nose can reach up to seven inches in length and Liz says for some reason it reminds her of her brother-in-law.