T&A

We flew into Kuala Lumpur from Kota Kinabalu in the evening and quickly caught a bus from the airport to chinatown where our guesthouse was. We found out that it was also located on Petaling street which becomes a fairly large and bustling night market until the late hours in the evening. This made it a bit tricky to actually find the place. Every vendor was shouting at us to buy his Rolexx watches, Raybun sunglasses, or Gucchis purses. Even though they are knockoffs, they could really pass as the real thing and they’re super cheap.

The next morning we all walked to Melaka tower, the fourth largest telecommuncations tower in the world. From here we had a panoramic view, not unlike the CN tower in Toronto, of the city. The weather was excruciatingly hot. It had to have been at least 40 celcius, and we had to stop several times to and from the tower in air conditioned malls or small stores. We were also pretty exhausted from the climb on Mount Kinabalu. Between the heat and the climb, this quick stop to the tower took all the energy out of us for the day.

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We arrived in Singapore in the early morning and quickly found out how to use the efficient MRT subway system. A single magnetic card will let you travel on both the subway and the bus system. Our first choice in a place to stay was located in little India, but upon arrival we found that they were completely booked. It took us another 2 hours to find a place to stay, which was situated in chinatown.

Singapore is a good introduction to SEA. It is extremely clean and modern, but maintains a collage of different cultures. Hindu temples stand just a few blocks away from mosques and buddhist temples. Most of the young people in Singapore have their heads burried in their cell phones text messaging each other. We did not see a single homeless person asking for money, they were mostly selling lottery tickets. The many different cultures in Singapore leads to outstanding and competitively priced food. Western influence is apparent and the streets are lined with billboards for North American movies, tv shows, and other goods.

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Mt. Doom (A volcano known as Mt. Ngauruhoe) and Mordor as seen in the movie Lord of the Rings was actually shot at Tongariro National Park. There was a lot of digital enhancements, but you can see some similarities in the landscape.

There is a great walk through this park, but most people do a single day crossing through the most picturesque portion. It is advertised as the most spectacular day walk in New Zealand, which we found to be true. The hike starts with an immediate climb known as “devils staircase.” It’s as hard and as steep as it sounds made up of rocky boulders acting as the steps. The path then wanders through a flat crater next to a volcano and Mt. Tongariro. After climbing a bit longer, we took the option of climbing Mt. Tongariro for spectacular views of the volcano in between cloud movements. At this point we were at an elevation of about 1900 m, and it was a great spot for lunch.

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