Adventures in Asia: Singapore

This morning we caught a RapidPenang bus from the quay by our hotel an hour south to the airport.  There we flew Air Asia to Singapore--and arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule!

We decided to eat a late lunch at the airport, and then caught the MRT into Singapore and our hotel, one of many locations of the Singapore budget hotel chain Fragrance.  Ours is called the Fragrance Hotel Emerald.  It was raining in Singapore, the first time we've had rain during the day in our almost two weeks in Asia.

Once settled in, we caught the MRT again to the northern side of the island (almost an hour by MRT).  There, we visited the Kranji War Memorial.

The Kranji War Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission-maintained cemetery for mostly-World War 2 Commonwealth soldiers.  

Its layout is very similar to the World War 1 Commonwealth graves I visited in Belgium and France in November 2015, although, of course, the landscaping manages to differ in ways (e.g., there were no palm trees in Belgium).  

It was equally quiet and tasteful and sacred-feeling.  

Overall the ages of the deceased struck me as much older than those I had seen in the WW1 cemeteries.  The youngest we found was 19, whereas the WW1 cemeteries had plenty of 18 year olds, and even younger.  And there were numerous graves for men in their thirties and a surprising number in their forties.  Another difference was the fact that there were a lot of Muslim graves, and a memorial to cremated Indian soldiers, for whom cremation is preferred to burial.

We stayed at the cemetery far longer than I had planned, and actually past the official closing time of 18:30.  The sun was setting by the time we headed back towards the MRT station and entered the Singapore Turf Club.

To get in we had to pay $6 for a ticket (actually, that's the cheapest one), which is by far the most I have ever paid to enter a race track.  On the other hand, it is the nicest racing facility I have ever been to, and also, by far, the most popular.  

Certainly the number of people there was in the thousands, and possibly over ten thousand.  Nearly all of these, probably close to 90%, were Asian men.  Women, and even men of other ethnicities, were surprisingly rare.  

We stayed for four or five races, which took place each half hour.  All were raced on the poly track, but they have a turf and dirt track as well.  Every race we saw had twelve horses racing (so was full), and many had a thirteenth and fourteenth horse scratched. 

We ate Chinese food and watermelon from the Turf Club's food court for dinner before taking the MRT back to the hotel for the night.

Adventures in Asia: Penang, Malaysia

Penang's transit service, RapidPenang, offers a bus route called "CAT" (Central Area Transit) which tours the UNESCO World Heritage portion of George Town, which is made up of European (especially British), Malaysia, Indian, and Chinese influenced neighborhoods.  We rode this first thing this morning, and got to see many of the famous sights of George Town, including what's left of the old British fort, the Supreme Court, St. George's Church (oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia), and City Hall and Town Hall (I'm not clear what the difference is, but they're distinct buildings).

Then, after dropping off some laundry at a place in Little India, we took another bus an hour east to one of Penang's most famous beaches at Batu Ferringhi.  We spent an hour and a half there, strolling in the water and relaxing and reading on the beach.

It was a remarkably quiet and pleasant afternoon.  There were a few people here and there, but mostly it was very empty.

Today, and since we've arrived in Malaysia, really, the weather has been much cooler than in the other countries we have visited.  The highs have been in the low to mid-thirties, instead of 40 or 41 as everywhere elsewhere.  The lows are still in the high twenties, which has been the case in Cambodia, Thailand, and Myanmar, as well.  

Of course, this means it is still plenty warm enough to be on the beach, but thankfully not so hot that it's too hot to be outside during the afternoon.  Interestingly, two men we met on the ferry over from the mainland told us that El Nino has brought a heat wave to Malaysia.  They were eager to convince me that usually it's even cooler than this. 

Later this evening, after dinner at a cafe, we walked over to St. George's.

Then we headed into Little India so I could pick up the laundry.  Little India seems to be especially bustling after dark, with sari and video and jewelry stores appearing to be especially popular.  

There were even almost a dozen people standing in the street on the street in front of one particular video store watching a Bollywood movie on a TV mounted outside.  I also had to dodge a cow patty outside of the Hindu temple at one point!  Interestingly, we were walking through Little India as we heard the call to prayer from a nearby mosque--a bit of a glimpse of the multiculturalism Malaysia, and especially George Town, is famous for.

Adventures in Asia: Penang, Malaysia

This morning we walked over to KL Sentral to catch a 9:30 train.  Malaysia has recently upgraded their rail system, so we were riding a new electric train that travels pretty much from south to north along the west side of the Malay peninsula.  Our destination was Butterworth, about four hours north of KL.  It was a very pleasant ride, with some interesting scenery, comfortable seats, a concession, and Harry Potter movies playing silently with subtitles.

Butterworth is on the mainland across from Penang Island, so we caught a short ferry just by the train station to get over to George Town.

George Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the uniqueness of its buildings.  It was founded about 230 years ago and quickly developed into one of the world's first multicultural cities, with Europeans, Malaysians, Chinese, and Indians all building after their own styles.  Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu influences are all obvious within only a block or two of each other.  

Our hotel is a short walk from the ferry terminal, and we checked in immediately.  Andrea wanted to nap at that point, so I went out to find some lunch and see a bit of the neighborhood.

I ended up eating Chinese roast chicken and rice in an outdoor food court.

Later, once Andrea woke up, we saw some of George Town's famous street art.

For dinner, we ate crab burgers at a little cafe called The Book which we found tucked in amongst the alleys of Chinatown.