Malaysia & Singapore through my eyes

A friendly chat can sometimes turn out to be very expensive. I met an old friend of mine, Jangamappa who worked with me at the bank, after a long time. We got talking and he told me how much fun his recent visit to Malaysia & Singapore was during the Dussehra holidays. We bankers usually take holidays twice a year once during Dussehra and the second after the March 31st annual closing. After the annual closing its audit time by the statutory auditors. And then the transfer lists start coming during which time we can apply for leaves. My friend told me that he had gone through G R tours and how they had organised a wonderful trip for the group. After hearing about all the fun things from him, here I was excitedly telling my wife about the same. And that’s where my expenses started 😊. Honestly, I was her partner in crime too as both of us always loved travelling and exploring new places. And here we were contacting G R tours for the same. The travel agency told us that this plan is specifically for bankers to avail LTC. What else could we have asked for!

The plan to travel to Singapore and Malaysia began. In the month of March, the travel agency invited us bankers who intended to travel on this trip for a briefing. They explained the detailed itinerary of the trip. The tour would go via Colombo and end at Amritsar. They also told us that one person from the travel agency will travel with us through out and we have nothing to worry about. He further told us to carry a plastic mug in case we needed it for bathing purpose as the hotels there do not provide mugs in the bathroom. In most countries abroad the bathrooms have either a shower or a bathtub and no mugs or buckets. We knew this from our past travels. But nevertheless, it was a good tip by the travel agency. They also told us that we can use Rs. 500 notes (INR currency) which is easily acceptable in these countries. That was another good tip as that would be a good back up if we had any issues with the currency conversions. So, I applied for a month long leave for this trip availing LTC from my office.

So 21st April it was, our travel day! We assembled at Bangalore airport at 6.30 pm as briefed by our tour manager previously. The whole plan was very well managed and we were impressed how our tour manager had carried dinner for us on the very first day. As we were waiting for our flight to Colombo, we heard an announcement that our flight is delayed. It was a little disappointing as we were all excited for the travel but nevertheless, we had better ways to manage this extra time in our kitty. The Srilankan Airways provided us with refreshments which we all thoroughly enjoyed and took this time to meet our trip gang. Everyone introduced themselves, we had a mixed group of people from young couples to people with kids and oldies like us 😊. It was going to be a fun trip with people from all phases of life! I was really looking forward to this journey.

The flight departed at midnight wherein the Srilankan cabin crew were wearing green sarees. They served dinner during which my wife started a conversation with an airhostess complimenting her uniform and took photographs along with them. She also exchanged her phone number with them. She always made friends whererver she would go. At about 3.30 am our flight landed at Colombo and we were given roses by the staff on arrival. A nice and friendly gesture and rose is also my favourite flower! We had breakfast at an airport restaurant after which we boarded our next flight to Kuala Lumpur.

We landed Kuala Lumpur in the noon wherein we met our Malaysian tour guide Rani. We got onto the tour bus and were provided with bottled water. Our tour guide then introduced herself and told us that she is from Malaysia but her forefathers were from India. She was fluent in Hindi and Tamil. We were also told not to litter on the bus or road and throw garbage if any into the bin provided in the bus. Clean city culture – I really liked it! She then told us a little history about the place that Malaysia is located on Sea lane that exposes it to global trade. Between the 7th and 13th century the Malay Peninsula was under the Buddhist Srivijaya empire. A strait of Malacca separates the Sumatra island from the Malay Peninsula. It is also surrounded by the Java sea and Andaman Islands as well. Later the Muslim traders brought Islam to Malaysia. The British ruled territories on the Malay Peninsula formed the Federation of Malaya which became independent in 1957. The name Malaysia was adopted in 1963 when the Federation of Malaya, Singapore, North Bornea and Sarawak formed a new federation.

Our tour began from Putrajaya. Putrajaya is a city in Malaysia, south of Kuala Lumpur. Putrajaya became Malaysia’s third Federal Territory after Kuala Lumpur and Labuan. In Sanskrit Putra means Prince and Jaya means success. Putrajaya is a planned city. We visited the famous Putra mosque and the Ministry of complexes including Moghul style green domed building which has the Prime Minister’s office. There are also many shopping malls and restaurants in the vicinity. As we had lunch in a restaurant, it started to rain. It was a relief from the heat as the temperature that day was around 34 degree C. Our guide gave us local sim cards so that we could speak with our family back home and we also exchanged Malaysian currency Ringgits with our guide. Post this, we checked into our Hotel and headed to a shopping mall in the evening.

The next morning we had tea and I practiced my yoga in the hotel room; which is my regular morning routine. At breakfast we met a couple of families from our trip group. My wife being a school teacher has a way with children. She made friends with the kids and they were having a good time together.

After breakfast, we further proceeded to our city tour to Kuala Lumpur. We saw the Kings Palace – a grand historic place with beautiful gardens, the guards and the horses are a sight to watch. Our next stop was the Jamek mosque which is the oldest Islamic worship place in KL. We then walked over to the Merdeka square and from there the National Monument. It was almost lunch time and so we stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch. After lunch we went to the famous Petronas twin towers! We have a replica of this towards Bangalore North and since this was built in Bangalore, we always wanted to see the real one! And here we were watching the twin towers which was once the world’s tallest with a floor count of 88. The structure has modern Islamic design and the two towers are connected through a sky bridge. One is fully occupied by the Malaysian state oil company Petronas and its subsidiaries. The second tower is occupied by the MNC’s like Accenture, Microsoft, IBM etc.

After dinner we went to the K L Tower. The Kuala Lumpur tower is a communication tower. This is the 7th tallest free standing tower. We took an elevator to reach the upper area which houses a revolving restaurant. We had some refreshments at the tower restaurant.

Next day we went for Batu caves famous Murugan temple and Geneva watch showroom. Batu caves is a limestone hill with series of caves. It got its name from Malay word Batu meaning rock. Batu caves is also the name of nearby village. This cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines. It is dedicated to lord Murugan. There are 272 steps to climb up. We all managed to climb through the steps as a group. Sometimes the group enthusiasm gets on to you. It was tiring but a fun climb. We saw a lot of monkeys enroute. On our way back we visited the famous Geneva Watch Showroom with a variety of watches, timepieces and wall clocks.

Our next spot was the famous Genting Skyway. Our tour guide had made provision for all of us to stay at the First World Hotel which is situated at the hearts of Resorts World Genting, giving easy access to the SkyAvenue and the Theme Park. Its about 32 miles from Kuala Lumpur. After lunch, we made our way to the Genting skyway. Each gondola could carry upto a max of 8 passengers, so we split our group into subgroups of 8 people. The journey up the mountain peak took us about 15 mins. It was a fun Gondula ride! After reaching the peak, we proceeded to the theme park and became kids again enjoying those rides. We went on the roller coaster, Go karting, Jurrasic park, merry go round, space mountain, Mini train ride and Flying dragon. We also went boating and had a great time. It was a fun filled day full of excitement from the rides. Post dinner, we visited the world-famous Gambling centre De-Casino night at Genting high lands. At the casino, there was a lot of smoke. The dress code as our guide told us was smart casuals. Jeans and trainers were acceptable. People below 21 yrs of age and Malaysian muslims are prohibited from entering the casino. We walked around and watched people play, win and loose some games. We aren’t very familiar with the games so decided just to be an observer rather than joining a table. It was crowded and our guide also told us that Chinese love gambling and that they gamble during funerals as well. Some of our friends from the group also tried a hand at some tables with limited amounts. Some got lucky and the others just took it as an experience. We then headed back to our hotel to get some rest.

We had our breakfast the next morning and proceeded to Singapore by Luxury coach. Our guide told us to use the remaining talk time on the sim card as we would be approaching the border soon. So, we called our families back home and spoke to them about our trip experience so far. We bid farewell to our guide Rani and also bought some souvenirs from her. She had been an excellent host to us and we all thanked her for sharing her experience with us and making our stay at Malaysia memorable.

We crossed the Singapore border and our new guide joined us there. We checked into the hotel and then headed to the night Safari. It started with a movie on wild life followed by a dance show. The dance show was followed by some more animal shows including the hawks, parrots. The master would call the hawk and it would come on his head. The parrot was speaking in English and said ‘Good Morning’. We were very impressed to see the parrot speaking in English. After the shows, we were led to the tram. We could see animals like elephant, lion, deer, buffaloes and peacocks on either sides. The night safari is the world’s first nocturnal zoo. It is one of the most popular attraction. Most of animals in night Safari are those that are most active at night. We took a lot of photos and videos with our phone while on the ride. Some people preferred to go walking on the trails instead. We decided to take the tram and then stop by at a trail and also walk up the path to get the best of both experiences. Bug sprays are a must while walking on the trails. The walks were well lit and we could see Lion and Malaysian Tiger.

Next day we went to Jurong bird park. It’s an aviary of a variety of birds. It houses approximately 3500 birds. It covers an area of about 0.2 sq Km. This is a must visit for animal lovers and photographers. We enjoyed watching the colourful birds and we also fed the birds. It was really exciting to see the birds flying around and come over to sit on our hands.

After spending the morning at the aviary, we proceeded to Santosa islands. Santosa are sunny islands in Singapore. This is another exciting place and there is a lot to do. This island is separated from main island Singapore by a channel of water. It is home to a popular resort Santosa which is widely known as location of 2018 North Korea- United states Singapore summit where Kim Jong and US President Donald Trump met at the Capella Hotel.

On Santosa Island, we first visited the Universal studio, we enjoyed the live shows on the street parade of the Hollywood characters and also enjoyed the Elmo’s TV Time Show. The kids in our group loved it! We also enjoyed the 3D shows with water sprinklers splashing on us during the show. It was a wonderful experience. We also took a lot of rides in the park. It was like we became kids again!

In the evening we went to Marina bay sands Light show. We were given ponchos by our tour guide as it was raining. It was a 15 min laser light show, a beautiful sight. The entire sky was lit from the unique ship like rooftop of the Marina bay sands. There were colourful lights forming different structures on the sky like ship with dancing fountains and loud music. A spectacular laser show and a must watch in Singapore.

In the morning when we went for breakfast wherein Chinese dishes were served. We were served noodles with chopsticks. We called the restaurant manager to teach us how to use the chopsticks. It was a great struggle to just get the hold right; forget eating with them. But we did try it out for a while before using our forks for the same 😊! Hats off to the people who can eat with chopsticks, I could never do it. After breakfast we proceeded to the city tour. Our guide was a Chinese lady and knew very little English. We had trouble understanding her but soon got used to her English. All the passengers enjoyed her English. She made friends with us and would address me as “honey” to tease my wife. She would sit next to me and sweet talk for fun. She made the trip more fun with her funny behaviour.

Our first stop was Merlion park. The Merlion is the official mascot of Singapore. The Merlion body symbolises Singapore’s humble beginning as a fishing village. It is a mythical creature with a lion’s head and body of a fish. It is widely used as a mascot and nation personification of Singapore. Merlion Park is a major tourist attraction of Singapore and is nick named Lion city. Singapore comes from ‘Singha’ and ‘Pura’ meaning lion and City respectively.

Singapore is a high income economy with gross national income of USD 54430 per capita. Malay Language is its national language. It has committed to keep Tamil as its official language which is also printed on currency notes along with English, Malay and Chinese. Singapore is a very neat and tidy city, we could not find any place littered. Singapore is one of the richest country in the world. As we heard, there is no corruption in the government. The government encourages industries and businesses to be put up. It also motivates free trade which aided country in obtaining numerous international investments from multinational giants.

Singapore also encourages Bollywood production houses to shoot so they can also promote tourism in Singapore. They came forward to make the Kkrish movies release special which was the first Indian mega movie in Singapore. It featured Singapore zoo, the heritage Cliffored Pier, Singapore river and one of its rush island and also the Changi airport.

We visited the Singapore Flyer which is Asia’s largest giant wheel standing at a stunning 165m from the ground. We could see the whole city from inside the car which could seat about 25+ people. Post this we visited the Marina bay which is a upscale area of skyscrapers, posh hotels and luxury malls. We only wished we could visit here frequently. We then headed to our planned cruise which took us around the Singapore river and we passed by the Asian Civilization museum, the Merlion Park, the flyer and a row of shophouses. It was a wonderful experience . Post the cruise enroute we also saw the parliament house which houses its Parliament of Singapore. Our guide also showed the place where “Netaji Subhash Chander Bose” was last seen. It was a historic moment for all of us. We stopped at Raffle city shopping mall where most ladies from our group including my wife went on a shopping spree. After emptying our pockets at the mall, we visited the Chinese temple, buddha statue & beautiful pagodas.

Our next visit was the famous Mustafa mall which is open 24x7 and is owned by a Indian businessman Mustafa Ahmed. The mall has area of 4,00,000 sqft and 8 floors. It is popular for its jewellery section, electronics, perfumes etc. My wife intended to buy some clothes however the marking said Made in India! We felt proud to see that! We also saw posters of Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla all across the mall. A lot of folks from our group bought LED TV’s to be taken back home. One of our friends bought Orchid red tea and coconut jam, apparently these are very popular.

After a good night sleep, we checked out of the room at 11 AM and proceeded to airport to get on to the Srilankan Airways to Colombo wherein we stayed a night at a resort. Then we flew to Delhi and got on to a train to Amritsar. In the evening we visited the famous Wagah border Parade around 4:30 PM. We had enough time for the security check up and took a seat close to the ceremony spot. It was very hot but the place was jampacked with people from across the country. People were dancing and shouting “Hindustan Zindabad” along with the BSF soldiers. Songs like “Mere desh ki dharti” and “Yeh desh hai veer jawaano ko” were being played. It was a very patriotic sight. The parade by the soldiers on both sides where they raise legs as high as possible, the lowering of the flag, loud patriotic music and people dancing, was a sight to watch! Jai Hind!!!

We also visited the holy Golden Temple in Amritsar. Maharaja Ranjit Singh over laid the temple with gold foil. It was illuminated at night and looked gorgeous. After the darshan, we also had the opportunity to eat langar. While coming out we purchased the most popular Amritsari pappad, wadia and pachranga achaar (pickle) – yummy yummy in the tummy 😊!!! We also saw Jalia Wala Bagh from outside as it was closed at night on our way back to the hotel. A perfect end of trip before we headed back to Bangalore via Delhi with sweet memories.