Chalet NZ

Travel adventures, kiwi style.

[chaletnz]

Snorkelling in the Gili Islands

It was a pleasant morning in Gili T as the island was still mostly asleep but it was already getting a little hot. I treated myself to a birthday breakfast at Coffee & Thyme and though everything else was dead this place was packed! I think it was probably because their prices were half those of other cafes on this main street of Gili Trawangan, luckily I got a table to enjoy my flat white and mango banana smoothie bowl. The table beside me were three British lads that sounded hungover and they’d end up being on my tour too. As we checked in for the tour, we were each given a pair of flippers as we climbed aboard with the captain Ali and two guides Yudi and Ryan. As we were riding out to our first dive spot Yudi was explaining how to wear the flippers and the mask as the Indian ladies sitting opposite me had never swam before it seemed like, this will be interesting… Our first stop was the underwater statues that are pictured with every image of the Gili Islands and it was truly every man for himself there. Swarms of people bobbing around the surface while others tried to dive down and have the guides get a photo of them with the statues in the background. The Indian ladies were coughing and spluttering unable to keep their heads above the surface despite wearing life jackets so they had to return to the boat. It was cool to see the statues underwater but the uncontrolled crowds and all the plastic floating in the water made it less enjoyable. This spot did however also redeem itself with many colourful fish and corals to look at without diving deeper. This stop was short, maybe around 20 minutes and then we gathered back in the boat to go to the next stop where we could swim with sea turtles. The water here was dirty and cloudy so despite the guides saying there were sea turtles surrounding us, I didn’t see a single one and I followed the guides around the full 20 minutes here. I got in the shallow water where I could stand up so didn’t wear a life jacket but then ended up out into the deep and struggled a bit to get back to the boat. The water got clearer further out and the British lads found a turtle and yelled out to the guides so everyone could see that one and get photos swimming beside it if they wanted. We anchored at Gili Meno and went ashore to see the turtle sanctuary which was a series of tiled bathtubs full of baby turtles. They rescue them when they hatch and keep them in the tubs until they’ve grown to 4-5 months old before releasing them otherwise predators can catch and kill them as babies. I wandered up the beach for a while taking some photos knowing that if I ordered a juice, we’d be leaving on the boat again as soon as I got it. Without making a purchase though, it was hot and there wasn’t much shade around the shore. After 2o minutes we were summoned back on to the boat for our last snorkel spot of the day. This one was the highlight, we were the only boat there and the water was clean and clear so we could see all the beautiful corals and tropical fish and another couple of turtles. I swam alongside one of the turtles close enough to where I could’ve reached out and touched it. It was a longer boat ride to Gili Air, the most isolated of the three islands but it was a nice vibe there and the temperatures had dropped to be more pleasant. I headed up the main street to Shark Bites for lunch, it was quiet there - just me and one other table and a little cat asleep under a chair. I ordered the fried cauliflower rice with tempeh and a booster shake made up of coconut milk, ginger, and turmeric. I rushed back to the meeting point only to wait around for the others to gather. That’s what I really hate about group tours; when they give you all a time to be somewhere and people don’t respect the others’ time. I wanted to look in some of the little shops on my walk back but felt I didn’t have time. We took the boat back to Gili T as a storm started to roll in but luckily it didn’t strike us.

[chaletnz]

Gili Islands: Breakfast bowl and coffee, snorkel tour crew, scenic snorkel spots, and our boat the Yoo Man, Gili Meno beach and sea turtle sanctuary

[chaletnz]

Hello Gili Islands!

The arrival into Indonesia required me to buy a new visa which I was prepared for, with cash, and quickly skipped to the front of the line while the other travellers had to wait for them to do card payments after all the cash payments were completed. I was stamped through and headed out into the arrivals hall which was full of pushy taxi and Grab drivers as well as drivers holding signs. I didn’t want to leave the arrivals area and be in the masses getting harassed by every driver there so I texted with me driver trying to determine where he was. He sent me a photo of him holding the sign with my name near the back of the swarm so I could easily locate him and link up. I imagine this is only a tiny taste of Indonesia taxi/Grab culture compared to Denpasar airport in Bali! My driver’s name was Madun and we had a great conversation during the drive, he told me all about his wife and 3 sons, and his time working for the transfer company. It sounded like he was very happy and the boss took great care of him. The downside was waiting around for tourists sometimes as it caused him to pick up smoking 3 years ago (which must be a record for an Indonesian adult) and he was very disappointed in himself. I told him that I lived in Colorado and he said he knew a girl called Justine that lived in Canada and he offered to set us up when he found out I was single! He dropped me off at the private ferry port where some youths were waiting to drive me to Gili Trawangan. I took off my shoes and rolled up my pants to wade out to the boat and the youths carried my bag over. I had paid to charter this boat, and yet they had invited a bunch of locals to ride in it too! I suppose this is a regular occurrence for tourists taking private fast boats in the Gili Islands. Looking back at it now, I was not offered a life jacket and while it was only a 15 minute ride from Teluk Nare to Gili Trawangan, these waters have been notorious for capsizing vessels in choppy waters being driven too fast by inexperienced captains. The captain was definitely full speed ahead to get me to the Gili T port and luckily the water was very calm as it was about 8pm so we arrived around 8:15 and they helped me off the boat. They asked where I was staying and the homestay host said he would pick me up but I had no service to contact him so I decided to walk as it was only about 10 minutes away. On my 10 minute walk I was thrown into the overall ‘vibe’ of Gili Trawangan, the Indonesian party island, and offered drugs multiple times as well as seeing drunken Westerners falling into the streets out of nightclubs. A reminder that it was about 8:30pm on a Monday night! My homestay was up a steep road, and then down a dark dirt path but my host Nyoman was welcoming and gave me some bottles of cold water from his fridge. The room was very basic, but enough for my single night stay before heading back over to the main Lombok island tomorrow evening after my birthday snorkelling tour around these famous islands.

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur: Dutch baby pancake and coffee at El & N, checking out some malls, Mitsuya cider and custard bun from Donki, pop up pastry market, airport treats of satay and Whittaker’s, goodbye palm oil

[chaletnz]

Goodbye Malaysia

Since I’d had a fairly late night, I pushed back my alarms a little bit this morning and went out in search of coffee when I finally arose. I walked to Liquid Lab but it was shuttered for a Malaysian public holiday so since I needed air conditioning anyway I headed into the pavilion mall across the street and found EL & N where I enjoyed my flat white and breakfast. I chose the ‘Dutch baby pancake’ which I expected to be a plate of poffertjes but instead it was a small skillet filled with a pancake covered with some odd cream and fruit. It wasn’t too bad, just a bit chewy and not what I had expected. After breakfast I browsed through this mall for a while and came across a little pop up market in the basement with a whole bunch of stalls selling pastries and baked goods. They all looked really delicious but they were very expensive so I didn’t buy anything – wish I’d seen that before I’d eaten! There was a Japanese Donki supermarket so of course I had to go and check that out. I bought a mitsuya cider and a custard bun to give me energy for the walk back to the hotel. They also had Tokyo Banana on sale, which is very rare to see outside of Tokyo! I would’ve bought a box for Eva since they’re her favourite but I didn’t want to carry it all through Indonesia for the next month. I checked out of the hotel and ordered a Grab ride to the airport, it actually worked out much cheaper going back, almost cheaper than what the train would’ve cost. Looking back on Kuala Lumpur it is a little strange that I actually never used the public transport at all since usually in big cities I’m all over that, perhaps it was the heat or the fact I was walking distance to most of what I’d wanted to see and do. This Grab driver was a Chinese Malaysian again, I’d taken 4 Grabs and all 4 drivers had been Chinese Malaysian which I found interesting as they’re only 20% of the population. I’m not sure what he was using for a GPS but I was impressed when I saw it warn him about a pothole coming up, but it must’ve been filled in already as we didn’t see anything. I arrived early at the airport with plenty of time to check in my bag and pass through immigration and security but wished I hadn’t come through so quickly as there was almost nothing inside the secure gate area. The one restaurant was Flight Club with a dismal 2.5 star rating on Google maps but without options I reluctantly sat down for lunch. It lived up (or rather down) to the rating and the fish and chips I ordered came out with basically all batter and no fish, it was horrible and I had to send it back and ordered some satay instead which was average. A Japanese guy sat down opposite me at the shared table and he was on Facetime loudly detailing his trip and showing his food and drink to the person on the other end. I noticed he didn’t acknowledge or thank the wait staff who delivered his food and drinks so  I thought he must be a very well-travelled Japanese guy  and probably spent a long time living abroad. No Japanese people I know would behave in public like this!

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur: Delicious satay and iced Milo, long line at Kunafa Crisp but worth the wait! Crowded city streets

[chaletnz]

Melaka: The river, Jonker Walk, “red square” Christ Church, coconut shake and iced gula Melaka latte

(As I was selecting these photos to post I could feel the heat again as I looked through them, it was sooo hot there)

[chaletnz]

Malaysia: Melaka Day Trip Part 2

Making the most of the few hours I had here I wanted to start with a quick look around the Lulala candy shop by the river and then do my own walk around the red square area to get my own photos of the Christ Church. I headed back to Jonker Walk which was even more crowded by now and tried to get a seat at a cafe - one hour wait. Uh, excuse me? I tried one other that was the same but I suppose since they had specialty drinks and air conditioning it was high demand to get a table and camp there for an hour or two (my plan too, can’t be too mad!). I passed a stall with coconut shakes that had no line so I decided to grab one of those and it was cold and refreshing as my first little treat. There didn’t seem to be toilets that were available for the public to use so I resorted to using the map Stephene had hand drawn and it led me to a free public washroom hidden behind a small mall. There was a nice cafe there, Backlane Coffee, that was hidden from the main street so it wasn’t crowded at all. I tried their speciality drink the iced gula Melaka latte, gula means sugar in Malay/Indonesian and I think they have a specific local sugar that they sell as I saw it in a lot of shops. While in the cafe I tried to search for something interesting nearby to see, or search up some kind of local food I could try here but my eSIM has been completely useless in Malaysia for some reason. No matter what I try it just seems like it doesn’t work and won’t get internet. My phone was also not connecting to wifi at most places that had free wifi and data was choked down to only LTE that possibly loaded a map to look at, no actual points on the map or directions but I could view it and figure it out myself from that. It was strange as I hadn’t had issues in Singapore or Bukit Lawang - the Indonesian rainforest had better service than Kuala Lumpur? I decided to stay put for a while in the cafe and then make my way back to the bus checking out a back street and getting some steps in. It was a relief to get back on the bus and air conditioning and I could sit back and relax for the 4 hour ride back to KL. We were nearby the Bukit Bintang neighbourhood and I noticed some other passengers getting up to leave the bus, I jumped up too and headed out with them into the night. I went back out to the Jalan Alor market and tried a chicken satay and iced Milo which were both really tasty but the guy sitting beside me was eating his own durian as dessert which smelled awful so I was ready to leave as soon as I finished eating. I wandered in search of dessert down jam-packed sidewalks, people don’t pick a side and just walk wherever so there was no flow. I saw a lady trip up over a low barrier that she couldn’t see through all the people. At one point I remembered the documentary I'd seen about the crowd crush on a busy street in South Korea and thought how easily that could actually happen... On another corner there was a street performer and a literal wall of people crowded around the blocked the entire street, I had to cross roads to get around them. The restaurants had barriers outside the queues of people lined up waiting to get inside, it seemed like madness and on a Sunday night! I decided my dessert would be at Kunafa Crisp since I hadn’t had a kunafe since Nazareth and Istanbul so I figured with muslim majority in Malaysia it would be an authentic treat here! I joined the line and waited about 15 minutes to order and then got lucky to snag a table in the corner to eat at. It was delicious top tier kunafe fried to perfection with pistachios and syrup for about $5. I did kick myself a bit as they also had baklava and Turkish coffee there which would’ve been so nice to try too but I don’t think I would’ve been able to fit it all in!

[chaletnz]

Good morning KL, kaya toast at Hometown Hainan Coffee, St Peter’s, Bukit Melaka, St Paul’s, main roundabout leading to Jonker Walk, lunch spread at Our Kitchen

[chaletnz]

Malaysia: Melaka Day Trip Part 1

It was another early morning and I got a walk in down to the Berjaya Times Mall again before it was hot since my tour would pick me up there. Everything was closed except for Hometown Hainan Coffee so I tried their version of the kaya toast and it was delicious compared to the one in Singapore airport! The bus arrived right on time at 8:15 and it was already quite full but I still got a row to myself near the back. Our guide today was Mr Stephene, another Malaysian Indian, who took time to have a cigarette outside the bus before heading off. He was watching a worker collecting rubbish from the bushes around the bus stop, and then of course threw his cigarette into a bush before climbing back on the bus. We drove about an hour and a half south from Kuala Lumpur and stopped for a bathroom and snack break. I bought a kopi tarik but nowhere near as good as teh tarik! I also considered a curry puff or samosa but decided this road side pull off, with drinks in buckets of ice would be too risky for buying food. Another hour and a half of driving and we had arrived at St Peter’s church which was our first stop but we were not allowed to go inside. We had a few minutes to see the outside of the building and the gardens before we headed on. This is the oldest functioning Catholic church in Malaysia and apparently this church is quite unique as it’s rare to see a Catholic Church with influence from Protestant architecture like St Peter’s. Next we were all dropped off at a mall to use their filthy bathrooms before walking over to the base of Bukit Melaka which was a large square with museums, a mosque, and the bastion building. It was extremely hot, I would say even hotter than Kuala Lumpur. The sun was beating down on us, probably over 35 degrees by this point and not a cloud in sight. It was actually unbearable to be in the sunlight for more than 2 minutes but Stephene was good at finding us shady spots to pause in all the time saying how great the weather was today. We took the stairs up to the St Paul’s church and enjoyed the view over the port of Melaka from the top. We had some time for photos and to sit in the shade again, I was watching some parents trying to take photos of their toddler that insisted on running amok and getting in everyone’s way. Next Stephene took us to a small wooden deck which serves as a viewpoint for the Christ Church, ‘red square’, and clock tower and this view was my favourite of the day. We walked over the river and towards the Jonker Walk, sweltering hot with no shade, and full of ding dongs everywhere. A lot of the influencer types trying to take photos with no other people in them in the middle of a crowded pedestrian street and getting annoyed when people walk in their shot. I wonder how many instagram photos and videos I appear in the background of… Our lunch was at a Chinese restaurant called Our Kitchen with several dishes served home-style around our table. There was rice and omelette served with a few different mains like sweet and sour fish, chicken mushroom stew, spicy tofu, shrimp and potato, and vegetables. I was feeling a bit sick from the heat but I ate a plate with rice and sampled the fish and chicken dishes but that was all I could manage. They served us jasmine tea too which was helpful in making me feel a little better. The demographic of the other guests was similar to the Danish tourists I’d met at the Batu Caves; “I live in the Netherlands but I’m Turkish, we are Syrian but now we live in Germany”, and there was a Japanese lady too, but all the others didn’t speak much English so it was tricky conversation at the table. I was quick to head out to explore on my own, snapping a quick photo of Stephene's hand drawn map of the town and where our meeting point was in a few hours.

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur: More of the Batu Caves, Batik workshop demonstration, Petronas Towers, Jalon Alor Backspace, mango sticky rice

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur: Satay lunch, Optimist Coffee, Batu Caves

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur: Batu Caves

My tour guide for the Batu Caves was a Malaysian Indian guy called Raj, dressed in a clean white linen shirt that black pants, who thrust the sign up sheet at me as I approached the bus to board. It was one of the massive tour buses that can seat about 50-60 people so I expected quite a large group. We waited about 10 minutes after our departure time for a group of 10 Singaporeans who were late. From what Raj told us they were very entitled people who expected our tour bus to wait indefinitely for them to show up but after 10 minutes he told them to find their own way there. The drive out was entirely within the city of Kuala Lumpur so there was quite a lot of traffic but Raj used the time to explain to us that the Batu Caves are 3-4 million years old and made of limestone, the Hindu temple inside was built 129 years ago and it is the busiest tourist destination in Malaysia with 34 million visitors last year. There is a huge statue outside the caves that is 41m tall and covered in 300 litres of sold gold paint. The caves have a network of 21 caves that are open to tourists and 20 more caves that are not open to access. Raj explained the festival they have in February for purity where it’s customary to carry a milk pot up the steps, he waited 6 hours to make his way inside as there were 2 million people participating! He gave us a quick breakdown of the demographic of Malaysia - 65% Muslim, 20% Chinese, 10% Indian and 5% other, but the 10% of Indians have over 1200 temples within the country. Once we had arrived, we were released from the nice AC of the bus to a sweltering, humid 35 degrees outside for our climb up the colourful steps. There were long tail macaques everywhere scurrying around in large groups so it was a bit scary. I was very sweaty by the top, although so was everyone else I saw! I’d worn long pants as you’re supposed to cover your legs out of respect but I saw plenty of men in shorts and the odd girl in short shorts getting stared at. It was a very impressive cave, and temple, and of course the huge statue outside representing the Hindu god of war. As I was coming down, some 1st/2nd generation Danish people (presumably refugees from the Middle East) took a photo of me in exchange for me taking one of them. I couldn’t take the heat anymore so I was browsing inside the few little shops around the bottom that had fans and the one shop with AC. On our drive back to Kuala Lumpur (Which apparently means ‘muddy river’, we stopped at a workshop that specialised in the traditional Batik style textiles. There were plenty of shawls, dresses, shirts, and canvases available to buy and they showed us a short demo of how they create the print. They draw an outline with melted wax on plain white silk and then brush colours into the spaces, the wax acts as a barrier to stop the paint flowing further than they want it to. Once complete, the silk will be washed which removes the wax entirely and leaves a white outline between the colours. As the sunset and we approached the central city, we passed a traditional Malay village on the riverbank and Raj pointed out several old houses that had been there for many years. While we were stuck in traffic he gave us information about the largest exports of Malaysia - no surprise that palm oil was the main export, followed by rubber latex, tapioca, cacao, corn, pepper, and petrol. He told us the average salary in Malaysia is $700 US per month and you could buy a 3 bedroom house in a middle class area for around $70k or rent it for $200 per month. We were dropped back in Berjaya Times Square mall and I walked back to the hotel to lie down as I was actually feeling quite sick. Maybe it had been the heat, or the satay for lunch… I dragged myself back out in the evening to check out the Alor Backspace street art near the Jalan Alor street food market and treated myself to a mango sticky rice from Noy Thai which was freshly made and so delicious!

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur: Petaling Street market and Little Demon Alley area

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur Central Market (Pasar Besar “big market”)

[chaletnz]

Kuala Lumpur: Waffles for breakfast at VCR cafe, Merdeka Square/Freedom Lawn, River of Life and Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek Mosque

[chaletnz]

Speed Run Through Kuala Lumpur

I was up early for my single day to explore KL and started with a morning walk down to VCR café for breakfast, it was early so the temperature was actually bearable at this point. I ordered some waffles and a flat white with their QR code system, it required an online order through their QR code, then I had to go downstairs to pay, and then the order was sent to the kitchen. Seemed pretty pointless and annoying they made me do that when I could’ve ordered at the register where I had to pay anyway… It was fairly average too, much like last night’s shawarma – I’m still waiting for Malaysian food to wow me. I took a Grab to Merdeka Square, the Malaysian Independence Square, and it was absolutely huge. A giant grassy square, the ‘Freedom Lawn’, the Merdeka 118 tower, and the Sultan Abdul Samad building which is iconic for Kuala Lumpur. There were some people gathering at one end, I’m not sure if it was a protest or prayer or something else though. The block behind the Merdeka Square was the River of Life and Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek Mosque sitting right at the fork in the waterway. It seemed like this might be a nice spot to sit in the afternoon but it was pretty empty and closed this early, didn’t even see any alligators! Around the corner was the Central Market, it had a large 3 level shopping labyrinth with mostly a lot of the traditional batik clothing and souvenirs. Most of the stalls and shops were still closed or in the process of opening for the day so I took a walk around the block and bought a canned teh tarik from a 7/11 while hunting for a currency exchange place or ATM with no fees. When I returned to browse the market properly it was open and there were actually quite a lot of cool things to look at. I took a short break at the foodcourt to have one of the jumbo juices from Restore, I chose one with a mixture of orange, pineapple, passionfruit, lemon, and calamansi. Once I had torn myself away from all the cool stuff inside I checked out the Katsuri walk outside but there wasn’t much there. Since I only had the morning and a couple hours in the afternoon before my Batu Caves tour I had to keep moving and made my way to the Petaling Street Market which was mostly clothes and shoes but I did get lucky with a currency exchange place that had a decent rate for exchanging my USD in ‘small bills’ aka $20s. Now cashed up I wanted to try this interesting looking soy bean drink that a lot of people were lined up for, it wasn’t to my tastes but it was cheap and iced so still not the worst purchase! I visited the ‘Little Demon Alley’ for a quick look and then took a Grab back to the hotel. I still had an hour so I managed to fit in a coffee at Optimist Coffee and then I made my way to Berjaya Times Square to grab a quick lunch of chicken satay, spring rolls and teh tarik at Ayam Penyet Express in the mall.