Most of my life I have been super independent and have never really been afraid to do much of anything. Heck, I picked up and moved to South Korea by myself not knowing a single person here. I admit, I was nervous, but I was also very excited. Doing things by myself has never been an issue of mine except when it came to traveling abroad. It's just not something I thought would be fun or even wanted to try. I've traveled many places since I have been in Korea, but never alone...until last summer. Let me just say, it was an experience. It was an amazing experience! I did what I wanted to do ALL of the time! If I wanted to sleep in, I could. If I wanted to eat a certain food, I could. If I wanted to stand in line to see something stupid, I absolutely could! I could do whatever I wanted because I didn't have another person or people with me who wanted to do something else. And of course with a selfie stick, I didn't even need anyone to hold a camera for me! Technology today is another thing I could blog about endlessly, but I won't bore you with that.
During my trip last summer, although it was solo, I met up with a friend in Hong Kong right away and they showed me around almost the whole time I was there. It was like having my own personal tour guide. It was great, but it took away from my traveling "alone" experience. I did have one or two days where I was completely on my own, but not the whole day. The trip I went on last weekend, I decided was going to be it...completely and totally by myself, and I can honestly say it was one of the best trips I have ever been on. One of the things you don't realize when you travel with other people, is that you rely on them for things. When you have no one, it forces you to communicate with other people you don't know. And the response you get from others when traveling alone, isn't what you would expect.
I just returned from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Singapore. Let's start from the beginning...
I booked a flight with Air Asia and let me just say that if you don't know what you are getting yourself into with them, make sure you do your homework. I had no clue! They are a low budget airline so even the long distance flights don't have free ANYTHING!! Mine was a 6 hour flight with no TV in the seat in front, but if you wanted one, you could rent a little iPad looking thing. The meals and beverages weren't free, even a blanket was a rental. There were no ports where you could charge things, so to pass your time, you should bring things to do and food to eat of your own. I stayed in a shared living space on my trip and didn't want to take the chance of my iPad being stolen. I literally had nothing except my phone, but with no way to charge it, I could barely use it. Also, they cranked the air way up, I honestly thought at one point I was going to freeze to death, but I wanted to protest the whole 'paying money for a blanket that I wouldn't have even gotten to keep' nonsense.
When I got to the airport in Kuala Lumpur, I snagged a bus ticket to the city. I got to my hostel/guesthouse around midnight, got my key set, and headed to my room. This was my first shared guest house, so I didn't really know what to expect. I opened the door and there was another girl already there. It was a bunk bed setup with 3 sets of bunk beds. I secured my bed and then needed to shower. The girl quickly helped me maneuver my way around the place teaching me about the hot water and the million light switches. I had booked a very early bus to Singapore and needed to make sure that I was up in time to make it to the bus station. I got on the bus the next morning and once again froze to death the entire time! I just don't get it. Malaysia is a tropical place with palm trees and all. It doesn't get cold there and that is fine by me, but why do they feel the need to blast the aircon at full force (HAHA!! I just realized that I typed 'aircon' which is what it's called in Korea, as my spell check is having a fit, but obviously I am referring to air conditioning)!?
The bus ride was 5 hours but included all the things I wanted my airplane to have, except a blanket. It had free drinks, tv in the seat in front of me with multiple movies and shows to choose from, lots of space, huge reclining and super comfortable seats. We had to stop to go through customs and security when we reached the edge of the two countries. In and out, passport stamped. I got off in Chinatown and walked around for quite a while. Singapore has free wifi outside in popular tourist areas which is so awesome for looking up maps, finding info out about how to get from one place to another, good places to eat, etc. I saw Buddha's tooth in a temple while the monks and others chanted around it.
I feel like I walked around the whole city that day! Seriously though, I have a step counting app on my phone and it was going crazy with the motivational and encouraging messages it was sending to me. I ate Chinese food and drank out of a coconut.
I saw the infamous Marina Bay Sands Hotel, watched as the lion in Merlion Park spit water out of its mouth, and later that evening, I went on a night safari. It was by far one of the coolest things I have ever done but I have no photos as it was night and they wouldn't allow flash. The animals aren't caged up, they are allowed to roam freely on a huge chunk of land. Our tour guide was amazing and the people I met on that trip were the best. I met a couple from England who lived in Dubai and had traveled just about everywhere in the world and these 2 older ladies ( I would guess in their 80's) from Australia who were the flirtiest older women I have ever met. I stuck with them the whole trip even though they always lagged behind. They told me I must come and visit them in Australia where we can get into even more trouble. That same night, I hopped on another bus that took me back to Kuala Lumpur. I got on around midnight and almost instantly fell asleep due to the ridiculous amounts of walking. I was abruptly woken up and remembered we hadn't made it over the border yet into Malaysia. Half asleep and with only my passport and phone without service in hand, I followed the other buss people inside where there were ridiculously long lines to the far left but it seemed like we were heading to the self serve line on the right. I was very excited about this and still half asleep. Every single person from my bus made it through in the self serve line where you just scan your passport, EXCEPT ME!! I wasn't about to give up though. I scanned that puppy like 8 times, each time thinking, "It's going to work this time." It did not! The security guys even started yelling at me to go to the other very long non-self service line. I refused to believe I was going to be the only one to stand in that long line. Finally I gave up and headed over to the other area where the lines were looooooong. I didn't take any of my stuff with me from the bus, so I had this fear that the bus driver was going to decide I wasn't worth the wait and just leave without me...stranded in a foreign country with only my passport and phone. The line took what seems like forever, which was actually about an hour, and luckily when I got out of the other side, the bus was still there waiting. What a relief!!
The bus pulled into KL at around 6 am. I headed back to my room to sleep away half of the day. I was woken around 11:30 am by two men cleaning the room and literally staring at me and the other girl, who must have had a rough night as well. Cleaning and staring, cleaning and staring...while we were trying to sleep. Awkward. I had wondered if maybe I was just delirious and had over exaggerated the cleaning men. Later that night, the girl, who was a flight attendant from Russia, and I were talking. She says to me, "Hey! Do you remember that time when those two guys were staring at us when we were sleeping?" I died laughing and when I composed myself, I told her it had happened that morning. It was good to know I wasn't the only one! That airbnb review that I left for my ALL FEMALE ROOM, was a little on the heated side suggesting that if you advertise for an all female room, maybe you should also have an all female cleaning staff in that particular room. Luckily, no harm came to either of us and I have another place to visit in Russia if I so choose.
After waking up, I decided to go to Batu Caves which were incredible. It started to rain while I was there so I ducked into a vegetarian Indian buffet restaurant (that was the only option) where I was literally the only person there. The men running the restaurant were so nice and kept bringing me fresh things they had just whipped up in the back kitchen. They kept wanting me to try all of their dishes even if they weren't on the buffet. I felt like royalty and really enjoyed chatting with them as well, until the old man tried to get me to marry his son. Haha! Yikes! When the rain slowed, I got on a train headed back to the city and did a little shopping. The next morning I took a cab to the airport and as the meter was getting higher and higher, I realized I wasn't going to have enough cash to pay the man. I asked him if he would take the remainder of my Singapore money (I was in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, no Singapore) which was about the correct about for the taxi ride. He happily accepted and I dodged a panic attack.
All in all this was a really great trip where I learned how to be even more independent than I already am, and I have new friends in countries where I can visit in the future. As a parting note for travelers and something I myself learned on this trip, ALWAYS take a sweater or jacket with you on your trip. You never know what kind of freezing cold vehicle you may find yourself in.
