Malaysia - 2001
My first ever backpacking trip! After travelling only in the western world I decided to do something completely different. I booked the flights to KL in summer of 2001 and that's how my first Asian adventure began. I did not quite know what to expect but I'll never forget the feeling when I arrived in the middle of the chaos in KL. The city is not one of my favourites but was good crash course of Asian madness.
Check out the photo gallery. (The photos are scanned from paper originals so the quality can be poor)
Places visited:
- Kuala Lumpur
- Pulau Pangkor
- Penang
- Singapore
I could not stand the heat and traffic of KL for a long time and therefore I headed north to the paradise island of Pangkor. That island was such a tranquil place with its perfect sunsets that it must have been the final thing that was needed to turn me into backpacker. I also got lost in the jungle on a hiking trip there - that felt really scary for a first-timer since the terrain was really rough...
After Pangkor I visited the island of Penang that is much more civilized. There I experienced my first impressions of Asian temples - including all the flavours from Buddhist to Hindu to Chinese. I tasted Durian for the first time and bought a dragon statue that started my small collection of Asian artifacts.
Before returning to KL I took a long bus ride to Singapore which was once again something completely different. The combination of old colonial buildings and the modern skyscrapers makes Singapore one of my favourite Asian metropolises. Even though Malaysia is fairly organized country for an Asian one it is nothing compared to the cleanliness of Singapore...
In general Malaysia is a perfect country for the first-timer in Asia - after that you can move to the less developed South Eastern destinations like Cambodia. It was here where my passion for Asia started and I sure would like to return to Malaysia some time in the future...