Monday, September 22, 2003
Day 2.5 in Singapore
In the afternoon we went to Sentosa, a resort island on the south side of Singapore. Lou says it is like the resorts in Europe. It has many attractions including beaches, a 37 m Merlion, yes a Mermaid but with a lion instead of a maid on top, we read it protects Singapore and brings good fortune. Other attractions were an Aquarium, historical tours etc. We skipped all these and went to the beach but we had forgotten our togs doh! The highlight was the "Musical Fountains" This involved a synchronised fountain, light, laser and sound show. It was very cheesy but still impresive, the finale was when the eyes of the Merlion shone with lasers into the middle of the fountain pond.
Day 1 in Malyasia, Day 1 in Penang
Today we traveled to Johor Bahru by bus to fly to Penang. What a contrast, from the Wealth of Singapore to the poverty of Malaysia. It is a real eye opener how the countries can be so close geographically and so far apart economically.
We are now in Georgetown in Penang staying in a hotel in Chinatown. This was the first British colony in South East Asia. It was colonised in 1786, a lot of the buildings around here were built over 100 years ago and it looks like they haven't been painted since! There are foot paths on the streets but most stores have taken them over and others have put up locked gates so everyone walks on the streets. There are some large malls here with many shops consisting of three main groups in equal quantities. These are cellphone and cellphone accessories, Overstuffed chairs with foot massagers and others. I don't know what it is with the foot massager things, I saw a sign saying feet are your health because you can't walk without them, which is fair enough.
In the taxi from the airport we passed the Intel facory. This is where they make the CPUs (Central Processing Units) for Pentium computers, apparently it employs a lot of people. They build the chips here because labour is so cheap. Everything is so cheap here, internet is RM 1 per 1/2 hr which is 50 cents. That is why I am writing so much :)
I have added a link to the Sentosa site on the right of the page if want to take a look.
In the afternoon we went to Sentosa, a resort island on the south side of Singapore. Lou says it is like the resorts in Europe. It has many attractions including beaches, a 37 m Merlion, yes a Mermaid but with a lion instead of a maid on top, we read it protects Singapore and brings good fortune. Other attractions were an Aquarium, historical tours etc. We skipped all these and went to the beach but we had forgotten our togs doh! The highlight was the "Musical Fountains" This involved a synchronised fountain, light, laser and sound show. It was very cheesy but still impresive, the finale was when the eyes of the Merlion shone with lasers into the middle of the fountain pond.
Day 1 in Malyasia, Day 1 in Penang
Today we traveled to Johor Bahru by bus to fly to Penang. What a contrast, from the Wealth of Singapore to the poverty of Malaysia. It is a real eye opener how the countries can be so close geographically and so far apart economically.
We are now in Georgetown in Penang staying in a hotel in Chinatown. This was the first British colony in South East Asia. It was colonised in 1786, a lot of the buildings around here were built over 100 years ago and it looks like they haven't been painted since! There are foot paths on the streets but most stores have taken them over and others have put up locked gates so everyone walks on the streets. There are some large malls here with many shops consisting of three main groups in equal quantities. These are cellphone and cellphone accessories, Overstuffed chairs with foot massagers and others. I don't know what it is with the foot massager things, I saw a sign saying feet are your health because you can't walk without them, which is fair enough.
In the taxi from the airport we passed the Intel facory. This is where they make the CPUs (Central Processing Units) for Pentium computers, apparently it employs a lot of people. They build the chips here because labour is so cheap. Everything is so cheap here, internet is RM 1 per 1/2 hr which is 50 cents. That is why I am writing so much :)
I have added a link to the Sentosa site on the right of the page if want to take a look.
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