MALAYSIA and SINGAPORE 2009

2004 / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / 2008 /2009

DAY ONE 23/9/09

Nakhon - Kuala Lumpur

All the students going on the trip started to arrive at Kanlayanee at around 1am. There was plenty of excitement because nearly everyone had not been out of Thailand before and we were looking forward to seeing other countries. 2am came, our time of departure so we were all put into our groups while Ajarn Thomas checked to see who was missing. Still, there were no coaches as they had not yet turned up. 2:15 and as we were all counted as being present the coaches arrived. We put all of our suitcases into the luggage compartment and then boarded the coach ready for the journey. 

The wheels started turning at 2:25 and we were on our way. It was dark outside and the journey to the border went past quite quickly because the ones that weren’t talking were sleeping as they were not used to being up at that time in the morning. We arrived at the Thai border town of Dan Nok just as the sun was rising and we pulled up at the Thai immigration desk. Here we queued up and handed our passports over so that they could be stamped with an exit stamp allowing us to leave Thailand. With our brand new stamps in our passport we proudly boarded the coach again for the 1 kilometre journey through no-man’s land to the Malaysian immigration area. Here we were made to take our bags through immigration, get our passports stamped with a Malaysian entry stamp, have our bags x-rayed and then re-board the coach for the journey ahead of us. After only about 5 kilometres into Malaysia and we pulled into this restaurant for our breakfast. We ate breakfast here and also changed some of our Thai Baht into either Malaysian Ringit and/or Singaporean Dollars. 

Our journey continued as we again boarded the coach and headed on down the highway towards Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital. On the journey down our teachers kept us entertained by making us sing songs, play games and take part in quizzes. These were good fun and made the time pass quickly. Soon it was lunchtime and we stopped at a town called Ipoh and went to a Chinese seafood restaurant for our midday meal. It was really nice and I think we all enjoyed it. 

After our meals we then boarded the coach again and continued with our trip. We knew that our next stop was a mangrove reforestation project and as we had just done a project on mangroves as part of our schoolwork, we were all looking forward to it. Unfortunately, we were late arriving as the bus driver wasn’t too sure of the directions but we got there eventually. Mr Tann, the project founder showed us around and gave us a Q and A session afterwards. It was very educational indeed. He also treated our whole party to dinner which was very nice of him indeed. We presented him with one of the student’s school projects (which he is going to put in his office) and Nampung, one of the M319 students gave a short speech demonstrating our gratitude on behalf of all the Kanlayanee group. 

At the Mangrove Centre

We had now been on the road for some 17 hours and were all quite tired. We boarded the coach again and set off on the last leg of that day, to Kuala Lumpur. The journey there took about 2 hours and we passed that time by watching a movie. We arrived outside the Grand Continental Hotel at just after 10pm and checked in. Once in our rooms, we showered and slept …… well.

The Petronas Towers

DAY TWO 24/9/09

Kuala Lumpur - Johur Baru

We had been told that breakfast was at 7am and at 7am we were all in the hotel’s restaurant ready to eat. We ate breakfast, handed our room keys in and boarded the coach ready for an 8am departure. 8am came and we set off. This morning we were having a tour of Kuala Lumpur and our first stop off point was the King of Malaysia’s residence. Here we stood next to the guards and posed for photos. We stayed for half an hour and then set of to the National War Memorial which was only about 10 minutes away. This memorial was erected in memory of all the people who lost their lives in both world wars and the civil war in Malaysia 1948 – 1960. We took many photos here. After the War Memorial, we boarded the coach again and visited the tallest flagpole in Asia, took some photos of the Petronas Towers and then we were allowed to go shopping at KLCC, the shopping mall in the lower floors of the Petronas Towers. Here there were many different shops selling all kinds of things. They were nice ….. but quite expensive.

           The King's Residence                                                                               The Malaysian War Memorial

After an hour or so here we left for Johor Baru, our destination for the day. The one stop we had on the way to Johur Baru was the modern city of Putrajaya, a city built by the Malaysian Government to keep Malaysia in the public eye during the 21^st century. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was a lot of construction work taking place and many of the shops there were closed. We boarded the coach after a short while to carry on with the journey south. After a few movies and a little sleep we soon arrived in Johur Baru. Our first stop was Danga Bay and a lovely Chinese restaurant overlooking the water with Singapore in the background. We ate our meals and then were taken to the Zon Hotel where we were staying the night. A short drive later and we were checking into the hotel. We got to our rooms, showered, wrote in our diaries and slept because we knew we had a long day ahead of us tomorrow.

Johur Baru - Singapore

5am was the time we were woken this morning ready for a 6 o’clock breakfast and 7 o’clock departure. Today we were going to Singapore. We had a good breakfast at the Zon Hotel and when we were finished we boarded the bus and headed towards Singapore. After a short time we were at the Malaysian immigration checkpoint and we all had our passports stamped with an exit stamp. Once our passports were stamped we boarded the bus and crossed the causeway and quickly arrived at the Woodlands Immigration checkpoint which is the entry point for those entering Singapore. Singapore is a very strict country and here we had to take our bags off the bus and have them x-rayed before we were given an entry stamp. 

Fun on Sentosa

Our first port of call in Singapore was the science museum. We all walked around it looking at the exhibits which were very interesting. When we had finished here we went to the MTR, the Singaporean subway system and took a subway train all the way around the northern and eastern parts of the island. For those that had never been on a subway it was very interesting. We went as far as Orchard Road, the main area of the city and went to a Chinese restaurant for our lunch. It turned out that where this restaurant was, was part of the hotel we would be staying at that night. After our lunch, we once again boarded the bus and we went to Sentosa, the resort island of Singapore. Here we had a lot of fun going on many rides.  The ‘Luge’ ride was the most popular. We were then given some free time before going to watch the ‘Songs of the Sea’ firework and laser show. It was really good. When the show finished we got on the bus … again and headed Mustaffas, a 24 hour shop in Little India to do some shopping. We had an hour there before heading to the Grand Central Hotel, the same place where we had lunch and that was where we were staying for the night. We were all very very tired and looking forward to a good night’s sleep.

We woke up early as usual and after showering, having our breakfast and getting on the bus we headed to the Jurong Bird Park which is the biggest bird park in the world. Here we saw lots of different species of birds including penguins, parrots and birds of prey. There was even a fantastic bird show which taught us a lot about how birds of prey live in the wild. It was very educational. On leaving the bird park we headed for the 2^nd Singapore border post and after having our passports stamped again, we headed north through Malaysia towards Genting where we were to spend two nights. On the trip up our teachers kept us entertained with games, songs, quizzes and then they let us watch a movie, Forrest Gump. 6 hours later and we arrived at the Genting cable car station. It was from here where we had to take a cable car 3.5kms up into the mountains to Genting Resort. We got onto the cable cars and traveled up the mountain looking at the scenery around us. When we got to the top, we had quite a long walk to the First World Hotel where we were to stay. We had our dinner, were given our keys and went to our rooms. We were allowed some free time so some of us went out to explore the indoor theme park and look at some of the shops before turning in for the night.

We all had an early morning call at 6:30am so that we could go down stairs for our breakfast. Some of us were late and our teacher Thomas was angry with us. After our breakfast, our guides took us to the Japanese Gardens where we took a lot of photos. After the garden we were taken to the outdoor theme park and given wristbands which allowed us to go on nearly all of the rides. We spent all day there. Our favourite ride was the ‘Space Shot’ which some of us went on over 3 times! Our resident 'adrenalin junkies'Ajarns Mark & Suparat went on many of the rides many times putting some of us students to shame! After playing in the outdoor theme park we moved indoors. Some of us went to the 4D Cinema while others just explored the shops and the other attractions. We had our dinner at 7pm after which we were given free time. We knew we had to be up early in the morning so most of us went to our rooms quite early because we had to write our diaries and sleep as we had an early start the next day.

Genting Highlands