Episode #199 - Malaysia & Singapore

Welcome to the Mastering Midlife podcast where we talk about all the crazy fun things that happen when you are a midlife mama. I'm your host, Heather London. Hola guapas. I know I say this every time, but I'm sorry I didn't post sooner. I've just been so busy traveling, traveling, traveling, traveling. Um when I was in Thailand I stayed there for quite a while.

And then I started traveling again. Now when I travel, this is what I find my pattern is. When I go to a big city, I just spend like two nights there just to try to get a feel for it. So in and out. And because I'm going through Southeast Asia I wanted to stop it. as many countries as possible. And so there's been a lot of like two nighters. But uh once I left Thailand, I went to Malaysia. And it's interesting'cause I'm just kind of making it up as I go along. And I started my trip with so many

stops that when I hit Thailand I'm like, I'm just gonna stay here. I'm I'm gonna end up going from here to Bali'cause that was my other destination where I was gonna stay a long time. But then after resting in Thailand I'm like, heck no, let's discover more countries. And so I went to Malaysia and it was two nights.

So I have one full complete day there and I booked this thing called Get Your Guide. It's really easy, it's an app you can use and they have kind of like all the best tourist things to do, but it's effortless. You just book it and then you meet some you meet your guide at a certain spot. So to start with I did the um

caves, batu caves. And so basically it's this amazing temple that is built in a cave and you have to go up like two hundred and seven stairs into this mountain, into this cave, to say your prayers and do your offering for your gods that you are praying to. And then once a year which is Happened the week that I was there?

Everybody goes to prayer. And the most extreme way is is you have these certain religious things and you hook them onto your skin and you load yourself up and then you have to climb the stairs and then offer them up. And the less extreme way

is you would take like milk and carry milk. So I saw a lot of people, a lot of women carrying a big jug of milk on their head to take up as an offering. And then when you get to the top there's a whole bunch of monkeys up there. Man, I hate the monkeys. They just scare me so much'cause they They look like they're just gonna rip your face off at any second. But

I wa went all the way up and checked it out. It was amazing. It was a really cool tour and you you know, it all depends on the tour guide. And then that night I went on

A walking food tour. Guys, this was one of the best things that I have ever done. Now. I was in Kuala Lumpur and it is Malaysia is known for its food. So when I booked this through Get Your Guide, I didn't realize, but it was called Chef's Table. And so you can do chef's table pretty much anywhere in the world where it's a chef that takes you around, like it's a food expert that takes you around, who also happens to be a local, and they show you the best of what that city has to offer.

And I hadn't done one of these before. This one was like chef's table. So it's like next level. Because you could do walking food tours and that, but this one uh was very specific, meaning it's like uh higher end next level, more expertise. And so our guide and uh this is also a lot of fun because

I'm traveling solo and for the most part I'm fine. I like being by myself, but sometimes I do want to talk to other people. And so when you do something like this, you instantly have a group of new friends to talk to hang out. So first of all our guide Jay, she was amazing. She lives in the neighborhood, she shops, she cooks in the neighborhood. Like this is just her turf. So she really knows her stuff. And she takes you to all the best neighborhoods for certain food.

And also on this tour was another solo traveler. Uh an Aussie named Lee. And he was super fun. He became my date because his boyfriend uh wasn't there. He w he didn't have vacation. So Lee was my date. We ended up partnering because we had to share some f a lot of food'cause there was a lot of food. Um So he and I were like food date friends. And then there was a couple from Spain. And then there was three people from the USA. So this this sounds like the start of a

Bad joke. Three Americans, one Canadian, one no. Anyway, we all became fast friends because everybody was very fun and outgoing. But our guide set the tone. She was just so amazing. Your tour always depends on how fabulous your guide is. And Jay was next level. She was just highly entertaining, relatable, personal. Just knew so much, gave us the right kind of information. But guys, this was like a four hour tour. And the the advertisement said, Come hungry and I did, but I was so full. We ate.

Twenty twenty different types of food. Twenty. And every time you go it could be a full serving. So that's why Lee and I ended up sharing stuff because, you know, like one is like a fish. God, we couldn't eat our whole fish eat a whole fish on our own because we were so full from just from the last and the one before. But W you have to eat all of it because it's just so tasty and so amazing and to get the history behind it and the culture behind it is just

So if you go anywhere you're travelling, not even just by yourself, but if you're going with a friend or partner or whatever, you gotta do a walking food tour. It's the best way to get to know the city and where to eat because these were holes in the wall like I would never be able to know about this or find this on my

And so my new thing that I do is anytime I'm going to a city f just for a short period of time, the first thing I'm gonna do is go on the food walking tour. And that way I get my bearings and I know what food is awesome and where to go and all that. So that was just a game.

me and so we spent four hours we went through the market we went to all these different places the funniest part was there's a fruit called durian some of you know some of you don't but durian is the stinkiest fruit on the When you go into a h hotel it'll say you are not allowed to eat durian in here'cause it smells so bad. And some people you either love it or hate it. There's no in between on this. No in between.

And it just so happened, like I didn't I didn't mind it. So I ate it because one of the stops was durian, because it's everywhere in in Malaysia, everywhere they covet this fruit. And so we had to try it. half the people were sick just by the smell. They were so repulsed just by the smell. And so I ate some and and one of the American girls ate some. But there was also like a l a little coconut

pudding and you mix it in there and make it even creamy. It was so good. Like I did not mind it at all. And the first bite tasted like onions. And then after that it got creamy. It's it's the weirdest fruit. Like I can't even imagine if you were to get high and eat this fruit. It would just blow your mind. Because I I was grounded in reality and I'm like, what is even happening right now? What even is this thing? But

It's everywhere. And it was so funny just to watch people be grossed out by it was so funny. Anyway, I had we ended on like she kept bringing out more and more surprises. She's like another one and another one. And she left us with our to-go cups of a mango smoothie. And normally I'm not a big fan of smoothies'cause it's you know, it's the fruit and it's and it's ice and it's like meh this was the best.

smoothie I've ever had. Of course. She'cause she just knows the people. She comes back with seven smoothies and oh she was so, so good. Um and the funny part was

when we were done, I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna walk that way because it's so safe. I can walk I couldn't get lost in downtown. As a solo female traveler and not worry for a second about my safety. So I'm like, I'm just gonna walk home because I could see this huge tower with all these lights on it was close to where I lived. So I knew if I just walked in that And I had my my Google Maps.

I uh'cause then I get to see the city too. So I was walking and Lee, my my eating buddy, was like, Oh, I'm gonna go in that direction too And so we're walking and as we're walking, having our smoothies He's telling me these stories about all his travel like we're talking about Japan and how he went to Japan and he got drugged he got date raped drugged by the Japanese mafia, but he was only drinking water. And they they drugged his spiked his water and the next thing he knew he woke up.

sideways in a street'cause the streets there are small and he was a big guy, like he was like six four And he was blocking the whole street and the police had to it was just the craziest story and he didn't even know w what happened or how he got there. The cr and it was water. Just the craziest story. And then as he's telling us this story, the story comes to an end. I'm like, I gotta go this way. And he's like, I gotta go this way.

All of a sudden he's flat out on the ground and I'm like, what the hell? What what is going on here? And he like stepped in a huge ditch and he fell backwards. It's like I did not see that. Oh my god, poor Lee.'Cause either the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Anyway, that's kind of like the adventures of when you go out with Lee. Like stuff like that happens. He was fine. He didn't hurt himself falling into the ditch but it was really really

funny. I'm like, let's turn around, he's just gone. Where did he go? I just fell over. Anyway, anyways. Um, when I first landed, so that was an amazing adventure. So that's my always my go-to from here forward. Do the food tour when I'm just there. Chef's table if you can,'cause it's just next level.

But when I first arrived there, you know you're in a new city and it's big, like there's a lot of cars, lot of people and you're trying to figure it out like which side of the road do they drive on, where's what? What's going on? How do you cross? Like'cause some countries they're like red light means red light, like no cars are going In most countries it means like cars should stop, but scooters don't stop for anything. Like you just gotta figure this out, right?

And so I was hungry and I was walking around. I always try to go into my Google Maps and be like, best restaurants near me and find something close. And I found this restaurant. quite often, like nine times out of ten, you can't like you find it and it says you're there, but you can't actually find the

Because it's it's called a different thing or whatever. You just don't understand the language. And so I found this restaurant, but I couldn't find the restaurant. I'm like, this is so ridiculous. So I'm walking up and down. And then it's people's jobs to get you into the restaurant. So I'm like, ugh, I just saw like a little smorgasbord. And I'm like, maybe I should just do that because then it's safe.

And there was this little guy sitting out there and his job was to bring people in and he was so entertaining, so funny, drinking his little tea and he's like How can I help you and blah blah blah and I'm and he was telling me about his smorgasbord and I'm like, Is there no s non spicy food?'Cause this food there's really spicy. It's like, Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've got lots of non spicy food. Like, can I pay with car? And he's like, No.

But it's there's an ATM, come on and so he've like ox me down to the ATM, he's talking to everybody on the way'cause that's his job is to get people into the restaurant. He had me on the hook so he's like not letting me go. So he's like walked me to the s to like the corner store, got the stuff, came back, and then off I go into the into the whatever you call it, the the smorgasport. And it was all just like bland like no color food, just brown. Uh because in Malaysia there's there's three main

cultures. There's the Malaysians, there's the Hindus, the Indians, and then there's the Chinese. So those are the main population. And so this was an Indian smorgasport. And it was just so everything looked the same, just brown. It was so brown. But the dessert dessert was good, so and I had something to eat and I could pick and choose. So But sometimes what happens is you get o I get overwhelmed and I'm like, I don't know what to choose and so you just choose

whatever's in front of you. And as I was eating I kept seeing people go down the street right by where I was and I noticed that when I went into the restaurant there was big red like Chinese lanterns. And so after eating I went down there and and one block One block like just one street. Street was full of vendors, just the the biggest outdoor food court you could ever possibly imagine. I'm like, oh, I missed it by like.

half a block. Why didn't I go?'Cause I saw that and I saw some red lanterns and I'm like, hmm, I wonder where that goes. But I was tired and overwhelmed and all that. But that's the way it goes. Like you just turn one corner and boom, there's a big food park. Damn, why didn't I see that? But that was the first night I was there and the next night I did the food tour, so it totally made up for it, guys. So don't worry about me. I got my my foodie on. So

The people were fantastic, the food was fantastic. I highly enjoyed Kuala Lumpur. And then from there I'm gonna group these two together because they were just two nights.

I went to Singapore and I wasn't expecting this, but I loved Singapore. Love, love, loved it. It took me literally ten minutes to get out of the airport. It was effortless. I didn't talk to anybody. Everything was facial recognition. It was so easy.

And there was nobody yelling at you when you got out of the airport. If you travel you know one of the hardest things to do is get off of a ferry or a boat, a plane, a car, like and thousand people are yelling at you, Taxi, Taxi, Taxi Like it is so overwhelming. So one thing I do all the time is when any time I'm travelling like that, I pre book that ride because it's just so overwhelming when you're

when you get a step out of the airport and then there's a mob of people. But I'm telling you, it was like a spa. Wow, I was so impressed. I'm like what that was it? That was insane. And because it's so small it takes you no time to get to your hotel, which is the macula the streets are perfect. I could go anywhere on any kind of transit. I could go in the underground. I could go on the buses just by tapping my credit card. That was it. You tap in, you tap out.

It was so effortless and I could just get to the main tourist point so easily. And the best part was um I had met up with a friend. I met the uh this girl last year when I was traveling in Barcelona. She lives in Singapore because she teaches for an international school, but she's from Vancouver. And we were in in a Facebook group together and we were in the same city in Barcelona, so we're like, Hey, let's meet up and we

ha we hung out because we just had the same interest and and um we're both solo travelers so we hung out and went out for dinner and tours like we did a bunch of stuff together. So she l so I met her for dinner and so she took me to one of the little areas, showed me around. It was so good.

And um and then the next night, what did I do? I did a chef's table food tour. And this guy, he was very funny. He wasn't as awesome as Jay, but he was very funny. And he's a professional chef. Actually when w we're on the tour he's like, Damn, I just got a job offer. It's to go and cook at Nepal and but it's it I gotta leave in two days and so anyway he's a professional.

And he took us it w the food was so good and he took us to um Little India, Chinatown and then th like uh Mediterranean era had the best Turkish dessert. Oh my god, it was like a pastry. I'm salivating, just thinking about it. It was like a pastry and it had cheese, a little bit of cheese in the middle, and then it was Turkish ice cream, which is different than and it was just so amazing. I would have that again in a heartbeat.

The food was so good, so creative, so many different flavors, different cultures put together. It was like again a freaking awesome experience. Now it was interesting because the guide was a little bit different, but he he did a great job. And the people I was with, they were a little bit different. So it made it not as fun, but still a great experience.

And on this tour, he took us to a Michelin Star kind of fast food restaurant, which was like, how does that even exist? Like this guy is a Michelin star rated chef. And he's making kind of fast food and it was like the best chicken I've ever had. It was so good. But just this little hole in the wall in the in Chinatown. I don't even know where we

But it was such an amazing experience and I never would have had that if it wasn't for the food tour. And then I just did all the things in Singapore because It's so small, it's easy to do all of the things. And I loved it there. I really, really loved it there. I'm like, I could live here. If I wanted to live in a place where you had a really good lifestyle'cause it's expensive, it's the same as living in Vancouver. But

it's just so easy. Like you can just live a really good life there and it's easy. So I really liked it there. Not that I would live there, but it's a place that I could live. It w it's one of my favorite countries for livability and usability and just checking off all the boxes. Easy to get around. Has lots of things. It's super clean. They actually actually our guide was telling us about the the

Temple. The the there's a temple right downtown and he was telling us about it and there's the I think it's like the Dalai Lama's tooth or something like that. Some something is a Tibetan m um temple. And so he's like, Do you wanna go in? We got time. And so he took us on a tour and showed us the tooth and it was just so cool. Him he could just like

you know, pick up the vibe of the crowd and pivot and take us to really cool places that we never like I wouldn't have had time to go there. I didn't even know that it was there. So that's another bonus about Um what else? Super walkable. Yeah, I just really love Singapore. And the the only regret I have is that in the airport, it's one of the best like waterfalls actually in the airport. And I didn't have time to go there when I went'cause I

had to uh exit and come back in to get there, but I wish I would have. But I did go to like the clouds, like just the clouds in the sky and the f flower garden and there was a Jurassic Park theme thing and they have the something forest where all the trees are lit up. Like just really, really well done. I really enjoyed really So nothing crazy happened but

I'm trying to think of any good stories. But it was a really amazing time. And then from there the goal was I'm gonna go to Bali and I'm gonna spend lots of time there. Or near Bali because what I've heard from about Bali is like there's just too many people So I was trying to say like how can I go to a little bit of Bali that isn't crazy just to ex discover Bali and then another place in Indonesia which is heaven on earth. So that was my mission.

And I will let you know how it went in the next video. But for now it's just Travel, travel, travel, but um amazing. Like it's interesting'cause I would go to these places and I have these experiences and I didn't have time to make a video'cause I'm just like this is so amazing and I have to put it on video so I can remember it. when I was just so busy travelling that I I never actually got the time to do it. So that is my Malaysia, Singapore. I would go back to both of those countries, both

Beautiful and amazing. Um and then I headed on to my next adventure, so I'll tell you that in my next video. But I want to say what is it that I I'm having the best time. I when I look at my other trips that I've done in the I like this one has had the most adventures because I've been traveling to so many places and so many different cultures and I feel like across the board my takeaway so far is The food in Southeast Asia, no matter where you are

Amazing. And the only thing that's better than the food in all of Southeast Asia are the people. Because it doesn't matter what country I go to people are amazing. Now some people some countries are more amazing, but man, that just really Warms my heart and makes me happy because people are happy that you're there and they take an interest in you and they just start up a conversation. But the one thing that I love are the smiles. The people in Southeast Asia.

generally as a stereotype across the board have the most beautiful smile and happiest eyes, like just gorgeous. Just so kind and so friendly and everybody saying hello and smiling at you. Man, I just love that. I wish I wish the whole world this just seems like a happy pocket. Like just goodness is happening here and just they're living s in such peace.

and kindness and community. Like k the community is insane and that's based on their religion'cause they're where I go they're bouncing between Hinduism and Muslim as the main religion and that dictates Building community and being kind to each other. Oh, it fills my heart with joy. And there's nothing better than a big beautiful smile from a local person of where you're visiting just to make you feel welcome and be like

Damn, life is good. So I'm gonna leave you with that. A big awesome Southeast Asia smile and a heart full of love. So as always, the adventure continues. Thank you for listening. Always, always, always love yourself first. amazing day.