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Singapore is a city with great transportation, food and very friendly atmospheres. As a city with various parks and entertainment venues it is a great place to visit. But it is very expensive so bring your wheelbarrows filled with cash.
Penang is an island in the northwest part of Malaysia which is actually very international and multicultural place to visit and eat and enjoy. The main town is on the east side just across the bridge and the beach areas are in the north west and south. All of them are interesting. You will see mosques, churches and temples very close to if not next to each other as a symbol of mutual respect and harmony throughout the Malaysian society. Even though there are many cultures in Penang the prevalent one is the Chinese population. I highly recommend putting this on your top three places in Malaysia to visit.
The Cameron highlands are very famous partly since this is the place Jim Thompson disappeared without a trace. He was the fellow who helped develop and promote the silk industry in Thailand after World War II, . The rumors are very fascinating since some of them tie him to US intelligence services and so he was kidnapped and killed by communist rebels in this area. This was a place where the British set up tea industries, probably Tea leaves imported from Burma (where I am told tea first became a drink) and developed an international trade in the product. The mountains are very beautiful and the air is very refreshing but it is very heavily populated by tourists and the services provided also have that tinge of taking advantage of the visitors. I found it interesting for a two day visit but I didn’t find much else very interesting. Those who want to go hiking extensively will find it pretty and challenging enough to be a really good vacation.
Kuala Lumpur is affectionately called “KL” by the locals and everyone else in Southeast Asia and also by those who traveled here often. In general Malaysia is a very organized, well developed and nice place to visit. While I don’t get very excited about cities there are a few things in the city that are interesting before going out into the countryside. The Batu Cave is a place of worship and a highly recommended place to visit. The easiest way we thought to get there was to take Grab (like Uber) and it was not very expensive.
the new fast train from Vientiane, Laos goes to Kunming in China. It is incredibly difficult to get tickets (Lao inefficiency with China’s communist paranoid super control mentalities mixed). The result is long lines in the city to buy tickets and the only pay methods accepted are Lao resident bank account payments (no tourists can get a bank account in Laos) and a Chinese credit card. Any tourists/non-residents have to hope there is a fellow standing by the window to accept cash and then use his local Lao bank account to transfer the money to the train company. All of this is done while people stand in a long line waiting to buy tickets. Some people are taking 15 to 20 minutes to buy tickets for various reasons. Then when you get to the train station you have to show your ticket and your ID to get inside the building to wait for the train. Then when they call the train you have to stand in a line to wait to get onto the platform. Once you’re on the platform you have to stand in line at the correct train car to wait for the doors to open to board the train. It seems to me like control freak obsessive compulsive disorder – China Communist Party! This is what Lao gets for letting China pay for the train.
Vientian has very few attractions, but they do have quite a few restaurants out in the suburbs made of individual huts where you can sit and relax for hours, having a lunch, drinks and enjoy with friends some local music or possibly some modern pops.
pakse is in the south and it’s famous for the entrance to the mountains to the east which are famous worldwide for coffee beans, mostly arabic, as well as beautiful scenery and some fantastic waterfalls, some with swimmable pools. Rent a motorcycle and go around this area.
Luang Prabang is a world heritage site and it’s a very walkable town with some more distant attractions as well. It is now very accessible by train as well as plane and is probably the most sought after vacation destination in Laos.
