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Petronas Towers - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

January 23rd 2012 03:36

I've written about beaches and more beaches, parks and fountains, so it's about time I visited a major city and had a snoop around.

What other place to see than Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (KL in short). Nothing stands out more in this city than the famed Petronas Towers. Despite only 88 floors, these twin towers are one of the highest buildings in the world and make your general skyscraper look like a dwarf.

It's a grand sight to see, especially at night, when all its blue hued lights are on. Beneath the building is a large manmade fountain that stretches through a popular park. The spouts of water change sequence and the area is often crowded with sight seers and locals catching up on their daily dose of gossip.

Restaurants line the ground floor of the building across from the fountain and the retail centre doesn't close until late, so it's worth taking a night stroll to see the towers from the bottom up.

Several hotels also offer room views of the towers that are breathtaking. During the day the towers reflect clean glass and smooth steel. Overall, it's an architectural delight.

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Crocodile Farm - Langkawi, Malaysia

December 28th 2011 04:34

Located on the north of Langkawi island is a crocodile farm. This place displays live crocodiles to tourists and offers merchandise made from crocodile skins. There is an entry fee and to use your camera it's a little extra.

The farm is built specifically to breed crocodiles for the purpose of harvesting their skins. The idea of the farm is to prevent the hunting of wild crocodiles. The farm consists of several sized crocodiles housed in seperate pools or in a large lake with a walkway.

Personally, it was a sad place to visit. My only consolation was to remind myself the farm was preventing the hunting and killing of wild crocodiles. The thought of breeding an animal just to turn it into a pair of shoes is a little unsettling, but still, we raise animals just to eat them, so is this morally any different?

Depending on your standards of animal welfare and how animals are treated in your home country, the crocodiles can either look just right or a little unhealthy and mistreated. If you're an animal enthusiast, it's recommended to give this one a skip on your island visit.

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Seven Wells Waterfall and Black Sand Beach - Langkawi, Malaysia

December 12th 2011 01:33

Around Langkawi are beautiful waterfalls and beaches. A walk to Seven Wells Waterfall is a must do. If you're not a hiking enthusiast, then a five minute trek up the hill and along a path can get you to the base of the waterfall, otherwise it's a little over 600 steps up a steep set of stairs to get you to the top where the waterfalls get their legendary name. It's believed the pools at the top are where fairies come to bathe.

Keep your eye on your belongings, because there are monkeys about, but they generally keep to the trees and off the paths. Other waterfalls such as Temerun Waterfall & Langkawi Fall are a short drive away.

Recommended beaches in Langkawi away from the resorts are Pasir Tengkorak Beach and Black Sand Beach. These beaches have soft white sand, uninterrupted views of clear blue seas and a few distant rock formations and islands. It's quiet on these beaches, with barely a soul in sight. A couple of people maintain the toilet facilities, so expect to pay a small amount to use them.

The island also has a cable car that reaches the island's highest peak. For a spot of duty free shopping, head to the south of the island where they have two shopping centres. During your visit, try the "iced teh tarik" (iced tea with sweetened milk), a local Malaysian drink that's great for the hot weather.

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Langkawi - Malaysia

November 28th 2011 04:25

This island is a little slice of paradise. Approximately 30km off mainland Malaysia, the island is one out of 104 islands that make up the Langkawi archipelago. Only one island is inhabited and is home to several beautiful resorts and days of relaxing on white sand beaches.

A self drive (non-stop) around the island takes approximately 1 1/2hrs. It's a short flight from Kuala Lumpur or a few hours by ferry from one of the neighbouring islands. If it's by ferry, take a non-drowsy motion sickness tablet before setting sail. The smaller ferries can get rough and while they're well prepared with endless supplies of plastic bags, it's better to be safe than sorry

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Gerroa - NSW, Australia

July 3rd 2011 05:22

My mathematical conversion skills are pretty pathetic, so when I decide to try to walk the length of '7 Mile Beach' at midnight, I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.

With the glow of the lighthouse on the distant cliffs and lines of trees on one side and the ocean on the other, I make my way along white sand; on a mission to reach the end of the beach

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Monument Valley - Arizona

June 26th 2011 07:33

There’s nothing along this highway but rocks and sand. This side of the Colorado Plateau is said to be the home of western movie gunslingers. I haven’t run into ‘the Man with No Name’ just yet, which might not be such a bad thing.

The highway slices across flat plains that are interrupted only by sandstone palaces (their actual names are sandstone buttes). The terrain is a haze of red siltstone and from a distance, the monuments that tower above the plains look a lot like pretty sophisticated termite mounds. If only termites could be such masters of natural art, but then that might challenge the human ego a little too much for comfort

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The Grand Canyon - Arizona

June 6th 2011 04:18

There are canyons and then there’s the Grand Canyon. It’s not the deepest canyon in the world, or the widest, but it’s one of the most well known.

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Niagara Falls - Canada

May 27th 2011 09:34

I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it (again, I don’t go out much). It’s covered in layers of fog so it looks like a rounded railing that barricades off nothing but air. It’s hard to tell if it’s the spray or the mist or a little bit of both.

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The Great Salt Lake - Utah

May 20th 2011 09:02

From a distance it looks like the ocean as it stretches to embrace the horizon. The wake is white and the water blue, but this isn’t really the ocean; or an ocean at all.

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Sequoia National Park - California

May 14th 2011 11:13

It’s been a long drive just to see some trees and I’m running out of gas. I’ve underestimated the time it would take to get to this national park and out again, and I haven’t seen a single sequoia yet.