Singapore Day 2 / Malaysia Day 1

WOW the past two days have been SO much fun! Singapore was a blast. On Sunday, we went to Sentosa Island. It is a resort on a man made island on the south end of Singapore. We spent all day there on the beach, ect. We did a luge down this street and visited the famous "Merlion" statue. Singapore is obsessed with their "Merlion". Its a giant limestone statue (about the size of the statue of liberty) of a half lion-half fish creature. Apparently, the Sumatran prince that discovered Singapore saw a lion when he first landed there and named the island "Singapura" ('singa' meaning lion and 'pura' meaning city). The "Merlion" was created by the people of Singapore to represent their country. The lion part of it represents the lion the prince saw and the fish part represents the country's ties to the sea. I dont know why, we just think the thing is hilarious...
At night on Sunday, we went to the Night Safari. It was amazing. There were lions, tigers, elephants, giraffes, everything...just roaming around! A tram took us through to look at everything. After that, we were beyond exhausted and decided it was time to head back to the hostel.
That night we switched to a PRIVATE room at the Cozy Backpacker hostel. It had air conditioning...well, an oscillating fan they called an "air conditioner". It was better than nothing and definitely better than sleeping on the roof.
Yesterday was our last day in Singapore. We ate alot of Singaporean food, made up of a mix of Chinese, Indian and Malaysian. We went to the Boat Quay and to Orchard Rd. Orchard Rd is the shopping mecca of Singapore. They had the biggest Louis Vuitton store Ive ever seen in my life! After that, we went to a bar in a hotel and got a couple "singapore slings", the signature drink of Singapore. They were fruity and good. Except they had gin in them and i HATE gin. After that, we headed to the airport via the MRT, a super-organized subway system in Singapore.

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, last night around midnight. WOW, what a change from Singapore. This country is like nothing Ive ever seen. Our bus driver was going about 100 mph taking us to the city, I thought I was gonna die. There are rats and cockroaches everywhere at night and it was totally freaking us out. Our hostel is the Pujannga homestay and its pretty nice. We are staying in a room with these two girls from Calgary, Alberta, Canada and they are really nice and cool. They went to Thailand for a month and came to KL only long enough to renew their visas so they can go back to Thailand. Our room at this hostel is alot nicer than the one in Singapore. The air conditioning is freezing and i love it. I saw a cockroach this morning in the shower though...I MISS THE UNITED STATES AND MY CLEAN SHOWER!! But I have to admit, this is quite the experience...
Today we went to the Batu Caves just outside of Kuala Lumpur. These caves are home to the largest statue in the world. It is of some Hindu god but I cant remember his name. This place is absolutely gorgeous. They showed us a video of people making a pigrimage to this place and they pierce their bodies and faces and bring the Hindus gods gifts..it is insane. We had to walk up about 270 steps to get into this cave. We bought flower necklaces to give as a gift to the statue. But get this: there are monkeys EVERYWHERE and apparently they want to eat the flowers!!! This one charged right for me and Kate and STOLE our flower necklaces!!! So I had no gift for the statue when I got there, so I just gave him 10 ringgits. Hope he doesnt mind.
Right now, we are at a mall just outside of the Petronas Towers in downtown Kuala Lumpur. We are EXHAUSTED. Its been a long 3-4 days so far. Tommorow, we will wake up early and go up in the Petronas Towers, then head off to THAILAND at night. More to come..