The Wandering Enginerds

Ever since leaving the Indonesian diving liveaboard I was slightly depressed about 1) not diving for a few weeks, and 2) coming to the end of all of my diving for the trip. Phuket and Koh Phangan put me back in a happy place though as I dove three (3) of the four (4) full days I had in the areas. Now, not much will compare to Raja Ampat, but the first day's dives in Phuket came close. I had the chance to see almost all of the macro life of Raja, except for manta rays. The black tip sharks were much more interactive around Phuket. Instead of only seeing an octopus curled up in its home we encountered one walking across coral on the ocean floor! No more pygmy seahorses that I was barely able to see even when pointed out as we found about a four (4) inch yellow seahorse in a coral fan. We were even lucky enough to spot a leopard shark which the dive master said was quite rare these days as they've basically left the one dive area because of all the attention they get from divers....

Coming off Singapore, which set pretty high expectations, I knew the rest of SE Asia would probably only go downhill from there in terms of Westernization and cleanliness. Time to get into the chaos of Southeast Asia! Getting to my hostel and around Kuala Lumpur was quite easy as they have a very convenient train system to use to get around. Sometimes it's just easier and more entertaining to walk around though so that's what I did the first day. In order to avoid the mid-90s temps that hit the city every day I was there, I headed out somewhat early to a nearby park and lake to get back into nature and away from the crumbling, dilapidated buildings around my hostel. The time spent there was worth the buckets of sweat as the whole park was green and full of flowers and different animals - even a deer park. Perdana Botanical Gardens Both full days I had in KL I decided to take a rest around midday and head back out a little later on to get some dinner and...

If you've never traveled to SE Asia before and someone warns you about the heat and humidity here, DO NOT take them lightly. In what should be the middle-to-end of Singapore's "winter," daily temperatures were in the mid-to-upper 80's with about 80% humidity. As soon as I stepped out of my hostel I began sweating and continued until a few minutes after stepping inside AC again. Forget about bathroom stops when touring the city because you just sweat it all out, even if drinking constantly. A little rain and cloud cover actually feels good. Now that we've got that established...Singapore is the city where Westerners who are timid about going to foreign cities, but still want to explore, should start/go. English is one of the main languages - several are spoken, but signs and everything are in English. There's a main financial district where skyscrapers dominate the skyline. The subway system, "MRT," is impeccably clean, easy to follow, cheap,...