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Very detailed travelogue on visiting the remotest inhabited islands in the world: Tristan da Cunha and St. Helena, as well as S. Africa, Malaysia and Singapore, and Indonesia. Very informative, full of tips, history, what it was like to visit and stay there, indexed by country. Visit my webpage for this and other downloadable travelogues: http://www.tcp.com/~lgreenf
These are fascinating islands. Tristan has only 238 people, all with same 7 last names.
Remotest Islands in World St Helena, Tristan da Cunha + S Africa Malaysia, More
Larry2006-05-27 03:40:04
Displayed times (last time: )
bother bargaining as I
wasn't interested) to souvenir T-shirts (RM8/US$2.11) to pirate VCDs and
CD-ROMs. Some pirate CD-ROM stalls were charging RM15-RM20 (trying to grab
the tourists before they had a chance to compare prices elsewhere), though
one stall was selling everything for RM10 (later in Penang, the going rate
for the same CD-ROMs was RM7 -- which was voluntarily dropped to RM6).
While most stalls concentrated on VCDs (at the usual RM7/US$1.84 price --
though occasinally you could find them for RM5-RM6 elsewhere in the city), a
few had a small selection of pirate all-region DVDs as well for RM25/US$6.58
(in Penang, these DVDs were RM20/US$5.26). On the pirate VCD front, the
stalls already had for sale "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" -- a movie which
opened theatrically in the US only 3 days earlier, and most stalls have a
VCD player and TV set so you can verify that the disc works properly --
though none of the stalls selling DVDs had a DVD player to test the discs
on. One stand selling cheap knockoff watches had one with a "RM238" price
on it... I stopped just to peer at it, and as I walked away, the price
suddenly dropped to RM50, RM20, and even RM10. Though there are dozens of
stalls, most are usually selling the same items, so bargain hard and don't
be afraid to walk away.
Besides the stalls and small shops of Chinatown, there are two very good
indoor shopping malls to check out: S&M Plaza (the better of the two), and
the neighboring Koto Raya Mall. One of the many interesting stores in S&M
is a Japanese-themed shop ("Kyun") where everything the store offers (candy,
clothes hangers, coffee mugs, marbles -- even little beckoning cats) is sold
for RM5.99/US$1.58 (though most items were labelled in Japanese, the
majority of them came from China). Entering Kyun to look for a plastic cup
(as
...
See photographs from:
Indonesia Gallery
,
Malaysia Gallery
,
Saint Helena Gallery
,
Singapore Gallery
,
South Africa Gallery
