Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Traveling through Malaysia in my opinion is best done so on
land. The highway system is incredible,
easy flowing and the jungle like scenery is to die for. We took a 4-hour bus ride from the Cameron
Highlands to the big time hustle and bustle of Malaysia’s largest and most
modern city, Kuala Lumpur. The greater
metropolitan area boasts a population of more than 7 million.
Kuala Lumpur is huge and growth is still at a high pace even
with the global economic downturn. There
are views of tower cranes working around the clock on new high-rise office
buildings and residential towers as far as the eye can see.
After doing some research online, I found a place called the
Reggae Mansion and pre-booked it for 3 nights.
It was the highest rated place by a long shot with the most reviews out
of any hostel in the city. We were more
than pleased when we arrived to find a sparkling clean hotel complete with
multiple rooftop bars overlooking the city, in house 2-hour laundry service and
a great menu of food. Our room was
fantastic, air conditioned perfectly and it had a flatscreen with a bunch of US
channels. We unpacked our belongings,
scoped out the hotel grounds and went for a walk around the city for a few
hours checking out the sights and the architecture.
When we got back later in the evening, we went to the
rooftop bar for drinks and in doing so, managed to strike up a conversation
with a couple of guys from Berlin. There
names have left me so I’ll call them Hammacher and Schlemmer. Throughout their travels, they had actually
been to many of the places we’d already stopped at amongst a few we
hadn’t. We had a great time being able
to share memories and stories of the same locations, our thoughts, and also the
different ways we’d been scammed, (I’m going to fly back to Ko Tao to slash
that one guys tires from the moped place!!) and where we were headed to
next. Several hours later and drinking
in traditional German fashion prepped me just right for a rock solid night
sleep.
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| View from the rooftop bar of Reggae Mansion |
We woke up the next morning to my surprise around noon, got ready,
and headed out for the day. We decided
to jump on the subway and head towards the Petronis Towers which is in the
heart of the city. The subway, monorail,
and train system in Kuala Lumpur is world class. They’re clean, quiet, and extremely fast with
my only complaint being when I’m standing inside the train, the doors open and I
try to get off, the people trying to get in stand right in front of you and try
to squeeze by instead of stepping to the side for 2 seconds. It must be a large issue because there are
signs everywhere the specifically state, DO NOT STAND IN FRONT OF DOOR,
illustrations for those who can’t read, and even paint on the ground telling
you where to stand when passengers are unloading. All if it's completely ineffective, thus get
used to shoving, which I don’t mind.
We got off our stop right underground of the Petronis
Towers. These towers are the largest
twin towers in the world at 1,483 feet, even surpassing that of the World Trade Center prior to 9/11 and they’re a source of great national pride and a symbol of
modern Malaysia. Petronis is the largest
oil company in the country and occupies one of the towers completely. The other tower has a slew of companies with
some familiar names like Boeing occupying a few floors. At the base of the towers is perhaps the
largest, most lavish shopping mall I’ve ever been inside. Seven sprawling floors of every chain store you
could possibly find at any mall in Seattle, plus 50%.
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| One angle of the inside of this mall |
Caleb and I did some shopping, bought a few clothes and
snagged a delicious bite to eat at a local food court. We could see there was a torrential downpour
happening outside and a quick check to my phone showed it not letting up for
sometime so we decided to go watch a movie at the theatre. Hands down, nicest theatre I’ve ever watched a
film in with an absolutely huge screen.
The tickets were only $3 a piece and even more shocking, a large popcorn
and large drink was only $3 as well! We
watched the movie Act of Valor (great flick) before emerging back into the city
and eventually our hotel as the rain subsided.
Once back at our place, we got cleaned up and headed to the
rooftop bar as it was about 9pm and we were ready for the fun to start. The bar was full tonight and within a few
minutes I chatted my way into a group of 12 guys and girls sitting around a
table having drinks and laughing. One
guy was from Boston, traveling solo, 2 guys from Mexico City, 3 girls from
Sweden, one guy from Morocco, 4 people from Austria and another guy from
Belgium all around our age, quite the melting pot! After closing down the rooftop bar, we all
decided to head about 10 minutes away to another place that stayed open
later. Once there, we spent the
remaining wee hours of the morning dancing and drinking until finally our
bodies said no more.
I heard Caleb’s alarm blaring at 8am and it instantly
reassured my decision to not sign up for this tour he was about to embark on
was the right one. I finally woke from
my deep slumber around 11am, showered, and spent the next couple of hours
Face-Timing (like Skype but with Apple products) with my former roommates back
home catching up on what had changed in the previous month since my
absence. Aside from the fact that all
three of them cry themselves to sleep at night from not seeing me throughout
the day, it seems like everything is going fantastic for them! Congrats to Ryan for getting accepted into PA
School in Florida! Congrats to Jeff on
the new place for him and his amazing fiancée Meagan! And lastly congrats to Travis for paying $52
to overnight my replacement credit card to Singapore to our buddies place since
I lost it already!!!
Around 3pm I jumped on a train headed for the Batu
Caves. This is a place that wherever
I’ve been, whoever I’ve talked to and told I was going through Kuala Lumpur,
they said I HAD to go to this place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batu_Caves
I grabbed a bite to eat at a small restaurant at the base of
the steps which after reading a couple articles on wall, came to learn it had
been there for over 40 years. They
served incredbile Indian food! After
snapping a few photos I made the 272 step climb to the entrance of the cave. Along the way, I was greeted by literally
dozens of hungry beggar monkeys. They
were so cool looking but would literally walk up to you and put there hand out
asking for food and also money I’m sure.
I had nothing to give but several people around me did. They’d just perch on the hand railing, eat
some chips and put their hand out again.
Tough life. Can’t help but make you
laugh!
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| View from the entrance. That statue is 140ft high! |
At the top of the steps was the large cave, 300ft high,
150ft in width and 300ft in length. Two
large holes in the ceiling allowed natural light in which gave the cavern an
incredible glow. Many people come to the
caves for prayer as it’s one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India
and there are several large areas specifically designated for this
purpose.
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| Inside the cave |
After about an hour scouring the grounds and countless
photographs, I hopped on a train headed back towards the city. The train ride, I knew, was roughly 30
minutes so I decided the best option was to close my eyes and for some reason I
assumed my body would feel when I was at my stop and wake itself. My theory proved false and I woke up 20
minutes late on a train stuffed with people not knowing where I was! I got off at the next available stop and
spoke with the station manager and explained what had happened. He looked at me like I was a complete idiot
and spoke as if this mistake had never happened in the history of his
country. He flipped over the ticket in
my hand and instructed me to read it. It
stated that even though I only paid about $1 for the train ticket, if I missed
my stop, it was another $30 fine. I
laughed and asked him if this was where we walked around back and I gave him $5
a called it even? He didn’t seem amused
but took me up on my offer and printed me another ticket to the train station I
needed to get off at and said what I assumed to be, “Don’t do it again”.
I finally made it back to our hotel where Caleb was at, got
cleaned up and headed off for an evening stroll through the city with him. We strolled through Chinatown, checked out
the incredible looking knock offs of everything they sold and sat down for a little
bit of food around midnight.
Three nights in Kuala Lumpur felt like just the right amount
of time for both of us. We were able to
see some wonderful sights, had time to kick back and relax, as well as enjoy
all the great amenities a big city has to offer. Great times, but now, off to Singapore!!!
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| We actually took a bus but this looked cool :) |
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