Malaysian Valentines
Trip Start
May 07, 2005
1
77
117
Trip End
Ongoing
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
When we went to buy the plane tickets from Phuket to Sydney the cheapest was through Kuala Lumpur. We asked if we could stay for a few days and we could for an extra $10 airport fee so we decided to stay for six days.
We had no idea what to expect. Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia. It turned out to be this cosmopolitan and well planned city. I think Egypt had set our expectations when it came to Muslim oriented places. Kuala Lumpur was more like Bangkok only richer and more polished and it was nothing like Egypt. The Islamic influence could be seen in the way the buildings were designed. Many of the buildings downtown and the National Mosque were some of the most beautiful we had ever seen. The Petronas Twin Towers were designed by an American firm but one of their mandates was to insure the design reflected the Islamic culture
1. My Valentine
. These two buildings connected by a skybridge are the largest twin towers in the world. In the late 1990s they were the tallest buildings in the world. I saw a great article on their construction in a Scientific American back then. We made it a priority to spend some time checking these behemoths out.We opted for a homestay/hostel style of accommodation. The prices were good in Malaysia but not as cheap as Thailand. Most of the hotels are on par with the US for pricing. The hostel was very well located within walking distance of the Golden Triange which includes the Petronas Towers and it was inexpensive. We have found that if you are spending lots of time outside your room sightseeing you want to get the most comfortable room for the lowest price. Expensive hotels get wasted on us when we are in power sight see mode. Hostels have an advantage over hotels in that they throw in alot of extras like breakfast and internet. This place is called Traveller's Palm. The host, Suzy was incredibly friendly and helpful. All her rooms were airconditioned. This was a necessity as we learned quickly. Kuala Lumpur is like walking around a steam room. There is a downpour of rain that occurs like clockwork around 4pm each day. We happened to arrive at 4pm. Poor Dave got drenched at the front door of the hostel getting our bags in while I waited in the taxi.
Our first night happened to be Valentines day
10. Teleportation
. En route to Malaysia Dave gave me a velvet red heart shape box full of Belgian chocolates. That night we opted to take Suzy's advice for a nicer Indian restuarant around the corner for dinner. Like Thailand street food is ubiquitous. It was tempting to forgo the "romantic dinner" and just sample some of the Indian, Chinese or Thai fare by the vendors. I'm glad we did the nicer restuarant. We had a strange but nice encounter during dinner. This western couple was dining at a table near ours. At the end of their meal the man came over. It turned out he was American. It was obvious he'd been drinking. He started out by addressing Dave and apologizing for being a little drunk. He kept explaining himself and he pointed out he had a lady friend he was dining with. My alarm bells went off a bit. I thought maybe he was trying to hustle us or sell us something. Instead he explained he was a hairdresser and wanted to compliment on the hair. I was use to people coming up to us to compliment Dave on his hair. He stood out dramatically in Egypt and Thailand and people were always wanting to photograph or touch his hair. I just shrugged and said "Oh yeah...he has great hair." The man said "Oh No, I was talking about your hair!" He said he didn't normally see natural curls like mine and he noticed us walking from a distance. I think I blushed but I loved the nice compliment especially on Valentines. The man disappeared and we spent the rest of our dinner feeling good about the world.
11. Roller Coaster
The food was choices were evenly split between Indian, Chinese, and Thai. Lucky us - 3 of our favorites. We kept sampling Indian as we'd had our fill of Thai. There was a little dim sum place that we tried. There weren't very many vegetarian choices. I tried a little of some of the seafood choices but Dave mostly got the benefit here. The Indian food was really good. One of my favorite South Indian dishes in Dosa Masala. In Malaysia they call it Thosai Masala. Dave tried Satay. It is like a meat kabab with peanut sauce.
The shopping was great in Kuala Lumpur but in a different way. Many items are manufactured in Malaysia. We found a warehouse style of store with about 8 stories that sold many things in bulk. It was like a Costco x 10. Dave keeps saying we are the worst backpackers ever because of all the strange things we buy and carry with us along the way. Having lost my sunglasses (again!) I opted to replace them from this store. They sold all manner of sunglasses. There were 3 aisles just dedicated to this theme. I was tempted to buy the box with a dozen pairs as I keep losing them but I restrained myself. The prices end up being less than one dollar if you buy in bulk. We also bought things like hair ties, socks, and tshirts. Later we found out that the street market vendors buy from this same warehouse and then resell to tourists
12. Elephant Sanctuary
. We did pretty good avoiding the price markup. Because of the intense humidity and heat hanging out in places with airconditioning is the driving force behind what to see and do. We did go to the mall and the bookstore. They have a great mall that rivals anything in the US. The Border's bookstore made us feel like we were home except this bookstore had huge alternative language sections. We bought our Lonely Planet Australia/New Zealand from here. The prices for books tend to be more expensive than what we pay in the US. Unless we are buying a guidebook we skip buying books or buy them used if we can find them. We caught a movie one night - "Fun with Dick and Jane." We visited the Planetarium, the National Museum, and of course we went up in the Petronas Towers. The tour in the Twin Towers is free but you have to show up at 8am to mark your place for later in the day. There is a great display area on the building of the Towers and the tour takes about 30 minutes. You get to go as far as the Skybridge to look around with a guide. The Skybridge is about half-way up at the 40 somethingth floor.
In the evenings I took advantage of the free wi-fi at the hostel and continued rounding out some of the planning for our arrival in Australia. I made contact through one of the many rideshare websites with a woman from Melbourne
2. Mosque
. She was wanting to share gas with someone from Sydney to Melbourne. We were scheduled to pick up our first campervan in Melbourne. It was too late to change our plane ticket so I signed us up for a rideshare. Janine, the Melbournite agreed to meet us at the airport. I agreed to help with some of the driving. Oh no! Driving on the left side of the road!!!!For our last day in Kuala Lumpur we rented a car. Our main reason was it was cheaper to do that than to take a tour. We had one last thing we really wanted to see. There is an elephant sanctuary in the country. It is about 2 hours out from Kuala Lumpur. Also, the Malays drive on the left side. It would give me a little practice before driving a stranger's car. The drive to the sanctuary was fantastic. The countryside was green and mountainous. We got to see rice paddies; something we had missed in Thailand. The sanctuary houses just a handful of elephants. They allow anyone who shows up at the right time to help bath them in the river. They also allow you to climb on their backs in the process of bathing them. We arrived a little late for the bathing but we did get to see their feeding. They are so much smaller than any elephants I have seen, They almost look like midget elephants. I must be use to the African variety.
For our drive back we hit traffic. I spent some moments being terrified of all of the mopeds zipping around us. Also, the route to the airport from where were took us back through the heart of the city. We made it to the airport safely and returned the rental car to the airport. I think anyone who is an adrenaline junky simply need only rent a car in Kuala Lumpur. I vowed never to rent a car again in such a busy city again. Once we got the car turned in the excitement of a new trip took over. Now we could relax and begin our journey to the land down under.
