Another fail, then a success!

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By 7:45 we'd taken the #30 bus and arrived at the Petronas Towers to secure a spot in the already substantial waiting line. I bought some sandwiches and drinks at the convenience store located conveniently across the way from the line and sat down to wait. We saw all kinds of people waiting there: Europeans, Americans, Asians, old, young, small, tall, clad in running shoes, sandals, high heels, dresses, suits, pants, shorts, headscarves, burqas (jubah), you name it.

As a tangent, if anyone can explain the headscarf thing to me I’d appreciate it. What I’ve been taught is that women wear them as a means of protection from the lust of men. If that’s correct, then I don’t understand why there is so much fashion centered around this piece of clothing – it comes in any color and pattern and you can have it in one piece or two and there are even pins decorated with jewels that are used to secure it in place. Those two ideas seem contradictory to me – hide yourself, but attract attention. If someone that reads this can explain, please do!

At 8:28, to be precise, they began selling tickets for the 9 am group. I was sad that I’d left my camera’s memory card in the hostel and wouldn’t be able to take pictures, but this worry proved to be unwarranted because when we got to the front of the line at 9:55, the only tier 2 tickets left were at 18:15. This would mean booking another night at our hostel so we decided to pay less money for the whole experience and just see the skybridge. We bought the next available time at 13:20 and after that we would head to Melaka.

We had some time to kill so we walked back to our hostel, packed our bags, and went out for lunch. Check out at 14:00 is a beautiful thing – it gives you so much more time to do things! We decided on checking out some of the restaurants we’d seen walking back and ended up at one that served Indian food. We weren’t really sure what we were ordering besides the lassi, so it was a surprise when a large banana leaf was laid down in front of us. With this it dawned on us that we’d be dining like the man next to us – hunched over the table eating rice, sauces, and vegetables with our hands. This is actually a fantastic meal for someone who is on a budget – it cost RM 5 and they keep refilling the rice and sides from large tin buckets they had. Luckily for us we had also ordered fried rice so we had silverware to eat with.

Back at the towers we put our huge bags through the x-ray machine at security and left them in the bag check before settling down with the rest of our group to watch a 5-minute video on the towers. After this we walked through security again and into an oversized elevator that took us all the way up to the 41st floor in what felt like 30 seconds. Once there, we had about 15 minutes to take pictures and walk around and found a few things we didn’t know were there: a huge playground and swimming pool behind the towers, a big lake out in front (I assume this was part of the gardens you can visit next to the National Mosque).

When we were leaving we asked some security guards about getting to KL Sentral because we wanted to go to Melaka. There was confusion at first because we asked about the metro station and they told us it was about a block away. When we told them KL Sentral and Melaka, they said there was a train that was just beneath the building, so I guess there are different types of trains that run. Anyways, the guard told us that we needed to take the train to Bandar Tasik station. This was different advice than what we had gotten at the station yesterday, so when we got to KL Sentral we asked a guard again. He told us we needed to go back two stations to Masyid Jamir because there we could transfer to the Star LRT and get off at Bukit Jalil! Boo. So we got back on the train going in the direction we just came from and went two stops.

When we'd finally made the next transfer and arrived at the bus terminal, it was already around 15:20. We realized we'd arrived at the same place we were dropped off at only a few days before! It would have been much easier and cheaper to just take the bus from Puduraya.

We were immediately preyed upon by people selling tickets to everywhere and one started talking to Ronald and ended up sort of following/leading us. When we got to the tent where they sell all the tickets, he motioned for me to come follow him that way and I said, "No" and asked a man working there where I could buy a ticket to Melaka. The man was very displeased we didn't follow or buy from him but they charge way more and I didn't want to worry about what surprises we might be getting so I just went and asked inside the tent.

We bought tickets to Melaka with KKKL and went to Platform 5 for our 16:00 bus (the 15:30 was sold out). Finding the platform was a slightly difficult task in and of itself because the only markers were tiny plastic blue squares with "P" and then the number stenciled on and then tacked to only one tree along the lane. Once we found it we waited there for a while but discovered at around 16:00 that our bus was actually waiting at P6 so we went over there and loaded our things.

The bus was only 10 minutes late to leave and we made it in an easy twoish hours. At Melaka Sentral we grabbed at table at McDonalds and used their free wifi after buying a small burger to split. I needed to look up some information about hostels and found that the best way to get into town was the #17 bus. "Best" being cheapest in this case. It's only RM 1.00 and leaves from the Domestic Bus Terminal from either bay 6, 7, or 8 just on the other side of the building from the International part. We got on the wrong bus and had to get off but then 17 came and we hopped on that. It was only at the bay for about two minutes before heading off towards the town.

The driver's helper told us when we were in Chinatown so we hopped off and started walking in the direction of La Nyonya, a hostel I'd found on the internet. We instead went with a Chinese lady who offered us a room with two beds and a private bathroom for RM 50 in total for two nights. That was a great price and when we checked it out it was clean and airy so we took the offer to stay in her apartment. Our bathroom is next to the kitchen and our room has a fan and a lock so it's safe.

At night we walked along Jonker Street, Melaka's Chinatown. We both liked this one much more than the one in KL. It was a lot smaller, but not as crowded and just all around nicer. It was prettier and the stuff they were selling wasn't as trashy. We enjoyed walking around for a while before grabbing a beer at Eleven Bar and using their wifi (all of the restaurants on this street had wifi).

When we were walking back to the "hostel" we decided to buy some beer and while we did this we and some others noticed smoke. Lots of smoke -- it fogged up the streets! We followed it to its source and found a building engulfed in flames. It was about 23:30 and the blaze was roaring. The firefighters came a few minutes later but couldn't seem to get the water going. By the time they did, the one next door was also on fire. People started getting angry and then more firetrucks came and this time they were able to get water on the fire. It was finally extinguished a little after midnight.

What was interesting was that almost all of the men were in sarongs/pareos...they had on shirts and then were wrapped on the bottom with sarongs. They must use these at home but it was neat to see. We went back home, reeking of smoke -- man that fire was hot!!

Technical details
-"Selamat Datang" = Welcome
-Bus routes in KL change depending on the time of day
-Petronas Towers:
---Tickets are given for times every 20 minutes beginning with 9 am
---Tier 1 (Skybridge): RM 10
---Tier 2 (Skybridge + Observation deck): 240 tickets sold in total
---Tier 3 (Skybridge + Observation deck): + lunch RM 200; + dinner RM 350
-Train from KLCC to KL Sentral: RM 3.20
-Train from Masyid Jamir to Bukit Jalil: RM 3.80
-Bus from KL to Melaka: RM 12.20
-on the domestic buses the buzzer for requesting a stop is located on the ceiling and smoking is allowed (there's no AC -- they are buses with open windows)

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