Advertisement
Published: February 22nd 2009
Edit Blog Post
After a quiet time on the blog I have decided to come back with determination to keep it updated of my travels! 2008 will be Travel Year and it started off like this....
The time has finally come to fly solo! As some of you may know I'm a little bothered about doing certain things by myself. I do love having time to myself, reading a good book and chilling out on my lonesome but when it comes to things like travelling and eating, I really do enjoy the company. However, there have been many times when I have wanted to go somewhere new and have ended up not going because friends have already been or just because unlike me, they don't have holidays all year round! So the solution to this problem? A flooding tactic - travelling to two different countries by myself and hopefully making friends along the way - WOOP WOOP!
The night before I flew out to KL I hosted a dinner at my house to thank the people who had gotten me involved with hockey. I have been enjoying hockey so much that I felt it was time to give back a little and
drink, eat and be merry. Everything went fine and we had a great night but I strolled in home at 6 am and had to be at the airport at 7 so my flight was less than enjoyable and I was hoping to either sit next to no one or someone slightly comatosed like myself. No chance. I sit next to the firendliest man in the world who decides to tell me all about Malaysian food. You have no idea how much I felt like throwing up at this point. I realised that my main task on this trip was to make friends and be chatty but not yet!! It gave me hope thought that the Malay people will be as welcoming and as chatty so, fun times ahead, I thought!
Once off the plane, I found my way to the hostel that I had booked. My experience of hostels or guesthouses were great and I was looking forward to meeting people who were staying at the hostel and finding out where they were coming from and where their travels were taking them. However I arrived to find a pretty shabby looking hostel with very unfriendly staff which I
was really disappointed by. After dropping my bags off in the room, I sauntered downstairs to the communal area to read my Lonely Planet and see if I could find some dinner buddies! No such luck... the backpackers at the hostel were not very receptive to my smile - maybe I had something in my teeth, who knows, but they pretty much ignored me. Awesome. The tiniest bit of self-consciousness began to creep in but I decided to use this to my advantage. This is good, I thought. My first opportunity to eat by myself. At least that can get checked off the list! I set off looking for local fare and walk to the top of the street and find a Western style pub. I debate whether to go in or not - it's full of people, it would be a good spot to strike up conversations with random people, but it's not local food so I turn the corner searching for Malay food and find a Mc Donalds. My feelings of self-consciousness went into over-drive at this point and believe it or not, I got Mc Donalds take away and ate in the solitude of my hostel room.
I don't even like Mc Donalds! I was so disappointed with myself and I went to sleep wishing my night away so it could be a new day quickly.
I am a nice, friendly and enthusiastic girl who loves to meet people. I am a nice, friendly and enthusiastic girl who loves to meet people. I kept repeating this to myself in the shower this morning. I head off into the mayhem of the city searching for the essence of KL. I found KL to be HOT (so difficult to sight see when it is that hot!), confusing but busy, a nice busy though, almost electrifying. From the beautiful architecture to the delicious hawker stall drinks, I felt happy to be there for the first time since I had arrived. I bought my bus ticket to Singapore and then took refuge from the heat in a shopping mall - these were the times for air condition blasting.
As the day came to an end, I had gone back to the hostel, showered and was on the road again. I was meeting up with some people who I had contacted through a website called travbuddy. Three of the girls
were from KL and a guy called Rob from the UK. I was a bit nervous about meeting them - you do hear all these stories, but I was so deprived of chit chat that I was prepared to do anything! I met Rob first who was and still is a lovely chap. We chatted for a bit and then met Joana and her friends and sauntered off for a drink. I had verbal diarrhoea! I was so excited about meeting people and chatting to them that I don't think anyone else opened their mouths to speak!! We talked about our travels, abut KL and Malaysia, we talked about HK and food, we talked a lot about food so after a couple of hours on the beers, we decided to hunt some grub down. We walk across the street and if I needed any confirmation that backpackers and in fact, people in general are nice and welcoming well.. here it was! A group of about 8 guys and girls holding FREE HUGS signs!!! I was elated!! I went round hugging everyone! I even started holding the signs and hugging random strangers! It was amazing! Feel the love people, feel the
love! After devouring delicious food I went to sleep on a high. The following day I was going to Singapore but not before visiting KL's most famous landmark - The Petronas Twin Towers.
Hope you are all well wherever you are,
Much love
M xx
Advertisement
Tot: 0.15s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 56; dbt: 0.0822s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb