A Night in KL

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The Petronas Towers beamed out their dazzling lights into the KL night, looking like something from a sci-fi movie. Looking up from below I half expected to see spacecraft fly in low and land on the bridge that joins the two towers together. I’m not the biggest fan of big cities and I don’t spend too much time marvelling at modern architecture but I could not help but be quietly impressed.

Hailey and I arrived at KL in the afternoon after the 6hr flight from Perth. Having pulled an all nighter, I arrived at Perth airport at 5am in a questionable state which quickly spiralled downhill when hit with the oppressive humidity of Asia. We caught the bus and walked what felt like an eternity to a guesthouse where we decided to spoil ourselves with an air-con room. After dumping the bags and showering we hit the streets on foot, exploring little India and eating dinner at the night market. We circumnavigated half of KL, got lost and unlost a few times, took photos of the towers then went to bed early.

We woke to torrential rain and went on an umbrella hunt followed by breakfast in Chinatown. Over breakfast we both agreed we had little desire to hang around the ‘big smoke’ and so we went directly to the bus station, found a bus leaving for Mersing in an hour, got the tickets, packed our bags and left. Mersing is a fishing town and the jump off point for Tioman Island. We missed the last ferry and spent the night in Mersing. With not much going on in Mersing it was a case of dinner and bed, ready for another early start. Rising again before sunrise, lugging our gear again without the prerequisite coffee, I cursed myself for overpacking but reminded myself that we were free and finally exploring Malaysia. And suddenly it was effortless.




** Handy Info and Recommendations

We stayed at Casavilla Lodge on jalan Puda Lama, a block from the Puda Raya Bus Station which is where you get all the major buses to wherever. I'd really recommend this place. It's quiet, clean and run by a bunch of nice indian fellows. It has a big balcony/open communal area with tea, coffee, couches, pool table and free wifi. It's a few minutes walk to Chinatown, 20min walk to the towers. I walked to pretty much everywhere no problem. It is a little pricier than backpacker places/ dorms. An aircon dbl is around $70-80rm. You'll see less westerners in here. I've stayed here a few times now and always make friends with malays and indians travelling on business or holidays. I hear great things about the dorms at the Reggae Bar, although they are noisy they are cheap - $25rm.

If you like Indian food then make sure to eat your fill in KL. With a large indian population there are many cheap and tasty eats. There's a popular eat street heading up towards Bukit Bintang (bar area) with mostly asian food. If you crave culinary comforts from home the reggae bar does good western food, the pizza is great. Go in the afternoon from 4-7pm to get a 'power massage' from Jimmy. He's a lovely burmese man who'll give you a great massage and good conversation to boot!

I avoided Chinatown like the plague at night. But if you like loads of flashing neon, busy, crowded tourist markets flogging knock off dvd's, sunglasses, bags, watches and shoes and being constantly assaulted with "Miss, Miss you want watch/ sunglasses/ bag/ shoes/ dvd's?" then this is the place for you!

When you arrive at the LCCT airport (Air Asia) walk down to the bus stops. It's easy to get a bus to the city and very cheap - 9rm - as opposed to taxi's. Sky Bus goes to Sentral and the Star bus goes to pudu raya station near chinatown.

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Photos

Political Humour
The menu at the reggae Bar, Chinatown

petronas towers
Sci-fi-esque

Man feeding the pigeons
Chinatown

Comments

[Maarten]

Yeah!
Good to read your story, wanna go like crazy!