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Published: July 23rd 2012
The journey to KL from the Cameron Highlands is a fairly straightforward 4-5 hour bus journey, that is unless you dimwittingly ply your youngest child with gallons of strawberry milk before undertaking said journey, only for him to chunder foul smelling sour milk all over you 10 minutes into the journey. The slightly strawberry-ish aroma wasn't even enough to make it bearable. Of course I blame the numerous switchbacks it takes to get out of the Highlands rather than any lack of parenting forethought on our part.
Why they never just build the roads so they go straight down is beyond me, sure it might be a bit hair raising at times, especially if you started to reach the sound barrier and i'm sure the noise from vehicles screaming up in 1st gear would be a little annoying for anyone living nearby but think how much quicker it would be, also it would of meant that I wouldn't of had to sit for several hours smelling like bad cheese with strawberry bits in it. Alternatively if society was fine with adults being naked on public buses it also wouldn't have been a problem, Gabe just got stripped naked and he
was fine...
We arrived in KL at Puduraya bus station which was really handy as it was right next to Chinatown where there's a ton of budget options for accommodation. We ended up staying at a place right next to the (in)famous Petaling street market, so close we could pull back the curtains and watch the giant screen if we so pleased. Alternatively we could leave the curtains closed and just listen to what was going on outside, sound insulation of even the minimal kind is clearly a luxury not available at this budget. It WAS pretty cheap at 80RM for a room with two double beds, A/C and ensuite though. If travelling through Asia has taught us anything, it's how to sleep through the ever present road noise, shouty locals and the consistent whine as the crappy A/C lives out its last days. It was pretty grubby to be honest and had definitely seen better days but the owners were incredibly accommodating and friendly, the location was great for where we wanted to be and the old dude who was hanging around kept giving the boys jelly sweets whenever he saw them so they were more than happy
to stay there. All I will say, is it was the polar opposite from the Mandarin Oriental, which is where we stayed the very first time we visited the city, memories of which still make us feel all warm inside, and something which probably won't be repeated for a very long time, much to the relief of my wallet...
Having been to the city a few times before we didn't really have a lot planned for our time in KL, we scaled the heights of the city by going up the Menara KL and spent an entire day exploring the bird park which was exceptional and loved by all, not just the boys. Other than that we enjoyed KLCC park using the free pool to cool off, well the boys did, we weren't allowed and had to make do with paddling. We also explored the shopping possibilities in Chinatown and surrounds.
The highlight of our time in KL was meeting up with Ali, the founder and creator of this site, TravelBlog.org. We met up at Bukit Bintang and took a short walk to a restaurant near where he lives to be treated to great food while we chatted.
Although I've read his blogs, know his general bio from the site, and know what he looks like from pictures it was great to actually get to meet him in person, talk about his journey with TravelBlog and hear his plans for the future. He's actually a very humble guy, crediting the success of the site to the bloggers that fill its pages, which although clearly true, it's his site and his creation which attracts this talent to want to fill its pages with their material. We also got the opportunity to see his home and glimpse what life as an expat in Malaysia is like which was ace.
The next day we visited the office of TravelBlog, dubbed 'TravelBlog towers', located in an excellent part of the city near KLCC with great views. It was pretty cool to see where all the magic happens, where all our thoughts, experiences, dreams and random musings, along with all the associated photos end up. Actually that's not entirely accurate, it's all stored safely in 'the cloud', that seemingly magical all encompassing entity we hear about all the time, something I won't pretend to understand though, so can't really explain here! It
is in this office though where all the code is written, where the decisions are made about how the site should look and function and where all the troubleshooting happens when things inevitably don't work how they should. It's amazing to see what can be achieved with such a small dedicated team and it actually made me proud to be a part of the site (albeit a very small part).
So in KL our short time in Malaysia came to an end. As we took the trip to the airport we contemplated our time in the country and realised we enjoyed it a lot more than we thought we would. It's a nice mix of cultures, easy to travel in and there's plenty to see and enjoy. Of course that's not all we thought about on the journey to the airport as its miles (and miles) from the city and the trip takes for-bloody-ever, giving us plenty of time to get excited about our next destination, Java.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
I remember the road from Tanah Rata to Tapah well...
I threw up almost every time I drove up or down the mountain. It was worse riding in a taxi with durian smells. I counted the number of curves, but have since forgotten the number. Living in Tanah Rata was like living on an island as I was psychologocally isolated from the rest of Malaysia; not wanting to take the road ever again! Thanks for the description of your time with Ali. Of course, since then he has moved to the States, so I hope to see him when he comes to Colorado. And thanks for posting the date of your trip rather than when you wrote the blog. It puts things in perspective when one is taking a long trip. Of course, after a trip is long over sometimes it is better to go with themes. So with the map you posted I have a sense of where you are off to next before you returned to the UK where you are now.