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Published: July 28th 2006
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Kuala Lumpur
Petronas Towers I've arrived in Kuala Lumpur! The bus ride from Singapore went smoothly - took a bus to the border and then another to Kuala Lumpur. On the way had a look at the Lonely Planet and chose a hostel named Pudu Hostel close to the bus station where I was arriving. The hostel turned out to be really good. I love the fact that Malaysia and Singapore have hostels for single backpackers - it makes meeting people so much easier!!
On my first night I arrived at around 11 and spoke to my American and Canadian roommates for a while...but I was really tired from walking around Chinatown in the morning (it was HOT) and then all the travelling. So I read a bit and fell asleep straight away.
The next morning I decided to go see the Petronas Towers (4th tallest buildings in the world - highest twin towers). I took the underground to the KLCC station, and was surprised to find that the station was actually located beneath the towers themselves! The bottom 5 floors of the towers is a large shopping centre. It feels like you could be in any major city in the world, with
most of the stores being famous Western stores.
In order to get up into the Petronas Towers, you have to line up early in the morning (before 8:30AM) for your free ticket, which are given in a first come, first served basis. I decided I would return to the towers the next morning. I found out there was a tourist office quite close to the towers, so I stepped out of the towers to find myself under the bright Malaysian sun. The centre of Kuala Lumpur is surprisingly clean, rich, and has a lot of open space. The lady at the tourist office didn't have very much information, but she gave me a great map of the city!
My hostel had told me of 'The Butu Cave' which has free entrance...I decided to walk back to the hostel, get some more money, lunch, and head to the caves. When I reached the hostel I sat down in front of the TV to eat my lunch I had bought from the seven-eleven downstairs. I started talking to an Irish boy - Keith. Turned out he had also been thinking of going to the caves, and so he joined me
on my little adventure! We headed to find the bus, and after wandering aimlessly around Chinatown for a while, we finally found it.
Bus #11 took us all the way to the caves - which were about an hour away from the city. I didn't actually know much about the caves (except the fact they were FREE...hehe), but it turned out there was a temple within the cave, which was high up on the hills. The entire place was very...commercialised. Lot's of stalls, lights, and colours...and here I was thinking I was going to some secret cave. hehe. Keith and I had a good time, taking pictures of monkeys and the spectacular view!
On the way home we decided to head to the Petronas Towers together the next morning (early 6:50AM wakeup!). Keith also thought my plans for my trip around Malaysia sounded interesting, and since he had just been wasting time...waiting for the Full Moon Party, he decided he might join me the next day on my trip to the Cameron Highlands.
Once we got back into the city (a bit of confusion to our where-abouts during the drive) Keith showed me a fantastically cheap place
to eat - full of stalls and competitive prices! We had some Malay food (rice & veg curry) and then headed back to the hostel. Pudu Hostel always has movies on downstairs, and we crashed on the couches to watch a bit of TV before heading upstairs to get a good night's sleep (and to meet my new Swiss roomies!).
The next day's early wake-up went well, and by 7:15 we were on our way to the towers. When we arrived there were already quite a few people in the line, but after a 1.5hr wait, we had tickets for 10:30AM to head to the sky-bridge between the two towers. This gave us enough time to go have a picnic breakfast just outside, in the little park at the back-side of the towers.
At 10:30 we headed up in the lift and walked to the bridge. It was a beautiful day, and the views were fantastic. You could see quite far, and it made you wonder what the views are like from the very top (we were only about half-way!).
After the tour we decided to take the underground back to Pudu. We had decided to go
Kuala Lumpur
Line for the Petronas Towers tickets together to the Cameron Highlands and we needed to check out before 12. Turned out the cheaper bus (17 Ringgit) only went at 15:30. So we had some time to relax at the hostel and chat to some other travellers about the highlands!
The bus-ride went extremely fast (about 5 hours) because of good company and beautiful scenery. I kept trying to capture the view on camera, but it didn't work so well out of the window of the bus. The people at Pudu had recommended a few hostels, and turned out one of them (Father's Guesthouse) had a rep waiting for the bus. So we hopped onto the minibus and were taken up the hill to the guesthouse. The dorm only cost 8 Ringgit/night - BARGAIN! The guesthouse is extremely cozy - with lots of rooms, a great relaxation/TV area, and VERY friendly staff. Fantastic.
I think Keith and I will be good travel partners because we're both trying to travel cheap - neither of us wanted to eat at the over-priced restaurant at the guesthouse, and we ended up walking into town (only a 5 minute walk...although you have to make your way down some dodgy
Kuala Lumpur
View from the Petronas Towers steps in the dark). We found some cheap stalls and had some fantastic fried rice for 3-!
That evening we joined some people Keith had met at Pudu for some 'S@!T HEAD' (card game which is extremely popular with Brits). The English couple Keith knew (Tom and Sara) were also heading to the Full Moon Party, and so we made a plan to meet on the island the day before and share a bungalow! Everyone playing cards was leaving the next day, except a Canadian girl named Allison. We made plans for her to join Keith and I on our day hike the next day. So after a few hours of playing cards, listening to some great music, and having some great,entertaining conversation I FINALLY got to bed.
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