I'M IN! My trip to Kuala Lumpur

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My First Journey

I found an NUS exchange student 2009 group on Facebook and joined Friday morning. Not long after, I received a message about a trip to Kuala Lumpur. It was referred to as "KL." Apparently it is very uncool to pronounce the full name. People around here really love their acronyms and abbreviations. My room mate and I were talking about going so he called and put our names on the list. Rooms were free for the students who made the first 24 spots - I was 25. But for S$30 I got a bed for the night. The bus fare was only S$40 round trip (slightly less in USD). I was diggin the price. We left Singapore via city bus and went to the Singaporean customs then across the water to the Malaysian customs in Johor Bahru. We got on our bus to KL at 1:30AM local time. We rode in a quite roomy and quite frigid bus to KL and arrived at 6:30AM. I was not able to get much sleep on the bus. We went to our hotel and crashed for a few hours then left to explore the city. We went to the Petronas twin

towers (453 m, taller than the WTC was in NYC) and the Kuala Lumpur "KL" tower. The 40 ringgit price (about 20 USD) seemed a little much to go up the KL tower and since we'd already seen the city from the bridge connecting the Petronas towers, we decided to pass. After a nice group lunch and a power nap in the afternoon we all met up for dinner. We got some Turkish cuisine and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for clubbing! It was a lot of fun getting to meet people from all around Europe and the world. (Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Estonia, Hungary, Japan, Canada, and Singapore. There were only 4 Americans). Not many people knew more than one or two others before the trip started so there was a very open atmosphere and everyone was very friendly. We all came back with about 25 new friends. The guy who put the trip together, Leong, asked me why I didn't go with the large group of Americans from NUS that were also going to KL. I said, "I left America to come to Singapore and meet new people and see new things, I guess hanging out with a bunch of Americans isn't one of my priorities right now." Seeing so many people together from all around the globe really puts some things into a different light. My little "bubbles" in Atlanta and Jacksonville just got really really small. I had a great time and loved being about to experience a new place with some complete strangers from all walks of life. Hopefully I will be able to do some things like this again in the near future. Afterall Chinese New Year is next week! Party on!

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Photos

Petronas Twin Towers
You can see the bridge we were on.

View of the city of KL
Taken from the bridge connecting the 2 Petronas towers

Group Shot
Swiss, French, American, Swedes, Japan, Germnay, and Singapore

Hotel Pool
Me and Simone from Switzerland

Lot 10
We stayed very close to "Lot 10" which was a shopping mall

Local food
Don't ask me what its called. It had sausage, egg, noodles, muscles, and some vege in a spicy chili topping. YUMMM

Comments

[Shirley Lehman]

sorry this took me so long
This looks great!! what an experience. I have been rather snowed in with all the stuff in Colo. Thinking about you every day though. It is finally quiet here today and cool again after 65 degree days when Jax was 40 degrees. I am so very proud of you Mark!!!love Gramie Shirley