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Published: March 31st 2010
KUALA LUMPUR
Well we left the hostel in plenty of time and the metro & bus worked in our favour, so we arrive at the train station an hour early. We relax (as much as you can) into the plastic chairs and read our books whilst we wait for the gates to open. In no time the gates open and we pass through passport control and pick up our boarding cards for Malaysia, pass through customs and hop on the train.
Second class, although a little worn now is still better than our trains! They recline so far back you are almost laying flat on your back! We relax in for the seven hour train journey and just as I pull out the computer and start typing, I get into my flow and then we stop at the Singapore/Malay boarder. ‘All off’ another passenger calls! Ah ha, I read about this, I think we are at the boarder! We go in to the station had over our passports to passport control, pass through customs again and wait to be let back on the train!
We are back on the train again in no time I am back on
the computer! I work tirelessly and get loads of blog updates done! Yippee! When the computer battery runs out I have a little snooze and we are soon arriving in Kuala Lumpur.
Wow, we come off of the train into the train station shopping mall, grab some Malaysian Ringgit and hunt out the Mono rail to get us to Chow Kit. After many false starts and a lot of going up and down in the same elevator, we figure out where to go! Out and down and around the hoarding! We head past the Blind Association. It was getting kind of made sense as to why we had seen so many white sticks in the area.
We got some tickets and proceeded post haste to the platform, at which point we realised that the Monorail actually came from the train station (looked like the top floor) and we had been misdirected! The must love having a laugh with the tourists! We arrived in Chow Kit and chose the right exit and the right road for our hostel! Yeah! We found it as described, next to 7/11 and behind the night market stalls. There was a pool hall on
the ground floor and we caught a lift (yes it actually worked!) to the top floor, which seemed like a different world!
We had to remove our shoes, the first of many hostels like it in this part of the world, and were given the keys to our room. A nicely decorated and clean room with no window! Yeah, deep sleep! The WIFI was low and kept dropping in and out so we up loaded the blog over the next couple of days! Tonight we sleep! Hmmm, Lovely!
Up and about, time to explore! We walked through the market and Charlotte spotted a bag, that could replace her battered, ripped and tied together excuse of a handbag! It was Prada, best quality, a genuine fake! We bargained him down to five pounds, transferred her stuff and chucked the old bag. We went through the fruit market, seeing the first of many rat’s at one of the food stalls. We walked down the main road and found the Post Office, we would use that later! Grabbed some lunch in Pizza hut, really cheap, then headed down to Chinatown on the Monorail.
Two girls from the restaurant were on
there going to the botanical gardens. We jumped off and had a wander around, nothing like the Chinatown in Singapore, just a cross roads of streets that had very similar and over priced goods on it, all the same! CD’s, watches, bags, trainers, CD’s, watches, bag’s, trainers, CD’s…… It got quite boring as we were not interested in any of that stuff!
We grabbed some fresh fruit and water from one of the vendors and headed over to central market, more arts and crafty but still not much, so we grabbed a drink in the food court, then found a fake Pandora stall, so Charlotte finally got the bracelet that she had been after. On the way down there we had seen a couple of buses that had Chow Kit on them, so after watching a couple (not going our way!) we decided to brave the bus! Well you have seen nothing like it!
We think that a husband and wife team must own each bus and as they pull up to the stops, the husband driving and the wife gets out and shouts where it is going, touting for business! Funny to watch! Some even have children
touting too! Once they have loaded the bus the wife takes the fare and issues a ticket! We even saw one poor woman getting beaten buy the driver, we thought it was a thief at first, then we figured as she did not get thrown off the bus, it must have been the wife!
Our journey was quite simple and we recognised Chow Kit when we got there! We went out that evening for a wander through the night market, still remembering the rat from that morning, we avoided the food stalls at the centre and sat down for dinner at a stall closer to our hostel. With a little help from the younger son we managed to order Lychee juice (Charlottes favourite), beer and one spicy chicken noodles and one not so spicy chicken noodles! Well I think they were both spicy! Just called, not so spicy! Phew!
We got some of our stuff together this morning and took it down to the post office. They gave us a box and told us where to get wrapping paper, so we managed to send home a box of gifts and unwanted clothes, more high heels and jeans, for
about 10 quid. Which is really cheap compared to Australia & New Zealand!
We went over to the Petronas towers (in the film Entrapment) after that, but got there after lunch, so all of the free tickets for the viewing tower had gone! They start giving them away at 8am and they are normally all gone by 11am! If you want a specific time, you have got to get there early! We were allowed to look around the information centre which was quite informative and we had fun on the ’see how tall you are compared to the tower’ simulator, a great bit of tech that measured you and then calculated how many of you would take to reach the height of the towers. But it was wrong for both of us measuring us both 3 or 4 inches shorter than we are. We also had a lightening simulator which gave for some great pictures!
We walked out into a mall, so had a good look around and had our first experience of a squat toilet! Great idea from Caroline, carry your own supply of little packets of tissues, as they use a scoop of water over here
to clean themselves with! Not so great idea, the food from the stall last night! Hmm, enough said I think! Off to do more shopping (all window shopping obviously!) and a little cake and coffee at a conveniently located Starbuck’s! This was a top end mall with all of the real designers here, funnily enough we did not spot Charlottes bag in the Prada shop!
Back outside to catch the bus and we cross the road to get the bus back, however after an hour and no buses going our way, we figure that the bus must come on the same side as the one that brought us here and do a loop! We cross back over and find we are correct! We go back to the hostel and get ourselves together as it is so hot due to it being so humid here!
We decide tomorrow we will go to the Cameron Highlands, so walk to what we believe is the bus station! Wrong one, so we jump on the monorail and go to the correct one across town. When we get there it is chucking it down, but luckily it is a covered walkway to the
bus station. We get there and there are loads of little booths, we figure that there are only two going to the Cameron Highlands, both offer super VIP seats (only three seats in a row) but the cheaper is off at 12noon and the other at 1pm. We opt for the later one as it suit’s us better, we plan to get up early and go to Batu caves!
Aw then head off to find the KL tower, we have a little walk and jump on a bus that swears he is going that way! Charlotte has her doubts and as we get chucked out at b……..b…….., further away than we started she finds they are founded! So we jump on the monorail and go back to B near the tower. There are no sign posts and no one seems to know how to get there! It is like a rainbow always in sight, but you can’t quite get to it! We are directed down the main road and as we go along we spot the Hard Rock Café, so we pop inside for dinner as we are starving by now!
At this point, with the KL tower
just out of reach again we feel so exhausted form our day on the town that we give up and go home. We end up missing the caves and having a much needed lay in, before heading down to the Post office with our second 4kg box! This time it is not so easy, we have to buy the (old paper) box, the shop selling the wrapping paper is closed, so Liam try’s over at the supermarket, but they only have black tissue paper, which the man say’s no to! Time is getting short and we need to leave for the bus soon!
The we spot the paper shop across the road and yeah they have wrapping paper. We throw it around the box and (not time to grab a sandwich for the bus) go and get our bags so we can head for the bus station.
When we get to the bus station we go to our allocated waiting area and wait and wait and wait! The time comes and goes! And still we wait! Eventually a chap comes up from the hole below and shouts for everyone going to the Cameron Highlands to follow him down
and outside, looks like the bus station is a bit blocked up, so we all wheeze through all of the exhaust fumes down below and out to the main road, where the bus shortly pulls up! We jump on and as promised we are treated to pure bus style luxury. Wow! It is shattered a little as we are waiting for a couple of people a beggar (con man) gets on and starts wheezing and coughing all over us, yuck! But we are soon on the way to the Cameron Highlands and a little town called Tanah Rata.
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Chris and Lisa
Round the World Wanderings
Great Pics
Seeing your pics has convinced us to pop to KL. Cheers. PS No Guinness in Thailand Liam. Probably not worth going (oh apart from the monkeys, bears, tigers, elephants, beaches, AK47's .........)