Days 7-8 Kuala Lumpur Part 2 and Brunei


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Asia » Brunei » Bandar Seri Begawan
January 24th 2013
Published: February 13th 2013
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I slept a little better the previous night and after breakfast I made my way back to Kuala Lumpur with Uncle Han. The driver wasn’t the best, he never indicated, drive way too fast, I don’t think a minivan was meant for high speed turns but we eventually made it to KL and I checked in to the Step-In guesthouse for my last night in KL. I had previously booked my ticket for the skybridge for 20:00 but just before I was due to set off one of the regular thunderstorms commenced so I got a little wet on my walk to the Petronas Twin Towers. I decided to take a detour to Bukit Bintang which is one of the main tourist hotspots of KL, its full of hotels/hostels, restaurants, bag-snatchers, whores and drug dealers what more could a backpacker ask for.I was lucky enough to witness a fight between two ladies of a night, the larger lady one with a neat kick to the solar plexus of the small one grabbed the prize – the phone and smashed it on the floor – Goliath won that day!!

At the base of the twin towers is a huge glitzy shopping centre, which you have to wander through to get to the entrance to the tower tour. I was assigned to a group and we were taken to the 41st floor to walk around the sky-bridge that connects the two towers, its 170m off the ground. It was still raining by then and it didn’t help the pictures so if you can help it go in the dry. After the sky-bridge we were taken to the observation desk on the 86th floor which gave us amazing views especially when the lightning was striking. It was all over very quick 50 mins and cost 80r (around£8) but it’s one of those things that has to be done in KL. 30 mins later I was back having a beer in the hostel with my Slovenian chum we polished a few more off before I went back to my room. On entering the room I think the jungle adventure had an undesirable impact on my boots and clothes as the room stunk of damp, sweaty, clothing – nice. Hopefully it would dry out soon!

I was up just before 7 to get ready for my early morning Batu caves trip, there is a new rail link from KL Central that takes you to the towering limestone outcrop that house that Batu Caves. They were officially discovered around 120 years ago and shortly afterwards a Hindu temple was built there. At the foot of the cave entrance is a huge golden statue to Muruga to whom the caves are dedicated.

To reach the entrance to the temple cave you have to climb 272 steps which was a synch for me after my exploits over the previous days and I skipped up them like a mountain goat – not:-) I was a bit early for the huge crowds and the stall owners were just setting up, the only ones who were up and ready were the breakfast crew selling Bombay mix and other breakfast favourites.

Once I had reached the cave itself it was quite a sight even though it was virtually empty. There is an annual festival in Jan/Feb were over a million Hindus visit the caves and I expect this would have been even more impressive. I think the festival was about to start a few days after I left, so I witnessed the calm before the storm. As the whole structure was limestone the cave was probably eroded over hundreds of thousands of years by the water running through it and considering the amount of rain in these parts its not surprising. I’d heard from a fellow traveller that there were other caves that were open if you paid, one for 35 RM and another for 10RM.

On the way back down the steps the entertainment was provided by some cheeky monkeys who were stealing peoples plastic bags for food – highly amusing.

After my brief visit to Batu Caves, I got the train back to KL Central where I caught the KLIA for 3 st and then changed to a bus that took me to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) which is Air Asia’s largest flight terminal in the region. On the way we passed the Sepang Formula 1 grand prix circuit.

The flight was problem free but it was a nightmare to get through Immigration in Brunei – nearly an hour. There were signs everywhere saying “The penalty for drug smuggling is death” if they felt this strongly abut drug smuggling I was worried what they would do if they found out I was over my duty free allowance:-) – Eventually I got through immigration and thankfully the customs check and met my driver, yes driver who had been patiently waiting for me. There are no hostels in Brunei and so I had to plum for hotels, the Jubilee Hotel wasn’t the cheapest (around £40) however it included a free pick up and drop off from the airport so this more than made up for it. In so many ways my driver reminded me of the small guy in The man with the golden gun (Scaramaranga’s chum) he was the same size and even spoke like him although I couldn’t understand most of what he was saying, and due to this I made him wait even longer when I changed my money.

The capital of Brunei is Bandar Seri Begawan and it is a very compact place, unfortunately the country is dry (booze wise) and there isn’t much night life to speak of so after a walk I made the most of my sumptuous surroundings and settled down with a diet Pepsi – Shangri-La:-).

The next day I went down for breakfast and had a choice of rice or noodles, whilst I was in the dining area I saw a lady chopping up some birds eye chillies and said I bet they are spicy, she started laughing ad asked if I wanted any in my noodles so I had to say yes. Spicy stir fried noodles wasn’t the first thing that springs to mind for breakfast but it went down well together with lots of tea and water:-)

The Sultan of Brunei is famous for his excesses, but this is nothing compared to the millions his wayward son Prince Jefri squandered. Opposite the main harbour is the largest floating village – Kampong Ayer, which houses around 20,000 people living in wooden shacks built on stilts, connected by wooden plank bridges. I had a wander round one of them and the smell wasn’t particular pleasant as all the waste ended up below the houses. There was a lot of open sewers in the capital too and if you walk along the pavements you are never far away from the smell. On the other hand I did see a lot of building including a new hospital whilst I was there….

As I was walking to the beautiful Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque a local came up to me and we started chatting, as usual it turned to football and he said he was a Liverpool fan so I spent the rest of the time ribbing him about that. After the mosque I had a walk about the centre and then caught the No.1 bus to the other main mosque – Jame’ Asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque which again was very impressive, this one was built in 1992. I had another chat with a local on the way to this too. My last stop was to be the Royal Regalia museum which housed numerous artefacts from the sultan’s life, include his silver jubilee royal coach and hundreds of presents given to him by foreign dignitaries for his coronation and 25th jubilee.

I had to get two flights with MAS wings (a subsidiary of Malaysia Air) to get to Sandakan in Sabah (Malaysian Borneo) both flights were in propeller aircraft and taking only 40 mins and 50 mins. This will be in stark contrast to the current largest passenger plane A380 I’ll be on from KL to Dubai on the way back. The only way to get into the centre of Sandakan, was by taxi which I grudgingly took and finally got to my hostel for around 22:00.


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