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Published: January 25th 2010
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Jepps balcony at night.We got in to KL on the 9th; the bus took about 4 hours from the Cameron Highlands. Liam was already in KL with his girlfriend Jo, and he had arranged some accommodation for us staying with Jo’s friend Jepp. Jepp works as a guide for the same tour company as Jo, but currently was not getting any tours so he had some free time on his hands and was happy to have us stay and hang out with him. So Jepp, Jo and Liam picked us up from the bus station in Jepp’s car and we went back to his apartment. He lives about 20 mins drive out of KL city centre on the 12th floor of an apartment block called Desa Petalie. The flat was nice and the views from the balcony across KL were awesome. KL has an impressive skyline including the Petronas Twin Towers which used to be the tallest building in the world (before China built something bigger) and also the KL tower, which is the 4th biggest communications tower in the world. If you looked the other way from the balcony you could see the Malaysian national stadium and then some mountains looming up over
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The gang with Petronas towers the edge of the city.
Jepp cooked us some chicken and fried rice and then we went to the driving range to hit some golf balls. Jo didn’t come as she was visiting her sister. Phil and I were both pretty crap at the driving - Liam was probably the most consistent at driving the furthest. Phil actually managed to hit 2 balls backwards - one ricocheting off the groundsman's wheel barrow and going behind the building and the other came back off a barrier and bounced through the driving range and landed on some guys lap. Quite an accomplishment! Unfortunately Jepp put his shoulder out during one swing so had to stop, he looked like he was in some pain. That night we went out for dinner at Jepp’s regular restaurant and ate some nice Malaysian food. It is so cheap to eat good food in Malaysia people seem to eat out much more than back home. A good meal in KL costs the same as one beer. During the day I am mostly drinking iced Milo chocolate milk - I seem to have developed a small addiction to it. Phil is drinking lots of 100plus isotonic, which is
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Petronas Towers at night. a bit like Gatorade but fizzy and not as sweet. After dinner we went back to the flat and drunk Jack Daniels and played cards until 4am.
The next day we went to China town to the market and Phil bought a man-bag (like a handbag but for men) and a wallet. I bought a couple of things to post back home and so did Phil - then we went to the post office to send them. We sent the parcel by airmail for about £16 which takes 2 weeks, the other option is shipping which takes 3 months but is half the price. We then got the mono rail to the Petronas Towers and took some pictures. They are massive and you have to walk away for some distance before you can fit both the towers into the picture. I kept on thinking what a nutter the French free-climber was to scale these without any ropes. Apparently he stood on the lightning rods at the top - incredible. It must be so windy up there. That night Jepp stayed in China town with his girlfriend and Jo was working so me, Phil and Liam had the flat to ourselves.
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The flat Not bad having our own apartment on our first full day in KL! That night we watched a couple of movies and played cards again. It was good of Jepp to put us up - and especially good considering he had never met us before. He made us feel totally at home in the flat from the moment we got there and when we were out and about it was like having our own personal tour guide as well as his good company.
The apartment block also has a huge outdoor swimming pool so the next morning we went for a swim and chucked a ball around. We then got some fried rice for lunch at the poolside restaurant. If I lived in the apartment in KL I think I would be in the pool after work every day, it was so nice. We then went into town and got the lift up to KL tower to the observation deck - a long way up! It cost around 30rm but it is definately something you have to do if your in KL. You actually go higher up in the KL tower than you can at the taller Petronas Towers as
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The flat the observation decks are at different heights. At Petronas the public can only go to the bridge between the 2 towers which is less than halfway up - and at KL Tower the observation deck is near the top. The view was slightly limited however as there had just been a thunderstorm and it was in the process of clearing up as we got up there. Also I had bought some batteries for my camera from China town as had left my rechargeable charging at the flat, and they lasted about two minutes before dying! Never mind, Phil had his camera. After the KL tower we met Liam and got some Japanese food and then went ten pin bowling. We met back up with Jepp and spent the evening watching movies and playing cards again. Jepp shoulder had still been giving him grief since the golf so he went to a Chinese medicine place and the lady there wrenched it and clicked it back into place and he was fine. Amazing. It cost him £20 though.
The next day we went to a shopping mall which is 7 floors dedicated to selling computers (and all things IT related), so me
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old bill and Phil could buy a netbook laptops. I bought a Samsung N140 with 250 GB of memory and 2 GB of RAM with Windows 7 in black. It’s pretty small, smaller than a sheet of A4. We figured overall we would save money by using free wifi instead of paying for internet cafes, also it will be useful for storing photo’s and updating this blog. Me and Phil got the train home from town back to the flat. KL train station is huge but we eventually found our platform. That night we just chilled and watched movies and played around on the new computers. The following day we all went for Japanese food together, I had chili ramon soup and jelly tea. Jelly tea is weird - it’s like a tea milkshake with bits of jelly floating in it. Strange. We then went bowling in the mall and to the cinema see Sherlock Holmes with Malaysian subtitles. Good film! I really enjoyed it. I thought it captured 19th century London brilliantly - though where was the dear stalker?... and he didn’t say- ‘elementary my dear Watson’ once.
The next day we went into town to try and get the bus
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Petronas towers to Genting Highlands theme park but it was full, so instead we went to the National Museum of Malaysia. It was pretty boring and didn’t really compare to any museums in London. We played Poker in the evening - Phil won as usual. So the following day we got up early and caught the bus to the Genting Highlands theme park, about one hour outside KL. The theme park is part of a huge casino complex built on top of a mountain, and also has the largest hotel in the world. The bus drops you off at the cable car station and you get a cable car for about 25 mins to the top of the mountain where the theme park is situated. It is the longest cable car journey in Asia. When we arrived at the top of the mountain it was shrouded in thick cloud, visibility was down to a few yards, meaning all of the rollercoasters were closed. We played a couple of games of snooker and had some lunch and then luckily the cloud blew over. Some of the rolloercoasters were pretty extreme; there was one which you tilts your body as it goes round so
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Petronas towers you’re in the ’superman’ position. There was also go-karts and a ride which you go to the top of a tower - maybe 10/12 stories high - and you are suspended in a seat dangling over the side, then it fires you back down leaving your stomach at the top, using compressed air to slow you down at the bottom.
Phil and I went on every ride worth going on and it was a lot of fun. When we got back to KL we went to Jepp’s local restaurant and had a farewell curry as we were leaving to the historic port of Malaka in the morning. So the next day we awoke early and Jepp gave us a lift to the bus station after buying us a traditional Malaysian breakfast of sticky rice in banana leaf, a strange bright green roll and some fruity and nutty jellies.
Wow - what an amazing time we had in KL. It’s an awesome city, with such a huge mix of cultural influences. This was made all the better by being able to hang out with Jepp who knew what was worth seeing and doing. When I was leaving I promised I
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Petronas towers would come back to the city some day.... Next stop - Malaka!
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