KL but not as we'd planned

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Day 1

The holiday started with a private limo ride to the airport. From our house it's only $90 which is actually cheaper than getting a taxi! I had also enquired about getting the limo from Jane's mum's place and it would have cost $70 (only $25 in a normal taxi). The ride was great and the sound track was Gold FM with a good selection of 80's hits including Billy Idol and Twisted Sister.

Melbourne Airport has plumbed new depths of how to inconvenience travellers and it's a nice touch that they seem to have followed Auckland's lead of hiding the departure cards where you can't see them - behind you as your attention is drawn towards the immigration officers in their little forts. Luckily I spotted the counters to fill in the cards when I turned around to see where Jane and Lauren had got to. There was even a queue to get to the counters to fill in the cards, so I reached over, grabbed 3 cards, joined the already massive immigration queue and filled them in in-queue while we waited. It's easy to fill these things in when you memorise all the passport details, if you can't...I used to use a "cheat sheet" which had all the passport vitals conveniently listed for quick reference when filling these forms out - as I usually end up filling all the forms out and then getting Jane and Lauren to simply sign their cards.

It's also amazing how dopey some travellers are. I spotted one guy ahead of us in the check-in queue who was holding up procedings as he tried to check in his wife without her present. Fortunately, the check-in clerk told him to stand aside and wait for his wife to show up. Later this same guy was spotted trying to get to the boarding gate early (turned away), then tried the business class queue (turned away...admittedly I nearly queued up in this queue as instructions were not very clear and nearly 80% of people in that queue weren't business class either...just sheep :P)...then I spotted him being turned away from the correct line as they were filling up the back of the plane first and he was not in the range of seats they were loading. I recommend a course of percussive instruction for this guy or maybe the threat of an impromptu tasering might make him actually engage his brain at some point.

Flight was smooth and fast. At one point it felt like we were simply sitting on the ground! No vibration could be felt at all...never had that before! Tried closing my eyes for the flight, but that only achieved the effect of saving my eyeballs from drying out...I can't sleep on planes. Jane had snuck in a Tamazopan and was snoozing happily but hadn't offered me one 😞. The aircon was so intense my throat dried out so much I made a trip to the galley for a quick drink. They pointed me to the tray of juices they had set out and I sculled several one after the other...ahhh...better. Arriving at KLIA is awesome, great airport and that train shuttle really strings out the passengers so that the queues through immigration are negligible and fast. Bought a cab voucher to the city for RM74 saying "Petronas Towers" and then guided the driver to the hotel with the GPS and KL mapset I've got loaded...super easy, straight up the E20 freeway and we're virtually dumped at our doorway in about 30 minutes. I'd looked at the maps earlier and if I was driving would have probably used the E6 but as the ride was a fixed price, I was happy to let the cabbie take any way he felt like taking and it worked well. Top speed coming in to town was 145kmh and the lane markings are definitely only used as a guideline as he sat happily straddling lanes most of the time.

The Zon

I'd booked this place in the end with the prime reason of getting space and not needing to worry about getting extra beds arranged. We booked a two bedroom suite and the photos of this place all looked good and the reviews are nothing alarming. My first impressions were to realise how damn spoiled we've been lately. I was initially dismayed as it's quite a pokey hotel and getting up into our room was a slow sauna ride up 20 floors in a coffin of an elevator - we figured out that the elevator is actually hotter than anywhere else, even outdoors! The room is quite sparsely furnised and looks quite tired and definitely in need of a good renovation. I was pondering my decision to save maybe $60 by not staying at the Sheraton or similar - but it's only 2 nights so let's grin an bear it as we've got the Intercon Westlake coming up.

I must admit though, The Zon is everything I was looking for. There is a tonne of space here...almost too much, it's a massive apartment. Add the friendly staff (even the porter that I didn't get to tip as I didn't have anything smaller than a 50 note...but I'll make up for that later)...the breakfast spread looks great, they let us check in at 8am, the aircon works well, we are right on the park with views of the park and the Petronas Towers, the TV is an old CRT model but works just fine, the furniture is very dated yet comfortable, the bed is absolutely firm - just the way I like it...even if it isn't a Kingsize. The shower is hot and strong, unusual in my experience of Malaysia previously.

Wandering Around

Jane fell asleep and Lauren and I wandered off to explore the park. KLCC park is quite beautiful and has the most massive kiddies playground and wading pool. We were wandering around taking photos...generally of anything with the twin towers in the background. The pool cleaners didn't like me getting too close to the pool and told me the pool was closed until 10am and I tried to indicate that I was just taking photos...not wanting to get in the pool (and stuff up my new $1000 lens!). Then what looked like a whole school of kids descended on the playground en-masse in bright coloured t-shirts. Was tempting to take a photo but I wasn't sure what someone might think of a westerner pointing a camera at a bunch of local kids...it's basically a fisheye lens, but looks like a big telephoto...so no shot taken. Someone blew a whistle and I thought that it was one of the carers trying to get the kids' attention, but Lauren said there was some official looking woman pointing at me and looking sternly at me...I didn't see her and she was totally ignored. We headed off towards the twin towers for some different scenery anyway. The mall doesn't really open until 10am but a few places open before then - notably Dome Coffees who do an excellent Chai Latte - just as good if not better than Mama's Boy back home...but without the honey and a good dose of cinnamon instead. After, we wandered into the Mandarin Oriental as the mall has "premium toilets" that you have to pay for - hence requiring staff - and being prior to 10am were therefore closed so the hotel seemed a good plan B...a very good plan B 😊 I was pondering staying there on the night we come back through KL at the end of the trip, but there's also an extra day in Siem Reap still on the cards...but there's also a new eco-resort on the beach south of KLIA that looks very appealing.

After the mall, we strolled around the outside of the park to Traders Hotel to get the details of how to get up to the Sky Bar for 6:30pm. It's amazing how perfect everything is around the twin towers and you just exit that little ecosystem by 1 street and you could be almost anywhere else in Malaysia, oppressive heat, people sitting around, the world looks a lot less ordered. Traders Hotel looks very flash and the concierge girls were most helpful. I mentioned my quandry over what activities to do seeing we were at a loss of ideas as some friends of ours had pulled the plug on our planned catchup with only 72 hours notice of our arrival. The girls were full of great ideas and most sympathetic to our cause.

We made a subsequent assault on the mall when it was truly open and everybody was there...it was massive! We crawled every level and Jane's handbag radar was in full swing. So much to buy...but what to buy? I picked up a travel power adaptor that does any format to any format - something that illegal to sell in Australia as nothing that does that complies to the almighty Australian Electrical Safety Standards. But for less than A$10 we got just what we needed where to get something from Australia would cost you A$26 and require you to carry 3 separate plug converters (and possibly lose one or two)

Sky Bar

A nice quiet stroll over to Sky Bar...level 33 in the Traders Hotel provided a great place to soak up the KL atmosphere in the upper atmosphere, down a cocktail or two, a few Heinekens and all their signature dishes. Once the sun set and we'd soaked up all the ambience we could handle we jumped in a cab and headed for Chinatown.

Chinatown

This place just gets crazier each time you go. There was the usual "here boss!", "genuine copy Rolex", "free to look please"...all the same routines. Though it was a bit disturbing to spot a couple of what appeared to be drug deals going down off to the side and a fair few amputees on the ground begging away. But still, this is one of those things you just have to do if you're ever in KL. I tried to convince Lauren to buy a cheap watch, you haven't been to KL unless you've bought one I reckon, but she was fried and just wanted to hit the hay. So a quick trip to McDonalds for a quick bit of refreshment, witness a few backpackers taking serious advantage of the free WiFi after their Petaling Street exploits and plot our way home past all the touting cab drivers to pick the cab at the front of the rank that is larger and more comfortable.

Taxis

I've had a few warnings about dodgy taxi drivers and so was wary but haven't had to worry yet, they've all been very nice and courteous, taking some really nifty shortcuts I wouldn't have picked out on my GPS (another precaution to make sure they head in the right direction). There seems to be a lot of "no haggling" signs on taxis these days so they must be serious about stamping out dodgy taxis 😊

TV just for show

Watched some TV before heading for bed. Then thought, well there's a TV in the bedroom...I'll go watch that instead of the one in the lounge, but there's no remote for it and it's a different model to the one in the lounge and the aerial is not even plugged in...so it must be just there for show.

Day 2 - Train to Central Market

Pretty lazy start to the day with a late-ish breakfast, sit around the pool for a few minutes and then a wander off to see if we can find a train station. The closest train station to The Zon is Ampang Park and it was just so easy. Out the back driveway, turn right, walk about 100m and there's the station on your right. I was tempted to go for an all-day pass for RM10 but you really need to be moving around a lot to break even! It was only RM2 to get to the station near Central Market - cheap! The train arrived the moment we got to the platform so no time to sit around soaking up the underground atmosphere. In no time we'd passed several stations and there was Central Market. I'd actually bought tickets to get us to KL Sentral (yes...correct spelling) but we bailed one stop short as Jane doesn't like walking and soaking up the environment.

We spent a lazy hour or so wandering around Central Market which used to be a "wet" produce market and was going to be demolished, but the locals got together in protest and it was converted to it's current incarnation and declared a heritage site. The food court is enough to scare most westerners...Lauren was totally lost at the huge array of stuff she couldn't comprehend eating so went without. I went for the relative safety of a fiery Nasi Lemak for RM3 great food...could have stayed there all day.

Couple of cache waypoints

There were a couple of intermediate points of a multicache near the market, so I dragged Jane and Loz out into the intense midday sun to scope out a few of the clues. One I remembered from Chinatown was the postcode (poskod) as I had a chuckle over the phonetic language the previous night and remembered the postcode was 50000. The other question was when was the Central Market built. Another question is the number written in graffiti on a bridge (that was actually not a very pleasant location) and then we went to where the Klang and some other river create a confluence just north of the market...they don't look like rivers...more like a super-sewer! The Yarra is downright picturesque in comparison. At this point Jane started complaining so we went in search of the hop on hop off bus, waited about 15 minutes and gave up waiting and headed back for the train station.

Monorail to Berjaya Times Square

We caught the train to KL Sentral and then went on the hunt for the monorail (monorel). Spotting an obscure sign that sent us east and downstairs, we found lots of buses and taxis and not much else. There were lots of people wandering towards something that looked like a hole in the wall, so we followed, round a few corners, along a street, down to a main street and there's the monorail above the street...ok, not too hard. My plan was to head to Berjaya Times Square because I'd read about this really massive theme park that sounded like fun. Tickets on the monorail to the Imbi station were RM1.60 each. Lauren had a bit of an issue with her ticket at the barrier and was the last of us to get through...by the time we realised she wasn't with us, Jane and I were already on the escalator up to the platform and we could hear her yelling out for us. No problem, the gate security guy got involved and helped her through and she was back with us in no time. Unlike the rat maze connection at KL Sentral...the monorail connection into Berjaya Times Square is a piece of cake.

Berjaya Times Square

This place is massive! We thought Suria was pretty big, but this place has multiple annexes, is 8 storeys high (seems higher) and there is just too much to take in. Everything is here and we spent quite some time navigating around...though not so methodically as Suria. We sort of made a beeline to Cosmos World (the theme park) and watched the rollercoaster do it's thing and then decided not to bother...I kinda would have liked to go on the roller coaster, but Lauren doesn't like them...so no fun. We did find the Krispy Kreme store and loaded up on fat and sugar! Feet rested, we renewed our assault on the mall and found the IT section 😊 Bought a new flash drive and a network cable (as the hotel was sadly lacking one). Jane spotted a Guess handbag she was really keen on...but then started having second thoughts and ended up not buying it despite getting a 40% discount.

Our legs ended up getting completely fried, and despite my suggestions of getting massages done somewhere, we jumped in a taxi to take us "home". It was a coupon arrangement out the front RM11 to take us back. I had some loose coins in my pocket and they were going to fall out at some point anyway, so I gave them to the taxi driver...this perked him up no end and he was most chatty and helpful with all sorts of advice for the rest of the short drive.

Couple of caches in KLCC Park

With Jane completely exhausted and me not yet having claimed a geocache in Malaysia...I was off. A quick trip into the park to grab the cache 100m from the hotel, easy pickings. Next stop was at the other end of the park where the GPS led me to the top of a mound next to the lake for a virtual cache (need to send an email to the owner to log your find) where I had to pick up some information. From my standpoint, I could see a little yellow sign, so I walked over and read it and it said not to walk where I'd just been walking!!! Ooops...I wondered if that little security woman with the whistle was glaring at me from some hidden location again...geez I'm such a lawbreaker! I didn't get all the information I needed at that spot, so I thought I'd google the results later on and went off in search of the KLCC train station...I didn't initially find the train station, but I did find an information board with all the remaining clues for the virtual cache and then found the train station nearby.

Train back into cache territory

I only needed to go a couple of stations so that was only RM1. I only had to get to the next station after Dang Wangi...at a station with nowhere near such a great name. My 4th train trip for the day and nowhere near the RM10 for a daily card...so if you're a tourist, it's easier just to pay as you go.

The multi-cache.

So I've jumped off at the station after Dang Wangi (great name!) and followed the compass to the nearest waypoint @ St Johns. It's an interesting church in that they had seemed to copy the muslims in using loudspeakers to broadcast their prayers. We don't get that home and I'm sure people would complain if they did. Clue found and off to the next point, Muziem Telekom (the phone museum). The coordinates for this place were a little off, my GPS sent me on a merry chase and I found myself circling behind this rather bland looking building with a security guard blissfully unaware of my presence. I couldn't find what I'd been looking for so I called him over and asked if he had a telephone book so that I could get the next clue to my hunt. He had nothing, just an empty guardhouse and a happy demeanour so I gave him a smile and a thumbs up and wished him a happy day. The museum ended up being right next to the church I'd just come from!

Next stop, Malaysian flagpole. I'd already gleaned that the malaysian flag had originally been raised in 1957 so I didn't need the clue but it was on the way from my present position anyway, so I went for the photos. I must have been lucky as they'd closed off the whole 6 lane road in front of the flag pole and it made for some interesting pictures - well, maybe for a local, a street as big as that with no traffic on it in the middle of peak hour...freaky!

A quick stroll to the other end of the cricket pitch for the next clue and a bunch of photos when the local Hells Angels rolled up on their 125cc scooters. It was like a swarm of angry bees came flying out of Chinatown and then shot up the 6 lane one way street the wrong way. Must be cricket time? Next few waypoints were mere steps away to the Rotary Gardens with some bloke fast asleep on the thing I needed clues off, fortunately I could see the year number that I needed, then just around the corner was this weird sculpture with pitcher plants all over it, looked quite pretty.

Menara Tower

Now that I had all my clues, I did the basic maths required to calculate the final location - somewhere near the Menara Tower in the Bukit Nanas Reserve...unfortunately a 2km walk. So off I trudged, my feet were getting quite sore by now, but geocaching gives you a good dose of sheer bloody-mindedness sometimes. Back up past the church with the broadcast going again, and into the reserve. It was getting a bit darker now with some clouds rolling in. Quite a change from the urban jungle to some real jungle right in the heart of KL. As I approached the final location, I heard a large tree crashing down through the forest and thought that it sounded near and large! Very soon I found the tree that had fallen and it was pretty much right where the cache was supposed to be! Glad I was bit slow!!! Didn't find the cache, apparently no-one has found it since May...oh well, good photo ops at least 😊. There was another cache just up the hill, so I headed for that as my backup (and there were taxis there that I'd have to take back anyway). Cache was an easy find - the mozzies said the same thing about me at about the same instant!

I wandered back towards the tower to find a taxi and found a coupon place wanting to charge me RM16 to get home. Come on! It was only RM11 from BTS, but my feet weren't in a complaining mood so I stumped up the cash, got a voucher and then got confused looks as I wandered off towards the tower...turns out they'd actually put the taxi rego on my voucher, so there was a taxi waiting for me after I'd gone for a bit of a poke around the base to see what food/drink was available. I also managed to annoy the hostess at the base of the elevators as there is all this security and ticketing gates around the front entrance, but I somehow found a back entrance into the lift lobby bypassing all the security. By the time she noticed me I was already in the middle of the tower so I didn't think it would make any difference which exit I took, so I headed off through the metal detector.

Dinner at Chili's

Nothing unusual here except that I gave them a RM20 tip and Lauren saw the guy open the bill folder and his eyes bulged out of his head and a big smile broke across his face and his work buddy gave him a pat on the shoulder "good job dude".

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