Chill before the Thrill

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The man maketh the journey. The journey shapeth (poetic license?) the man! I have not undertaken much travel and sight seeing in the last few days. Firstly, I have seen almost all that KL has to offer. Secondly, KK is back. The backbone of this travel was to visit KK and see a bit of KL.

KK arrived back from Hong Kong on Saturday morning. The idiot has shaped up which was good to see. He has lost a lot of his stomach. However, he said I had bulked up! Hard work pays off. We have both achieved things we wanted…him to lose weight, me to bulk up a bit. Anyways, that is one of the first things we notice and talk about in our culture when we have not seen each other for a long time (you have grown tall/thin/fat). This reminds me of a scene from Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Borat visit his village and when he sees his old ma, he blurts out, ‘You have grown!’ (also making that hand gesture, you know the one I am talking about!).

It was good to catch up. For a change, there was not much walking involved on that day…or any over the weekend to be honest. We went on a night out on Saturday, reliving the glorious days at the weekend. Sunday went in just lazing about. KK did not feel that well. He was tired I guess, and the flu got to him.

In the last few days, I have revisited the Petronas and the KLCC. Infact, I have left the wonderful Irsia BnB. The night before I left, they even gave me a complimentary t-shirt. So, ppl definitely stay at Irisa BnB…100% recommended. It is close to the hustle and bustle of KL, very clean at an affordable price. Best of all, Suzi, Abbas and Aryas are very good hosts – very polite and informative. Really helps in a new city. It felt like home.

However, now I have moved into KK’s apartment. This was the original plan before KK had to go in a rescue mission in Hong Kong. His company has given him a two bed condo in Ascott Residency, the lap of luxury. If Irsia was a backpacker’s heaven, this is in the other extreme. Living it big in the KL city.

This place has its own concierge. They also have a person station outside to open the cab door when you arrive, or whistle for a cab on your request. You are greeted with ‘Hello / Good Morning, Sir’ every time you are seen. There is a card that works like a key. It is used to access the lift, the front door and of course the condo. However, it can be used to access only to the Ground Floor, your flat floor and Floor 22. Floor 22 houses Ascott Residency’s restaurant and bar called Sky Lounge, a mini gym, sauna/steam room. The best of all is the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi…and the Petronas is a stone’s throw away. I think I could throw a cricket ball as far as the Petronas from level 22…that’s how close we are! Also, the maid cleans the apartment everyday…including the dishes. Now if this isn’t pure luxury, I dunno what is? I will (hopefully) post few pics of the 22 Floor and the views from the top in the blog.

My main plan was to stay in KL for the 3 weeks. However, with KK’s suggestions of going to Thailand or Indonesia and then Sri Lanka…the traveler in me was waking up. The plan was to meet up with KK and then plan the main plan. A lot of planning was to be done. To Sri Lanka or not to Sri Lanka was the question. (Well, especially after KK did not apply for Thai or Indonesian Visas! The bugger has a Sri Lankan passport and needs Visas to go to everywhere.) However, for me, the question was rhetorical. As per KK, if we weren’t going anywhere else, we would have gone to SL. But things changed...as it always does with life.

But I get excited pretty quickly. I was not even planning on going elsewhere. But by this time, the traveler in me had quit hitting the snooze button. KL was now starting to bore me, as I ran out of things to do…and catching up was fine. But I would be stuck doing nothing once KK went to work starting Monday. A chat later, I decided that Bangkok maybe a good idea afterall. I could take a trip to BKK whilst at weekday and be back in KL at weekend.

We went to enquire for a ticket to BKK in Airasia counter in KL Central. A 20 minutes wait and a 5 minutes enquiry later, I had tickets to BKK in my hand. I was going to fly out on 21 Dec and return on 24 Dec. Impulsive buying…that’s me! The problem with me is, my heart and head isn’t synchronized. It was only supposed to be an enquiry. The head said, ‘Don’t do it..Don’t do it…Don’t do it!’ After 5 minutes or so it had shortened to ‘Do it…do it…do it!’ And I did it!

This got me even more excited. I guess it got so profuse, that KK started feeling it too. Next thing I know, he is looking into flights to Sri Lanka. The idiot, if he had said it earlier, I wouldn’t have minded joining him. However, I think it was just the heat of the moment as it soon died out.

This had now truly woken up the inner adventurous me. I was hungry for more travel. Singapore bus trip has been also been penned. (KK can also join as citizens of Common Wealth Countries do not require visas before travel). The debate is on going whether to make it a day trip or an over night stay. Singapore being such a small and newly developed country, I am not sure if it needs more days dedicated to it.

This other place that was hammering my head was Indonesia. Jakarta or Bali. Bali got ruled out as I would now be travelling alone. Bali being more famous for beaches, Jakarta was the more obvious choice. I wouldn’t mind travelling, plus I had the time. There was a window between the 27-30 December. However, finance was of the issue!

I mauled over Indonesia over the week and into late night Monday. I thought it would be pretty similar to Bangkok and KL in many ways. But I had never been to the South of the equator! That was the main winning point. The night before I was due to fly to BKK, I was playing around with the hostel/hotel in Jakarta.

Indonesia happened by fluke! I was fooling around with an affordable hotel. I was just checking if the price (which looked extra ordinary cheap for the hotel of that caliber!) was correct. I entered few details thinking that the final confirmation step would be where I would accept or reject the offer…To my surprise that was the step where it actually confirmed the reservation. I then thought, ‘Oh well, the hotel is cheap and the flights are as cheap…so why not!’ My soul and heart was tipping towards ‘going’. Only my head was keeping me sane, and making me think of the finances. Hmm…two against one is always a mis-match I guess. Clear winner there! I will just have to budget more efficiently.

Hmm…I have just realized that it has not really been a lot of travel blogging this time. But I might add something at the end that will make it more of a travel blog, than further explaining my insanity!

Traveling around South East Asia is cheap. So, anyone coming here should aim to visit atleast few countries around. Airasia in the Easyjet of SE Asia. Airasia mainly fly from LCCT. There are Sky buses (in partnership with Airasia) or Aeroline buses providing services to LCCT from KL Central. The service is very frequent and costs a mere RM8. This is so much cheaper than taking a cab that could easily cost about RM70-80. Also, you would reach in a similar time. The journey time to LCCT is about 1 hour 15 minutes. This was at 1 in the afternoon. So, no real rush hour issues. Also, I do not see rush hour adding much extra time as most of the way is motor way. I came via similar route into KL from Subang airport (similar distance) reaching my desired destination of Bukit Bintang (very central KL) in about an hour.

LCCT is not as big as Subang airport. However, KLIA probably takes the pride of the airports. Shame I will not be flying from there. One thing LCCT could really improve was their information to go to the correct booth for the boarding pass. I went through the scan in process into one area and I was told that I should be in a different area for the Bangkok flight. Time was abundant, so no real issue there.

The Bangkok flight was alright. No major incidents. Airasia planes are fine…as I said just like Easyjet / Ryanair…cheap, no frills airlines. It gets you to A to B for minimum price. Then there are lots of add ons being sold separately. I nearly booked a 14 hour flights to KL from London. Thank god I didn’t. With no enough space or inflight entertainment I dunno how I would entertain myself. However, you do have an option to add on an entertainment gadget. So, unless the price is extraordinarily cheap, I would avoid a 14 hour flights in Air Asia. In my case, the tickets plus all add ons and the next best priced flight came to a similar price. Therefore, I went for the latter.

I also met this guy from Japan on the bus to LCCT. After out initial, ‘Hi’ and ‘So you are off to Bangkok as well?’ and few introductory pleasantries, there was not a lot of conversation. However, we kept bumping into each other in the airport. I asked him where he was staying at? ‘Khao Sans’ he said. ‘Ah, in that case we can share a cab.’ I remarked. However, he informed me that there is a bus service for 1/3rd the price going to Khao Sans. So, we had a winner. Luckily, the Japanese dude had been to BKK few times. The bus from Suvarnabhumi Airport to LCCT cost 150 Bhat. It took about an hour to get to Khao Sans.

Khao Sans is the backpacker’s heaven in BKK. It clearly showed once I alighted from the bus. However, my hostel was ‘a 10 minutes walk from Khao Sans.’ I opted for this as I would be near the main area, but my accommodation would be peaceful. My initial research had led into me believing that I would not get a lot of sleep in Khao Sans. The scene infront of me proved it right. It was noisy, and there was quite a bit of fanfare. It didn’t look like things were going to stop just yet. This was at 7pm. It was still the same when I visited back at 10pm. So, a little research always helps.

My initial thought on BKK was it was a bit more rustic than KL. It was not surprising given that BKK has been in existence for centuries. The oldest building I saw at KL was built in 1894…just over a century. But it was at Khao Sans, which reminded me of Thamel in Kathmandu. Same presence, same aura…same vibe! I think I am going to like it here.

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Photos

Healthy and Safety
These guys were tied just to a rope...and they are working on 21st floor.