Day 2 - KL Malaysia

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I arrived in KL yesterday in the early hours of the morning. I had not had much sleep on train so decided some sleep would be needed prior to heading out and exploring the city. I am a night owl any way (which is why I had chosen China Town area as I heard they have great night markets).

Once I woke up it was time to head out and explore - a little tentatively of course being the geographical dyslexic I am. I have heard women can't read maps. The hostel I had chosen is right near the night markets so I headed that way to have a look around. I did not plan to buy anything as I will just have to lug it through Thailand and Indonesia and my packs are heavy enough already. The night markets are amazing. It is a very colourful and vibrant place. I must have been approached every 30 seconds asking if I would like to buy some DVD's. There is a lot of cheap immitation product to be found in the China Town night markets and as I had been having some dificulty with time I thought a cheap watch might be in order. I managed to score a genuine copy (this phrase made me literally lol) for a sweet 17 ringet.....nice.

Whilst in the market I met a lovely French guy who is living and working in KL and he offered to show me around KL. We went for a very long walk so I got to see the Petronis towers, the telecomunications tower, the entertainment district (something or other Bintang) and some other sights around KL without the fear of getting lost. Several people sleep on the streets around KL and police, shopkeepers and citizens alike seem to just go about their business without worrying about them. On the walk I saw several things you would expect in a big Asian city - street stalls, scooters by the millions, rats and cockroaches, rubbish in the streets, hard working people just trying to make a living and loads of tourists. Whilst some of the city does shut down there are areas that just seem to be going 24/7. The most disappointing thing for me is that everywhere you go in KL there are signs in English. It is quite surreal-here I am in an Asian city and the signs are in English yet back home you go into Footscray and the signs are all in Vietnamese.

Finally to today-I jumped on the Hop-on, hop-off bus which takes you to 40 popular and cultural destinatinations around KL. The ticket is fairly cheap - only 35 ringet for 24 hours and you can hop on or off at any one of the 20+ stops around KL. I was going to do a full lap today and then head out tomorrow and hop off at some of the areas I found more interesting but the urge to stop at the telecommunications tower was too strong so I disembarked there to spend the rest of my day. The brochure I had said it would cost 20 ringet but they only have package deals which include other attractions on the ground so I was stung for 38 ringet ($15 AUS). Not too bad a price but when you are expecting 20 it does seem a bit rich. As usual I took tons of photos but for some reason the micam does not want to upload them to the computer for me. Anyway I will leave it at that and let the photos speak for themselves. KL is an amazing city full of gorgeous architecture. It's turbulant history has ensured it is a very ecclectic city indeed.

Tomorrow I am off to Langkawi so the next photos you see should be of beautiful beaches. As a final note let me just say that the staff at Matahari Lodge are fantastic. The rooms are basic, there are warm showers (shared) but they are clean. Overall my stay at Matahari Lodge has been a very pleasant one. I will probably stay here on my return to KL.

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