Travel day to Kuala Lumpur

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Last night we went with Coco to The Blue Diamond Hotel because I had seen a sign for Mexican food and had a huge craving for nachos. When we got there we were told that they didn't have nachos and so to soothe my aching, breaking heart, we ordered enough food for five people. Hey, we hadn’t eaten for about 9 hours (I think…) and we were all hungry. Ronald and I ordered a chicken bean burrito, a chicken quesadilla, and beef tacos while Coco ordered fried rice and a chicken quesadilla, all of this accompanied by Tiger beers, of course. Upon the arrival of the food the disappointment set in. We realized that the burrito and the quesadilla were almost exactly the same and the "spicy salsa" served was actually not what it advertised. I thought the beef tacos weren’t too bad, considering, but after we left and headed to the Reggae bar again for a quick brew before calling it a night. We were all tuckered out from the day’s activities.

This morning Ronald and I woke up, showered, and headed to a dress shop I’d seen yesterday only to find it closed. Déjà vu of Vientiane and my sandals, but we soldiered on and found a place to buy our bus tickets. It cost 35 RM and we bought a ticket for 13:00 and had to be back at the bookshop at 12:15 for pick up. This gave us an hour and fifteen minutes so we decided to eat a quick breakfast and try the dress shop again before getting our bags and checking out of 75. We went to a small place and ordered a ham sandwich, a banana lassi, an orange juice, and bread with garlic butter and spent the next 30 minutes waiting for the food. So at 11:45 we rushed out and went to get our bags and ended up at the used bookstore at 12:15. The man told us we had 10 or 15 minutes so we didn’t try to go to the dress shop – hopefully I’ll find the same ones in Kuala Lumpur!

A van came a little before 12:30 and took us to the bus station and left us at the Newsia office where there was a woman and a very large, sleeping man sitting behind the desk. She looked at our ticket, wrote the bus number on the back of it and told us to wait.

At 13:00 the bus came (a big bus with AC and seats that reclined so that you’re basically in another person’s lap, but no toilet) and we loaded our bags and got on the bus – get this – in the seats that were assigned to us! This has almost never happened here and I was surprised by the order and respect for rules though had I thought about it, I don’t think it would have been a shock. This country is very different than what we’ve seen so far.

Anyways, the bus took us to another bus station and we waited there while more people got on until 14:15. We made one stop at a gas station and other than that it was smooth sailing apart from a few sudden downpours that we hope doesn’t signal the beginning of the monsoon season…

We arrived at 19:00 at the KL terminal and quickly realized that we were in the middle of nowhere. Apparently the bus terminal is about 30 minutes away from the actual city center. Ronald went around asking taxi drivers about getting into the city and they kept telling him to go to Chinatown and that it would cost 35 RM. I ended up chatting with Nicholas, a man standing next to me while I was waiting for Ronald, and he was a policeman in Singapore but has family in Malaysia and he told me that we could just take a bus for about 3 RM! What a price difference! He told us the bus just left but that another should be on its way.

We bid him farewell and I went into the information and ticket tent to ask about a bus to Puduraya, the center of town that Nicholas told us to go to. The woman pointed to a bus pulling up and told me it was that one and cost 2 RM! I ran to get Ronald and we went back and got on the bus. We waited for about 10 minutes while the bus filled and then headed off to the city center!

We got off when everyone else did and started walking to try to find a cheap place to stay. We were approached by a local and he tried to get us to follow him to his hotel and when we said no and kept walking, he followed us. He probably followed us for about 10 minutes before we decided to check out the prices at his place. The cheapest we could find for two people was 35 RM in a dorm with a shared bathroom -- the prices are much steeper in this city, or at least in this area. That's pretty disappointing because we've been trying, successfully I might add, to keep it below 10 USD a night.

Anyways, we ended up going into Starbucks and sending one person out as a scout. When I went it was already 10 pm but I did find a place for 32 a night that was a private room with a shared bathroom and free wifi and toilet paper, so we took that. We dropped off our bags, paid, showered, and went out to find something to eat and drink. Hopefully we won't spend all of our money here!!

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