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Published: January 27th 2008
Petronas Twin Towers
Tallest twin towers in the world - owned by the oil company of course! We arrived yesterday in Kuala Lumpur after a 2 1/2 hour bus ride (that only cost about $3 USD!)...our first impression was not that great as we pulled in to the Putamaya bus station surrounded by a traffic jam that made it take about a half hour to go 50 meters...we were then welcomed by 100 degree (HUMID) weather, trash, cockroaches, and people everywhere. The first room we looked at was so bad, we couldn't leave the place fast enough...the matress was so dirty/moldy/rotten, it was almost black! I don't think anyone was actually staying there. We looked at several other sketchy places, then decided to act on the recommendation we found on the Lonely Planet website...Wheeler's Guesthouse. The entry way was a little scary and gross, but then as you reach the floor of the building where the hostel is located, it's actually quite charming and the room looked decent so we decided to go for it. After waking up face to face with a 2 inch cockroach (and after having killed several of it's babys already) we decided to blow the joint (not literally, although we could have done that there too).
After some searching, we found a
Sculpture Park
Artistic sculpture interpretation by Cara & Trevor few good possibilities, and settled on one that seemed the best deal....it's actually cheaper and we get a room to ourselves (i.e. no roaches - yet). The place is called Cintamani Travellers Lodge and we were impressed that it has some of the cleanest showers we've seen in KL (or actually in Malaysia). Nice common area too and gotta love the AC amd cheap internet.
One of the first things Trevor did after we checked into the room was to get a hair cut, oops, I mean buzz cut...great for alleviating the heat. I was tempted to do the same but decided that wouldn't look so good in wedding pictures...
Last night, we got our bearings by visiting the very impressive Malaysian Tourist Information Center...at 8:30 at night...it was open late and the guy we spoke to was extremely helpful...we got maps and brochures galore, plus some free advice. We then walked around and enjoyed an amazing view of the Petronas Twin Towers at night...see pic! Still 95 degrees though and we found ourselves in the middle of the business district (i.e. no hawker stalls) desparate for drinks, which took a few exausting blocks to find.
Today, after getting the room situation figured out, we went walking to see some of the sights of the city...saw some cool buildings, mosques, parks, etc. The majority of the time was spent at the several parks around the Lake Gardens...one of which included the largest walk in Aviary Park in the world which houses over 2000 species of birds...it was expensive in terms of most of the stuff we've done, but worth it as the birds were pretty exotic compared to what we see at home and we got to see a Macau (like a big colorful parrot) ride a bike - on a tight rope! (among other tricks....). Lunch options were limited in the park so we survived by eating lots of ice cream - definitely a survival food in this climate!
On the way back to our hotel we found a great local indian restaurant with a very patient and helpful waiter who tried very hard to interpret the menu for us (all of which was in the Malay language of Bahasa)...unfortunately his indian accent was very strong and we had a hard time understanding even his english. But we managed to enjoy a delicious meal and dessert and even knew what we were eating! We are really enjoying the indian food and Indian people we have met and hope to add India to our itinerary at some point.
Random thoughts....
Something we should have brought...bug dope with lots of deet! We got eaten alive today (mainly me, not Trevor as much) and tried to find bug spray but there is a very limited selection and most of it is natural stuff - not bad, but not as effective and we have limited space so it needs to be high powered stuff! Also, we've learned that tiger balm is good for just about anything, including sore muscles, itchy bug bites, and flatulence - although we haven't figured out where to apply it for that last one.
One strangely positive thing about all the cigarette (mainly clove cigs) and incense smoke...it is great at covering up the smell of trash that seems to be everywhere.
It's pretty cool to be walking down the street and be able to listen to the singing/prayers in the mosques which are magnified over loudspeakers (or seems to be)...reminds you you're in a totally different place and is quite pretty.
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