Kuala Lumpur Getting there

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The phone rang at 7:00 for the wakeup call. It was hard to get out of bed and you really don’t realise how important it is to have a window in your room until you don’t have one. We quickly packed and threw on the cloths that I washed last night in the shower. They were still quiet damp but it had a cooling effect when you stepped out into the Singapore heat. We caught a taxi to Queen st and tried to find somewhere to eat. It was the first time we actually had to put our packs on and carry everything on our back. With a quick swing of the pack it was on my back and i was doing up the straps. At first the pack felt very comfortable and 20kg’s of weight seemed to be effortless. We walked for around 10min and I soon started to realise that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. The pack started to get heavier and heavier. We found a little Chinese food market which are scattered pretty much on every corner. Noodles for breakfast mmmmmm, they were in a chicken stock with a few Asian greens a cracked egg and some small dried fish in the middle, also toped off with chopped shallots and a small side of chilli in soy sauce, at only $3:00 singapore each this was cheap. Jacinta only eat a few mouthfuls again and she was full, so I finished it off as usual.
We got on the bus and started to head to KL. There was a elderly British gentleman his name was Paul and was sitting across from us and he just starting talking about himself, were he had been and where he was going, and why he was going. He was very knowledgeable on the area because he lived in the area in the 60’s. Within 20minutes of being on the bus the driver pulled over on the shoulder of the road, we knew there was something wrong because you would not just pullover in the dangerous position we were in. We could hear the undercarriage doors opening and closing then the unmistakable sound of clanging tools as someone said the fan belt had broke. Well I thought that this is typical, after what had happened to us on the plane. Half an hour later we were on our way again and we were both delighted to get through that hiccup. Within another half hour we were already at the border and needed to get off the bus check out of the country. The bus would meet us on the other side of the border. We lined up and got through custom then went down to get back on the bus. The driver said that the bus was Fukd and we needed to wait for another bus to pick us up within an hour. The engine must of blown a gasket and was sucking in water from the radiator. We both shook our heads at each other and couldn’t believe our bad luck with transport. We sat around for 15mins and the driver made us get back on the bus to cross the causeway and the bus would meet us on the other side. The traffic was bad going over and all the cars had to be stopped by security to see if they had more than half a tank of petrol. It seem strange but apparently because the fuel is cheaper in Malaysia everyone was going over there for the day and filling up their tanks with cheap fuel and bringing it back to Singapore. We started to realise how lucky we were not to have borders back home. We got to Malaysia and had to get of the bus again to check in our baggage and stamp our passports again. Once again we had to line up for 15mins with our heavy bags and get back on the bus. We were on our way and 5mins out from the border we swapped buses with ease and proceeded on our journey.
The Paul started to talk about the buildings we were driving past and the what happened in the war. The only problem was he talk very slow and had to think about the words he was saying. Even though I was on holiday I was to tired and didn’t really have the patience to listen to him. I wanted to try and catch up writing my Blog as I feel that I’m always playing catchup. So I’m sitting in the bus as I write this and slowly feeling motion sick. I pop my head up every now and then to catch a fresh breath of air and stare at the mass expanse of palm oil trees. This is pretty much all I can see for miles and miles. The Malaysian highway is just like homes with 2 wide lanes of traffic on each side going opposite directions. Jacinta has fallen asleep beside me and I can feel her tiredness.
KUALA LUMUR; Our first task is to get to the backpackers hostel. We got of the bus and saw a hostel sign. We did want to stay in this part of town because it was right on a bust road. A taxi driver saw us looking around and thought we were easy prey. He offered his assistance and we shut him down pretty quick. We wanted to get close to were Glen was staying so our first point of cal was to get a map and get our bearings. The hostel gave us a free tourist map which was totally useless, we couldn’t fine Middle park and another taxi driver came to fine it and he had no clue either. We were told to walk around the corner and we could fine a bus. We headed towards a large station to fine money and got out 1000rm around $300 Australian. We saw a sigh with bus times and directions and a man ask us if we needed assistants. He spoke good English and had a big smile so we listen to what he had to say. We were looking for middle park and he knew where it was. I asked him how much to get there and he said 25rm around $8 Aus. It was around 5:30 and we didn’t want to stuff around, we caught the taxi to middle park which is a huge four story shopping centre. We immediately asked for a hostel at the information desk, they did not have any around the area. She ended up pointing us in the direction of a hotel in the mall called CITITEL. It was a four star hotel and it cost us 270rm $90 Aus. It was way over our budget but we could not be bothered looking at something else at 6:30 at night. It was on the 18th floor and the views were amazing. Jacinta ended collapsing on the bed from exhaustion caring the 20kg pack is hard work. We quickly refreshed ourselves and went down the lobby to call Glens mobile number that he had given us three weeks earlier. We rang the number and repeated “pickup, pickup, pickup” He answered “Hello Glen speaking”. I have never been happier to hear Glens voice, Jacinta clutched her hands together and did a little jump for joy. We ended up meeting him the lobby of the Boulevard hotel only 5min walk away. As we walked in glen was sitting on the couch in the distance reading a paper. He spotted us and quickly held the paper in front of his face so we couldn’t see him. We both laughed and he slowly peaked around the paper to take another look. All we could see is that big Glen Belcher smile, and I’m shore that from his point of view we had that same smile. It was a relief to see him and a firm hand shake was a priority. Glen immediately started to show us around the huge shopping mall and pointed out all the cheap food, bargains, ATM’s, cheap food, Internet cafes, cheap food. Everything you needed was in this mall. You really never needed to leave. The mall is so big that it is regarded as a city. We were grateful he was showing us all things that would take a week of looking around to actually find out. We went to I unit which backs right onto the mall. We got the lift up to the 13th floor and walked inside the unit. Everyone greeted us with smiles, Guy and Katie, Joan and Gerry were all playing cards and Narelle “everyone’s mum” was probably busy cleaning up after everyone, she just doesn’t stop. It was great to see some friendly faces and when we turn up in a big city you feel very small and insignificant. We felt very confident in this city now after the grand tour I’m sure we can tackle this large city. Glen took us out to dinner at an American style restaurant called Tony Roma’s. Glen proceeded to order more and more entrees and everyone was saying stop, stop, we won’t eat dinner. The serving sizes were absolutely gigantic and Jacinta and I shared a hamburger which the size of a dinner plate. It was great being with everyone and it made it easier to settle into our trip.

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