Advertisement
Published: September 1st 2006
Sunday 27th August Paul - Got up and had a bus to Kuala Lumpur to catch. It was the end of the school holidays so every man and his dog seemed to be leaving Georgetown. After taking over an hour and a half just to leave the island (the bus journey was only supposed to last 4 hours!) we were finally on the way to KL (as the whole backpacker crowd seems to call it). Spent the bus journey reading or watching the scenery roll by.
Arrived in KL and was greeted by the usual array of touts trying to get us to their hostel. Checked out the Pudu Hostel which didn't have the greatest rooms in the world so we went to see if a place called Wheelers was any better. Jess and Laura said they would be staying there so we checked the room list and they were so we decided to check in. The hostel was nice too!
First impressions of KL are that it looks a lot better than I thought it would. Walked round Chinatown (which is where we are staying) and it has a cool market and a nice vibe to it.
Had lovely beef noodles down a little side street as the food here is a little pricey!
Got back to find a note pinned to our door from Laura and Jess saying they were on the rooftop bar of our hostel. The hostel has done a really good job of this bar, set on top of the block of flats with decent views across the city at night, it's a good place for a drink. Played cards for a while before me and Holmsy watched Chelsea play before going to bed. Laura and Jess are flying home on Tuesday so we arranged to spend the day with them tomorrow.
Monday 28th August Paul - After me and Laura had got some breakfast (off the street stalls because our hostel is a rip off) we headed out with the girls. After a lot of walking we arrived at the KL tower (not to be confused with the Petronas towers) which is just a tall communications tower. Me and Laura had no interest in going up so walked around the gardens for a bit while the other 3 went up. We thought it was a bit of a
waste of money as it was a cloudy day and there isn't much to see in KL anyway.
After that Laura (not the Darby version) wanted to find her insurance company to make a claim before she flies to New Zealand. So cue about 2 hours of walking around the city in the sweltering heat! I don't think me, Laura and Holmsy were too bothered as we hadn't seen the city yet but Jess was pretty annoyed. The Petronas towers are pretty amazing, not sure if they still are the tallest buildings in the world but they certainly give you neck ache. You can walk across the platform connecting the two but we wouldn't be doing that today.
Finally found the insurance building and Laura told us to head towards the Lake Gardens and the National Art Gallery as she wasn't sure how long she would be. Cue another hour of walking before we reached the Gallery to find............... it was closed on a Monday! Laura and I found it slightly hilarious but I think Jess was getting pissed off. Met back up with other Laura who from this point on will be called Lara to stop confusion
as its confusing enough writing this!
Walked around the lake gardens for a while, playing on the swings, playing on see-saw and sliding down the slide. The mature things to do. Wasn't the prettiest gardens in the world by any stretch of the imagination.
So we would be going out tonight to "celebrate" those two leaving Malaysia and what better way than at a bar pumping out PCD and Black Eyed Peas?
Laura and I, always the students, bought a bottle of vodka before hand and took it with us so we wouldn't have to buy any drinks. Genius! Lara and Jess had befriended some very, very strange Malay guys who kept insisting to take them out for dinner.... the bizarre night was about to get even weirder...
Shortly afterwards Jess made the admission that she "dumped my ex boyfriend because he wasn't gonna earn as much money as me".... right...
SHORTLY after that Jess said something along the lines of "the other night this really gross old bloke touched my bum. It's alright if it's a young guy trying to pull you but not someone gross"
Genius.
We did have a good
night though and I think we gave the girls a good send off.
Tuesday 29th August Paul - Laura woke up and felt like she'd been hit by a brick. Let's just say the toilet bowl was her best friend throughout the night and most of today as well.
So while Holmsy, Lara and Jess went to the shopping mall (why!?) I stayed back at the hostel tending to Laura. Went for a walk around Chinatown and the markets before heading back and forcing Laura to drink some water.
So basically had a lazy day and after going out for dinner with everyone (minus Laura who was to ill) we said goodbye to Jess and Lara (Lara we may see in New Zealand but Jess is flying home to England - along with her crazy views) before me and Holmsy went for another shop in the market.
Wednesday 30th August Laura - Apparently I had the time of my life the other night, dragging everyone onto the dancefloor and singing along to some classic tunes at the top of my voice. Unfortunately (or should i say, fortunately?) I don't remember any of
it. I am NEVER drinking again. Alcohol is very very bad.
Paul - Laura, finally recovered from her 'horrendous illness', was up first and we went to get breakfast. Planned to go and see the Batu Caves today which are a half day trip outside of KL. The caves weren't discovered till about 100 years ago and now they are a huge Hindu shrine.
What the guidebook didn't say are they also seem to be a shrine for lots of thieving monkeys. Literally! We saw two monkeys conspiring to rob some woman of her lunch and then, seconds later, we saw a monkey steal a drink out of a guys hand! Grabbing our bags slightly tightly than we were before, we headed up the 277 steps to the entrance to the caves (the steps were numbered, probably to demoralise you with how far there was to go).
Laura - Now I understand where the term 'cheeky monkey' comes from. The first sight we had of the caves were the masses of steps leading up to them that were covered in monkeys. Now I usually really like monkeys but when they're jumping onto people and when you haven't
had your rabies jab, it's slightly worrying! Fortunately as we didn't have any food on us they left us well alone (although one did bare it's teeth at Paul when he shoved his camera right in it's face). I think we spent more time watching the monkeys playing and climbing up the cave walls than we did actually admiring the caves. But to be honest there wasn't THAT much to admire. For some reason the floor of the cave has been cemented over to make a nice smooth surface and there are railings everywhere. So you can almost forget you're actually in a cave. Apparently it's because they have a huge festival in there once a year, and thousands of people crowd in. Bet the monekys love that. There are a number of colourful statues dotted around the cave but even they have been slightly spoiled by the numbered placards placed beneath them, presumabley to label them for the 'audio tour'.
Paul - To be honest, although the caves are very spectacular, they have been slightly ruined by the horrible, tacky shops that are littered everywhere in it. The monkeys were fun though, turning over bins, throwing bottles about...
like Grimsby River Front on a Saturday night.
We got back to our hostel and realised (or rather Laura realised) that tomorrow is Malaysia's National Day, celebrating the end of British rule. So tonight there would be huge celebrations at midnight underneath the Petronas Towers.
Laura - Paul forgot to mention that I had my hair cut, obviously missing out a very important part of the day. Well it will interest Katie anyway!
So to catch the Merdeka (Independance) celebrations we headed to the Petronas towers on a very busy train and entertained ourselves watching an open air concert that was going on (with some legendary performances). It was quite a sedate affair, everyone was sitting down and being fairly quiet. They didn't even make much noise when rallied on by people on the stage. Considering there were hundreds of thousands of people there and that most of the people were probably under the age of thirty, the atmosphere was very calm and reserved. Now if this was an event in Britain I can imagine it would just be a huge piss up. No wonder the Malays wanted independance from us...
Anyway at the stroke of
midnight there was a count down and then everyone sang the Malay national anthem. Then everyone looked up into the sky and waited for the fireworks... and waited... and waited.... and waited.... There was a very good fireworks display coming from somewhere in the distance, but nobody could really see it..... Everyone looked confused.... Someone in the crowd set off a rocket and everyone laughed... then waited some more....
After about ten minutes of waiting the fireworks eventually began and I have to say they were well worth the wait. They nearly burst my eardrums, but they were very impressive. When they were over we decided to avoid the seething mass of people trying to get the metro back to Chinatown and walked back instead, which was quite fun because there were crowds of people walking down the blocked roads and everyone was in high spirits.
Thursday 31st August Laura - After another late night we didn't get up until almost midday again. Now it's Paul's turn to be ill (again). He has caught my cold and also has a slightly funny tummy (as do I, but you know, a man's suffering is always worse than
a woman's). So, feeling a bit weak we decided to not do anything too strenuous.
Me and Paul had a walk around the local area, to see if there were any parades or anything going on (as it's National Day). Not coming across anything exciting, we took a short walk around the National History Museum before going back to the hostel to see if Holsmy was out of bed yet.
The three of us then did a short walking tour of the city, which mainly includes a variety of temples. We went into a couple of Buddhist temples, a Hindu temple, and a Tao temple, before heading to the main mosque for a quick peek. I had to wear a rather fetching headscarf, as women are not allowed to enter the mosque with their hair on display (Katie would be proud, it was stylish yet functional - she's in fashion now you know?). The mosque is a very impressive building, situated in the middle of a river. Unfortunately it is surrounded on all sides by ugly towering buildings, so we couldn't really get a good picture. It was absolutely huge, and seemed to consist of a series of
large open rooms. There were hundreds of people lying down in these rooms and at first glance I thought they might be praying but then I realised that they were asleep!
Paul - Had a final shop around the market before heading off to bed. Tomorrow we plan to FINALLY go up the Petronas towers and then possibly go to the Lake Gardens then I think that will be it for Kuala Lumpur. It's actually much nicer here than I would have thought. There's not a whole lot to see but there is some stunning architecture and lots of interesting temples.
Friday 1st September Laura - Pinch punch first day of the month! Oh and happy birthday Nan.
Okay today we had a very early start. Can't complain really because we have had a few lazy days lately, but still, quarter to seven alarm clocks never go down too well with me (and definitely do not go down too well with Holmsy)! We had to get up early to queue for tickets for the Petronas towers, as they are issued on a first come, first served basis.
After a while of waiting we were
finally on the 41st floor to walk the bridge that connects the two buildings.
I could tell you a few fascinating facts that were thrown at us in a short documentary we watched before we got the lift up, such as how many tons of steel went into the building, how many tons of cement went into the building, how long it took to pour the foundation cement (54 hours apparently), how many car parking spaces there are... But I wouldn't want to spoil it for you in case you ever go there. Sorry about giving away the cement pouring time, I just couldn't hold that one back. It's the longest continuous pour in Malay building history, don't you know?...
Anyway, it was a glorious day, so the views from the bridge were pretty amazing and we could see the mountains in the distance. We took a few photos before being ordered to get back in the lift so that the next batch of tourists could be herded through.
After that we walked around the KLCC shopping mall (the height of excitement and culture), enjoying the air conditioning.
A short metro journey later and we were back at our hostel. Me and Paul wanted to take in a few more city sights and absorb some more culture, so we decided to go on another walking tour (as suggested in the Lonely Planet Bible). Holmsy was feeling tired after the early morning rise so he stayed in the hostel to rest.
We saw some more interesting architecture, such as the train station (no really, it is quite nice), a hotel, the town hall, a sultan building, Merdeka square and the Dayabumi tower. Alot of the buildings here look very majestic and they are pretty impressive. It seems like a lot of thought has gone into the modernisation of KL. Obviously it's still a city though, and there are the usual city eye sores like high rise flats and office blocks, but all in all we have been pretty impressed by some of the architecture here. It's definitely a much nicer city than I anticipated.
We've booked our tickets onwards and shall be heading to Malacca tomorrow lunch time. It's a historic town in Southern Malaysia, so it should be quite nice.
By the way, sorry about the length of this blog, we ended up spending longer here than planned and thought it best to put all our KL adventures together!
If you made it this far, well done, have a cup of tea and maybe go support GTFC at their next home game. God knows they need all the help they can get.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.174s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.1134s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marr
non-member comment
Jess sounds like my dream girl