Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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I had decided to stop off in Kuala Lumpur for a night on route to New Zealand and touched down in the airport to the south of the city on one very humid morning. I don’t remember much about my taxi journey into the centre, I was more appreciating the ride on paved roads with lovely air-con after spending the last couple of months getting by in Tuk Tuks!

I was staying in a hostel rather than a hotel as I preferred to try and meet people as much I could in new places. There was a bit of confusion getting there with my taxi driver, but I finally checked in with a friendly receptionist lady in the afternoon. It was much smaller than it seemed on the website, but I was used to that after staying in so many hostels recently.

I was quite tired so decided to have a little nap. The showers were quite small in the hostel and the other guests seemed quite unforthcoming so I ventured off on my own to get some food and explore a bit. I’d read that the Chinese Market was good to check out so I headed there next, waging through lots and lots of people to check out what was on offer.

Chinese Market



Although it was busy at this time of night, and the typical sales pitches were flying about every place I looked into, I enjoyed it and even purchased some sunglasses and jewellery. Before I knew it, the time had reached 10pm so I headed home, using a taxi as I was too tired to walk. When I got back, there was no one really about in the hostel so I went up to bed, listened to my iPod and went to sleep.

My flight to Auckland was in the evening so I decided to wake up early and check out the famous Petronas Towers, a landmark everyone seems to visit when in Kuala Lumpur so I thought why not me! The lady at reception advised me how to get there on a bus, but I got a bit confused so decided to take a taxi but it wasn’t too expensive in the end.

Underneath the Petronas Towers Skybridge



When inside, I waited for a while and joined a group tour of the Towers. I’d recommend it for the spectacular views of the city but after a while it wore off and became quite mundane. The walk across the skybridge was pretty cool though and perhaps my most vivid memory of Kuala Lumpur. When I left, I had a chicken rice dish in a modest little restaurant not far from the Towers and then spent some time in a nearby internet café.

I looked into the Batu Caves and seeing some of the religious shrines in other parts of the city but didn’t want to risk missing my flight so talked to my mom on Skype for a while instead. It was good to catch up and see her face, as well as my little doggy Keano 😊 It kept me going through the rest of the day as I made my way back the hostel, out to the airport and then onto New Zealand.

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