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Published: January 5th 2010
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Getting ready at home
Excited to have received my new Schwalbe tires and to get the bike ready! I begin after having had an overnight layover in Tokyo with a 4-star hotel(nicest I'll probably stay in for a while-lol!) courtesy of Japan airlines(which btw has the best service I've ever had)! It was just long enough to enjoy some scrumptious food! The Japanese sure know how to eat!
Anyway, after a comfortable flight in an exit row seat (thanks Suzy the airport check-in lady!) I arrived in Kuala Lumpur. I was happy to find that my bike had made it, and it one piece. Things were starting well! This changed quickly however. The guesthouse that I had booked had told me via email that I would have no trouble taking a star shuttle bus service with the bike box right to the hotel. As it was New Year's eve however and many of the downtown core streets were closed, the shuttle was not operating this evening! The airport being 75km from town and it being 6:30p.m I had already known that biking into town wouldn't be feasible. Hmmm, well I began exploring other options which proved either fruitless or prohibitively expensive(c'mon I'm on a four month budget here 😉 I decided that my best option would be
Kuala Lumpur-New Year's
Bukit Buntang. This was what I was walking my bike through to the guesthouse! to catch a bus as near to bukit bintang(the area where my guesthouse was located) as possible, unbox my bike, re-assemble it, and go from there...simple! The bus left at 8:30ish and got me into town to KL Sentral at 9:30 p.m-ish. I had a great time un-boxing and re-assembling my bike in the dark (it was sort of an alley) with the drivers from the taxi stand helping out passing tools, holding the bike and offering words of advice/encouragement! I left my bike box right there(people seem to make use of everything here and it won't go to waste-I've had people ask for the boxes before), put on my rear red flashing light and headed off. No problem, save for the fact that because I hadn't expected to need it I had no decent kuala lumpur map. My usual technique when asking directions is to poll as many people as possible and either go with the general consensus or my gut telling me who I think may be more correct as it's amazing how wildly people's directions can vary. I noticed quickly that people sometimes confuse left and right here in English as I had more than one person
Party time!
Spraying cans of white stuff at eachother saying to turn left for eg. but indicating right! After a while, a really weather-beaten old fella with no teeth (and who spoke no English at all) on a moped insisted I follow him. What the hell...what did I have to lose but time! I really pedalled hard so as to try not to slow him down too much. Lo and behold he got me right to the area! It was now 11:00p.m New Year's Eve and the closed streets all around bukit buntang had throngs of partying people. Young people were spraying each-other with aerosol cans spewing white stuff that resembled fire extinguisher stuff(look I'm not a technician ok, propellant ?, you get the drift-lol!) and generally building energy to culminate in a countdown followed by a crecendo of fireworks and more merriment! The streets became way too crowded to ride(for those Canadians think Canada Day downtown Ottawa) through so I walked my bike along and garnered quite a bit of attention. My initial plan of getting to my guesthouse in plenty of time to clean up, maybe meet some people to party with and head out to the fireworks evolved into: arrive at the guesthouse at 11:30p.m, check-in,
Fireworks
Because I got in so late I didn't have time to find a choice spot to watch-lol! quick shower, and out into the streets by 11:50p.m to join in the festivities! You just can't get frustrated when things like that happen, it's all part of the adventure of travelling in these parts and things often don't go exactly according to "plan". The trick is to adapt and enjoy! I had a great time riding around KL in the middle of the night trying to find my guesthouse and then watching the fireworks and taking in the after-party! I eventually worked my way back to the guesthouse and settled in for what I reckoned were some much deserved zzzzs......
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anonymous
non-member comment
Sounds unreal pal I'm jealous !!! I'll Check back in soon have a blast your pal from planet ink