Category: Kuala Lumpur

Managed to make it through the night without strangling to death the two Taiwanese girls in my room, who came in late, switched on the lights and babbled incessantly to each other and on the phone for about an hour. The rest of Asia should be dorm-free, so I’m sure I’ll appreciate my privacy even more now.

Since I now had an extra day in KL, I decided to take the bus from Central Market to the Batu Caves. Bus took about half an hour, and as usual I was the only white person on it. Batu Caves is a Hindu Temple, not far from KL. There’s a pilgrimage out to the caves from the centre of the city every year. There’s a giant statue of Murugan, a Hindu diety at the foot of the stairs leading to the caves.

The cave was huge (biggest I’ve ever seen, but I’m not much of a spelunker) with the Hindu temple inside, and people doing some sort of Hindu ritual. I thought I saw some people carrying a dead baby in a sheet hanging from two bamboo poles, but thankfully it was alive.

Perhaps cooler than the caves were the Cynomolgus monkeys that ran up and down the stairs. It was my first interaction with monkeys in the “wild”, and these guys were not as aggressive as I’ve heard some can be. People were feeding them, which probably won’t help, but they were cute.

Took me some unnecessary walking to find the bus stop back (pretty much right in my face, not sure how I missed it), but headed back into the city next. Was beside Central Market, so I headed in there for lunch. Quiet market, which was not what I was expecting. Thought I’d be experiencing the crowded markets of China again.

Thunder claps abound, so I headed to the hostel after that, and hung out there for a while until it was time to catch my train. KL Sentral was busy, and I managed to spend the last of my Malaysian money on deodorant and cookies (essentials of travel?). Sleeper on the train was good. I knew I had top bunk, so I was prepared to cable lock myself in again, as I’d done in Europe – but this wasn’t too high, and there was a railing, so I was pretty safe untethered.

Read for a bit on the train, and then tried to get some sleep. Loud and rocky train, but I managed a bit of sleep. The light was on in the cabin the entire trip, and even though we had a curtain for privacy, it was fairly bright.

Up bright (actually dark, on account of the no windows thing) and early, and ready to embark on my first KL subway journey. The fun thing about getting up early is that you get a bit of hot water (5 to 10 seconds), and you discover that the guy who is always sitting in the stairwell leading up to the hostel (which is about 6 flights of stairs up, then another two flights to the room) actually lives (or at least sleeps) in the hostel stairwell.

Subway took me to KLCC Station, and from there it was a short walk through the mall to the Petronas Towers. Queued up in line and read my book. After a little less than an hour, I’d secured a ticket to the tower. Unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to go up until 2pm, which meant I had to find something to do in the meantime. I had hoped I’d be able to see the tower and then head to the Batu Caves, but alas, it was not meant to be.

I opted instead for the Lake District, and more precisely, the Bird Park – which I’d heard was pretty nice. Took the subway, and managed to find my way to the park pretty easily. Helped that it wasn’t swelteringly warm yet.

The park was quite nice, with loads and loads of birds. I spent an hour and a bit there, before deciding I better head back to the towers. Finding my way back to the subway station was a little less challenging than leaving it, but still not completely easy. It was a nice clear day, but thankfully the sun wasn’t beating down to hard.

Had some time to kill before my 2pm climb, so I grabbed some lunch and headed to the bookstore to figure out the best way out of Kuala Lumpur.

It wasn’t until I walked onto the Skybridge of the tower that I realized it was now pouring rain outside. Visibility was pretty much nil, so I chatted with the tower guide, and watched as the rest of the group tried to take pictures. Who needs a travel companion when you’ve got rain?

Headed to the bookstore again, to kill more time while waiting for the rain to die. After about an hour and a half I gave up and made my way back to the hostel – happy to have packed my raincoat this morning.

Stuck around at the hostel, then headed to KL Sentral to book my train to Thailand for tomorrow night. Looking forward to some train travel. We’ll see if I am singing the same tune this time Monday.

Back at the hostel, the large group of deaf people are watching a movie on mute, and reading lips.  Beats the group before them that had it cranked.

Note: I’ve given up on uploading photos for now.  Will try later.

No windows in the room, so it was easy to sleep in. Eventually I got up, and decided to walk to the KL Tower area. It was about a 15 minute walk from the hostel, and fairly simple. No hot water in the shower (damn you, Lonely Planet), but it wasn’t so bad. There’s a Buddhist temple behind the hostel, which had a bunch of shirtless and barefoot men in it – and a live broadcast of what was going on inside on display outside.

Not a lot near the tower, and it was too early to go in, so I headed to the Petronas Tower. Thought I might luck out and get to go up to the skybridge, but all the (free) tickets were accounted for. Wandered around at the KLCC park for a bit, then headed to the Bintang Walk, which just appeared to be the Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, in KL.

Headed back to the hostel to cool off for a bit, and then it began to rain and rain. Waited out the rain for a while, and when it finally stopped and blue skies appeared again, I headed back to the KL Tower. Got there for 5pm or so, hoping to catch the sunset from the tower (which, according to the video I saw later – is very romantic and will make anyone you see it with fall in love with you). Took some pictures, but it was a little too cloudy for the sunsets full effect. I figured I’d wait till night, but then it started to rain again, so I eventually gave up and headed down. Still raining, so I read in the lobby for a bit, and then a bit longer, and then at about 8:30pm decided I ought to just bite the bullet and grab a cab.

Bullet bitten, I hung around in the hostel, did some reading and watched the new (and from the parts I’ve seen, pretty horrible) Knight Rider movie/show. Headed to bed reasonably early, as I wanted to get to the Petronas Towers early to secure a ticket.