The wait in Kuala Lumpur en route from Hanoi to Bali is long...so to pass the time I am offering some musings from my travels with Iz so far. We have only been gone 2 weeks, but I already know that I have far too much to much to stay to keep this short and sweet. Thus I will have to muse in small doses.
First stop: Kuala Lumpur.
The first friend we made on our travels was the man sitting beside us on the KLIA Express (the train which took us from the airport to Kuala Lumpur Central Station). He had guessed correctly from our general conversation that we hadn't the faintest idea where our hostel was, and kindly offered to point us in the right direction. He even more generously paid the 2 Ringgits to buy our onward tickets and send us on our way...winning! It was soon clear however that he was taking pity on us for the fact that we were staying in the 'dodgy' part of town. We would be much better off sticking to the other end of town he advised. Hmm. Oh well, we decided to his opinion with a pinch of salt; after all he was carrying a Louis holdall and we were carrying backpacks. Tripadviser told us we'd fit right in.
The 12 hours after arriving at our hostel were interesting. We were sharing a dorm with 6 guys: Lez from Australia, Fadaz from Holland, Steve from Canada, Sean from Ireland and Anon. We spent the evening at the hostel's rooftop bar drinking beer and rum which had been labelled as whisky. I can't say I particularly enjoyed either and I blame both for the appalling display of snooker skills which followed: after 3 games I was yet to pocket a ball. Thankfully Fadaz was able to compensate for my lack of natural talent at the game and we actually managed to win!
Our first day in KL did not go according to plan. Through a combination of the dodgy drinks and the jetlag, the morning went roughly as follows: we got up, showered, went downstairs for some free toast, threw up, crawled back into bed. At 3pm we woke up, disappointed but unsurprised that we had missed our 8 hour bus tour of the "7 wonders of Kuala Lumpur".
Feeling a little guilty, we managed to redeem ourselves that evening by heading into the city and wandering around the hugely impressive Petronas Towers which define the KL skyline. We then went for drinks at the top of the Traders hotel, where the SkyBar offers incredible views of the towers and over the city. The bar was amazing, with a pool in the middle and floor to ceiling glass walls. For even more views of the city, we then headed up the KL tower after sunset. The 360 degree views of the city stretch for miles and miles and it is only up here that you can appreciate what a huge city it is.
One of the only other 7 wonders of KL (the other being the towers) which we were bothered about seeing was the Batu Caves. Steve the Canadian put Izzy off this idea greatly by telling us that in order to reach the caves you have to fight and hiss your way past hundreds of monkeys who WILL try to attack you and steal your belongings. Izzy is scared of monkeys. Good one Steve.
After some encouragement and vowing to protect her from any monkeys which might launch an attack, Iz agreed that we should go. It was free entry after all.
As expected, Steve had over-exaggerated...massively. Undoubtedly there were a lot of monkeys but it was hardly Planet of the Apes, and they left you alone if you left them alone. I personally thought they were cute. The caves themselves were impressive although ruined by how touristy they were, with stalls selling cheap souveniers inside the caves themselves which detracted completely from their natural beauty.
After our 3 day break in KL it was time to fly to Vietnam...
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