I'm in Asia!21st - 26th of September 2006
I did it. I actually left Australia and went to Asia! After an extremely long flight, sitting in the middle seat, squashed by a big fat Bosnian dude with absolutely no manners, I set foot in Malaysia. First thing I thought when I got out of the plane was "Holy... This is a big airport", and truly, Kuala Lumpur airport is absolutely HUGE. It has a train inside to transfer people from one terminal to another etc. Anyway, after a couple of kilometers, going though customs, immigration etc. I found a cab, a big clumsy, but luxurious Ssangyong, with a very polite driver called me sir etc. After a good hour worth of driving on huge five lane roads, getting lost even though they claimed to know where my hostel was, I was finally at the Red Palm hostel, a place a girl in New Zealand recommended me ages ago :) The hostel turned out to be just as nice as she said it was, so that was all good. Went one block down the road and grabbed some food and a CARLSBERG from a sidewalk cafe... Haven't had one of those in eight months! Ate some food I had no idea what was, relaxed for a few hours and went to bed. Zzzzz.
Next day I went for a walk in K.L. so see what's what. My mission was to find the Masid Jamek mosque, which was easier said than done when you've never experienced the traffic in K.L. before! Coming from very pedestrian friendly Sydney, I found it absolutely INSANE - scooters everywhere, driving in all directions, crossing the traffic lights no matter what color is is etc. - and the car drivers, especially the cabbies, were all psycho axe murderers behind the wheel as well. It was pretty stressful, I actually went completely nuts and started to hate the world ;-) But after a (dirt cheap) ice cream from 7-11 I was all good again. Didn't manage to find the mosque, but I found some other cool buildings with domes.
Pretty much no matter where I was, I could always spot the KL Tower, so I decided to check it out. Between all the noisy cars I actually managed to spot some good scenery on the way. After a walk up the hill, I reached the bottom part of the tower, bought a ticket and went into the ear-popping elevator. The view from the top was quite good, but as you can see on the picture, it is quite hazy (most experts claim the haze is caused by forests getting burned in Indonesia) - but it still gave you a good opportunity for a bird's eye view of the modern city of K.L. They also had some really good headsets which gave you a proper introduction to all the sights in Kuala Lumpur. Except for the haze, the only annoyance I had at the viewing deck was a massive tourgroup who looked like a bunch of boy/girl scouts, as they all wore the same type of shirt :)
When I had solid ground under my feet again I went for a walk in the little forest next to the tower. I actually went on the walk because I wanted to see some monkeys, but I didn't manage to spot one, but they were definitely there, making funny noises and shaking the trees. For a forest in the middle of a big city, it was quite beautiful. After a while I started getting bit to sh*t my mozzies, so I had to flee :O) Got lost on the way back to Red Palm, but eventually I found it. Spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out at the hostel. Had a good chat about diving with Remee, a dive instructor from Switzerland, met a few new people, four brits and an American guy who arrived at night.
Next day, I went for a walk with Reena Naim, Micha and Vinnie, the four brits who arrived the night before. It was raining though... or rather, it was pouring! But we were up for an adventure, so we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and went outside! We were meant to go to Chinatown for lunch, but while we were on our way, Naim had a phone call from a friend who told us Chinatown had pretty much shut down because it was flooded. We had tremendous fun though, we got absolutely SPLASHED by a few cars, since the road was covered in about 200 mm of rain, everywhere the water level was at least angle high. If you think I'm joking, have a look at the video in the gallery. Anyway, we ended up having lunch next door to our hostel :O) This was the first time where we tried the Malaysian way of making fresh juice - they heat it up/boil it and fills it with ice cubes, which results in a really funny sudden change from warm to cold. Pretty special. The selection of food and drinks in Malaysia is awesome.
In the evening, we went to the flash and fancy part of town to see the Petronas Twin Towers by night! Holy... The Petronas is without doubt the most amazing piece of architecture I have ever seen in my life. Such a stunning sight, the completely lit 452 metre tall pair of towers - wow. We had dinner in a little cafe on the way back to our hostel, had several dishes each, ordered extra drinks... And pissed ourselves laughing when we saw the bill. It was about RM40 (64 DKK/9 AUD) for the four of us... Asia is great, huh?
Speaking of massive buildings, K.L. has some ENORMOUS shopping centres! We are talking 10-15 or more floors completely packed with shops. The brits, Jim and I went to one of the biggest ones, Time Square. The reason we went there was not because we wanted to go to any of the shops, but because we wanted to check out an attraction inside the shopping centre... And indoor fun park! We expected this to be a silly little kiddie playground or so, but we were completely surprised when we saw the place. The roller coaster we came for a ride was a lot bigger than expected as well - in fact, it had two loops and two corkscrews!! Absolutely crazy for something that's placed inside a shopping centre! We went for a couple of other rides and the whole visit was a huge laugh :-D Except the last ride we did... The DNA Mixer. All of us, except for the Vinnie (bastard), felt sick afterwards, especially me, so I was sitting on the floor all by my self looking pale for about half an hour before I was able to walk properly again :O) I didn't bring my camera, but I'll get Vinnie to send me the photo's so I can put them on the blog.
Another great sight in Kuala Lumpur is the majestic Batu Caves. The big 272-step staircase next to the huge Buddha takes you to some amazing big limestone caves. I've got to admit though, being a big animal lover (no... not like that, lol), my attention was caught by all the monkeys at the Batu Caves! They were so funny - jumping around doing the funniest stuff - e.g. eating stolen bread (they actually tear it out of peoples hands) or drinking Coke! I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw the Coke-drinking monkey (video). They are amazing little creatures... One of them even had a baby! Very cute. Batu Caves was a great little spot, it had three of the things I look for when I travel, all at the same time (just like Kinder Egg!) - amazing nature (the caves), wildlife (the monkeys) and finally a bit of culture, as the last cave had a a Hindu shrine in it!
Other than that, I just spent my days in K.L. hanging out with the brits and Jim. It's quite funny to hang out with them as, being white, because Vinnie and Reena are originally from India, Naim and Micha from Bangladesh and Jim's Chinese - which makes us look like a group of locals taking some weird white dude (me) for a tour round K.L. :O) One night in Chinatown, Jim and I had fun trying to bargain the price on the same stuff - Jim got a lot better price as he speaks Chineese :O) I also spent a bit of of time hanging out with Remee, the dive instructor, and we went to Mid Valley, the biggest shopping mall in South East Asia Anyway, as it had a dive shop! Found myself some fins for my upcoming dives, for a decent price! Wee. But... enough said about K.L. - it's been quite fun, this city has a lot to offer... And the Red Palm is the coziest place I've ever stayed! Next stop is the Perhentian Islands, where all six of us (Jim, the brits and me) are going!
I've definitely had a good start in Asia so far.