Kuala Lumpur

A two hour ride from Melaka took me into the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. I was expecting to arrive in the main bus station, but as I found out later the main bus station was under renovation, so all the buses were using a parking lot on the outskirts of town for the bus station. This was an indication of what was to come with KL's mass transit system.

There was no information or anything. I talked to some other foreigners that were on the same bus as me and we were all baffled about where we even were. Taxi touts seeing us started to approach us and offered us rides into town for outrageous prices. I decided to leave the area and head to the main road where I'd hope to find a taxi driver passing by. I walked for a bit and noticed there was an LRT station (one of KL's mass transit trains). This was a little easier and cheaper, but the station was close to the end of the line so it took awhile to get into town.

Eventually I made it into downtown and quickly found my hostel. The hostel was probably the highlight of my stay in KL. It was a modern hostel with nice big beds, lots of lighting and big closets. The rooms were furnished nicely. The bunk beds were built into the wall, so that when your bunk mate got into his bed it wouldn't wake you up. At $12 a night it was a bit expensive compared to other places around town, but it was well worth it. Another backpacker was in there and I got to talking to him. He was an Australian guy who was travelling around Asia before going to Britain to look for a job. We talked for a bit and he wanted to hang out so we decided to head into China town. I looked around the different shops for a towel, but didn't see any. I was getting hungry so I found a place with Sweet and Sour Pork. I was surprised to find pork in a Muslim country, but it was delicious.

Then we took a bus to the northern suburbs to see the Batu caves. There are some hills outside KL and in one of these are some huges caves that the Hindus have taken over and built shrines and temples.

The caves are up a long steep staircase up the cliff. Beside the staircase there is a big golden statue. The caves are really massive inside. It is hard to show with pictures and its a little difficult to describe. They're really high, high enough to fit a cathedral inside. Inside there are lots of idols and relics for hindus to pray to. Some of the people were covered with white or blue paint all over their faces and their arms. Monkeys hang and play from the cliffs. It was like somehting out of Indiana Jones. After exploring the caves for a bit, we headed back down the stairs and took the bus back into town. By the time we got back it was night and getting late. I stayed up a bit and read from my book before falling asleep.

The next day I spent mostly walking around and exploring the city on foot. First I took a subway to the Petronas towers to see them up close. These towers are beautiful and the pearl of Kuala Lumpur. The lines are clean and smooth and it still looks shiny and new. The metal casing around the towers look perfect. I just walked around them and admired them from a distance. Then I started walking toward a sort of observation tower on a hill about a mile from the Petronas Towers. The KL Menara is sort of like the CN tower in Toronto or a taller Space Needle. It holds a restaurant and a deck for panorama views of the city. I walked up the hill and was sweating profusely from the midday sun. Thankfully the tower was air conditioned. I took the elevator up to the top and was treated with great views of the city. From the height of the observation deck it is just a bit shorter then the top of the Petronas Towers. In the bottom there is a sort of heritage village where you can see the styles of houses from different parts of Malaysia. Then they have a show where some dancers do Malaysia dances and songs. This was kind of hokey and more for a family style experience. After that I walked through a sort of arboretum and back to my hostel. Later that day I went to a couple of malls and explored the night market of Chinatown.

The next day I went back to the Petronas towers early so that I could get a ticket to go to the sky bridge. This took up most of the morning because the line was long and it was slow moving. The only real advantage of using my morning up was that it was free. Finally I got up to the sky bridge, which is only about 40 stories up. It was pretty cool, but I wouldn't rank it as something a visitor must do. The KL Menara had much better views. After that I had lunch and went back to that godforsaken bus terminal on the outskirts of town to catch a bus to the Cameron Highlands.

KL Menara Tower

All in all Kuala Lumpur was kinda disappointing. Their subways system has a lot to be desired. Its dirty, its slow and inefficient. In the main station there was construction going on and the commuters have to walk around tools and piles of dirt and materials to get inside the station. Some of the hallways aren't very well lit, one tunnel was nearly completely dark. If you want to change lines you have to buy a new ticket on each line, then at one of the main stations you have to jaywalk through traffic to get from the elevated platform to the subway. That's another thing I hated about KL, it was extremely unfriendly to the pedestrians. Jaywalking is a national pastime in KL. Many of the lights don't work and people just ignore them. Often sidewalks just disappear and you'll have to walk in the street or the gutter to get from place to place. And like most third world countries, there is no such thing as yielding to pedestrians. You take your life in your hands when you walk around KL. I was pretty glad to be on that bus getting out of Kuala Lumpur.