I spent two days and three nights in KL. It was my second time there, so I already had a pretty good idea of what the city has to offer. It's a strange city. There is a good mix of Malaysian, Chinese and Indian culture, so the people, food and sights are interesting. Having said that, there's something about the city that makes it... well... a little boring. I don't really know what it is, but there is something.

I spent most of my second day just wandering around the city, walking the back streets, eating some nice food (including a great chicken pie... it had been ages since I'd had a real pie), doing some window shopping and basically just watching the Kuala Lumpurs going about their daily life. There wasn't anything particularly interesting to write about, so I'll just mention some random things.

Just outside my hotel there was a wet market. I was walking through it in the evening and the shopkeepers were 'cleaning up' for the day. Basically, they just swept all the trash, rotting fruit, rotting meat and food scraps into a big pile and then it got taken away in a dumpster. There were rats and cats all over the place looking for a free meal. Some of the rats were bigger than the cats, but they all seemed to be pretty friendly.

The public transport system in KL looks good on a map, but it's not really that great. Taxis are cheap and fast (as long as the driver knows where he is going), but the train and monorail system could be better. There are a number of monorail and train lines that criss-cross the city, but they don't really connect well. It's hard to change from one line to another. I was staying in a hotel very close to a monorail station. Fortunately, that line passed through the Golden Triangle, the main shopping and entertainment area in KL. But some of the other areas like Chinatown and Little India were not on my line, so they were very hard to get to. Another thing, tickets are still sold by people in a ticket office. There are no automatic ticket machines, which is a little 20th century. The monorail carriages were surprisingly small, which meant that lots of people couldn't get on during peak hour, but on the plus side they were nicely airconditioned.

One night I was walking back to my hotel through the wet market, which had closed for the day. It was very dark, and had it been another city it would have been a pretty dangerous place to be walking alone at night. But KL is a very, very safe city (I think...). Anyway, I was wandering along and as I walked passed a dark doorway I heard a noise. I looked into the doorway, which was pitch black, and couldn't see anything. Suddenly, two eyes appeared floating in the air. They looked at me for a second and then diappeared. It was kind of like Alice in Wonderland, where that cat appears and disappears in parts. After the eyes had disappeared I looked a little harder and noticed there was an Indian guy sleeping in the doorway. This guy had really , really dark skin which had helped him blend in to the night. When I walked passed I had disturbed his sleep so he had opened his eyes. It was a wierd experience, kind of hard to explain. I guess you had to be there.

One night I visited Chinatown and its dodgy night market. Last time I was in KL I went there and I think I probably got some pirated CDs or something. This time I was surprised at how much the market had changed. It was about 4 times bigger and they had built a big roof over the streets so that people can conduct their dodgy business even if the weather is bad. I remember the first time I went to SE Asia (Thailand) and went to a dodgy market. I was in awe at all the cheap stuff - pirated movies, fake watches and handbags, copied clothes etc. Now I really dislike those sort of places. Hundreds of foreigners crammed into a tiny space getting excited about their $10 Bolex watch, their new pink polo shirt or their 'genuine' Louis Vuitton purse. I can understand why people would get exicited in a place like that, but when I go there I look around and there is not a single thing that excites me (except for the food... sometimes you can find some good food at these kinds of markets). Ten years ago I would have been buying as much as I could, but now I wouldn't take any of their crap if they were giving it away for free. I think I spent about 15 minutes in the night market before I called it a night and went looking for dinner.

One of the goals of my trip was to eat as much 'you can't get this in Japan' food as I could. This included both traditional SE Asian foods as well as other western foods that people at home may take for granted, but I just can't get in Japan. One evening I was hungry and I walked past a Wendy's restaurant (the American burger chain not the Australian ice-cream chain). I'd never eaten Wendy's before and I had been eating Asian all day, so I figured I'd give it a try. During the meal, it suddenly began to make sense why many Americans are HUGE. I ordered a large double cheeseburger meal (or something like that). The meal had enough fries and coke to feed about 8 people, and the burger was literally sweating grease from its mysterious meat patties and oddly coloured cheese. The meal was an experience in itself and the taste ... well, it tasted like America.

I arrived back at my hotel one evening to find the lobby packed with about 200 people. Apparently there was a wedding on that evening. The reception was taking place on the top floor of the 18 story hotel. There were three very slow lifts ferrying people from the ground floor up to the top, where they would pay their respects to the couple. Then the lift would be filled again and bring people back down to the lobby. Each round trip took about 3 or 4 minutes - the lift would arrive, it would empty out, it would be packed again, the overweight buzzer would ring, one by one people would get out until the buzzer stopped ringing, the lift would depart and the process would be repeated over and over. It was a strange procession. I was actually surprised at how no one seemed to be complaining. In most other countries people would be complaining out loud at having to wait half an hour for a lift, but these people just seemed to be enjoying themselves. I ended up waiting for about 25 minutes before finally getting a ride to my floor. I would have taken the stairs, but my room was on the 17th floor and I'd had enough walking for the day. Oh yeah, my room was on the 17th floor right under the reception, so that kept me awake most of the night, which was very unpleasant. But, it had a nice view.



I guess that one of the main problems with KL is that there aren't many tourist attractions. There's the Petronas Towers and the Batu Caves and ... um ... Chinatown ... and some shopping centers and um ... yeah. Last time I was in KL I spent about 3 days there and didn't visit any tourist attractions. This time I managed to get to the Batu Caves, which was actually pretty good. The Batu Caves are a Hindu shrine located about 15 kms from the KL city centre. KL was built on what was basically a swamp (KL means 'muddy confluence' - there's some nice Lonely Planetesque info for you), so the city is flat. However, there is one limestone rock formation i the middle of all this, and that's where the Batu Caves are.

From Wiki: The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to Lord Murugan. It is the focal point of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia which attracts over 1.5 million pilgrims yearly, making it one of the largest annual gatherings in the world.

I was surprsied after reading this. I thought Murugan was a lady.


I even tried to look up her (I mean his) dress.


Hindu has some pretty weird gods. Look at that fat hairy guy on the right.


These people pray at the altar, light their candle, then do some laps of the temple.


To get to the caves you have to climb a big flight of stairs.



Apparently, nobody has ever fallen down the stairs (somehow, I don't believe that...). As with all journeys, you start with the first step.


Halfway up, you get to meet some monkeys. I like monkeys. Monkeys are great. In fact, if I travel to SE Asia and don't see monkeys I get upset. These monkeys are blessed monkeys, so it's a good idea to feed them. This monkey just hangs out here all day playing with his balls and getting fed by tourists. Sounds like a good life to me.


Finally, with thighs burning, you arrive at the top.




There are some altars and temples.

And more monkeys!




This boy tried to hand feed the monkey. A split second after this shot the monkey jumped on to the boy, clawed his eyes out and slashed off his face. I missed that shot.


Nice view of KL.


So, that was basically it for KL.

On the fourth day, I woke up at 4:45 in the morning (yes, that's not a typing mistake) to take a taxi to the airport. I had a 7:00 flight to Siem Riep which meant I had to be at the airport no later than 6:15. I was using a budget airline for the first time, which meant I had to go to the budget terminal (which is further from the city than KLIA). On a regular day, this trip can take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours depending on traffic. My taxi arrived at 5:00am. I confirmed the cost with the driver (the hotel lady had told me what the usual set fee was). Late night/early morning surchage and airport surcharge meant that it was a little expensive, but still quite affordable. The driver quoted me the same fee, so I told him that if he got me there before 6:15 it would be fine. 'No problem', he said. The first 5 minutes or so travelling through the city were at a fairly leisurly pace. However, as soon as we hit the freeway this guy went nuts. There was almost no traffic at this time of the morning, the freeway was about 6 lanes wide, and the only time we weren't travelling at 120+ km/h was when we were going through roundabouts. We arrived at the aiport at around 5:45 if I remember correctly. Well worth the money. I even had time to get some breakfast.

As I mentioned, this was the first time I had used a budget airline and the first time I had used a budget terminal. I was a little surprised at how budget it actually is. More like a bus station than an airport. Despite the appearance, it was actually a fairly hassle free process. Check in, get your little paper receipt, go through immigration, get x-rayed and felt up by security, then try and find a seat in the cattle yard-like waiting area. When it's time to get on your plane the 'special class' people get to go first (ie. the people who paid $5 extra so they could go first), then, a few minutes later the peasants get to go. You march out on to the tarmac, have to dodge various airport cars and trucks, and get ushered to the plane (which was a good 5 minutes walk for us). There are no seating reservations, so it's a free for all once you're on board. No food or drinks either. No tv or music, but there is a free airline magazine (the crossword had already been filled out). Apart from these little annoyances, it was a pretty decent flight. Considering that KL to Siem Riep is only 2 hours, and the ticket cost about 1/4 of what a regular flight would cost, it was well worth it and I would fly budget again (and I did, actually).

Next, Cambodia.