Pretty catchy title huh? Maybe I should start writing my
blog as poems
It is hot
I’m sweating a lot
My skin is sticky
I feel icky
Yeah, that was terrible maybe I should just keep doing what
I’ve been doing. Poetry never was my strong suit.
I woke up shortly after 5am yesterday and packed up the last
of my things. Before you give me a hard time for not packing the night before
after ranting about the three girls packing in the morning, I did but some
things you can’t pack ahead of time like pajamas and toiletries. I tried not to
make any noise until I got into the hall but I still think I woke a few people
up as hard as a tried not to. Oh well not much I can do about it now.
I made my way downstairs and handed in my key. I told the
receptionist I had booked a tuk-tuk the night before so he walked outside with
me and we discovered that someone had taken my tuk-tuk to Angkor for sunset. I
wasn’t impressed. The receptionist asked me if I would be willing to go on the
back of a motorcycle to the airport, as it would be faster. No way in hell I’m
getting on the back of a motorcycle without a helmet and even if I had the best
helmet in the world I still wouldn’t get on one with a 16kg bag on my back. I
thought he was trying to be funny but he was dead serious. I explained why that
would happen and he agreed it was a silly idea and sent a friend to find a
tuk-tuk for me.
I made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, as
check-in for my flight hadn’t even opened yet. When it did open there was no
line and security was a ghost town as well. Apparently there was a departure
card stapled to the inside of my passport but I don’t remember filling in an
entrance card so I had no idea it was there and ended up getting yelled at by
the border control agent. I filled out the card and had a much nicer agent who
more or less waved me through.
I was pretty hungry but there were only two options for
food: Dairy Queen, and some crazy expensive café. I ended up at DQ. Nothing
like a hotdog at 6:30am. Breakfast of champions’ folks. I struggled to keep my
eyes open when I finished eating but managed to stay awake until we boarded but
fell asleep soon after. I remember rolling down the runway but don’t remember
actually taking off.
I slept most of the flight so was half asleep when we landed
in Kuala Lumpur. The kilometer long walk from the plane to the terminal in the
scorching heat was enough to wake me up though. Good thing because I probably
would have fallen asleep in the customs line otherwise. The line was moving so
slowly I thought I was going to be there for hours, but it was probably more
like 30 minutes and the guy stamped a used page, good news since I only have 3
empty pages left.
I grabbed my bags, got some cash, and booked a bus into the
city. The bus was probably the fanciest airport bus I have ever been on, an
air-conditioned coach with luggage storage underneath instead of the typical
city bus with a tiny luggage rack along one side. I had a window seat but had
to hold back blinds the whole way into the city because everybody else seemed
to be happy sitting in darkness but I needed to see my new city!
From the bus I took a train and then got a little lost. The
directions I had were terrible from the train station but I made eventually
with some help from some friendly locals. I swear the people who write
directions to hostels on their booking sites are on drugs. Or just don’t
understand the difference between left and right. Or that using a 7-11 as a
landmark when there are two within a block and a half is confusing as hell. Its
about 300 meters from the stairs of the station to my hostel door and it took
me about 10 minutes to finally get to the hostel, I guess it could have been
worse but I still wasn’t impressed, especially when I got checked in and found
that my room has no windows and there is only two toilets in the entire
building.
Once I got all settled in I decided to go for a bit of a
wander. I found a temple a few doors down from the hostel, took off my shoes,
and walked in with my shoes in my hand. A man ran up to me yelling at me that
shoes weren’t allowed in the temple, I said I didn’t see what the problem was
since they weren’t on my feet but he just kept yelling. I left the temple and
he ushered me over to his kiosk where he would watch my shoes for a fee. I told
him I wasn’t giving him money to babysit my shoes and he told my I could leave
them on the ground for free and pointed to a spot next to a homeless man. I put
my shoes on and left. I was pretty annoyed. If the temple had charged admission
I would have been fine with it but trying to charge me to walk in my sock feet
just made me angry.
I visited a Chinese temple of some sort, that didn’t make me
pay to walk in my socks, and then walked through the street market in China
town. I started looking for a restaurant at this point when I caught a glimpse
of the golden arches out of the corner of my eye and they were calling my name.
I feel like I have been doing a pretty good job at being adventurous with food
over the last few weeks, and even if I haven’t I didn’t care I was going to
McDonalds and it was going to be glorious. And it was. Best McChicken meal
ever. Although the restaurant was a bit of a disaster. I saw a sign that they
were having open interviews for a new trainee-manager that afternoon and I
considered showing up and telling them all the things I noticed while I was
there like how all areas were in the danger zone and the manager was stood in
the lobby playing on his cell phone but decided it would be a silly way to
spend my afternoon so I left.
My next stop was the Petronas Towers, the tallest twin
towers in the world. Apparently they are also the second and third tallest
individual buildings but I'm not sure I believe that. Especially since the
antenna at the top doesn’t count towards the official height. As I was walking
there I told myself I would buy a ticket to the top if it cost 10RM or less,
probably an unrealistic price but I’m on a budget. Tickets were a ridiculous
80RM so there was no way in hell I was going further than the ground floor. Far
too much money for an elevator as far as I'm concerned so I walked a way just
far enough that I could get the buildings into a picture and made my way back
to the hostel.
I chatted with a few other people from the hostel before
heading to a bar down the street so they could play some pool. I watched for a
bit before heading back into China town for some dinner. I headed back to the
bar for a bit after I ate but went home early because my throat was still sore
so I figure I better get some sleep and hopefully kick this thing once and for
all.
No such luck because it was even worse when I woke up this
morning. Today is my last day in KL so I wanted to get an early start to the
day but I felt like garbage and ended up hitting snooze for almost two hours. I
finally dragged my ass out of bed around 10am and scarfed down almost half a
loaf of bread before heading out for the day.
I made my way to the train station (a different one from
yesterday) and bought my ticket to the Batu Caves. The train station was pretty
ghetto and there was nothing saying what trains were leaving from what
platforms so I asked the first white people I saw if they were going to Batu
Caves and if they knew what platform I needed to go to. Luckily they spoke
English and were going to the same place as me. They were also smart enough to
ask someone what platform the train left from so they were able to help me. The
people who helped me were a Danish couple named Thomas and Rena (or possibly
Mina I suck at names and she didn’t talk to me as much) who I ended up spending
the next couple of hours with.
The caves were incredible. I had been looking forward to
visiting them for quite some time and they did not disappoint. The surrounding
area seems pretty flat then suddenly there are these giant tree covered
limestone hills everywhere. When you exit the train station you are greeted by
several vendors (who kind of take away from the beauty of the place) and a
giant statue of a green man with a monkey face (I need to do some research).
You walk a little further through the markets and there is a giant gold statue
of Lord Murugan (to whom the caves are dedicated) standing in front of the
almost 300 stairs leading to the cave. The cave itself as well as the area
around it is a religious site, containing multiple Hindu temples. I slowly made
my way through as many temples as I could (some seemed to be holding ceremonies
and I didn’t want to interrupt) as well as the cave before stopping to watch
the monkeys climbing the hills for a while.
Once I had seen all I wanted I made my way back to the train
station, a bit of a struggle through the massive crowds all heading in the
opposite direction, and made my way back to the hostel. I stopped at the
national mosque on the way but it was prayer time so it was closed to
non-Muslim visitors. I had a small rest at the hostel before heading out again.
I was pretty tired at this point and still not feeling very
good but I leave tomorrow so I felt like I needed to make some sort of effort
to see more. There are quite a few parks not to far from my hostel so I decided
to head towards them. It was so humid out my hair was starting to curl and the
sky was getting dark, I knew the rain was coming but I wanted to see at least
one of the parks. Just as I made it to the spot where the big lake park and the
deer park meet the skies opened up and it started to rain. I took a few
pictures and started my walk back.
It wasn’t raining as hard as I though it was going to but
between the rain and the sweat I was soaked right through. Most of the people
around me were jumping into taxis but I found it kind of refreshing so kept
walking. Probably not the smartest idea since I’m already feeling sick but at
the time it felt nice.
Other than a quick trip out to dinner I have more or less
been relaxing at the hostel ever since. Part
of me wishes I had seen more but when I boarded the plane yesterday I told
myself that if I was sick I needed to see the towers and the caves and if I made
it anywhere else it would be a bonus. I accomplished that goal so I guess I can’t
be too upset with myself.
Tomorrow morning I’m heading back to Thailand, this time to
Phuket. I kind of wish I had more time to explore KL and maybe some more of
Malaysia but I guess that just means I have an excuse to come back right?
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