I think its inevitable that at some point travelling you reach a point where you just aren’t feeling it anymore and end up asking the questions – Why am I doing this? Maybe it’s time to go home? Kuala Lumpur was the place where I reached this point. I think for me there were three reasons that lead to this:
1) I wasn’t liking the group dynamics I was with. When we got to KL we rented an airBnB which was lovely and had a sweet infinity pool with a view of the city, but there were 6 of us.
While these were all great people on their own, the size and fussiness of some individuals meant that no one could decide on anything. This meant that we ate in a crappy food court three days in a row. I did not come to SE Asia to eat subway and would have gone off on my own but we only had one key and only one other person had a SIM Card. This made it a logistical nightmare and made me decide that I would never travel with a big group again. Luckily this was only for a few days and was much better when we moved to a hostel and I regained my freedom to come and go as I pleased. In hindsight I should have just taken the loss of money and left sooner.
2) Christmas was coming. Christmas is a hard time for me. My dad died on Christmas eve and it was coming up on the 5th anniversary of it and with lots of time to think about it this had been weighing heavily on my mind. It also didn’t help that Christmas decorations were everywhere.
3) I had no plan for where to go past Singapore. I had originally planned on going from Thailand to Laos, Cambodia then Vietnam before flying elsewhere. However, my plans changed within the first week when I decided to go from Chiang Mai to a full moon party with Camille and Liam. From there I had decided that I would work south thru Malaysia to Singapore and then fly somewhere. But as I reached KL I found myself overwhelmed by the infinite options. After deliberating for way too long and making a short list of the Philippines, Indonesia or Vietnam I finally decided that, in light of Vietnam just recently making it so Canadians could use their e-Visa program, that I would spend Christmas in Singapore and then fly to Vietnam. If I didn’t feel better about travelling by the time I got thru Vietnam I would go home. But with Christmas still a couple of weeks away and not wanting to spend a lot of time in Singapore, and only one place I wanted to see between KL and Singapore, it meant that I would spend almost 2 weeks in KL.
It was somewhat nice to have a routine for a bit. I’d get up have a mediocre breakfast at the hostel and then go out grab a good coffee at this tiny coffee stand nearby and explore the city for a while. Usually in the afternoon I’d meet up with Vince and we’d check out some of the other things that KL had to offer before hitting up the street market or food trucks for dinner. Here are some of the other things I saw during my time in KL.
The Twin Towers:
Let’s face it the major landmark in KL is the Petronas twin towers. Although there is a flurry of new construction occurring near it these buildings still dominate the landscape and they are pretty cool to see. We went to the base of them multiple times, taking in the view from multiple angles and multiple times of day (there is a light show in the lake near it at night!) One day Elly, Aliona and I took the plunge and did the most touristy thing, we took the elevator trip up to the bridge and observation deck! The view was pretty cool and we managed to sneak in a few extra minutes of sightseeing and get to see the sun starting to set by pretending we didn’t hear the guides calling our group colour to return to the elevator.
Batu Caves:
The Batu caves are easily accessible by the train system in KL and another one of those things that a tourist visiting KL should see. You climb a couple hundred steps reaching a plateau that gives you a view of the city before entering the cave and climbing another set of steps at the back of the cave to the temple.
Batu caves
It’s still being built and so visitors are asked to bring a brick and/or bucket of sand up the steps. I brought a brick up the first part and then a bucket of sand to the second arm, so I guess I can add that I helped build a temple to the old CV. Yay transferable skills, haha.
There are also a number of monkeys inside and around the caves. As usual you have to be careful around them as they will try to steal your food and other items. However, luckily for Vince he managed to make friends with one when he gave it a coconut that was leftover from one of our drinks.
Taking in KL’s Cultural Scene
KL is much more than just infinity pools and the twin towers. One of its best aspects are the museums. They were reasonably priced and I learned a lot at them. Two particular ones of interest were the Museum of Islamic Arts and the National Museum. There were also a number of free walking activities and exploring Chinatown and little India were pretty cool too!
The Museum of Islamic Arts is a beautiful building containing a number of interesting domes and courtyards. Inside it has exhibits a wide variety of artefacts from throughout the islamic world and dating back centuries. This included clothing, tapestries, weapons, maps, coins and pottery. It also had an exhibit on Islamic book binding, and one that explained the different types of mosques found throughout the world. I learned a lot here!
Near the Islamic Arts Museum is the National Mosque which, although we did not enter due to us arriving at non visitor hours, was a pretty impressive building.
The Malaysian National Museum (Muzium Negara) is also a really interesting visit. It depicts the history of Malaysia going from ancient times, through its colonization by various European powers, to its occupation by the Japanese during WWII and finally the push to independence and the period thereafter. It also has some information about the departure of Singapore from Malaysia in 1965.
Some of us took a free walking tour through little India and Chinatown which exposed us to a number of the interesting foods and items available. Vince and I would go back to Chinatown a few days later where I would get my second pair of “Raybans.” I was assured these were “top quality” from “my friend” who sold it to me as the lenses were glass. In his defense I still have them almost two months later. Near Chinatown is a number of large parks and a region that is being redeveloped and called the River of Life.Finally because I didn’t want to get rusty in my science skills Elly and I visited the planetarium. Unfortunately we did not realize that the show we were going to see was a children’s one featuring a trouble causing coyote. But at least he was a truthful one and debunked some common misconceptions about the universe.
Sunway Lagoon:
Elly, Vince and I decided to take one of the days in KL and head to the amusement park at Sunway Lagoon. Here we stuck mostly to the water part, making a friend to round out our numbers. There are a number of tubing and slides which are pretty fun. There is also one where you get in this coffin like tube and then the bottom falls out launching you down the slide. Apparently the look on my face as the floor fell out was pretty amusing.
We also took in some go-carting and roller coasters, neither of which were exactly fast. But all-and-all it was a fun day and helped me to get a bit out my funk.
MALLasia
Malaysians LOVE their malls. Vince met someone who could see 11 of them from her apartment. There are also speciality malls including Low Yat Plaza which specializes in electronics. With my Asus tablet’s screen cracking while in my bag somewhere along my travels I hit up Low Yat to see if I could get it fixed. It turns out the warranty is not so great and it would have cost the same as the tablet. I ended up leaving Low Yat with a 11″ macbook air, which is no longer available in Canada but was much cheaper than when it was available. I was happy to have a functional computer again, makes this whole travel blogging much easier 😉
But there are so many other malls in KL and it was inevitable
that we’d be in at least one thru out the day and with Christmas coming up these malls were decked with Christmas decorations. It all seemed a bit out-of-place for me considering that the weather was pretty drastically different from what I was used to at Christmas.
It was here that Vince and I fine tuned our spot the Rollex store or H+M. I really don’t understand the number of Rollex stores. There can’t be that many people buying Rollex’s. FYI my “friends” in Chinatown will give you a “good deal” on “good quality” fakes. Haha.
During my time in KL I had said good-bye to Elly, who was off to Sri Lanka, and Aliona had left to explore other parts of Malaysia (I’d later meet up with her and Alex in Vietnam). Vince was going to fly to Singapore and I was planning on meeting him there in a few days, and so having run down the clock I got ready to finally leave KL and head off to Melaka on my own.
In some sort of physiological response to my mood at the time, or more likely the not so great chicken tacos I had the day before, I boarded a bus to Melaka having just thrown up on the train to the bus station – luckily I had a plastic bag handy. I guess it was my body’s way of saying I was done with KL!
The Travelling Scientist 