#6 Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur
Friday February 19th We woke up around 6:45am and gathered our things and took a boat trip into Trang for 250 baht. From Trang, Miles and I decided to go to Kuala Lumpur that night. So we ate breakfast and got some milk teas. I had forgotten how cheap it was on the mainland. It was 25 baht for a milk tea, and 35 baht for an omelet and rice ($1.00 USD). Our travels to Kuala Lumpur was 800 baht each which was for a night train We left around 10:30am to get a ride to where the shuttle would pick us up and bring us to Hat Yai where we spent the afternoon walking around shopping. I bought a really nice sounding Bluetooth speaker for 1000 baht for the rest of my travels, and a new charger for 600 baht. A little pricey, but I am sure they will both Coke in handy for the rest of my trip. I had one of the largest green teas I have ever had for 35 baht. (It was delicious, and my 3rd on of the day since I was leaving Thailand and would not have one for quite some time.) We got some Muslim food for dinner before we got picked up to go to the boarder by bus at 6:30pm. Our bus was very comfortable and spacious. It took us about 2 hours to get the boarder and another 45 minutes to go through customs. We got on the same bus again and quickly went to sleep.
Saturday February 20th
I woke up around 4 am and had trouble going back to sleep, our bus arrived at the TPS station at 5:00 am and we all got off and tried figuring out where to go to out hostel and how to get there. The transit did not start till 6:30am. We were able to use maps.me and hostel world apps to get to our destination. We used the train to get close and walked the remainder. We were chatting and ended up overshooting our hostel several times. We were staying at Raizzy's Hostel which was one of the cheaper, yet very highly rated hostels on hostel world. We arrived around 8:30 or so, and were told we were not going to be able to check in until 2pm. So we got some breakfast around the corner at this fantastic Indian food restaurant for about $2.00 each. We hung out and enjoyed a lazy morning until the evening when we did a bit of acro yoga, got some food and then got to bed. We slept in. 12 person room, and the night before the air conditioning our room had just stopped working. It was a little warm, but Miles and I were tired enough to knock out from all of our travel the past few days.
Sunday February 21st
I woke up and it was so hot, I laying in a pile of sweat. When I left the room it was cooler outside of the room than inside, but it was still outside. Possibly in the high 80's low 90's. We came down and had some coffee, and then got some Indian food. I used most of the day to upload some pictures to the internet (the Internet is so good here in Malaysia). Miles and I went out to explore the town and in the late afternoon we went to the Helipad to check out the view and enjoy a drink for sunset.
Here are some pictures from on top of the Helipad of Kuala Lumpur.
That evening we got some outstanding Indian food, hung out for a bit and then did some acro yoga before crashing out.
Monday February 22nd
I got up around 9:00am today and decided that it would be a day to explore the malls and go shopping for a new day backpack. My sachel that was gifted to me in Thailand by Apple had seen its last days (the zipper was not together anymore and anyone could just put there hand in the bag if they wished). I went out with Miles and Xi, this very nice boy from China who wished to come out and explore the shoping centers with us.
Miles was on the hunt for new boardshorts, so we went int a variety of swim wear stores and finally got some at a rip curl store. I asked where I could get a cheap backpack, and they recoommended another mall across the street where it was possible to haggle prices. I was also looking at the pricing in all the stores that we went into with set prices (a bit too expensive). We went across the street and immediately found a guy who had many backpacks and bags to choose from and was already trying to sell me one.
I was able to haggle his asking price from 240 ringets to 120 ringests and got a nice fake Northface backpack which had many zippers and pockets. It was perfect to fit all my important electronics in for carrying with me in transit. In the evening we walked through the China market which is a really fun and congested night market.
Tuesday February 23rd
We woke up before the sun rose at 5:45, we had left our guesthouse at 6:15 am with Miles and Carmen to go visit the Batu Caves. We were on the train at 6:45 to go to the Batu caves and arrived still before the sunrise. We climbed up the 400 steps into the large cave to hear Indian prayer music being played live and people praying in the early morning. This was a great time to arrive because there really was not any people in the caves and it felt like a private experience.
A man prays at the bottom of the stairs of the Batu Cave.
Miles, Carmen and I did a little bit of acro in cave.
Photo of me basing Miles was taken by Carmen.
Photo of me basing Carmen was taken by Miles.
Photo by Miles.
Photo by Miles.
Photo by Miles.
Photo by Miles.
The long tailed Macaque's all came climbing down the cave and we're looking for breakfast and food.
A few of them even gave us a show. Hahaha
We then gave a prayer and had a morning blessing. It was a fantastic morning.
A woman praying.
Photo of me taken by Carmen.
We got to the bottom and decided to check out the dark cave when it opened at 10:00 am. We walked back up to anise the top to read about the cave, but we were all feeing cheap to not enter with a tour. So we decided to skip it.
This is located just above the entrance to the beginning of the staircase going up to the Batu CAves. I love the beautiful 3D artwork on the 2D backgrounds. This 7 headed, 8 armed woman riding a pea cock statue with the feathers as a painting.
We walked down and decided to take the train a stop before ours and walk around the city and get some lunch somewhere. We got of at the negara station and walked over to the building Negara, which is owned by the bank, but had free museums. The facility was very nice and we enjoyed walking around.
This is the spiral staircase going up inside of the Negara building.
We walked around town through little India, and ended up getting some great street food for lunch. Miles and I believe we had the best soup ever. It was so spicy and delicious.
After lunch, we walked around for about 4 miles or so before we ended up at the park closest to the KL tower.
We did acro yoga for about 3 or 4 hours in the park. I taught Miles how to do the Ninja star, and Carmen was able to pick it up all quite quickly.
Picture of me and Miles playing was taken by Carmen Addink.
Picture of me and Miles playing was taken by Carmen Addink.
Picture of me and Carmen playing was taken by Miles Christensen.
Picture of me and Miles playing was taken by Carmen Addink.
After the park, we came back for a shower, and then got some incredible Indian food for about $2.00 and we were stuffed.
After dinner, we had a beer and did some acro till about midnight or so.
Wednesday February 24th
We woke up so tired and soar from the day before. I spent most of the day uploading images and working on a few things on the computer. Miles and Carmen went out for a walk and in the mid afternoon I heard a parade happening outside of the guesthouse. It was an awesome Indian parade with good authentic music.
This is from the Sri Mahamariamman Indian Temple right next door to Raizzy's Hostel, The parade was leaving from right outside the temple, so I went in for a look.
I love the art work in the temples so much. I find the wonderful blend of 3D statues on the 2D background at the Sri Mahamariamman Temple so beautiful.
This is at the entrance way of the temple.
I went back to the guesthouse and continued editing. There was supposed to be a thunderstorm that night so I had to get a new tripod in general, but especially if I wanted to try and capture the lightning storm over the city from on top of he KL tower. When Miles and Carmen came back, we soon went out for some green tea and to look to look for a new tripod. I figured I was purchasing my 4th of the trip and was very unsure on how long it would last before I would be purchasing my 5th. So I did not want to invest much, and all I was able to find was very bad tripods for unreasonable prices. I finally caved in and got a cheap tripod, and boy was it lightweight and cheap. It barely held my camera, but I thought it would be able to do the job. Carmen and I decided to go to the top of the KL tower and see the lightning storm. We walked around 7 pm to the KL tower and spent 105 ringets each (about $26.00 USD) to get to the open view deck. We were so surprised on how windy it was at the top when we arrived. It felt like 30 miles per hour. The lightning storm was happening way off in the distance and the bolts were not distinct. It was a great view of the city and I tried to take a few pictures, but the wind was so intense that my camera in my new new cheap tripod would not stay still. I was able to get a decent picture of the city, but it was very difficult with trying to block the wind.
There became a point in the night where it was time to just enjoy the view and where we were. Carmen and I decided to do acro for an hour and a half or so, until it closed down at 10:00pm. We then left and got some Indian food and beers on the way back.
Just before leaving I got some pictures of the cool chandeliers in the loby of the KL tower.
We stepped into a nice restaurant for a picture. One of the waiters took a picture for us.
We picked up a few for Miles too, but when we got back, he was fast asleep and we ended up just drinking and talking in the hang out area until late in the evening.
Thursday February 25th
I woke up very tired and a little bit hung over from the night before. Had some coffee and a shower and did a bit of editing until I went out for some lunch. Miles and I were asked by the people who were running Raizzy's Guesthouse to do a bit of acro yoga in the afternoon. We played around and got a few others involved when we could. The woman running the guesthouse was ecstatic and took like 500 photos of miles and I playing around.
The owner of Raizzy's Tatha Gata took a portrait of me to write a piece about me of my backstory, Where I have come from, and where I am going and why Iike to share my love for acro yoga.
In the evening I wrote a few emails and went out with a few friends we met that day and got dinner. After dinner, we did acro yoga until midnight with our friends we had dinner with.Took a shower and tried going to sleep after since the next day I would fly out to Indonesia.
Friday February 26th - Leaving Kuala Lumpur and Headed to Indonesia
I got up around 7:00am. I did not sleep the night before, I new I had to get up early and travel for my flight, so I was stressed to not forget anything in the morning, and to be able to arrive to my flight with plenty of time.I left around 8:30, took the train to the KL station where I then got on a bus for 11 ringets ($2.75 USD) to the airport. The ride took close to an hour to arrive at the airport. I got some food, and was at my terminal at 11:00 am ready to depart at 1:00pm with Lion Air. The plane left about 1 hour later than it should have (about 45 minutes). And we arrived a bit later. I got my visa when coming through immigration in Jakarta and waited about 30 minutes for my luggage. I was at terminal 2 and had to go to terminal 1. I asked some people working on how to get to terminal 1. I was told to wait for the free shuttle to get there. I asked if I could walk and was told no, that it was too far. I should have just walked, it was 2 km (but I did not know). I waited 25 minutes for the bus, hopped on and immediately is was crammed pack with everyone. It had to go through 3 terminals before it returned to terminal 1. Little did anyone know that we would be in a traffic jam. I was sweating profusely holding all my bags and within 10 minutes of moving we became at a stand still. I was asking if I should just get out and run it. I was told no, that the traffic would ease up. It turns out on top of the traffic, there was a car accident, and also a road was closed so we had to do an extra 4km detour in traffic. It took an hour and fifteen minutes to arrive to terminal 1. I was 30 minutes late and had missed my flight. I then continued to wait for another ticket. It turns out that that my flight was the last flight of the day and that the next one to Palu would leave at 5:00am. I was pretty bummed. I waited an hour an a half for a new ticket before the man heping me asked me to wait in the waiting room for another 3 hours. I was able to have a bite to eat and some coffee and water which was much needed. I finally got the voucher for my ticket at 9:00pm. And was walked to Batik Air which is the airline that I was going to travel to Palu on. I was told to come back and check in at 3:00am. I was pretty tired, but ended up just hanging out and editing some images from Kuala Lumpur.
