Kuala Lumpur, Last Stop in Asia

May 28, 2008

I took another night train from Georgetown, Penang to Kuala Lumpur, which is commonly known as KL (much easier to say!).  Although the train itself was nice and the bunk quite comfortable, it turned into a very bad trip.  The train was scheduled to leave at 10:00pm and get into KL at 6:10am.  It was about 20 minutes late departing, so I didn’t think anything of it when I woke up at 6:30am to find we were stopped in the middle of nowhere.  Getting in an hour or two late on an overnight trip is fairly common.  Except the train kept stopping, and it kept getting later.  There was a long stop at 9:30am and quite a few people got off the train to buy food, but I had peanuts along and figured we couldn’t be too far away by then.  Not long after we pulled out, a kind Malaysian gentleman realized I didn’t know where we were, and told me that we were only half way to KL.  I only had a small bottle of water, and a couple packages of peanuts, so I wasn’t nearly as well stocked as usual for the train, and there was no restaurant or vendors on board.  We finally reached KL at 3:00 in the afternoon.  The first thing I did was buy a bottle of water.  I actually wasn’t too hungry, since I’d spent most of the day just laying in my bunk watching the scenery and reading.  The countryside was beautiful, very lush and green.

I stayed in the Chinatown area of KL.  There were a few blocks that were pedestrian only, and full of market stalls.  I continued my trend of splurging on hotels, and got a pretty nice place in a good location.  The only problem was the market stalls set up on the street outside, which left only a very narrow lane about one person wide, with people trying to go in both directions.  There were all kinds of knock-off items like sunglasses, watches, and video games available.  I bought some sunglasses, which I immediately lost, and some games for the PS2 and Nintendo DS Lite.  I don’t know if the games work yet, but they were cheap enough to not be a big loss if they don’t.  There were plenty of restaurants, with the occasional street performer singing 70s lite rock music.

The big excitement for KL was turning on the news in the morning to see that the Olympic torch relay was going through the city that day.  Some things you just can’t plan for!  I took a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city, and planned to get off at the relay starting point, but we got caught up in the traffic, and ended up watching the torch relay from the bus.  I could see the torch going by, but wasn’t able to catch it on camera.  It’s in there somewhere! The red flags are Chinese flags.

I continued on with the bus tour since the torch relay had gone by.  I took this photo of a group of Muslim women from the top level on the bus.  Malaysia is a Muslim country, though there are also many Hindus and Buddhists.  The Muslim women often wear these very colorful skirt and tunic outfits, with brightly colored head scarves.  I didn’t see any women wearing veils, and a lot of the younger women just wore jeans and tops with a head scarf.

The Petronus Towers are the most distinctive landmark in the city.  They were the tallest buildings in the world for a few years, but now they’re the second tallest, behind a building in Taiwan.  They’re still the tallest twin towers, though.  There’s a very nice shopping center in the lower levels, and the symphony orchestra is based there.  They’re beautiful buildings, especially when they’re lit up at night.

I also caught up with the Olympic torch relay again here, at about 4:00pm.  It was pouring down rain by this time, so people were standing under the overhangs waiting for the relay to arrive.  The torch runner was there for quite a while, for people to take photos.

The torch was proceed by a team of bicyclists that were apparently sponsored by Coke, then a couple of trucks with platforms of young people dancing to loud music and passing out flyers.  Then the torch arrived, and it was bedlam for a couple of minutes.  At least you can see the flame this time!

After the torch went by, I went to the bus stop to catch the bus back to my hotel, and much to my surprise met Claudia there.  I had met her in Thailand at Ko Tao, so it was a real surprise to run into her in KL.  It’s funny how travelers end up running into each other again.

I had an evening flight the next day, so went to the Petronus Towers in the morning to visit the Skybridge there that connects the two towers.  They have a very well organized system to manage the large number of visitors, with timed entries.  I got there at 8:00am, when the ticket line opened, and was at the end of a long line already.  I ended up with an 11:00am entry time, so went and had breakfast in the shopping center and did a little window shopping until it was time to go up.

The skybridge is at the 41st floor, and is less than half way up.  The view from there was spectacular, so I can only image what it must be like from the higher floors.

I didn’t really have enough time to do much after that, so went back to Chinatown for a bit more shopping, and picked up my bag for the trip to the airport.  I didn’t get around Malaysia that much, but it was very easy to travel in.  Most of the people spoke at least some English, and there were very few hassles.

The KL airport is very nice, but they have a very odd double security screening system there.  After you check in, you go through a security checkpoint and have your bag x-rayed, all the usual stuff.  There are shops and restaurants beyond this point, so I spent the last of my Malaysian money on some snacks and water to take on the plane.  Then I went to the gate, and was met with another security screening checkpoint, and they wouldn’t let me take my water into the waiting area, even though I had bought it in the airport.  I was pretty mad about that, though there wasn’t anything I could do about it.  There were no water fountains or restrooms in the waiting area either, so I was glad I hadn’t gone there too early.   Then it was on the plane and time to say goodbye to Asia as I left for Australia.

Posted in Malaysia