(country number 15 for me in the past 2 years.. My first time leaving the U.S. was to South Africa in Feb. 2011 - so, I guess I caught the travel bug!?)
Kuala Lumpur. What's there? What's is about -- well, it is known for these --- the Petronas Towers (the two tall glittering buildings that dominate the skyline!) KL also has quite a bit of oil or 'dirty' money. (or so I found out from some guy at a bar - haven't checked with google - yes, that's where I get all my information - but just going to go with it!) It's also a pretty big shopping place, lots of cheap things.. mostly fake things. but cheap.
Ok, so where is Kuala Lumpur? (don't worry I didn't know either till I went there!)
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So Malaysia is interesting, it's two different large island/peninsulas. KL is on the
West peninsula (the brownish/orange color under Thailand). |
It's a melting pot of a ton of different cultures/races/groups. We wanted to try 'Malaysian' food, but found it was usually either Chinese food or Indian food or some sort of American/Western ish food. So we don't really know what Malaysian is......
But here's my experience.
Naomi, Leah and I were sad to leave the Philippines... really sad. - Ok, at least I was. But I think they were pretty sad too.. However, we were excited to see a different country, a new city and a whole different culture.
We flew in, got a shuttle from the airport, which is a good 1.5- 2 hours from the city. They stuck that sucker WAY out there. We got dropped at our hotel, which was super convenient and nice and I think only cost 10 bucks maybe (or less). -Again I am the worst at keeping track.
Hotel.
Our hotel was called the Brisdale. It looked nice, in the lobby, but it was a bit run down in the rooms. We were for sure more on the budget traveler side of things - so we didn't care. We were welcomed pretty warmly, so that's always a plus, maybe because were are 3 single ladies? who knows. And I will not complain about the view from out window! It was fantastic.... (as you can see from the next few pictures).
I would recommend this hotel, if you are a budge traveler and aren't too picky. I mean it really was pretty decent and I think we got a pretty good deal on it! Butttt make sure you get a room with a view of the towers. We luckily did without even asking, and man was I glad!
After dropping our bags, we were of course starving, so we walked outside, found a little Indian restaurant, grabbed a plate and got food. We just paid for what we got. I think it was like 4 bucks (with a drink) for a plate of food. Awesome. Then we did some shopping (which was most of our trip in KL). It's known for the shopping -- so, that was our excuse!
China Town.
There was a China Town of course, what country doesn't have a china town...? this place was of course full of cheap knock off things.. purses, wallets, sunglasses, bags, clothes, watches.. basically anything you could ever want/not want/maybe want/need/not ever need. I had fun mostly looking, (in the beginning) trying to get a feel for what was out there and what I wanted to spend my money-sss on!
Food.
Ok. sooo time for a food break..... since I have a horrible memory I don't remember what day/meal we ate what.. so here's some food that I ate at some point in time in Kuala Lumpur.
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A boiling pot of water in the middle of the table that
we cooked whatever we wanted in. We first chose the stick of goodies
and then stuck in in the water. You could have also
fried things, but we chose the healthier option. |
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Some Sugar Cane juice in China Town.. They literally
just shoved sugar cane into a juicer machine and then
handed us a cup of juice. Yes, it was super sweet. Tasted like sugar! |
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Some noodles and veggies and shrimp. (we had something
like this in the Philippines as well) |
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Amazing drink. What it is. NO CLUE. but it was kind of
milky, sweet, carmel-y ish awesomeness. |
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Curry, and naan and rice and veggies and chicken - all this
for about 5 U.S. dollars. Yeah, um.. that's awesome. |
Petronas Towers.
The next day we chilled at the hotel, ate lunch, laid out by the pool -- until the sun went behind some buildings and there was no more sun, then showered and got ready for a night on the town. We put on our best pair of jean shorts for the occasion. (since we packed pretty light and practical). I think I did have a dress maybe but of course had my crappy flip flops. psh. whateverrrr! We still looked great (or as good as one could with the resources we had!)
We went to the Petronas Towers. So, who knew but they have a shopping center inside. no way? kind of sarcastic. I mean at first I thought waiittttt the whole thing can't be a mall - and it wasn't. I started thinking the only think in KL is shopping. We got there did a quick photo shoot. (Gotta have it!) And then walked into the mall and holy we were soooo not meant to be there. There were soooo many expensive/name brand stores - many that (girl from Iowa) has never even heard of. But we walked into Coach, just for fun. I couldn't even afford a zipper off of the purses... they were hundreds of mullahs and I think one of the pairs of shoes was 1,000's ... what? for real. how could you spend that much on things? Whatever. to each their own. Naomi was happy with her much cheaper knock off purse. We wandered around, there was everything in that mall and like 5 floors and 3 different wings. We could have easily spent 3 days in there, without seeing everything, instead we had 2 hours. (sounds like me in the Louvre - should have spent days but instead had about 2 hours!) So we chose food (over shopping). Thai food, which I had never had before, was the winner. I ordered some crab, it was called soft crab or something -- and it was fried but still with the shell on. Quite strange... it wasn't too bad but I think my stomach was confused about why I was eating a crab WITH the shell. We finished the 'tour' of the towers mall with some gelato, of course (which they were closing as we walked up - but stayed open just for us!) - we are special!
Next we walked around a bit outside of the towers and found a small little park, took a bunch more pictures (oh wait that was just me doing that). I have no idea what they did, I was in da ZONEEE. Nothing was going to get between me and getting a good picture of these 2 sparkling, shiny, very large, prominent -- THINGS!
Sky Bar.
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that would be the pool, with the bar in the background. why the pool?!
who knows! |
We finally continued on our way to Sky Bar in Traders Hotel. If you want a great view of the towers - go HERE. Also if you want to swim? maybe? this bar had a pool in the middle of it. Why? I don't know. I really wanted to do a huge cannon ball, but I didn't - I contained myself and stayed 'classy' - like Rob Burgundy - and stayed far away from the pool. You're welcome (parents, other people in the bar, the citizens of KL and the U.S. and friends), you are welcome! Although it was sooo tempting. At the bar, my friends went and got a drink - what did I do? Come on you know what I did - I got right up to the window (had to kind of work my way around some people at a table and kind of join their table/section to do so - but whatever) and started taking a million and 45 pictures. or something like that. I'm sure I drove those people crazy, but do you think I cared? nnnnoooope. I finally went and joined my friends, after I was satisfied with my pictures. We decided to go dance and of course when we get out there - everyone else leaves the dance floor. (probably because of our attire? or maybe we smelled?) But oh well, we kept on dancing and that's when we met a couple guys from Europe - maybe?, it was really hard to hear and I was just focused on my bag/camera not getting stolen and not getting my toes stepped on -- because of course I took my shoes off!
Best part of the night.... Leah walking up to two men, who had been staring at us most of the night - and asked if they were gay. We had an inkling that they were -- she asked... and the answer was, no. They seemed a bit confused, and said no, we are both married (I guess to women?). On the way home we had some trouble with the taxi driver - he charged us more than he said and blah blah but we just paid it and got out and went to bed!
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View from the Sky Bar, Traders Hotel. (a perfect, perfect view and classy bar,
HIGLY RECOMMENDED!) |
The Batu Caves
nothing like waiting until I get home to realize what I was looking at/seeing. This is where the information will be from.
The Batu caves are one of the most important Hindu religious sites outside of India. They have about 5,000 visitors a day who make the climb up the 272 'leg-burning steps'. (look at picture below).Yes, that was indeed correct. My legs were a burning!
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| Statue of Lord Murugan. Built in 2006. |
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I believe this would be the 113 year old Hindu temple (the site above was
talking about)! |
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| see if you can find the blonde chick [Naomi! |
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for ladies only.... not for sure why. I'm guess for religious purposes?
Or maybe just because women are better? -- ok ok just kidding men.
You're special too - just not enough to get your own train car! |
The next day -- we didn't go shopping. At least not at first. We went to the Batu Caves, which we did on our own. We were going to go with a tour but looked it up and found it was on the subway - so we said, pshhh we got this. And thankfully we did, it cost us only a few bucks (just a train ride there and back) instead of like 30 something. So if you go to KL, do the Batu Caves on your own! Because the caves themselves are all free. And it was super easy to find on your own. Also if you go on your own, you can stay as long or as short as you desire - there will be no waiting around or being rushed. The caves were pretty cool. It was touristy and a sacred place for Hindu people. We got to witness a ritual/ceremony of pouring of liquids over a spear looking thing. I have no idea what was going on, but there was a lot of noise and bell ringing ?! There were also roosters running around everywhere and it was pretty trashed (as in there was a lot of trash in the caves). I guess the old people of the country don't clean up the entire country (like in Korea).
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| Hindu ceremony. |
After the caves we paid to see another part of the cave and hear about all kinds of animals and of course bat guano (what's guano - oh just poop), which I guess is basically what supports the entire cave ecosystem. Poop. Awesome. We could hear the bats squeaking and I just knew I wasn't going to make it out of there without taking some guano as a souvenir (and of course I was right). The coolest part for sure was when we were in the middle of the cave, and the guide told us to all shut off our lights and we experienced TOTAL DARKNESS. I am not kidding. I couldn't see my hand an inch from my face.. nothing not a single thing at all, the entire time our lights were out. It was one of the strangest things, I kept straining trying to see, even when I knew I never would be able to. My brain/eyes kept trying and trying to see. I might have been scared, but I knew I had my light in my hand. What would I do if I was stuck in there? I don't even know. Probably go a little bit crazy, but I can tell you my other senses got much stronger! I was also quite proud of myself, I found one of the creatures - (even before the guide saw it). It was one of those centipede things with like 295081 legs (we used to get something like them in our bathtub occasionally - yeah that's gross). I guess these little guys are pretty fast. It's also strange because a lot of the animals site is bad, because they live in total darkness and they also don't really have colors because they don't need to - no light, so they are all grey/dark/colorless creatures living in and around and eating poop. Awesome!
As we were leaving the caves - there were MONKEYS and since we had a couple of bad experiences with monkeys in the Philippines we were not overly excited about these little creatures. They were everywhere... all up and down the steps leading to the Batu Caves. I was seriously terrified and gripped onto my stuff for dear life. I also tried not to look them in the eyes. They really are sooo human like it's freaky. Seriously scary. They are little, hairy human like creatures. I snapped a few pictures and sort of wanted to get closer to get more/better/closer shots, but opted out - I was too chicken! So, sorry if you want a close up of monkeys - google it. You won't see any from me. Unless I am using a telephoto lens! And this is what the website has to say about the monkeys...
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As you make your way up the steps, you will undoubtedly be entertained by a tribe of monkeys that feed off the steady stream of tourists. You may take pictures, but pay attention to your belongings!'
yes, yes you are totally correct. (although these monkeys left us alone, thankfully!)
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notice the little girl staring at me! (she looks kind of terrified).
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| Statue outside of Batu Caves. |
China Town, Again.
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so when it rains, it POURS. Yeah, holy cow. we had to
stand under an over hang for ages waiting for it to calm
down. |
That night we headed back to China Town - because why not. We got dinner at a pizza/pasta/burger/american ish place. It was fantastic. The only problem was the creepy men that kept starring at us. I had my back to them, thankfully. But poor Naomi and Leah had to deal with it the whole meal. We seemed to notice it was a particular group of people from a specific region (unnamed). I am not racist, I am just pointing out our experience. These men would look at us like we were pieces of chicken! We ended up coining the action - 'rape eyes'. I know not a good name/term BUT that's what we felt like. It was rather disturbing. And while I'm ranting -- I should throw in that the taxi drivers outside China Town are JERKS. Don't take them, don't use them. Just don't. Ever. Taxis are supposed to use meters in KL - it's the law. But when you ask these guys they say no, no meter and when we say, no you have to. They don't listen or care. One even told us, no the price is white. Seriously? He also proceeded to yell at us as we were walking away (I had to walk away before I beat him down!) ok, maybe kidding, I probably wouldn't have. but still. He was yelling at us that he could charge us whatever he wanted and it was because we were white. I think he also told us to leave his country or something rude like that. See, it's people like that (and they are EVERYWHERE - even in America) that make people not like certain countries. Because as much as you would like to think the people don't affect/make up/ or change the way you think about an entire country - they totally do!
Shopping. Leaving.
Ok, enough ranting. The next day was our last day -- so we did some shopping and some more shopping.. because we HAD to spend ALL our money. I mean what good would it be to us to have Ringets in Korea? yeah, so we HAD to. (our excuse). I bought so many things. A lot for me, but I got some things for friends/ family members as well! I bought many many scarves, a purse or 2 and a wrap thing and some earrings and some other little gifts for people! Then Leah and I headed to the airport and Naomi stayed behind because she was headed on to Bali in a few days. Leah and I got to the airport and of course there was a computer problem, and of course we were told to go to 3 different lines and we waited over an hour just to get checked in. And it was 12 AM and we were exhausted. When we finally got checked in, I knew for sure I was headed back to Korea when I saw the list of people on the flight.. I was smack dab in the middle of a long list of Kim's and Lee's. I laughed out loud, literally and had to cover my mouth so the airport people didn't think I was crazy! We finally boarded the plane - which was quite the process - we had to wait in a waiting area and they had to check us in manually and then we could sit where ever we wanted because the computers were down. I got the middle seat and had to try to sleep sitting up, with no space, it didn't work very well. I maybe got 2 hours of sleep... maybe.
Sunrise.
But.... I got to see this... (the sunrise). amazing. the perfect ending to a perfect and beautiful vacation!
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On Friday I was up at 4:30 and on the bus to the Phoenix airport at 5:30. I was not too excited about going back to Korea, but I knew I had to and knew it was what was best for me. It didn't help that I just spent 6 days in the warm Southwest! But I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to go down there with my family and to see Andrew play baseball! He played pretty well and the team was 3-1, for what we watched! Not too bad. :) The plane ride back over was pretty uneventful. I watched a couple of movies (Silver Linings Playbook and Now is Good), both good movies. I thankfully had a seat open next to me, which is amazing - just so you know. It's basically like winning the lottery!
