Kuala Lumpur - in general

Kuala Lumpur in general – best description is a less “perfect” version of Singapore (ie. Less clean, but generally still the same kind of place). For those who have never been to Singapore, apologies for the crappy description. It’s hot and humid. It seems that if you go outside you will get wet – either rain or sweat or both.

It’s good for shopping, both upper end stuff, and market stuff. Although Dave had previously given me the heads up before hand, not knowing where it was, I accidentally stumbled across Petaling Street Market. An amazing place. Here you can buy a fake version of just about anything. From Rolexes to fresh white Nikes, to Louis Vittons, to Ray Bans. Everything can be found here. Haggling is a must. My new principle is don’t buy anything you actually want because you will be ripped off (you need to make the vendors want to sell their goods more than you actually want to buy the goods in order to get the price down). Also pretending to leave without buying is a sure fire way to slash the price of anything by at least 50%. I spent a couple of hours wandering through here, before I found Central Market (an indoor, and more importantly air conditioned market) which actually sells authentic stuff like local handi-crafts, souvenirs etc.

Oh I forgot to mention, that food can be bought basically anywhere for quite cheap ($3 AUD for main meal seems about average).

In terms of food, Jalang Alor seems to be the place to go. The street sides are lined with little food stalls, and at night, they put tables out (even on the road) and serve heaps of customers (both locals and tourists). The place is very busy, and it’s interesting sitting and eating dinner on the middle of the road as cars and pedestrians pass by. Most of the time I order by pointing at a picture, only to find that what is brought out doesn’t look much like the picture. Also most of the time, I’m not really quite sure what I am eating, but it seems to taste pretty good, so no complaints yet. Chinese or Indian style food seems to be most common.

Sightseeing in Kula Lumpur seems to involve towers. The biggest and most famous are the Petronas Twin Towers – the largest twin towers in the world. The biggest building(s) I have ever seen, and make all the other sky scrapers in KL look small and inferior. I reckon even King Kong would have trouble climbing this bad boy. You can climb to the skybridge for a free lookout of the city, however, there is only a limited number of tickets available each day. I was advised to get there early to get a ticket. I did get there early – but not early enough, as all tickets were snapped up before my arrival. I consoled myself by taking some token photos Valentino Rossi’s motorbike (which is in the lobby of the building), exploring the shopping centre which takes up the bottom 5 floors of the building and then heading to the next best tower, KL Tower.

KL Tower, was unfortunately not free, but admission to the observation deck did get me complimentary admission into the “Animal Experience” as well as a ride of a dodgy F1 simulator (and a free pony ride, which I decided not to take). KL Tower is a big pointy tower (much like the one in Sydney) which gives 360degree views of the city (supposedly better view than the Petronas Towers).

Cosmos World!

The Classic Inn is located just behind the huge Times Square shopping centre – home to 10 levels of shops. A ride of one of the escalators can be similar to a ride on a roller coaster if you are scared of heights. Speaking of roller coasters, did I mention that Times Square contains “Cosmos World” – Malaysia’s largest indoor theme park? (which I think implies there are others, although I’ve never of one in Australia). This theme park is amazing. It is seriously right in the middle of the shopping centre.

As soon as I entered I headed straight for the main attraction, the “Supersonic Odyssey” (I think this proved to be a bad move in the end as all the other rides – except “Space Attack” seemed a little lame in comparison). Supersonic Odyssey is a massive indoor rollercoaster and is heaps of fun – well worth the entry fee just for this ride. As an added bonus, while you’re on the roller coaster, you can check out the various levels of the shopping centre – try doing that at dream world. As previously mentioned, the other rides couldn’t live up to the awesomeness of the roller coaster. The “Space Attack” made a valiant effort, spinning you around and around, and stopping while you’re upside down to try and force that last meal out of your mouth. So after attacking all the rides I had one last ride on the “Supersonic Odyssey” before leaving.

For video of the Supersonic Odyssey check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t80GNrabXXE

Kuala Lumpur First Impression

Getting out at KL LCCT airport was hassle free. The hardest part was trying not to cough and sneeze while walking through the Swine Flu screening area. Once I was outside, I was promptly reminded I was in Asia again when I was whacked in the face by the heat and humidity. After a bit of stuffing around I was able to get some money changed and ready to try and find my way into the city (the airport is a long way from the city centre).

I was convinced by some guy to catch the “Aerobus” to KL Sentral. It seemed a little dodgy, but was cheap so I got on. It worked though, and in just over an hour I was at KL central. This is where the challenge of finding my hotel began. In hindsight, having a map at this point would have been beneficial, but was not essential.

KL Sentral is much like Melbourne’s Spencer St Station – which connects normal trains with V-line, long distance busses etc. The only problem is it’s doesn’t’ seem to be located as centrally as its name suggests, so a small trek is required to get anywhere useful. After wandering around KL Sentral for a while trying to find the monorail (which was supposed to lead me to my hotel) I asked some guy and he pointed somewhere around the corner. I followed his vague (but accurate) directions, to find that the monorail station is not actually located within KL Sentral, but just around the corner and across the road.

After the exciting monorail ride, I was able to locate my hotel (the Classic Inn) quite easily.

The Classic Inn is a pretty cool place. It is a sort of a hotel sort of a hostel. Hotel quality with hostel atmosphere. Definitely one of the cleanest places to stay.

The complementary breakfast is worth noting here. There is no “restaurant” here, so anytime in the morning, all you have to do is go and sit in the lobby/outside area and someone first comes up to you and asks you if you would like coffee or tea. After the prompt beverage, a three course breakfast is unexpectedly brought out to you. First what I think is a toasted palm sugar sandwich (delicious), followed by a selection of fruits (I had, and was impressed by, star fruit for the first time), then the main course which is an egg/rotti thing with some kind of curry (also good). A great was to start the morning – all at no extra cost.

The Flight

It’s best to start from the very beginning, so why not start with the flight. The flight was Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur (8hrs). The flight was my first time on Air Asia. It wasn’t too bad, although the seats are quite small, and are not really suitable for long flights (luckily the seat immediately next to me was empty so I could stretch out).

I slept pretty much the whole flight, so I didn’t notice too many things to report. However, there was one funny incident. My seat was in the centre row of the plane. The centre row consists of three seats. I was sitting in an isle seat, the one immediately next to me, and in the other isle seat sat a large black man…

When the man sat down he didn’t take any notice of me and just looked straight ahead. This didn’t bother me, but it was when he pulled out a copy of the Koran (what I assume was the Koran) and started reading/chanting quietly and intermittently kissing certain pages was when I became a little worried. It was like a scene straight out a movie, when the token Muslim terrorist sits next to the unsuspecting hero (Wesley Snipes?) on a plane.

But it turns out he wasn’t a terrorist, and I didn’t need to save to plane from bombing/hijacking like Mr Snipes (which is just as well, as I have already done my tax return for the year). He turned out to be a nice (yet somehow scary man) going to visit he’s sick uncle in Malaysia. I had short conversations with him throughout the flight on the odd occasion when I wasn’t asleep and when he wasn’t reading the Koran.

On a side note, I missed the meal on the plane (as I always seem to do) because I was asleep. However, I woke up while the others were eating, and by the horrible smell, was glad that I missed the meal.