1st visit to Kuala Lumpur

After my horrific event on the airplane from Jakarta I just wanted to get to my hotel as fast as possible. Thankfully passport control was surprisingly fast, even faster than the U.S. and I was so thankful for that. As soon as I got to the terminal I looked for the bus to Puduraya bus station unfortunately the ticket guy wasn't there and a neighboring agent told me to go to the platform 3. I immediately went to a convenience store bought pain pills and a water. I promptly took them and went in search of platform 3. I originally couldn't find it so I walked over to some buses and they pointed me in the right direction. Once I got to the bus there was no ticket agent, the driver was there but seemed too involved in his own conversation for me. I stood around for a bit when someone told me to get on the bus and buy a ticket. Finally I bought my ticket and we left shortly there after. The bus ride to city felt like it took ages when in reality it only took an hour and a half. I was dropped off not at Puduraya station but Sinar Kota, a wholesale market down the street from the bus station and my hotel. As soon as I got off the bus I was immediately bombarded by taxi drivers, I was so disoriented and just wanted to get to my hotel that I decided that I was just going to have one take me to my hotel. When I told the driver my hotel name, he said "its that way." So I began walking hoping I didn't get too lost. Luckily my hotel was tall and I saw its name from one of the squares. I felt a lot better and made my way to the hotel. The area was relatively busy and it was near a very busy square/ traffic area. The hotel was quite nondescript,but the security was very nice and inviting. I checked in relatively fast and made it up to my room. The elevator was very old and unstable, every time I rode it I wasn't sure I would make it to my room or the lobby. My room was interesting; it definitely needed some updating, the carpet was very old and coming up in places, the bed was supported by a rock, and the controls for the aircon were on this panel attached to the headboard of the bed along with the controls for the television that didn't work. I did have a corner room so I could see the KL skyline and if I stuck my head far enough outside one of my windows I could see the Petronas Towers. I put all my stuff down and went in search of food. I wasn't feeling too adventurous so I just went to McDonalds. The best thing about McDonalds in Kuala Lumpur, unlike Bangkok, was they had a variety of soda options one of them being Diet Coke. Diet Coke was definitely more available in Kuala Lumpur than in Thailand. For those who know me and my love of Diet Coke it was such a nice bonus while being in Kuala Lumpur. So I ate quickly and went back to my room to get some much needed sleep. I planned on getting the hop-on-hop-off bus because I couldn't be bothered to do research on the public transportation in Kuala Lumpur. I took some more pills and went to bed, unfortunately I was woken in the middle of the night with searing pain. I took more pills and eventually fell back to sleep. I woke up relatively late the next morning, I honestly couldn't be bothered to get up because I was so tired, having these headache were physically draining. When I finally got out of bed I saw that it was raining but not too hard and I couldn't waste my day in my room so I went in search of a pharmacy and the hop-on-hop-off bus. I wandered down Petaling Street and Chinatown looking for that bus stop and while on Petaling Street I grabbed these pork sheets covered with honey that I had in Singapore that reminded me of breakfast especially when you have pancakes and bacon. These sheets of meat taste like bacon and maple syrup and they were so good. I eventually found a pharmacy and picked up sinus medicine and as I was walking down one of the streets I found the bus stop.

I bought a ticket and within 5 minutes the bus had arrived. I rode it to Jalan Duta, the National Palace, we couldn't go into the palace but they let us out to take photos of the palace. I then got off at the bird aviary and national orchid garden. I went to the orchid garden because it was free and I really didn't want to start my day off with birds. The garden was nice, not super huge but still a nice place to stop. I then left the garden and went in search of the Islamic Arts Museum because my friend, Leighton, said it was worth checking out and he was right. Once I got there I went through a side entrance. The museum was so clean and open there was floor to ceiling windows overlooking the aviary and the national mosque. There were gorgeous domes with beautifully painted details and the whole building was made of white marble so it gave this very cool and clean feeling. The museum had a lot of gorgeous art pieces, clothing, tapestries, Qurans, jewelry, and models of mosques. The art and calligraphy was beautiful as well as all the Qurans.

They even had miniature ones that had their own attached magnifying lenses. I really enjoyed the models of the mosques from around the world. Some of these models were so huge that I couldn't even imagine how big they are in real life. After I walked around the museum some more I went and bought some Islamic calligraphy with what looked like Islamic proverbs.
Once I finished up I walked up the hill to wait for the next bus. The next place I visited was Mederka Square to visit St. Mary's Cathedral. St. Mary's Cathedral is the oldest Cathedral in Kuala Lumpur, it was built in 1894. It is a very small church that really cannot hold many people. I went in for about 5 to 10 minutes and I had seen everything I could see. I went back out to Merdeka Square, which is a large green space, with very cool architectural buildings facing towards the square. The Royal Sebugar Club reminded me of old German homes and the Banguhan Sultan Abdul Samad Kuala Lumpur High Court was very Islamic in style with lots of arches and domes. It was really cool to see two cultures come together in this one open area. Once I took some pictures I hopped on the bus to head to the KL Tower, the afternoon began to clear up so I thought I could get some good pictures of Kuala Lumpur. The KL Tower is located in one of the last green spots in the Kuala Lumpur downtown area.
While we were driving to the downtown area we passed by the Petronas Towers and thankfully I was on the bus with an observation deck so when we passed by the Petronas Towers I was able to get a nice clear shot. I really didn't want to get out because it didn't look like there was much to do and I didn't want the KL Tower to close before I got there. Once we got up the twisting winding hill that lead to the KL Tower I bought a slightly discounted ticket on the bus then went in search of food. There was a small cafe where I had a version of fried rice, which was pretty good. I sat for a bit to relax, take some medicine, and regroup. Once I finished my lunch I went to the tower, there were hardly any people there and my elevator ride up to the top had like 3 people in it. Once I got off the elevator it was quite dim and the first thing I saw was souvenir shops. The windows were not terribly huge but you can see quite a bit of Kuala Lumpur. There was a map above the window which pointed out all the major landmarks of Kuala Lumpur. Visibility was ok and I got some pretty good shots but had I waited for the next day it probably would have been better. I did two circuits around the tower and felt that that was all I could see so I went downstairs to wait for the bus.

My plan was to ride the bus for one more circuit  and try to sneak off the bus to get a picture of the Petronas Towers at night. By that time of night traffic was awful and it was the Friday before Chinese New Years so everybody was going out of town. It took forever to get through Chinatown as well as some of the major highways. It was fine with me I just kind of sat back and relaxed. When we stopped by the aviary and picked up some people one of the passengers was this Libyan who just wanted to talk so I politely had a conversation with him. He said he was by himself and had no one to talk to so being nice I talked to him. He told me about his family who were all tragically killed in Libya and he told me of his adventures in Kuala Lumpur. He said since I was so nice and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner. I thought he was harmless so I said yes, on the way to the Bukit Bintang Street the bus stopped for 5 minutes at the Petronas Towers so we were able to get a night shot. The lighting was just perfect and the shots I have of the Petronas Towers are probably one of my all time favorite travel shots. There was some confusion with some of the passengers the driver was telling them this was the last bus because the traffic was so bad that no other buses would be able to make the circuit. Since that was going on I stayed off the bus even longer admiring the towers.

Once the mass chaos was figured out we continued on. We finally made it to our destination and we crossed the street to a Lebanese restaurant. It was a nice restaurant and the guy kept telling me to buy whatever I wanted but I just wasn't hungry and he couldn't understand why I wouldn't order. Dinner was nice and he didn't talk much and then we began walking towards his hotel because he needed to grab his cigarettes. As we were walking I realized my hotel wasn't far away so I could just walk back. Once we got to his hotel I waited for him, he then offered to move me to his hotel, that sent up huge red flags. I told him no he kept pushing me and I said NO again. I told him I liked my hotel, I was happy, and I had already paid for it. He said it didn't matter he would pay for me, I still said no and that I was going to my hotel. He offered to walk me back to my hotel, which he wouldn't take no for an answer. I didn't care I just wanted back to the safety of my hotel and the security guards. When we were walking he tried to grab my hand and that is where I freaked out yanking my hand away. I really don't like anybody touching me, especially strangers, and I think he was a little shocked with my action, but at this moment I really could care less. As we kept walking and I noticed a roti place, which I would have to try later. I finally made it to my hotel and the Libyan asked if he could meet up the next day, I said I had a lot planned and was leaving very early. He then asked if he could walk me up to my room where I again said no, goodbye, and thank you for dinner then I walked into my hotel. If he followed me I was going to have security remove him. He didn't come in he just left, thank god. As I walked in the lobby and began heading towards the elevators I noticed a lot of people in the lobby. I asked this nice looking girl what was going on and she said the fire alarm went off and everybody came downstairs. She said it smelled like a gas leak, but she wasn't sure what was happening. Eventually we asked the nice security guard if it was ok to go up and he said yes. Once I got to my room unfortunately my key did not work so I had to head back down, which took forever since one of the elevators seemed to have broken down. Once I got my key figured out I dropped my stuff and went down the street to get a large bottle of water and a candy bar hoping the Libyan was no where to be found. He wasn't and after that last errand I was finally in for the night, I talked to the parents on skype and then went to sleep because I planned to wake up very early the next day.
The next morning I was up bright and early. I immediately headed towards the bus stop so I could use my ticket a couple more times before I had to purchase a new one. I planned to go to Little India, the Bird Park, the National Museum, the Arts and Craft Village, and the Modern Art Museum. I hardly waited before the bus arrived and I only stayed on the bus for a little bit before I was dropped off in Little India. I had only planned to walk around for 30 minutes and grab some breakfast. I walked up and down the main road in Little India, I had arrived so early that not a lot of places were open.

I walked a bit looking for a place to eat. There was a kind of food court full of people, it kind of scared me so I walked down the road looking for a restaurant to stop in. I walked down to the end of the road with not much luck so I went back to the chaotic food court and when I walked in I couldn't figure out how to get food so I left and went towards this strip mall and went into this quiet little restaurant. The owner gave me a menu and as I looked at the menu with a very confused face he made a suggestion for this pancake like pouch with a curry. I said that sounded great. I ordered a diet coke and waited for my breakfast. Shortly there after a metal lunch tray was brought out with the triangle pancake as big as the tray came out the pancake thing actually came off the tray a bit. There were a couple of sauces on the tray, that weren't too spicy but tasted nice with the pancake. As I ate into the pancake I found the curry, which was delicious, made me think that this was what Indian food was supposed to taste like. After I finished I went up to pay and I asked the man what just had he said it to me and then pointed it out on the menu, dosa. He then gave me my bill which was a whole whopping 4.50myr and then I went out to wait for the bus. The bus showed up shortly there after and I was on my way to the national museum. I had planned to spend 2 hours there, because it looked big, but in actuality it wasn't as big as I thought and one of the exhibits was closed. The museum was two stories with two exhibitions on the ground floor and two exhibitions on the 2nd floor. One exhibit was the evolution of the Malaysian people, another the colonization of Malaysia, and another the history of Malaysia. They had some cool exhibits and life size forts, tin mills, as well as cool fabrics and jewelry. In the evolution room they had many skeletons to show when the first humans came to Malaysia and it went on to the emergence of tools. It was interesting to see the history of Malaysia, but the museum was quite small so it took me no time at all to get through it. The special exhibit was "Masks from Around the World" I thought it looked like a cool exhibit but saw it cost extra, I originally thought "no" but then said to myself "you are on vacation treat yourself a bit." So I went in and bought a ticket. I originally thought it was going to cost 5myr, but as I paid with a 10 and received no change I questioned the lady and she said it was 10myr. I said the sign outside says 5 she said 10 I then said maybe you should change the sign, but she didn't seem to care what I said. After that small little snafu I went inside to view all the masks. There were tons of masks many of them from Africa of all shapes, sizes, colors, and ages. You could honestly tell some of the masks were quite old and you could see the transition from older masks to newer ones. The design of the masks became more detailed and had a bit more color the younger they got. They had a lot of tribal masks, a few Chinese masks, and some Thai masks, they even had some Egyptian masks. As I was going from one room to the other they had a hall of masks, which was a black hallway with masks hanging down.

It was very haunted houseesque, once I made it to the next room there were more modern masks, I really liked the Venetian masks, but they only had 5. It was a nice museum, and even better because I was by myself so not to be distributed. Once I left the exhibit I headed toward the exit and as I got to the gate the bus was there picking up people. I hopped on the bus and made my way to my next destination. I planned on going to the bird aviary, since a lot of people had visited it and it seemed to have received a lot of good reviews. Once I got to the bird aviary I bought a discounted voucher and made my way to the ticket counter and made my way into the park. The park was very lush and green; and right away their were tons of birds. There were these crane like birds that I used to see all the time in the Florida Keys, which really made me think and miss home. The aviary was actually really big there were 4 zones in the park, I decided to start by going to zone 2 and make a loop around the park. I would have to double back in one of the zones but I wasn't too upset about it.

As I walked towards zone 2 I was surrounded by numerous peacocks. The one thing this aviary has is peacocks and as I was walking down the path a peacock actually opened up its plumage, which was totally awesome. I walked around the dense forest and lakes seeing hornbills, cranes, flamingos, and numerous other small birds I then went to the exotic bird section where they had all kind of beautifully colored birds. I really loved these red birds and in the exhibit they let you feed the birds if you paid. The only problem with this section and some of the other sections was that the birds were in cages and they looked kind of miserable, also sometimes the birds were quite far away and it was difficult to see them. I walked on the to the last zone that had a bird show, playground, and museum but I decided to walk around the little lake and under the waterfall. After making my final loop I stopped by the Non-Flight Birds enclosure with an ostrich and a double wattled cassowary. I got pretty close and if I wasn't careful I would have been bitten. After all that I made my way out and went to wait for the bus. By this time I was pretty hot and sweaty and when the bus arrived it was full.  I thought I was going to have to stand but this sweet old British man let me sit with him. He was actually in Kuala Lumpur with his family because his daughter was going to be married to a Malaysian. He was very talkative and made the bus ride go by faster. My next planned stop was the National Art Gallery, it was extremely quiet and not too terribly big. There was some great pieces but a lot of the same kind of pieces so after a while it became monotonous. After walking around for about an hour I went back to wait for the bus. My next stop was to be the craft village. I had read some great things about the craft village, things like you could meet artists, negotiate prices for their work, and even create your own. Given that it was the day before Chinese New Year I think most people had left Kuala Lumpur so there wasn't too many artists to buy from or artists there to view their work. The gift shop was extremely over priced and quite unoriginal. I did visit the museum and it was cool to see the evolution of textiles and silver work in Malaysia, but it was kind of small and by that time I was starving and really had no patience. I only stayed there for about 45 minutes and then I was off again. I had planned to go to Bukit Bintang Walk, but decided I didn't feel like maybe running into the Libyan so I decided to go to Central Market  to walk around and grab some food.

First I decided to go to the famous Hindu temple that was down the street from Central Market. I walked into what looked like a shopping mall that had this beautiful sand peacock drawing on the ground and then I walked through these glass doors into the temple area. Sri Mahamariramman Temple is the richest and oldest temple in Kuala Lumpur. It is in the middle of Chinatown and I absolutely loved it. There was so much color and so many statues full of detail. While I was there I think they were doing some kind of ceremony so I was able to witness "the priests" cleansing one of the statues with "holy water." Once I wandered around the temple grounds I made my way to Central Market, which is this 80s art deco designed building on a very busy street with an outdoor market on a side street right next to it. I first walked down the street market and grabbed a curry puff pastry after eating it I was ok. I then went inside to see what this market had to offer. It was 2 stories with many different alley ways and sections. It was decorated beautifully for Chinese New Years. This indoor market was much nicer than any of the ones in Bangkok. The stalls were arranged nicely, the aisles were long and wide so it wasn't too crowded, and people didn't harass you all the time to come into their store. I did get lost a couple of times I walked through the China and India section like 10 times. I made my way to the other end of the market that lead to an outdoor section that had an outdoor coffee shop and across the way way it had a couple of art shops. I went over to this one shop that had long paintings of flowers, trees, animals, etc. I saw this beautiful cherry blossom picture and asked the lady how much, she said 15myr and as I was looking between two pieces the woman than said 2 for 20, Happy Chinese New Years. I was then looking for 2 complementary pieces. She showed me the other flowers she had, but the cherry blossoms were just so nice. I bought two cherry blossoms one with a white background and one with a tan background. When they are next to each other they are awesome and I can't wait till I can have them framed. Once I finished up with the lady I walked back inside in search of some coffee. I saw this one coffee place that just looked really nice, but when I tried to find it I got lost. It took me ages to find the place, but I eventually did. I sat down and had a lovely iced coffee while I read my book. After I finished I stopped by Famous Amous and grabbed a bag of mini cookies then continued on to the 2nd floor. There wasn't much up there except for clothes. I made my way way down to the entrance where I decided to head back to Chinatown and Petaling Street to ring in Chinese New Years a bit early. I first walked down Petaling Street market which was extremely cramped. It was extremely hot and people were calling me from all directions. Anytime I glanced towards a stall I was surrounded by vendors. I walked from one end back and was tempted to buy a fake Birkin, but I couldn't buy it even though the vendor was really dropping the price. I was traveling light and this bag would have been an extra hassle so I left it. Once I got back to where I started I decided to get some street food so I walked down an alleyway to a main road where there was 3 or 4 stands with a lot of tables nearby. I asked one of the vendors for noodles and went to sit down. It was all very Thai from the cups for drinks, to the tables to the chairs, to the vendors. My dinner was delivered shortly thereafter and I sat and watched the people go by. Once I finished up I wandered back to my hotel to relax and began packing for the last leg of my trip. After I finished up in the room I walked down the street to that restaurant where the previous evening I saw that they had roti. I went in and asked for a banana roti. Everybody was staring, I was the only girl and the only white person and I just ordered a roti. They called out a guy from the back and he made my fresh roti right in front of me. I ate it while people watched, I did feel a bit uncomfortable because people were just staring, so I quickly finished up and walked back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the night inside because I didn't know what Chinese New Years would bring so I didn't want to be alone in a large crowd in another country.
The next morning I woke up relatively early and went out for breakfast at McDonalds, because I love McDonald's breakfast. As I was walking to the square where the McDonalds was located I noticed a considerably larger crowd of people especially waiting outside one of these buildings. I am not sure if they were looking for work, shopping, or having a rally. Most of them seemed to be just shooting the breeze.
I felt a bit uncomfortable and a lot of the men were staring at me. I made it to McDonalds ordered my breakfast and was in and out quickly. I then waited in my room until the last moment before heading out to find my bus. I had to walk down the street towards the crowds. I stopped in front of what looked this discounted market where a man in a yellow shirt came out of nowhere and asked me if I was going to the airport. He sold me a ticket and said the bus would be here in 15 minutes. He told me to stay where I was, which was near this sign where buses were picking up and dropping off people. It would get pretty hot and crowded as the buses arrived and then it would clear up. After about 20 minutes the man came over and said the bus would be there soon, one of the buses arrived, but it went to the other airport so I continued to wait. It took a good 30 minutes for the bus to finally arrive and had I not been paying attention I would have missed it. Once I was finally settled on the bus we then made our way through the crowds, which was a feat in itself. It took a good 15 minutes to drive down the street. I never found out why there were so many people there I was just happy to be out of the crowd. I was glad I left my hotel early because it took forever to get on the bus as well as leave the Chinatown area. I was still really early to the airport, so I just grabbed a coffee and a cake jumped on the free wifi and anxiously awaited my flight to Phuket. I really enjoyed my time in Kuala Lumpur, it was an amazing city with such a wide array of cultures and activities. I would definitely come back to the city for a visit I really had a lovely time. The best way to describe Kuala Lumpur would be to imagine that if Bangkok and Singapore had a baby, it would be Kuala Lumpur. The city has the amazing culture and food of Bangkok, but the cleanliness and infrastructure of Singapore. It really was the perfect mix. My flight was quite uneventful it was much nicer than my flight into Kuala Lumpur it was now time to go relax with Barry and Suzi.