View from KL TowerUS Dollars to Malaysian Ringgits, barracks to hostels, one road to thousands, and English to…well, a bunch of languages that we don’t understand.
Quite a photogenic pair of towers
We were thrown from militaristic structure and 25-mph-or-less onto streets where traffic lights are suggestions and crossing the road as a pedestrian is strikingly similar to the game of Frogger (it turns out we’re all natural champions of the game). It was quite a jolt of a transition, but it was an exciting arrival in Kuala Lumpur, and even more so once we got to the long-awaited Reggae Mansion, our hostel located just outside of Chinatown, which Gavin fortunately stumbled upon online. Everything there was brand spanking new, as it had only opened a month or so prior, and the amenities were luxurious as far as hostels go.
Our office at the Reggae Mansion
Getting some dinner with Josh of New Zealand
We quickly made some acquaintances in the 16-person dorm room we stayed in, and the friendly folks running the hostel were throwing a couple parties over the weekend to celebrate Halloween where we had some good fun and made a couple more bi/tri/quadrilingual friends. They threw the Halloween parties in an upstairs lounge that was complete with apple bobbing and shots and ladders – the usual American party games.
The Orchid Garden
People we met included Aussies, Danish, Kiwis, and a fellow American from Cali. Most of them were wandering the world for months, often coming from or heading off to places like Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, or some island in Indonesia. Most had amazing stories of the wild sights they had seen across Southeast Asia, but we tried to compete by telling our stories of launching weather balloons on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean where they probably filmed Lost.
One discovery just across the street from our hostel was a great little antique bookstore (think old, creaky attics) in which each of us ended up grabbing at least one item. It was as clustered as anything, with seemingly random stacks of books everywhere. But the lady working there could lead you right to what you wanted. The store was called Junk Bookstore (probably a translation error), which was a bit of irony considering that it had rare and probably high-demand items if brought back to the US.
During the days we explored the streets of KL, attempting to catch as many of the big sights as possible. Though trips up to the sky bridge of the Petronas Towers were closed for renovations, we were able get a panoramic sky view from the KL Tower, wander the national park, peruse an Orchid garden, and check out the national Mosque. Particularly interesting was hearing the daily Islamic prayers come out on loud speakers over the otherwise white noise of the city, which we heard very clearly while walking through the orchid garden. That was definitely a new experience for us.
Getting ready for our first sleeper train ride
Our KL trip ended with our very first sleeper train ride, which was a pretty novel experience. Following another day in Singapore, we began our next leg of the journey with a flight out to Bali, Indonesia, where we’ve heard only great things from the travelers we’ve run into. Julia Roberts also tells us it’s a great time (we watched Eat, Pray, Love to prep ourselves for Bali). Standby for updates on the final leg of the trip.
Onward to Indo
-james
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