The 2008 Trip - Part 7 - Kuala Lumpor Begins..
Thursday started pretty early. Well it seemed pretty early, as Liv and I were up pretty late hanging out. She stayed up a while after I did, playing Puzzle Quest, so she was even more tired then I.
We packed a single bag together, and added her laptop to the mix. Then it was off to the bus depot. There was a bit of confusion at first because we weren't able to print out the receipt *we had just booked the day before*, and the receptionist was pretty bitchy. For a while there we thought we went to the wrong place, and thought we would be late.
When we finally get there, we realize while we were a few minutes late, the bus itself wasn't even ready to go.
The bus was actually quite comfy, once we figured out how to use the seats and recline them. Out came Puzzle Quest, picking up where we left off before. Liv quickly nodded off though, and she slept most of the trip. I dozed a bit, and watched the movie "Transformers" that they were playing.
Since we were taking the 'back way' to Kuala Lumpor, we didn't see much civilization. Mostly there was nothing but grasslands, and Mediterranean forest. After a few hours though, we began to see the outer edges of a much larger city.
Kuala Lumpor is a decent size city with a great deal of things in it. I hadn't realized how Muslim the city was untill I was there. There were many facets of Muslim culture entwined with the surroundings. It's quite sad how the minority outspoken and militantly violent Muslims can make it so easy to forget that the majority of them are just normal people. While there are obviously different culture stigma's and rules, people in general are usually decent people.
When we arrived, the bus let us out in front of a Giant hotel. It wasn't our hotel, but we took this opportunity to ask them where our hotel actually was. They pointed us north. Liv and I had decided that we were going to walk as much as we could while we were in KL, so we started trucking along. Further and further north we walk, taking in the sites and familiar land marks. We were getting closer and closer to the Twin Towers, and the KL Tower was in the distance behind it.
We finally arrived at the City Center at the Twin towers, which is basically a gigantic mall. Since we still had no clue where our hotel was, we asked the information booth if they could direct us. He made a quick call, and said that it was back south.
Since we hadn't really eaten in a while, we decided to hit up a BBQ chicken place Liv was familiar with. It had it's own original BBQ sauces, including three levels of heat, and some garlic flavors. It was pretty good, and we both ate quite a bit.
We started walking south. After still not seeing our hotel, and passing the hotel we originally stopped at, we decide to ask a police officer. He said it was WAY to the north, and to the north west.
Now we were even more aggravated we start heading north again, and finally give up and flag down a cab.
The cab had no clue where the hotel was. We showed him the address on the map, and he started driving us north, north west. A bit confused, he ends up calling a friend of his, asking him to find it for us. When he finally finds out where, he turns us around the block, and heads off towards the south east.
FINALLY, we reach the hotel. The cabby took a bit off the price, because of the confusion, and we entered. After a bit of confusion regarding the voucher for the room *again.. we just booked the room last night*, we finally get our room.
After we settle in, we decide on what we want to do for the day. We knew we wanted to check out both the City Center Mall, and the KL Tower. We also decided to travel mostly by foot, and play the diligent tourist.
Our maps in hand, we head out. We took some 'through the city' routes, checking out some of the local shops, and restaurants. Liv picked up a few things for Irene, and we generally just 'window' shopped while we headed to the CC.
The CC itself was huge. I mentioned it before, but we hadn't really had a chance to look at it before. It had nearly ten floors full of name brand shops. If anyone's heard of any name brand, it had its own store here. Coach, Dior, LV, Armani, Calvin Klien, the list goes on. Brand's I've never heard of, but Olivia drooled over.
This is when we noticed something else. While the mall was packed with people, we didn't see many people at all with shopping bags. The mall was crazily expensive. I know 'we' didn't buy anything, I don't have a house to re-mortgage in order to buy an outfit. It was interesting to see some of the things people spend a ridiculous amount of money on though.
We reached the top of the mall itself, which was a giant food court. Since we had eaten already, we weren't really to interested in getting something to eat just then. At this point we realized we'd had enough of looking at things that most people couldn't even think about affording.
Heading off towards the KL tower, we again decided to hoof it. Though we didn't expect it to be quite as far as it was. Something else I have neglected to mention, was that Kuala Lumpor is HOT. Very hot and humid. When we finally saw the foot of the Tower, we also saw that there was a HUGE hill in front of it.
Gasping and panting, we finally reach the top, and to the KL tower itself. After a quick taxi cab to the entrance, we walked around the little tourist shops, then took the ear popping elevator trip to the top.
There was a setup there, where everyone in the viewing level of the tower wore a little video player that walks you around the room, pointing out things in the view. Surprisingly this was actually kinda interesting. There are a number of tourist attractions in KL, including a miniature rain forest, and a butterfly farm. We also were there at a great time to see the sunset.
We couldn't help taking a few pictures of us in front of the sunset, and in front of the lit up Twin towers. All it all it was quite interesting, and we must have spent a good hour up there.
Coming down, we noted that the city had changed. It has a night-life of its own, and apparently there was some massive Asian convention going on *which was the reason it was so hard to find a hotel room*. After taking a few pictures of the tower from below, and getting Liv a cup o' corn, we headed down, and took a cab back to the room.
After some looking online, and we found a local English style Deli that looked interesting. It was supposedly only a quick walk away. Half an hour into this walk down the darkened road between various embassies, we thought about writing a scathing letter to the review site. We did eventually make it, and had the place nearly to ourselves. The service was good, although the food wasn't all that hot. We ended up getting some prime rib, a stuffed mushroom, some potatoes, and various veggies. The mushroom kicked ass, the rest was nothing special.
The atmosphere though was really nice, and it was nice to have the place to ourselves pretty much. *there was another group of people there, that were having some silly conversation about economic trends in the pac-rim, but they eventually left* After we ate our fill, we took a quick picture, and decided to take a cab back.
Our feet hurt, and we were exhausted, but it was a fun filled day..
We packed a single bag together, and added her laptop to the mix. Then it was off to the bus depot. There was a bit of confusion at first because we weren't able to print out the receipt *we had just booked the day before*, and the receptionist was pretty bitchy. For a while there we thought we went to the wrong place, and thought we would be late.
When we finally get there, we realize while we were a few minutes late, the bus itself wasn't even ready to go.
The bus was actually quite comfy, once we figured out how to use the seats and recline them. Out came Puzzle Quest, picking up where we left off before. Liv quickly nodded off though, and she slept most of the trip. I dozed a bit, and watched the movie "Transformers" that they were playing.
Since we were taking the 'back way' to Kuala Lumpor, we didn't see much civilization. Mostly there was nothing but grasslands, and Mediterranean forest. After a few hours though, we began to see the outer edges of a much larger city.
Kuala Lumpor is a decent size city with a great deal of things in it. I hadn't realized how Muslim the city was untill I was there. There were many facets of Muslim culture entwined with the surroundings. It's quite sad how the minority outspoken and militantly violent Muslims can make it so easy to forget that the majority of them are just normal people. While there are obviously different culture stigma's and rules, people in general are usually decent people.
When we arrived, the bus let us out in front of a Giant hotel. It wasn't our hotel, but we took this opportunity to ask them where our hotel actually was. They pointed us north. Liv and I had decided that we were going to walk as much as we could while we were in KL, so we started trucking along. Further and further north we walk, taking in the sites and familiar land marks. We were getting closer and closer to the Twin Towers, and the KL Tower was in the distance behind it.
We finally arrived at the City Center at the Twin towers, which is basically a gigantic mall. Since we still had no clue where our hotel was, we asked the information booth if they could direct us. He made a quick call, and said that it was back south.
Since we hadn't really eaten in a while, we decided to hit up a BBQ chicken place Liv was familiar with. It had it's own original BBQ sauces, including three levels of heat, and some garlic flavors. It was pretty good, and we both ate quite a bit.
We started walking south. After still not seeing our hotel, and passing the hotel we originally stopped at, we decide to ask a police officer. He said it was WAY to the north, and to the north west.
Now we were even more aggravated we start heading north again, and finally give up and flag down a cab.
The cab had no clue where the hotel was. We showed him the address on the map, and he started driving us north, north west. A bit confused, he ends up calling a friend of his, asking him to find it for us. When he finally finds out where, he turns us around the block, and heads off towards the south east.
FINALLY, we reach the hotel. The cabby took a bit off the price, because of the confusion, and we entered. After a bit of confusion regarding the voucher for the room *again.. we just booked the room last night*, we finally get our room.
After we settle in, we decide on what we want to do for the day. We knew we wanted to check out both the City Center Mall, and the KL Tower. We also decided to travel mostly by foot, and play the diligent tourist.
Our maps in hand, we head out. We took some 'through the city' routes, checking out some of the local shops, and restaurants. Liv picked up a few things for Irene, and we generally just 'window' shopped while we headed to the CC.
The CC itself was huge. I mentioned it before, but we hadn't really had a chance to look at it before. It had nearly ten floors full of name brand shops. If anyone's heard of any name brand, it had its own store here. Coach, Dior, LV, Armani, Calvin Klien, the list goes on. Brand's I've never heard of, but Olivia drooled over.
This is when we noticed something else. While the mall was packed with people, we didn't see many people at all with shopping bags. The mall was crazily expensive. I know 'we' didn't buy anything, I don't have a house to re-mortgage in order to buy an outfit. It was interesting to see some of the things people spend a ridiculous amount of money on though.
We reached the top of the mall itself, which was a giant food court. Since we had eaten already, we weren't really to interested in getting something to eat just then. At this point we realized we'd had enough of looking at things that most people couldn't even think about affording.
Heading off towards the KL tower, we again decided to hoof it. Though we didn't expect it to be quite as far as it was. Something else I have neglected to mention, was that Kuala Lumpor is HOT. Very hot and humid. When we finally saw the foot of the Tower, we also saw that there was a HUGE hill in front of it.
Gasping and panting, we finally reach the top, and to the KL tower itself. After a quick taxi cab to the entrance, we walked around the little tourist shops, then took the ear popping elevator trip to the top.
There was a setup there, where everyone in the viewing level of the tower wore a little video player that walks you around the room, pointing out things in the view. Surprisingly this was actually kinda interesting. There are a number of tourist attractions in KL, including a miniature rain forest, and a butterfly farm. We also were there at a great time to see the sunset.
We couldn't help taking a few pictures of us in front of the sunset, and in front of the lit up Twin towers. All it all it was quite interesting, and we must have spent a good hour up there.
Coming down, we noted that the city had changed. It has a night-life of its own, and apparently there was some massive Asian convention going on *which was the reason it was so hard to find a hotel room*. After taking a few pictures of the tower from below, and getting Liv a cup o' corn, we headed down, and took a cab back to the room.
After some looking online, and we found a local English style Deli that looked interesting. It was supposedly only a quick walk away. Half an hour into this walk down the darkened road between various embassies, we thought about writing a scathing letter to the review site. We did eventually make it, and had the place nearly to ourselves. The service was good, although the food wasn't all that hot. We ended up getting some prime rib, a stuffed mushroom, some potatoes, and various veggies. The mushroom kicked ass, the rest was nothing special.
The atmosphere though was really nice, and it was nice to have the place to ourselves pretty much. *there was another group of people there, that were having some silly conversation about economic trends in the pac-rim, but they eventually left* After we ate our fill, we took a quick picture, and decided to take a cab back.
Our feet hurt, and we were exhausted, but it was a fun filled day..