last week jon and i went to kuala lumpur. in my mind, i thought malaysia would be exactly like thailand...they are right next to each other after all! but, upon arrival to the kuala lumpur airport, i found out that they are very different places. (let me say here that it is SO MUCH nicer to fly to places than it is to take the bus...about 1,000,000 more pleasant....it only took us two hours to get all the way to KL when it normally takes us over 18 to get to the south of thailand) anyway, the KL airport was smaller than the bangkok airport but it seemed more organized. there were stands to buy tickets to get into the city, so we did not have to deal with getting a taxi and getting ripped off and the first thing i noticed that was very different than thailand is that most everyone in malaysia speaks english. also, it is much cleaner, less pollution, and taxis do not try to rip you of as much. also, we were pretty much one of the only tourists where ever we went. oh, one other thing, there is no such thing as a moderate temperature in KL...we were always either sweating or freezing...you get used to it though! sweater on. sweater off. sweater on.....
so, we had absolutely no idea where we were going or where we were staying, so we got on a bus/taxi that took us into KL from the airport. we read in lonely plant that china town was supposed to be the happening place in KL so we decided to try to get there ;) the bus made one stop, and there was chinese writing on all the buildings, but it didn't look too busy so we stayed on the bus and decided to get off where it looked busier....good logic, huh? luckily, the next stop was in a super cool area with lots of lights, open stores and tons of people walking around. we did not know if it was china town, but we got off anyway and walked around until we found a place to stay: the "budget inn". let me tell you, the name of this place tells all. however, it did have hot water, and a flushing toilet, so i was happy to call it home for the next few days. after we put our stuff down, we went to find food, which is never a problem in thailand, and proved not to be a problem in KL either!
the next morning, we woke up and had starbucks!!! yummm. the only thing we knew about KL was that there were some tall twin towers that we needed to see. so, we looked up, saw them, and started waking towards them...jon told me that since they were so big, they probably looked a lot closer than they were, but of course, stubborn me, i thought they were close to us. mistake. they were pretty far. and it was hot. but, we walked anyway.....then, we decided that we were not going to take a taxi the whole time we were in KL! once we got to the Petronas twin towers, they were closed for the day because they only have a limited number of tickets to give out each day, and they usually sell out pretty early. luckily, there was a HUGE mall at the base of the twin towers, so we went shopping for a bit, and by a bit, a mean a few hours. after shopping, we decided to go to the other tall building ;) (i have about 50 pictures of tall buildings in malaysia...and thats all...haha) this building was the radio tower, and it
was on top of a big hill, which we had to hike up. again, it was a little further away than we though because it was so big, but we made it and went to the observation deck at the top. it reminded me a lot of the bayoke tower in bangkok, but it was really cool to see a 360* view of malaysia because there is the city, and in the background there are huge mountains. after this, we walked more to try to find some sort of gardens, but eventually, i almost died of hunger from so much walking so we went to a korean restaurant for lunch. after lunch, we got on the skytrain to go to a bazaar in someplace that i don't remember the name of. we shopped and at more, then got on the skytrain to go to china town. it was super cool here. there were rows of stalls selling everything your heart could desire, and all of the shop owners wanted to be our friends! they are a lot more aggressive here about selling things than anywhere else i've been since i got here. then, it was back to our hostel, which turned out to be in the "golden triangle" area, or business district area and went to a bar/club nearby.on saturday, we woke up at 7am. yes, 7am, and went back to the petronas towers to get tickets to go to the skybridge. we thought we would be the first ones there, but there are people who are much crazier than us. about 200 of them. the line was so long when we got there! we decided it would probably be something our parents would have made us wake up early to do on a family vacation, and felt very responsible for waking up early ourselves to do it! we got tickets to go up at 9:45, so until then, we went to the coffee bean and tea leaf to have breakfast. going up to the skybridge was basically like a promotion campaign for petronas, which is the largest oil company in malaysia. the tour was about an hour, and we spent less than 10 minutes on the skybridge...the rest of the time we watched a video about how good petronas is and how socially and environme
ntally responsible they are. super. anyhow, once we did the twin towers thing, we had done everything we went to malaysia to do (take a picture from the famous towers), so the rest of the trip was a free for all! so, we ventured on the skytrain to little india. it was such a cute little area with an outdoor bazaar and rows of restaurants and shops. here we found one of the things on the list of food to eat (courtesy of eugene loh): stingray grilled in banana leaves. it was delicious. probably the best food find in KL. after lunch, we entered food coma, and since we woke up so early, we decided to go home and sleep until it was time to go out that night. when we woke up, we ate dinner at an indian cart on the street and they made our naan bread right in front of us! and then we found all of the farang (foreigners). they were at the bar. there was a cool cover band and sharks in tanks at the club, and it was fun fun fun!sunday we slept until the guy at budget inn kept banging on our door and telling us to check out. so we packed our bags and left them at the budget inn while we went to eat breakfast and go shopping more. we went to a different super mall and i found 3 pairs of shoes, a new purse, a makeup bag, and other random stuff. then we went back to get our bags and try to find the parks/gardens that we were looking for on the first day and never found. we took the skytrain and got off at the second to last stop and walked around for a while, and then i got hot and tired and grumpy because i was carrying all of my stuff...other than all my liquids and new purchases which (luckily) could only fit in jon's bag ;) ;) (thanks for lugging my stuff all over KL!), and we had NO idea where we were or where we were going and it looked deserted, so we caved and got into a taxi to take us to the islamic art museum. good thing we did...it was much further and in the opposite direction than we thought it was. my favorite thing here was the to-scale models of all the most famous and largest mosques in the world. the detail on these models was excruciating and they were gorgeous pieces. after the museum, we walked around the park and sat and relaxed and then we proceeded to the airport. this was the ONLY non-perfect part of the trip...we ended up at the wrong airport and kept getting sent from desk to desk to find air asia, which apparently has it's own terminal (low-cost terminal)....and finally, with less than an hour before our flight was scheduled to leave, we found out that we had to take a taxi to an entirely different airport!!!! it was the most ridiculous and expensive taxi ride in south east asia. it was 38 ringgits (380 baht) just to go from one terminal to another. luckily, malayaisa is on thai time too, and we made it to the gate even before they started boarding. stressful, but not too bad.
on monday, i skipped my first class so far. bad meris. abby and i had stayed up until 6am the night before talking and hanging out with her friend ray who flew in from portland for his spring break, so i literally could not wake up for class at 8am. instead of going to class, we woke up late and went shopping at siam square for our st. patrick's day outfits. then, we ate sushi and came home and sort of cleaned our apartment for the party and i made jello shots which i was so sad about because i was super excited to have green jello shots on st. patty's day, but i bought lemon jello, so needless to say, they were not green. it was a ton of fun, everyone came, and we ended up on kao san road, as usual.tuesday is lady's night at bed supper club, a very famous club in bangkok, so us ladies got in for free! the club was much smaller than i expected, and there were two sides to it. one plays hip-hop and the other plays house music. we had fun going back and forth between the two, lounging on the beds that line the walls of the club, and dancing in our new shoes (abby got some peeertyyy shoes)!!!
last night, andy and i went with jj to "slim" at rca because her friend was dj that night. it was a pretty exciting night at rca, but scary too. we were all kind of tired, so we were sitting outside and we suddenly saw a big fight break out right at the entrance to the club. it was a group of thai girls fighting with each other, and one of them walked away with her whole dress ripped off and no shoes. it was crazzzyyy! then, i went to the bathroom and during that time i missed round two of the fight (which, according to andy, was crazier than round one). after we stared for long enough, we decided it was time to go home, and as we were walking to get a taxi, we saw a crowd of people and looked down and there was a girl on the road covered in a white cloth. we were not sure if she died from the fight of from getting hit by a car or what, but jj told us that one of the people told her in thai that the girl died. me and andy freaked out. but, in the end, we decided that even though we were so tired, it was worth it to go out to rca last night.
mike is coming today!!!! the rest of the fam is coming on monday, and then we are going to chiang mai for a few days. after they leave, marney, abby and i are going to hong kong to visit nundies and then the day we get back from hong kong, we are all going back up to chiang mai for the songkran festival (one of the biggest holidays in thailand)! the next few weeks are going to be busy busy!!! can't wait!
thank you jean for the much appreciated present ;) also, don't worry, andy shared all of his candy with me and we pigged out and had a movie night on wednesday!!! yummm...the jelly beans and red vines were delicious!
lots of love, mer
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