12 Hours in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Hey There,

Over the past weekend Dan and I went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We left from Singapore at 12am on sleeper bus bound for KL. We had to go through customs a half hour into the trip but then quickly fell into a deep sleep until our arrival at Times Square in Kuala Lumpur at 4am. This trip was suppose to take 5.5 to 6 hours but took a mere 3.5 hours because of lack of traffic. We didnt get much sleep... The bus dropped us off at the times square bus stop, everybody seemed to have somewhere to go but us, if felt kind of weird. We had no food (besides some peanuts) and were soon to find out no money (couldnt exchange money until 10am). So we sat around watching the homeless sleep until about 6 when we asked a times square hotel security guard if we could use their bathrooms. We had gone in there earlier to see if they could exchange our money however wern't treated very nicely since we wern't paid customers. The security guard was friendly though and said to not worry, so we brushed our teeth and then left for Batu Caves, located 7 miles north of Kuala Lumpur (KL) via a cab who said he would

accept our singapore money. We arrived at the caves around 645, although they didnt open until 730am but got to see the morning religious ritual (Batu Caves is a Hindu Temple). A guy who appeared to be exercising stopped to talk to us while we sat on the street curb. He was very friendly and happy to see us. He recommended taking the tube, or the train back into the city for a cheaper method of travel, and so he exchanged some money for us so that we could pay for the train. He was awful nice. The caves were cool but dont have a whole lot other to say about them. By the way those are some 280 stairs to the left of the statue, used to get into the cave. Quite a hard task when you are really tired.. We then caught the train to the KL Center where we ate some breakfast and got some coffee which helped for a few hours.. Soon after, we rode the Light Rail to the KL Tower which had a 360 degree view of the city. It was really informative and had a tight view. After this we ate some lunch, and then walked through downtown KL to get to the Petronas Towers, 3rd tallest towers in the world, they were the tallest in 2004. To the right is a picture of the Petronas Towers, although not taken by me, it started to rain so I couldn't get a shot.. Tickets to get a view from the bridge half way up are very hard to come by. People wait in line starting at 5am and then sales start at 8 and all tickets for the day are sold out by 830am. I had read online though that if you go in during the afternoon and just stood by the ticket office, sometimes people didnt show up for their time slot and so you could take their spot. We were quite lucky, and sure enough two tickets were available, so we got to see the view, although not as cool as the KL tower, still really neat. The picture of the bottom is of Dan and I and a man from Nigeria who had to have a picture with us. He was really friendly guy. It then started to down pour and so we took a cab back to time square to eat dinner and catch our bus back to Singapore at 430pm. Overall the trip was quite an adventure, but I think just about the right amount of time. Gotta tell you though I was a little worried about how the day was going to turn out when we were dropped off at 4am and we found out about our predicament. If you want to see more photos you can click here. We only have 5 weeks left here, time is flying. My mom and cousin are coming next week, thailand the week after, finals, and then a mini trip to Vietnam before we hitch a ride back to home sweet home. Hope all is going well back in the states. Ill post again next week.

Until then, have a good one,

Brett