Malaysia 2012: 20 Hours in Kuala Lumpur (Apr 13)

Cecilia and I arrived in Kuala Lumpur around 1:00 AM, breezed through a clean and organized customs line and went on our way to figure out a new city, a new country.  MALAYSIA!

We had come direct from Kolkata after three mind-bending months in India.  Things looked, well, different here.  Orderly and modern.  Wow!  After three months in a country with ever-changing, never-posted rules, we had come to a place that might make sense.  Comparative sense, anyway.

ON THE TOPIC OF EVER-CHANGING RULES IN INDIA: Remember this? I do. Dateline, Delhi:  we had to seal a box with white fabric and red sealing wax just to mail it – packing tape and sharpie just wasn’t enough for the crazy Indian post office. It took three people from three continents three hours to mail one box – and one of us spoke Hindi! Something told me that the Malaysian capital wasn’t capable of the craziness the Indian one was.

Kuala Lumpur International Airport is located about 45 kilometers outside of the city, so the first order of business after exiting the airport is finding ground transportation.  There are a few different ways to get from KL International Airport to the city:

FASTEST OPTION:  Take the KLIA Ekspres Rail Link.  It’s nonstop between the airport and KL Sentral, takes 28 minutes, and even has wifi onboard.  Cost:  35 Ringgit ($11 US).  Schedule:  3-4 trains every hour from 5:00 AM to 1:00 AM.

ANOTHER EXISTING TRAIN OPTION:  Take the KLIA Transit rail line.  It takes 35 minutes (3 stops between KLIA and KL Sentral), but costs the same as riding the faster, nonstop KLIA Ekspres.  Schedule:  trains every half hour – first train at 5:52 AM, last train at 1:03 AM.

MOST DIRECT OPTION:  Hire a cab from the airport.  It’ll take you an hour to get into the city, and they’ll drop you off wherever you like, of course.  This will cost you at least 70 Ringgit, possibly more in off-peak hours.

CHEAPEST, BUT TOTALLY VIABLE OPTION:  Take a bus!  There are a number of easily-found bus stands outside the terminal.  All buses go to KL Sentral Station after about an hour and fifteen minutes of transit on beautifully sealed roads.  Cost:  10 Ringgit per person.  Schedule:  I’m guessing these things will stay until the last flight lands each night.  They were there for us after the trains stop running, thankfully!

Note:  all of these options also work in reverse, from KL Sentral to KLIA.  Check schedules before execution, as they’re a hair different.

Our only options were bus or cab, so we took the bus.  It was comfortable, and thanks to the driver’s favoring of a soft pop radio mix, I got to sing along to the Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love” for the fragments of the chorus I could remember.  I would have done considerably better with “Always Be My Baby“, but I’ll take what I can get.

A mobile screening of “Glitter” would have been a nice touch.

Cabbies awaited bus arrivals at KL Sentral for onward transit to termini of choice.

India had trained us to put spikes out the second anyone tried to convince us to take any form of private transit.  But it was 2:00 AM, and we were sleepy.  We surrendered to a young, bookish cabbie, who helped us with our bags and asked us where we’d like to go.  We shrugged and picked an inoffensive-sounding guesthouse out of the Lonely Planet – good enough for my last night out.  We pulled up to a corner crawling with lonely ladyboys and buzzed the front desk.  The sleepy attendant crackled through the intercom – they were full.  We were kind of glad they were.

What happened next defied everything we had learned in India – our cabbie gave us honest, non-commissioned opinions on where we should stay.  He legitimately helped us find a room that fit our needs – not just his brother/cousin’s crappy place!  This would have never happened in India.  Never.  What’s more, he even laughed at our jokes (which were really hilarious, so I guess that’s not weird at all).

We arrived at the GreenHut Lodge around 3:00 AM and got a room for somewhere between 75 and 100 Ringgit a night (Can’t. Remember. So. Tired.).  The warm and accommodating staff showed us to a room with amenities we hadn’t experienced for quite a while, including the following seemingly normal items:

• air conditioning
• toilet paper
• hot water
• a shower head that emitted this “hot water” (instead of the time-honored spigot/bucket combo)
• clean sheets (actually clean)
• and what’s this – WIFI?  AND IT’S FREE, TOO?

That said, if we a room with none of these things for half the price had been available, we would have taken it instead.  Cold showers in hot climates aren’t a bad thing, and limited internet access means less time updating your status and more time experiencing things worth writing about.  There are workarounds for everything.  That said, a comfortable room was still a nice treat!

3:30 AM.  Across the street from GreenHut, a big food stall was still going strong and serving food that looked pretty tasty.  Yep, a cold, bubbly beer would have been nice, but sleep won out.  We were awake by 10:30 AM to see what one (two) could do with one short day in KL.

I had heard good things about Imbi Market and wanted to get there for a multi-stage breakfast from a variety of food stalls, but Imbi closes down by 11:00 AM.  Too late – next time!  No problem, though – food was absolutely everywhere we looked in our guesthouse’s neighborhood.  KL has the best that Malay, Chinese, Thai and Indian food have to offer – often in a friendly mix.  We grabbed a plate at an alfresco cafeteria-style Chinese buffet (think really good Chinese!) and dug in hard.

1. Get a plate. 2. Fill ‘er up, but pace yourself – there are probably 30 options. 3. The short aproned woman at the end of the line will eyeball your plate and decide a price (by sight, not by weight). And that price will be fair and reasonable!

Bellies full, we hailed a cab for onward transit to the Petronas Towers, the tallest buildings in the world (well, until 2004, anyway).  They’re still pretty tall in 2012, at least from where we were standing.

NOTE:  Blue cabs are considered to be more luxurious than the yellow or red cabs in KL, and cost quite a bit more.  Don’t bother with them – the cheaper ones are just fine!

The highest the layperson can ascend to in the Petronas Towers is the skybridge, which is only on the 41st floor, not even halfway up.  Tickets cost a pricey 80 Ringgit per person.  Why bother?  We went the opposite route – getting as low as we could next to the towers.  How else can you do THIS on a 16mm lens on a crop-frame DSLR?

“What is wrong with your friend?” the sunny-day-umbrella-woman said.

Here’s what was wrong.

The clock was ever-ticking – our KL time was short.  Quickly, to the clean, quiet metro, and on to Chinatown!

Now boarding: the train to Dang Wangi.

Chinatown was one of my favorite parts of Bangkok, so I figured Kuala Lumpur’s might carry a similar crazy energy.

Should you find yourself in Bangkok, GO TO CHINATOWN. It’s a vibrant, pleasantly chaotic place. This picture taken during my 2011 trip through Thailand, Myanmar and Laos.

Starting from the LRT Masjid Jamek station, we followed a Lonely Planet walking tour that took us through the old market area, past some of KL’s rather recent historical buildings (early 1900s – it’s a pretty new city) and to Petaling Street, a covered open-air market selling all the junk a southeast Asia tourist could ever want (though I didn’t), from badly silkscreened t-shirts to fake Ray-Bans in rainbow colors.  It was ok.  Nice.  Nothing too crazy.  Bangkok’s Chinatown wins by a wide margin!

Don’t get me wrong, we had fun anyway.  Here’s a bit of what we saw!

There are drink vendors with huge transparent tubs of mysterious drinkable liquids. We got two and drank ’em outside the Masjid Jamek.  Had we two days in KL, I would have liked to try the super-pink drink that may or may not have been Pepto-Bismol.

entrance to Jalan Petaling Street.

more fuel for a long hot day.

a lost Finnish tourist on Jalan Petaling.

Afternoon.  Only time for one more stop in KL before my inevitable trip home (real home, not guesthouse home).  Disregarding the gathering clouds and comparative high admission cost, I opted for the KL Bird Park, Asia’s largest outdoor aviary.

It was a pricey 48 Ringgit per person to get in.  Ouch.  Well, it’s probably worth it on a nice day!  Unfortunately, April 13th was not – heavy rains greyed the skies out fifteen minutes into our visit.  Even the wandering peacocks sought shelter.

Every brief time the rains let up, we ran for the next shelter on the slick brick walkways, trying to sneak occasional looks into the exotic bird exhibits.  Most were in hiding.  A few waterfowl came out to play.

After a dash through the parrot house (complete with ten-or-so African Greys that whistled at Cecilia like just-out-of-prison construction workers), we gave in to the unrelenting precipitation and retreated to the exit.

There were no cabs outside the bird park – rush hour had eaten them all.  We hiked a kilometer in the rain before we found a willing cabbie.  Then it was back to the GreenHut Lodge for bag packing and last looks at Kuala Lumpur.

The metro system in Kuala Lumpur is good, but it’s a bit disjointed.  You’ll find that the trains don’t always take you where you need to go.  To supplement, cab it now and again (but insist on use of the meter, of course!).

Every time I get ready to leave a town or a country, I always dream of a big, relaxed meal at a favorite restaurant.  This, of course, never happens.  It’s always a mad dash to the station/airport where you cram the equivalent of a cold Quiznos sub down your maw while anxiously checking your watch every forty seconds.  Accordingly, my last meal was at the airport food court.  On the upside, said court was located outside check-in/security – so I didn’t have to eat alone.

Cecilia and I said difficult goodbyes just outside passport control.  I had reached the end of my trip, but she was continuing in Malaysia for three weeks before returning home to Finland.

She leaned on the railing of the balcony that overlooks international departures at KLIA and watched me go.  I shouted her name and waved goodbye from inside security, then did the “how many times am I supposed to look back before I actually walk away?” math.  I think I went with two times.

We met during Holi Festival on Havelock Island (of the Andaman Islands) and traveled together for a month, covering Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Kolkata and finally KL.  It was great!  And going home was a bit sad.

What made things harder – I didn’t have to go home.  I could have stayed in Malaysia for those three weeks.  But I went home anyway – to work and sustain my travel habit – to pay for the next trip.  It was a difficult choice, but it’s paying off.  Know why?

My next trip is to Finland.  After three months in the states, I fly to Helsinki on July 9th, 2012.  You ready?  I am.

Can’t wait.

Footnote:  Traveling home from Kuala Lumpur took 30 hours portal to portal – from KL to Tokyo to Chicago to St Louis, and it’s hardly worth mentioning.  Why?  Because who cares if flying in a cramped aluminum tube sucks – it quickly takes you where you want to go.  Plus, you knew what you signed up for when you shelled out hundreds of dollars for the ticket (in this case, a whopping $900 US – the cheapest one-way return flight from Asia that I could find!).  So why complain?  Until wormholes or teleportation devices come into regular use, it’s what we’re stuck with.  Make the most of it!