Days 162-164, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

July 18th – 20th, 2019

We left Cameron Highlands and went to Kuala Lumpur which is the capital of Malaysia.  Kuala Lumpur (KL) is another major metropolis with a population of 1.8 million.  I have heard it referred to as Singapore’s sister city.  It was about a 5-hour bus ride from Cameron Highlands.  I ate my last Luna bar on this bus ride and that was quite sad.  When we were at home I bought several boxes of Cliff and Luna bars to take with us since I couldn’t find anything like that in Central and South America.  I have eaten them sparingly but now it will only be Asian snacks to chose from.  The food here is quite good but the snack game could be improved.  I’m not really into dried peas, anything with seaweed, or super sweet breads.  Even the Pringles here have interesting flavors that I don’t recognize.

At a bus stop there was a vending machine with all these meals.  I don’t understand how it works but had my doubts they would come out looking like the pictures. 

Brendan decided to get a 70-cent hamburger instead of the vending machine meal and it looked like the most disgusting thing I ever saw. That’s when I went ahead and took the plunge eating the last Luna.  He later had a stomach ache and wasn’t up for doing a 3-hour historical walking tour in the 100-degree heat when we arrived in KL.  I knew there was another tour at 9am the next day so was content to have an  easygoing afternoon. 

KL was cool, with a lot of big buildings and things to walk around and see.  We spent 3 nights here and during that time we went to the famous Petronas Towers and watched the fountain light show in front of them at night.  We went through some of the areas around the city like China Town, Little India, the shopping district etc.  You could tell the stores that just had money to throw away as they would attempt to air condition the OUTSIDE of their store front and blow cold air right into the 100-degree heat.  So, in front of places like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, you would get the slightest hint of coolness when you passed by.  We went to the city parks and night markets. 

We rode the monorail one day and went to Batu Caves which is a huge limestone hill with caves and Hindu temples.  This was very cool and more impressive than I was expecting.  I think it might be the coolest setting for a religious place that I have been to.  You have to walk up all these stairs to get to the caves and there are a ton of monkeys that just sit on the railing waiting to steal things from the tourist.  It was so funny to watch them reach into people’s bags as they walked by.  Even though there are monkeys everywhere here, I still can’t help to take a bunch of pictures because they are so cute.  They would steal anything they could like soda, iced tea, sunglasses, and definitely any food item. 

We splurged on Friday night and went to a really cool rooftop bar in the city.  By day it operates as a helicopter landing pad.  Then at night they close it down to helicopters and put tables up there and have the bar on the landing pad with 360-degree views of the city, and only a rope separating you from the edge of the tower.  We went up there for sunset and had great city views during the day and at night.  We also shared our table with a family from the Netherlands who couldn’t find a spot and that was really nice.  We think we meet more people traveling from the Netherlands or Germany than any place else in the world. 

We stayed at a hostel in the smallest room I have ever seen.  It was only wide enough for the bed with just enough space in the front of the bed to open the door.  So, when we had all our bags in front of the bed we couldn’t open the door.  We would have to move the bags on the bed to get out.

It was a nice hostel though and had an Indian restaurant downstairs.  It came with free breakfast from the Indian restaurant of roti.  This was my favorite free breakfast we have had at a hostel.

The streets at night were crazy and filled with food and thousands of people.  I had the best broccoli and cauliflower of my life from a stand where you pick out any kabob you want and then they cook it for you.  However, I am once again dreaming of big salads my Mom would make with a bunch of salad dressing options.  The food here is really good and cheap, but it is a lot of fried stuff.  Fried rice, fried noodles, fried samosas etc.  I have really liked all the Indian food because they have so many vegetarian options, but everything is totally cooked to death or fried.  I think they have to cook everything to kill the bacteria since they probably have questionable water sources.  So, I haven’t seen any salads or raw vegetables.  I also probably don’t know what to order for healthier options.  I tend to stick with what I know because I’m worried about getting something that tastes fishy.  Even vegetarian options, if you read the small print it will often say something like it contains fish paste or dried prawn. 

We enjoyed our time in Kuala Lumpur, but I am ready to be back on a beach.  I think it is hard to do too much city stuff in such intense heat.  Tomorrow we will fly to Phuket, Thailand where we booked a hostel on the beach.