Next morning we were in a taxi by 7.45am and on our way to our bus for the trip to Kuala Lumpur. We would recommend Aeroline buses to anyone travelling through Malaysia. Their motto is ‘the convenient way to fly’ – the driver was referred to the captain, and we had our own cabin attendant to bring meals and refreshments. All for approx $45NZ each. We were given water as we left Singapore and once through customs & immigration and on into Malaysia we were served breakfast. The seats were just like a plane, with little tables. You could watch movies, listen to music, or just watch the scenery roll by. We had seats in the front row upstairs, so chose to watch the jungle go by, and pinched ourselves to remind us that we were actually on our trip. The time flew by, and before we knew it we were on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. The Petronas Towers stood out in the distance, in spite of the smog.
Our drop point was the middle of KL, and as we couldn’t store our bags anywhere got a taxi to our couchsurf host, Ross (an expat Kiwi who has worked in KL for about 12 years). It cost us $20MR (less than $10NZ) to go 40min out of the city, mostly on motorways (and at breakneck speeds). Ross’s maid, Ya-ya, was home, so we settled into our room, showered, then went out to explore the area of Kota Damansara where Ross lives.
The shopping area was about 1km away. There was about 4 large city blocks of shops and they ranged from massage places (real ones), to cafes, electrical shops, music outlets, sidewalk mechanics, and hairdressers (all mixed in together). We managed to find a small 4Square type shop and bought some food (things we could find in English with pictures) as when you couchsurf, you generally supply your own food. Once we got our bits and pieces we walked home again, in the rain (again).
Ross arrived home around 7pm and he was keen to head out for a meal – a very nice Italian meal. Ross may be a kiwi, but is very much into the Malay way of life and wanted to pay for everything. It seems that when you stay with Malay people, they usually will expect to pay for everything and feed you as their guest – not something that us kiwi’s feel very keen about. But that was not the end of the night – after that we went off to Ross’s favourite massage shop for a foot massage (Deb was in heaven). 1½ hours for about $15NZ. It was bliss!!! But wait, we still weren’t finished – Ross then insisted that we have another session – a one-hour full body massage. All this generosity was a little (a lot) overwhelming, but boy did we enjoy it. We slept like babies that night.
Next morning we headed back into town. Ross’s driver dropped us at Central Markets – a lovely civilised indoor market with air conditioning. Naturally we had to buy some things – they were too cheap not to. Hamish also had a foot massage which entailed sticking his feet into a pool with hundreds of little Doctors Fish, which swarmed on to him and nibbled all around his feet and lower legs A most unusual sensation, which was surprisingly refreshing once you get used to it. And only 50cents NZ for a 10 minute session.
There was a food hall in the building, and even though we’d been warned not to eat local food, we decided that we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try Malay food, sitting amongst the many Muslim men and woman who were there. It was really interesting to see women lifting their burkas off their faces to eat their meals in public, and the putting them back on again once they had finished.
Deb felt quite conscious about the clothes she was wearing, and had worn a tee-shirt so that at least the tops of her arms covered. Even though we are not Muslim it didn’t seem right to bare too much skin, and we were quite amazed to see the state of undress of some of the western women tourists in the market.
After lunch we found our way to Jalan Petaling (Chinatown). By about 2pm the sun and humidity were at their best, and we quickly got tired of the constant badgering from the stall holders. You only had to look at something and off they went trying to give you a price to buy. A pair of sunglasses went from 65MYR to 20MYR in a matter of seconds and Debbie hadn’t even opened her mouth (hard to believe, but true).
We left Jalan Petaling and started walking to Petronas Towers. Along the way we came across the main interstate bus station. Every bus company had hawkers trying to get you to buy their tickets. This place was truly amazing, with crowds of people milling all around - so we bought some water, found a seat, and just watched. The bus stops were all on the ground floor below us and there would have been 50+ buses parked there. As we left this building there was a line up of at least another 20 buses waiting to get into the building – all blocking traffic for several hundred meters up the road.
While we wondered along the streets we saw men on motorbikes do amazing feats. There was one guy stuck behind many cars and buses on his bike, so he rode on the built up median strip (about a foot wide and high) between cars going both ways, just to get to the front of the queue. How he didn’t get flattened we don’t know.
With the heat we were getting tired, and the Petronas Towers still seemed a long way off. So we found a taxi, and even though the driver didn’t seem to speak much English, he understood where we wanted to go, so in we got. Once underway, we noticed his meter wasn’t running, and we wondered how he was going to charge us. On arrival at Petronas Towers he asked for 10MYR, and Debbie said no. We knew it was way too high from the fare we got the day before, so Debbie pointed to the meter and he said something in Malay. We gave him 5MYR and he threw it back at us and said 10, but we handed over the 5 again. He got angry and said that he wouldn’t take our money – so we stuffed it in the seat and got out of the car. He was not a happy man. Just after that we saw a sign saying not to get into taxis that won’t use their meters, as the government is trying to stamp out the practice.
We checked out the Towers (a truly amazing structure) and the massive shopping mall beside them. There’s also a large park area and lake out the back which is worth checking out. At about 5.30pm, we decided it was time to go home as the heat was finally too much for us. We jumped intro the first taxi we found (checking with him that he was going to use his meter). Unfortunately it was an executive taxi (damn) so it cost us three times as much to get back home, but still cheap by NZ standards. It didn’t help that it was rush hour as well. The ride was the closest thing to a theme park ride we’ve ever had in a car – and was worth the fair just for the excitement factor as well. Hamish reckons Debbie would fit in quite well as a taxi driver in KL.
We went out for dinner with Ross again that night, Mexican this time - but we paid. The we went for supper at Ken’s place, a couchsurfer who we met when he was travelling through NZ earlier this year. He is a lovely Malaysian man, who is a lecturer in psychology at a University in KL. While having home made coffee and cake at his place, he discovered to his horror that that we had not had a proper Malaysian meal so far. So it was decided that he would go to Ross’s house the next night and cook for us. There’s that Malay custom of doing everything for your guests again – but how could we refuse.
Next morning we went straight to Petronas Towers to get tickets for the towers, only to be disappointed. The tickets are free, but you have to stand in a queue and they allocate times starting from lunch time. When we got to the line at 9.30 they were already issuing tickets for 5pm – so we decided to give it a miss, as we didn’t want to get caught in the rush hour going home again (apparently 800,000 cars go into central KL every day – we reckon there’s another 300,000 motorbikes added to that as well).
We took the underground to the suburb bordering the Central City - an old village called Kampung Baru. It was a stark contrast to the Petronas Towers literally just around the corner from this suburb of KL. It has been allowed to stay as it is because it was one of the earlier settlements of KL. Old wooden raised shanties, giant dead rats, dried fish hanging in stalls, and locals eating in their neighbourhood café (yukk!!).
In amongst the back street we stumbled upon a Sikh Temple – the largest one in Malaysia. Debbie asked if we could go inside and not only did the guy at the door say yes, he also gave us a personal guided tour at no charge. We had to remove our shoes, wash our feet and hands, and wear a head scarf (which just stuck to us as we were so sweaty). It was a very moving experience to be allowed into one of these temples which are so different (but with underlying similarities) to what we know.
Next stop was Little India, but we were soooo hot we went straight into Burger King and sat in the cool air conditioning and had lunch along with all the other westerners. From there we did a Lonely Planet walk which took us to Merdeka Square where the tallest flag pole in the world is (yes hard to believe another country lays claim to a bit useless information). Then back around to Little India were we walked through the stalls and bought some genuine imitation sunglasses (and toothbrushes).
Then we went over to the National Museum, which was really interesting and we learnt a lot of history about Malaysia. We found the displays a little dated and corny – we really are spoilt in NZ museums like Te Papa and Otago. It was great to see an historical handwritten example of the Koran though.
Just as we got out of the museum at 4.30pm we were hit by an awesome thunder storm. We had to stop 4 taxis before we could get one to take us home. The first one was an executive taxi, the second said he didn’t know the way, the third reckoned he didn’t have enough petrol for the trip. The fourth one wouldn’t take us unless we paid a set price (he said he didn’t want to get stranded in the suburb when he could make good money in the central city if it kept raining) and, given that we were starting to get very wet, he had us over a barrel. So Deb beat him down to an acceptable fee and off we went.
When we arrived home Ken was there cooking dinner with Ya-ya. What a feast of beautiful Malaysian food we all had, aided by great conversation and imported wine. We think Ross may have even been a bit homesick for NZ by the end of the night.
Next morning we were up at the crack of dawn to get our plane back to Singapore. While we were getting ready we could hear the early morning Muslim prayers being played over a loud speaker in the suburb. One hour and 80MYR later our taxi driver dropped us off for our Jetstar flight back to Singapore.
It was only 9am we got back to Singapore, so we decided to go to the Botanical Gardens. Bad move – there are no air conditioned shopping malls in there. Within 30 minutes of walking around in 30 degrees and 85% humidity we were soaking in sweat. But the Orchid Garden was something else and well worth the price of entry to see.
Hillu met up with us later in the day at the Hard Rock café for a well earned cold beer and some food. It was good to see Hillu again and we will continue to stay in touch.
We headed back to Changi Airport via the MRT. Being rush hour, Hamish had to push Debbie onto the train to make sure we got on. It was so crowded, yet still more people squeezed in after us. By 11.30pm we were winging our way to the next stage of our adventure in London.
We really enjoyed our six days in Asia. Several people told us that that Singapore and KL are only “Asia Lite”, but we’re pleased we took the time to explore them. Singapore is safe, clean, efficient and diverse (and a little bit fake), while KL is dirty, noisy, smelly, pretty safe (and much more real). Our hosts in both places made the experience extra special for us – not only were they great people, but we got to sample a little bit of local life in the process.
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