February 14, 2006
A day in Kuala Lumpur
This is my third time in Kuala Lumpur and I am staying, semi-luxuriously, at the New World Renaissance Hotel in downtown near the Petronas Towers. It is also beside the Pakistani embassy, which is really pretty. A taxi takes me there for 10 Malaysian Ringgit, about US$3.75, for a five minute ride which I now realize is a total rip off. Once I arrive at 5am I discover that they won’t let me check in until late-morning. I am so beat from the journey that I agree to a full nights charge just to get some more sleep. It was worth the extra 245 Ringgit (US$65) and a mistake to take a bus that was arriving that early.
Waking up at 10am was good, rather than sleeping all day. My time in KL was limited to just 30-some hours, so I quickly set upon a walkabout of town. First stop was Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC) where the Petronas Towers are located. These pair of buildings are one of my most favorite illustrations of modern architecture at its best.
At 1483 feet (452m) tall, the tallest building in the world at the date of its completion [1998], measured to the highest point. However, the Sears Tower in Chicago still has the highest occupied building floor, more than 200 feet higher than the highest occupied floor of the Petronas Towers. -- www.greatbuildings.com
There I roamed around inside the shopping mall, had lunch (Caesar salad and veggie pizza) and took some photos. Apparently you are not 
supposed to take photos as I discovered after lunch. When taking this picture of the ‘no pictures’ sign a Malaysian woman approached me and we spoke for a while. Very friendly—offered to take me out to dinner with her sister (who was going to university in Zurich) and grandmother.
Later I walked down to the Indian district for some photographs, then Medeka Square which in the heart of the old Colonial District. There was even this old establishment placed called the Royal Selangor Club where the British used to toss back gin and tonics, run their empire and other old school stuff. I snuck up and took a picture…half expecting to be intercepted and arrested. There were lots of interesting bits of architecture around that are up in the photo gallery now.
My few hours of walking around in failing flip flops started to take their toll on my feet, so I headed back for the hotel, slept, ate, and slept again until the next morning. I checked out about noon and took a 75 Ringgit “Taksi” to the Kuala Lumpur International airport for my 115 Ringgit flight to Macau on Air Asia’s 15:20 AK52, a barebones Boeing 737-300.
Posted by stu at 04:41 PM | Comments (2)
And onward to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
After staying in Krabi an extra day, I start a 20 hour, 850 Baht journey to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At 1030 in the morning I board the first of three Toyota minibuses that takes me to Hat Yai. There I’m passed on from one travel agency/private bus stop to another via minibus. After three hours in town several of us board my third minibus of the day and head south for the Malaysian border at Dan Nok. This is a heavily trafficked, efficient border post and we were through Thai and Malaysian immigration and customs in less than half an hour. After we get back on the road the minibus driver takes us to Georgetown on Pulau Penang island via many stops to let people off, mostly in Butterworth.
It is about 10pm when we arrive at the travel agency in Georgetown where I wait for over an hour. At about 11:15pm a big, VIP bus pulls up and I plop down into seat 3A. Soon we are on the road, and I’m fast asleep. Our arrival was at a painful 4:45am in Kuala Lumpur. Ouch.
Posted by stu at 07:44 AM | Comments (0)