1 February 2010
I arrived in Kuala Lumpur last night at 9pm and managed to get through customs without a single drama. Miracle. I got picked up by my transfer and driven about an hour into the city to my hotel, The Hilton! Thought I would spoil myself for two nights before I go rough it in Africa for 6 months.
I went up to my room and virtually went straight to bed… say virtually because as a result of my fatigue I left my travel docs on the counter at reception and then had to go back downstairs and get them grrr! Went and had dinner at good old McDonalds as well, the local specialty is the “Prosperity Burger”.
I got up early today and had the most awesome shower I’ve ever had. The shower is just a grate in the ceiling and loads of water just comes out and soaks you. I had a bit of trouble confirming my tour as they just have this message on their answering machine saying it’s a public holiday and to call back later. I finally got picked up after waiting in the lobby for about an hour with a few phone calls back to the girls at Flight Centre to see if they could let me know what was going on.
Our guide Jammal first took us to a cultural museum, to see how many cultures were part of Malaysia, then we moved onto the war memorial which was quite spectacular. It had an obelisk out the front and the building was a big domed structure surrounded by water.
Jammal told us that Kuala Lumpur means “Between the two muddy rivers” and actually took us to see where the said two muddy rivers met.
We then went to see the famous Petronas towers, which was really cool, I thought they were quite elegant looking compared to the ones that used to be in New York. We were all then dropped off at our hotels.
I went and had lunch, (unfortunately more fast food) and then went and laid by the beautiful pool for about two hours, which was awesome. I came back to my room and then proceeded to have a bath in my massive tub, with lots of bubbles, before deciding to go do a bit of exploring.
After a bit of searching, I managed to find the monorail that goes into town and caught it to Imbi, the station closest to Time Square. I walked around for a bit looking at all the pretty lights, which reminded me of Piccadilly Circus, except there was some guy with a bubble machine and there were bubbles everywhere, making it kind of a magical experience. I walked down the streets lined with cherry blossoms in full bloom with red Chinese lanterns hanging from them and it started to pelt down. The locals ran everywhere trying to duck for cover, but I just walked in the rain as it was a refreshing change from the humidity.
Just after the rain stopped, a lady came up to me on the street and handed me a flyer and asked me if I would like “fish reflexology massage”, I gave her a strange look before looking at the flyer and realising I hadn’t miss heard. I decided to give this “fish massage” a go. We went up to the top floor of this building and there was a large square fish tank. The lady washed my feet and told me to go put my feet in the tank which I did. I almost died laughing at first; it really tickled having all these small fish nibbling at my feet. There were also a couple of big ones in there which was a little unnerving at times. While I was there, I had a proper back a massage, thinking of the next days 13 hour flight before heading back to the monorail to go back to the hotel, it was getting late and I have a big day tomorrow!
