Weekend Trip to Kuala Lumpur

Sunday, February 6, 2005
Weekend Trip to Kuala Lumpur
This past weekend was a busy, tiring, and rewarding weekend. I took off with 6 other exchange students (Pascal from France, Heli and Minna from Finand, Cecil from the U.S., and Tatjana from Germany) and went to KL. We left Friday evening at 8pm and took a bus from Singapore to Johor Bahru (the Malaysian city immediately across the water from Singapore) and then through to KL. With the stop at the border (where you go through the two separate checkpoints) we finally arrived in KL at around 6 in the morning.

My first impression of KL was that the city is hot and humid. Despite being early in the morning with no sunlight, the heat was immediately apparent and probably magnified by the long trip in an air-conditioned bus. The humidity, however, was there to stay. What I also noticed was the air pollution. In all fairness to KL, we were dropped from the bus across from the bus station in the middle of China town and there was lot of dust and exhaust from waiting cabs and buses moving in and out.

Kuala Lumpur, at a base level, is very different from Singapore. The cleanthiness, and especially in the bus station part of China town, is not nearly the same. I was told by a cab driver that it is common practice to just throw garbage anywhere, out the window, on the street etc. He seemed to give me the impression that this practice is infinitely superior to Singapore’s anal requirement of using garbage cans.

Once we got our belonging together we scoped out the and found ourselves a nice place to sit down and eat. Being nervous about nuts, I opted to wait out the food and eat later on.

First item of the day was to get tickets to the twin towers. We arrived around 7am and waited around until 8:30, got tickets, then went up the to the bridge of the twin towers. Despite being only half way up the towers, the view was impressive and gave us a good feel for the architecture of the buildings and the layout of the city.

Next, we got some more food at an immaculately clean food court and headed out on walking adventure to find the municipal bus that would take us to the Batu caves – huge caves on the outskirts of the city that have been converted into a Hindu temple.

Finding the correct bus was quite an adventure. We quickly found that navigating KL is very easy. After asking several people for directions to different places, we always got the same answer. To get anywhere in KL simply go straight, take a left, then take a right. After that, take a right then take a left. Voila, you will be anywhere you need to be. Unfortunately, this didn’t work quite as smoothly in practice, but we eventually found the correct bus after stopping at no more than 3 bus stations.

The Batu caves were an amazing experience. Never in one place, have I seen the raw beauty of nature blended so finely with the purest spiritual and the ugliest exploitive elements of mankind. The caves themselves are awe inspiring and breathtaking in their sheer size and magnitude. Throughout the vast caverns people have erected various idols and the Hindu Gods bring a magical element to the amazing backdrop. However, the caves are filled with stinking garbage and littered with graffiti on anything below 8 feet high. It disgusts me that such a sacred place would be subject to the ugliness of mankind. That said, the caves were extremely unique and I would recommend seeing them.

After our trip to the caves, we opted for a quicker return trip via taxi. We were whisked away to our little comfort zone in the city – the Rainforest Hostel. This hostel was great. The entire place was furnished with carved woods, hard wood floors, and small crafts. It was also a quiet haven amongst the rush and bustle of the city. Most importantly, it had air conditioning.

After showering and changing we headed out for an evening trip to see the KL tower, a similar structure to the Calgary tower, but about twice as tall. For dinner, the majority of the group had Indian food, while I settled for the local Pizza Hut. I felt foolish eating pizza while everybody else was trying generous helpings of curries, rice, chicken, and breads. I was more than little embarrassed bringing in a the Pizza Hut box and sitting with my friends in the restaurant.

The KL tower itself provided a 360 degree view of the city and gave us a nice night shot of the city and its millions of lights. As nice as the view was, I think many of us were ready to head back to the hostel and get a good nights rest. Let me tell you, after sleeping in a room without air condition, having a hard uncomfortable bed, and a cool breeze was close to heavenly.

The next morning we were up early, ate breakfast at the hostel, and went to visit the National Mosque. Here, the best part of the trip was a friendly Islamic lady who explained the fundamentals of the religion, answered all of our questions (and we had many) and dispelled many of the myths surrounding Islam. The best part was her friendly smile and her calm nature.

Post Mosque, we made a quick to the mall for any last minute shopping and got on the bus to head home. Wow, this was quite a long post. If you’ve read this far (and everything above) then buy yourself a lollipop and pretend it’s from me.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year to everybody (Today, Tuesday, is CNY)!