Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

We boarded the early bus for Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia, which is only about a 4 hour drive from Singapore. The bus was luxurious with giant reclining seats and wonderful air conditioning! This was the first border we crossed by land, and the bus stopped so we could check out of Singapore and then 20 min later stopped again so we could get stamped into Malaysia. There was a huge crush of people but it was still civilized enough. Once we got into KL though, all bets were off.

The bus didn't actually stop in the terminal as one would expect. We thought we could pick up a map, ask for some directions, no worries. Stepping onto the street was like stepping into a whole new world. Hot, humid, polluted, crowded, loud, FAST. Everything about Kuala Lumpur was in-your-face, including all the people who literally got in your face about taking a taxi, exchanging money, trying to sell you something or take you somewhere. I guess overwhelming would really be the best word to describe it. We trekked around that neighborhood for almost an hour trying to figure out where our guest house was, sweating off a third of our body weight while we hauled around all of our worldly possessions. After asking 20 people and literally walking by the place 3 times, we found our diamond in the rough, Wheeler's Guest House. We couldn't really be blamed for missing it- there was a sign the size of a piece of paper at about the 4th floor level announcing it's name. The front was a little convenience stand you squeeze by, then head up some really dodgy stairs to the 3rd floor where we found reception. The decor was an interesting mix of fake flowers, fish tanks, and twinkle lights, but it worked better than I would have expected.

The entrance to the Guest House- which was hidden behind a convenience store/cartThe pile of bricks holding our bed up on one side
The whole place was heavier on the rustic than the charm- our room had a double bed with one side held up by a pile of bricks. But we did have air con AND a fan, which was heaven on earth. The toilets were down the hall and worked maybe 20% of the time. The showers were in the toilet stalls which is a space saving innovation. They were built on a concrete slab with some plywood slapped up as separators. Shower shoes are a definite must! For all of the griminess the place still had some charm. The rooftop was a deck and they had free catered dinner for everyone on Friday night. The food was good and we were encouraged to eat as much as we could, and ended up meeting some really nice people.

After dinner we wanted to explore the city a bit and set off with Sarah from Australia and two German girls who had just arrived from Europe that day after 4 connecting flights. Sarah had been to KL a few years before, and knew her way around a bit. We took the monorail downtown to see the Petronas Towers all lit up at night. They are gorgeous structures and were the tallest buildings in the world until being surpassed in 2004 (they are still the tallest twin towers!). At night they have lights running up and down and are pretty remarkable. Quite a contrast from other parts of the city! We checked out the ridiculously expensive shopping center located on the first floor, the dancing fountain show out back, and hung out with tons of other tourists for a little while before deciding to take the scenic route, aka walk, back to the hostel.

We were staying in one of the rougher parts of the city it seems, and on the way back passed a long building where one unit had the biohazard sign painted on the front, another was burnt out and you could see KL's other major building, the sky tower, through the windows because there was no roof to obstruct the view of the sky. The units at the end of the building were, of course, occupied.

Returning to the hostel we said goodnight to the other girls and were getting ready to go bed ourselves when we met some guys who were heading across the street for a drink. Somehow or other we wound up at a bar til 3am. Drinks in Malaysia are very expensive because it is a Muslim country and they have very high taxes on alcohol. I guess it all balances out when we paid less than $5 a night for a place to sleep!