KL - on the way to Singapore?

Getting In
The coach to Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is known by most here) was not as exciting as that to Melaka. As I said, Melaka coach station is a little further out of the city than it should be, and so a separate bus journey is needed (and Melaka is small) to a charmless shopping mall style station.
Once I got to KL, I got the train from the integrated (at last!) bus/train station but it was very unclear which way to go and you could not just buy a ticket and board. Anyway, got to the monorail^[1] from KL Sentral to the station for my hotel. In all honesty, I got a little lost and had a break to get some lunch. A good lunch of curry in what appeared to be another type of Little India.

Once I dropped my bags off, I had only one place that I knew - the Petronas Twin Towers. It was hot, it was humid but luckily there was a covered walkway with air conditioning pretty much all the way there. It felt a little insulated but it did the job. And there was at least quite a lot of humanity joining me.
It was too late to go up the tower but at least I knew what to do the next day - come back here pretty early to get tickets. rz2^[2] had told me a bit about KL and mentioned a great bookshop - which I assumed was Kinokuniya [link] (from business trips, though I'd imagine she is a heavier reader than me, definitely seemed that way). I was right and so I checked it out - it was quite nice to see such a large bookshop and on top of that, it reminded me of large Japanese bookshops. There was not a great deal for me to do so, after a quick walk around the area of the hotel and a bite to eat, I returned to my hotel knowing that I would need to get out fairly early the next morning to get the Petronas Tower booked.



The second day with sightseeing included
The next morning, I was out fairly early to get a ticket for a 6pm ish viewing so that I could get the sunset. Now I had to decide where to go before that...
Batu Caves was a little out of town and, in its feel for the journey only, reminded me of Ueltiberg [link]. It should give better views than that though purely because of the weather. Batu Caves is a limestone hill that contains series of caves and Hindu temples within the complex. The most obvious feature is the huge gold statue next to the long flight of stairs. As you approach from the train station, it towers above you (side-on) but my eyes caught the monkeys, monkeying around, more than anything else.

The temples are within the limestone caves and so it is fairly dark and damp in there. As a result, the caves are quite cool inside and not that busy (though this may have been timing). There were more monkeys inside and it was pretty spectacular in the caves, though a fair bit of rubbish left around on the ground did take away from it a bit. I didn't stick around for ages and got the train back. Interestingly, my fare back was twice the price as it is subsidised on the way to the caves (it was still cheap either way).
Once back into the centre, I had some time to kill before my plans with the tower so I wondered what to do as I wandered. I found myself at KL tower - the not quite as impressive as it once was old centre point. I went and had a look around but not up.
Rather fortuitously, I went into the shopping centre near my hotel and found a mini model mecha exhibition. That was a nice surprise. I think some elements of Japanese culture have travelled successfully in Asia and anime exports fairly easily. I hear it is even popular in the west in certain circles.

I made my way to the twin towers along the same walkway as before (third time now) and decided to have a look around in the daytime and the night time after.
The weather wasn't great but the view was still exceptional. I'd timed it pretty well so saw the sun setting and the city lighting up. That was always one of my (rare) pleasures in Tokyo from TMGB.
After that, I was ready to return so I did to go out for some dinner with TC^[3] who had now arrived from Melaka. As she had been to, and through, KL a few times before, we went somewhere she had been before for a spot of dinner and some "atmosphere". A good dinner and a fitting end.

The next day, I was out pretty early to get the KLIA Ekspres train from Sentral again. It was a good service as there was a city air terminal so I could check in and not worry about my bags from the city centre onwards.
The airport, near Sepang, is much like any other modern city airport and shows the direction that Malaysia has set itself. Modern, developed and a bit like the other modern, vertical cities. And that is a debating point in itself...

The last leg was in Dubai - was it a holiday destination or just a resting point on the way home? 

Kuala Lumpur - click for photo album

<sup>1. The monorail, interestingly, was heavily sponsored and branded. The line map showed each station with the sponsor's name first and in the graphic part of the map (in my case "Sharp") and when you saw each station, the advertising was massive and quite intrusive. One of the stations was KFC branded and the whole station had KFC adverts inside it - not sure I'd want that in the morning.↩
2. rendezvous 2, met in Singapore↩
3. Travelling Companion↩</sup>

Straight to Melaka/Malacca

Another day almost entirely on transport, but this was much more enjoyable on a coach with some pleasant conversation with a stranger, very nice scenery and comfortable seating. The romance of bus travel, in fact.

On the Buses
Having got picked up, we snaked our way through Penang's main island to make our way to Butterworth and that in itself took one hour. After that, we were on the road with a single stop for a "comfort break". The gentleman sitting next to me on the coach (although he was almost lying with the level of recline, and not that close as the seats were pretty wide) did actually strike up conversation with me. He was travelling with his family (young son and wife were seated in front) on his way to Melaka having visited his daughter and we chatted about stuff I can barely remember. He did tell me that the hotel I was going to stay in was rubbish though and recommended a friend's hotel... Again, I was dubious.

The other thing I remember was that when he asked where I was from, he was taken aback when I responded with "London". He said

"but you don't have brown hair."

Which is the first time I have a had a hair based response to my answer. He didn't even ask where I was really from, just why I didn't have brown hair.

Once I got to Melaka bus station, I needed to get a cab to get to the town proper after a recent move to take the bus station outside of the city (this is a silly concept and is a real problem with public transport provision in certain countries - see the "parkway" concept for train stations in the UK) which was fairly harmless.

Once I reached the hotel, I was informed by the hotel manager that my travelling companion (TC) had arrived and was waiting somewhere nearby with a friend of hers (rz3¹) so I joined them. They were very close after all. As was everything else. We were having a drink by the river and then, after that, I said I would like to see around - maybe go into the centre. This was met with the answer that we were in the centre right now.

Melaka was pretty small and the next morning, I went and had a quick look around before breakfast (with TC and rz3) and then we went to Little India. It was little. I let TC and rz3 do what they wanted there and I went back to have a look around. This was a common theme and so when we met again for lunch, we split up again after going to some kind of Portuguese village (which, even the taxi driver said was not worth it). At this point it felt that Melaka was not really the place for me so I decided that I would go to KL a day earlier and so organised that but there was still some time to go to the pedestrianised zone (in torrential rain) for some food and chat.

After that, we all returned and went to karaoke - that is a good way of enjoying yourself wherever you are! The song selection was a little ropey but fun nonetheless.

To be fair to Melaka, I had a good time while I was there (thanks to TC and rz3) but it is not the kind of place I would normally want to spend multiple days - I think it would be ideal for a day trip (although the hotel was also very nice).

I was off to Kuala Lumpur the next morning, but karaoke can always keep you awake.

Melaka 2013 - click for photo album

^{1. rz3 is "rendezvous 3" and continues my numbering from Singapore.↩}

Pining for Penang?

The previous day had not gone to plan, but not a reason to stop plans....
When you have a loose itinerary, I think it makes sense to apply some structure to it as you go along, and then work within those constraints. I had to be in Melaka for Monday evening and so I had two days, and so, decisively, I knew there was to be no day trip style travel, and I would spend my time in Georgetown. Not sure this was necessarily the right thing with there being a lot on Penang but I'm not a huge fan of beaches and lazing around them.

The hostel was pleased to inform me that I was able to retain my room into the next day (and I then stayed an extra night on top of that too). I was pleased too. It was a nice hostel and, as long as you have reasonable expectations, I have no problem recommending it [link].

Penang Hill

I got the bus out to Penang Hill from near KOMTAR which is the central bus station and so must be some form of centre (though clearly not the tourist centre!). Penang reminded me rather a lot of Hong Kong in many ways and so Penang Hill seemed similar to The Peak. Situated a little out of Georgetown (the main city in Penang), it rises 800m above sea level and so, on a clear day, to a good view. It was a fairly clear day.

While I was up there initially, a chain of events started that ended up being annoying and where a cheetah was defeated by gravity^[1]... The hill funicular tram was very busy and it was a hot day but I eventually got on the car and took it up to the top. The view from the top is pretty special and it was a pleasant day so I was taking advantage of the view and dropped my lens cap - that'd need replacing later. I spent the rest of the time up there protecting my lens whilst walking around and taking photos. There were a few things up there including a temple, mosque, bizarre snake "zoo" and a cracking owl sanctuary (museum). I had some food up there, had a little wander and then queued to get down - it was a long queue.

Once down at the bottom, a looked around for the bus stop (construction at the bottom of the hill meant things were in different places and eventually walked back to where the bus was waiting. Almost empty, air conditioned and almost quiet - except for some Bengalis. My Bengali is not good enough to entirely tune out when I hear it so I was quite glad when a few stops on, it got a little busier to drown it out. As I got near the central bus stop, I suddenly remembered that I needed to get a lens cap and jumped off. As I later found out, I had left my mobile on the bus² but I was successful in purchasing a lens cap, and it even had a little bit of string to tie to the lens. Considering the loss, I'd say it was not a successful shopping trip...

I got back to the hostel, asked them what I should do about the phone and then went out to continue looking around the city. I walked along the coast a little where the buildings were beautiful and the traffic was too much to cross. It wasn't a big city but it was pleasantly diverting and fairly walkable although there were buses through the city centre. Most of the city centre of Georgetown is a world heritage zone and so is protected from development that would be out of character. There were a lot of people out and I found a nice outdoor food court near the esplanade but, as I was not hungry so I did not get food from there.

Near my hostel, there was a "nightspot" which was a large food court called Red Garden. There was a massive choice of food and drinks were served by waitresses (may have been waiters too, but probably not). It was quite a lot of fun and I did not feel out of place on my own so that was a bonus.



Kek Lok Si

The next day, the weather was significantly less pleasant. Luckily, the hostel was happy to lend me an umbrella for the day. I also wanted to organise my trip to Melaka which they also helped me a with a little - I had wanted to take the train but the train was slower than the bus and significantly less convenient seeing as I would have to get to Butterworth from Georgetown. I booked the coach for the next morning at the ever-present KOMTAR, inclusive of a pickup from the hotel, and then made my way to the Kek Lok Si temple [link] (also known as the Temple of Supreme Bliss).

By the time I got there, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was tipping it down - I was pretty glad to have an umbrella. It was still busy there though and so I had a wander around. To get to the temple, you had to make your way through an apparent warren of stalls although there was actually only one path. It did look mysterious shrouded in mist though, and I was glad for the variety to some degree. Though dry clothes would have been nice too.

Coming into the temple through the ramshackle entrance, there are hundreds of turtles inside a small pond which is both cruel (to the turtles) and interesting (to me) as there is a small covered bridge with seats over the pond. The temple itself is fantastically located and so has great views across the city as well as some interesting architecture itself. I was wet, but it was still fun.
I made my way back on the bus, a little more carefully than the day before, (although I now had a lot less to lose) but I did not really know where to take the bus to. As Penang reminded me so much of Hong Kong, as a homage, I decided to replicate the Star Ferry crossing by taking the ferry across the Straits of Malacca. The weather didn't really improve but it did mean some rather dramatic cloud formations which I hope I did justice to. The ferry is not as popular as it once was as there is now a massive Penang Bridge (though not that close) across of which you get a nice view on the crossing.
Butterworth had a train station and bus station and appeared to be not much else for the tourist so I returned to Georgetown almost straight away.

Once back, the weather improved a little so that I could have a spot of lunch in Little India (one of many Little Indias through the trip); see a pretty nice sunset near the water and enjoy a coffee from a roaster. And that also allowed me to see that most modern of sights - friends ignoring each other whilst being in close proximity of each other.
Just after getting my coffee, a man spoke to me in  a language I didn't understand, I explained I was not from India as he thought. He walked off, and then a few moments later he returned amd asked me for some money for his son's medicine. I was dubious.
He explained what he needed and that his son needed something for his asthma - an inhaler. An inhaler I happened to have on me... I explained that I had the inhaler but he was unsure of the difference between Ventolin and Salbutamol and would not believe it was the same thing. I offered to go to see his son but eventually just gave him the money. It may have been a scam but, frankly, it had been quite a lot of effort for what was a relatively small amount so I gave it. I'd have preferred to have helped. Maybe I did.

Off to Melaka.

Penang 2013 - click for photo album

<sup>1. A few years ago, I was in Tanzania (I don't regularly partake in exotic travel so indulge me here) on a safari. On the final day, we managed to track down and follow a cheetah which was obviously an amazing and exciting experience. Exciting enough for me to drop my lens cap. Just the lens cap, mind. I wanted it back, so I got it back but this was supposedly not what you are meant to do when a cheetah is on the prowl a few metres away. It was amazing though to see one close up on the prowl (link). The lens cap spring arm was actually broken so it doesn't stay on properly and can be knocked off fairly easily↩
2. I was not that bothered by the loss of the phone, it was irritating as it was convenient for checking email and as an alarm clock but it wasn't super expensive. It was not until later that it really annoyed me when I attempted to replace it - I had a small android phone with a keyboard and that is a style that basically no longer exists. It was not a great phone but, and I have tried writing some of these blogposts on my present phone, I really miss having a keyboard to flip out. The cult of touchscreen I guess is just another sign of me feeling a little marooned in the sea of modernity.↩</sup>