Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia » Kuala Lumpur

From Langkawi, we took a ferry to the Island Penang, where we stayed for two days. We did not find it very attractive and went further on. The wonderful side of spontaneous backpacking – you do whatever you feel like whenever you want….! : )

And with that decision, it was time to say hello to the mainland again (after more than two weeks on islands)… We arrived to Kuala Lumpur (KL) pretty fast – nice bus and good roads (which we learned to appreciate during our trip : ) ). Did we reach a big city? Yes, indeed. How could we tell? We got stuck in a massive traffic jam and almost felt like back in Warsaw : )

We jumped of the bus and had an address, took a cab and got out in front of the Pavilion Shopping Mall. Then the instructions on our little piece of paper told us to enter the building between the Jaguar and Bentley Saloons. Probably you can figure out that we are not sleeping with a bungalow with frogs any longer : ) The fancy mall, the luxury cars, and the reception on the ground floor made us feel a bit confused in our flip flops, baggy pants and dirty backpacks : ) We are with most certainty typical backpackers at this point. But due to couch surfing, we end up in all kinds of different places.

Nelson, our first host in KL, waited for us in his apartment. We left our bags and went out to eat and take in the life of KL city. Since his place is located in the middle of the centre, once we got out of the elevator, passed the ridiculously expensive cars and the posh shopping centre, we actually saw the Petronas Towers (aka Twin Towers) immediately. They are actually really impressive, especially at night. The reason why we are saying “ridiculously expensive” cars is that we have been told that when buying a car here, one has to pay 209% taxes (!!!). So the owner of a car like the ones standing outside the reception, were not only rich, they were ridiculously rich! : )

Our first meal in KL was interesting… meaning that we ordered different types of meat – pork, shrimps, chicken, and FROG legs!! It was one of these psychological moments where you had the frogs alive behind you while having their buddy on your plate. It wasn’t bad actually! We enjoyed it! In the mood of trying new things, we had the famous fruit called Durian for dessert. Now, that was an interesting experience!! We felt 3 different flavors at once, all from coffee to onion. The smell of this fruit is so intense that it is prohibited in some places, like offices, banks, etc. And while eating on one of the street stands, they provide you with these plastic gloves.

Using the opportunity of having a kitchen, we made dinner the second day and our host brought some wine. From one bottle to another, from wine to whiskey, the evening ended up with 6 hours of awful karaoke singing : ) Luckily, it stayed inside the 4 walls of Nelsons place. A couple of lazy days were perfect. We waved Nelson goodbye and met Daniel, our second host in KL.

Nelson, Daniel – thanks a lot for your hosting! It was really nice to meet you guys! : ) : )

During our stay in Penang, we met two Polish guys – Kuba and Wojtek. We met up in KL and stayed together at Daniels place, where we had some cracker competition, some drinks and some late swimming in the pool : )

We also had some proper walking all day long together, exploring the city, and trying to get to know the local life. We met more monkeys in the Hindu temples (Batu Caves), saw the Muslim mosques, and had some food at China Town – in other words, we experienced the mixed culture of Malaysia.

Now, we arrived in Malacca and we are planning to stay here for a couple of days! We will do our best to not make you wait that long for our next post this time! :)