Thursday 7 July 2011

Kuala Lumpur

We arrived in KL early evening and doing as proper travellers do on a budget, taxis were definitely on our list of no no’s! We managed to take a bus, train and then walk to our hostel. The hostel was basic, but pretty cheap- basic actually just meant a bed and a bin, and that was it (and we’re not kidding!) A little different from the standard we were used to in Nam for the same price!




We spent 4 days in total in KL and managed to see all the must see sights, such as the Petronas Towers, Central Market, China Town and Little India. The highlight of the trip though was definitely the demonstration which took place due to the people of Malaysia wanting corrupt free elections. This was all very exciting for us because we had never seen, not alone taken part in a demonstration before! Thousands of people were walking up and down the street outside our hostel shouting and cheering (although we didn’t understand what they were saying!) It seemed quite peaceful though- no violence. We saw all this from our hostel balcony before deciding to venture out into the crowd ourselves!




We walked around China Town and watched the demonstration taking, photos and filming. After a while we spotted some police getting ready to close in on the demonstrators- aiming to keep them in a certain area of the city to be able to control their actions. As they got closer tear gas was set off and we saw some demonstrators running in the distance (probably away from the gas!) Unfortunately due to the wind the tear gas got us too- so much that we had to shelter behind a building, trying to get rid of the tears in our eyes and the burning sensation in our noses- what an experience!  Not something which happens everyday....anyway, we were OK and things seemed to disperse once the rain set in and threatened to last for a while.




Other than that just the normal touristy things were done. The food is great here- they have numerous food halls where you can see all the food and go around and pick what you want- fab curries/ Chinese/ Malay.





KL is a really easy city to get around and a breath of fresh air from the chaos and impracticality of public transport (I.e: it’s non-existent) in HCMC!






Next, Melaka- 160km to the south of KL. Even the bus to Melaka leaves from an extravagant terminal which looks like an airport- very swish! J

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