My Trip to Kuala Lumpur

I thought I was going to be able to get my 1 Year Thai education visa at immigration in Bangkok but my school informed me that you had to leave the country to get it so I had to choose between a few different places.  I was more in settling down in Bangkok mode than travel mode so I wanted to go somewhere close.   I ended up choosing Kuala Lumpur because 1.  They had a flight that same night and a nighttime return flight for cheap on AirAsia and 2.  I love big cities and KL has that big city allure with big skyscrapers and 3.  Of course, I had never been to Malaysia.

What is Kuala Lumpur Like ?

I didn’t know what to expect going to Malaysia because it is the first conservative, primarily Muslim country I have traveled to.  I even heard that pornography was illegal and carrying a 5 year prison sentence if you got caught!  On Malaysian TV shows censored out almost all foul language, sex scenes and even censored a scene on an Adam Sandler movie of 2 women kissin each other.

This didn’t effect me while I was walking down the street or in public places but I’m sure there are some differences I did not notice. KL is a huge sprawled out city which has everything which makes large metropolitan areas interesting including skyscrapers, shopping malls, parks as well as a very extensive monorail and subway public transit system (view map here).

Despite the urban jungle feel, you can see a lot of greenery from high vantage points. Right under KL tower I walked through a park with monkeys which was a jungle as far as a kid from california is concerned. Despite this it was smack dabin the business center of the country which consisted mostly of big business skyscrapers, high end hotels along with restaurants and lots of shopping.  The streets were nice and wide (compared to Bangkok) and the traffic seemed to flow smoothly. Taxi drivers would talk about bad traffic when it was not even as bad as San Francisco as the city seemed to be well laid out.

Kuala Lumpur was very clean.  I didn’t find any areas in which the smell hit you like a Mike Tyson left hook to the face.  One of the more annoying things I came across in KL was the fact that hailing cabs in the street was not a possibility.  Cabs only were allowed to pick you up at stops which were often at large buildings, hotels and shopping centers.   I took probably 10 or so cab rides and only a single one used the meter which was dirt cheap (cheaper than Bangkok).  Most cab drivers wanted 10-20 ringitts ($3-6USD) to go most distances which could easily be walked.

If you insisted on cab drivers to use the meter they either wouldn’t or suddenly lost their ability to speak broken English.  Usually the desire to get an air conditioned cab ride over walking in 100 degree heat took over and you paid the extra fare.  Half of the taxis I took didn’t use the air conditioning which was a downer. Kuala Lumpur was another one of those big cities in Asia where you felt completely safe.  I arrived from the airport near 11:00pm and had no problem walking around by myself with no feelings of being unsafe.

What are the People like in Kuala Lumpur ?

Kuala Lumpur is a very diverse city.  I  talked to people from South Africa, Japan, India, Australia, Sao Paulo as well as Texas.  It is a very international city where foreigners are not anything out of the ordinary.  People keep to themselves more than I’m used to (I’m used to Bangkok so I may be biased) as you were constantly hounded (outside of Chinatown) to buy something, hop in a taxi of some sort, or be some sort of scam victim.

This being said, KL didn’t seem very friendly either.  The Malaysian people had an invisible barrier which seemed pretty hard to get passed when you first talked to them.  The service at most places was great as expected but I never received that extra kindness that I have received in other countries in Asia.   I expected to see my fair share of beautiful women which seem to be walking down the street everywhere in places like Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok where my head is often going from right to left like a tennis match.

I did not see the same thing (in my limited time) in Kuala Lumpur.  Maybe it was a fact that many of the women are wearing the traditional Muslim head scarf?  I don’t know but would love to find out some time in the future.

Things I had a Chance to Experience in Kuala Lumpur

• Getting to Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok

  • The easy way or the hard way?  For most people the question of the expensive way or the cheap way is a more question.  The good news is Bangkok & Kuala Lumpur are conveniently connected in more ways that one.

• Petronas Towers

  • The most famous landmark in all of Malaysia is not ancient ruins from a past civilization, a tropical rain forest or some of the best diving spots and beaches in the world (which Malaysia all has) but 2 marvelous man-made skyscrapers with a skybridge which was completed in 1998.

• KL Tower

  • Unless you’re going to Malaysia you probably have no idea that there’s a third component to Malaysia’s skyline.  Once you get there it beckons your visit which you’ll be surprised includes more than just a panoramic view of the city.

• Chinatown

  • Recommended on every tour guide I had to go check out the backpacker central where you could get the cheapest lodging, cheap merchandise and of course Chinese food.

• Best hamburgers I’ve ever had

• Getting Thai Visa

  • The primary reason I found myself in Kuala Lumpur.  If you have no idea about living in a foreign country you may be interested in the fact that it is not as easy as you think!  Unless you live in Mexico;)  There are thousands of foreigners in Thailand who have to travel to Thai embassies in foreign countries on “visa runs” every 30 days!

• Lodging at Lanson Place

  • I arrived on a late Monday in a city of over 6 million people with no hotel reservation!!!  Both good and bad could arise from this situation.

• It’s Cool to Wait at the KL Aiport

  • I inadvertently got to the airport 5 hours early and most of the time this has you pulling out your own hair but luckily there’s a saving grace of KUL.

Overall Impression

When I lived in San Francisco I thought I would like to visit Kuala Lumpur one day.  The problem was it as 8,000 miles away and a ticket from SFO to KUL os over $1,000.  I’m glad I waited until I lived less than $150 away so I could visit KL with no pressure. Kuala Lumpur was a clean, safe city which was easy to get around in. I know the Malaysian Tourist Authority will be happy with this but I personally thought seeing the magnificent Petronas Towers satisfied me.

I would say that if you were in a rush and wanted to visit Kuala Lumpur 2-3 days would be enough to experience the main attractions.  If you wanted to spend a week in KL without leaving the city you would probably get bored. Although I didn’t experience any night life  most of the bars and nightclubs I saw were 90% foreigners who were probably living in KL for business. Chinatown also had a good set of travelers but not my crowd so I can’t provide much input on those 2 questions.

If your company was to move you to Kuala Lumpur I thing most people would get along nicely as there are good affordable accommodations as well as a great public transportation system (minus the taxis). I know I didn’t stay long enough to really get to know KL but to me it seems kind of boring compared to the other large cities in Asia, correct me if I’m wrong.

The Petronas Towers are Kuala Lumpur

Even more than the Golden Gate Bridge and the pyramid building  of San Francisco or the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty of New York City, if you asked someone from anywhere in the world if they knew anything about Kuala Lumpur the vast majority would probably say something like, “isn’t that where those two connected twin towers are?” I wouldn’t have went to Kuala Lumpur to get my Thai Education visa if not for the Petronas Towers although I am a big fan of tall buildings.

Business & Pleasure

The Petronas Towers are first and foremost a business center.  One whole side is for the Malaysian oil & gas company for which its named while the other side is leased out to other major companies.  You will see thousands of suits going in and out of the Petronas Towers at any given moment during the work week. If you’re into shopping don’t worry, there is also a huge shopping mall in between and below the towers with high end shops such as Louis Vouitton and Ferigamo as well as normal stores.  To be honest I didn’t spend more than 5 minutes in the shopping mall but I could tell it was pretty big and had a wide variety of high end stores.

Warning/Tip

Listen up, if you want to be able to go up onto the skywalk you need to go and get a ticket EARLY.  I went once in the early afternoon and once in the late morning and the tickets had been sold out for a while.  This was also a Tuesday and Wednesday so if you want to be able to view the main attraction go early in the morning and wait as they limit the visitors to the skywalk to a couple thousand every day.

Photo Opportunities Galore

I love taking pictures.  My father used to be a pretty good photographer and I like to take pictures of ordinary things and try to make them extraordinary.  By no means are the Petronas Towers ordinary but you can get some extraordinary pictures day and night from all angles of the Petronas Towers. I could stay there a whole day and take pictures and if I was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for an extra day I would have probably traveled around the city and found cool shots of the Petronas Towers.  There were numerous tourists with the same idea as taking tons of pictures of the towers at all hours of the day. The people who worked there and the security guards also had no problem of tourists taking pictures but you could get the idea that they thought you were silly for taking pictures.  It was one of those things where the main attraction in a town means nothing to the residents who see it every single day.

Overall Impression

The Petronas Towers are one of a kind and on the kind of grand scale which defines the country of Malaysia in the minds of many people across the world.  I would say that statement pretty much sums up how impressive these twin towers were during day and night.  Any visitor to Kuala Lumpur will immediately notice and be drawn towards the Petronas Towers regardless if that is in the plans and for a day or 2 nobody will be disappointed.

Decisions, Decisions

I just had to get it over with. As I explained previously I needed to leave Thailand to get the education visa process finalized so I don’t have to do these rediculous border runs every 30 days. Border runs actually give you the freedom to travel but I personally hate having deadlines. I like to be under total control of my schedule while I travel. I had a few places where my Thai language school recommended and I couldn’t choose with any logic so I just closed my eyes and checked AirAsia.com to find which flight I could take on Monday to get it over with. The only place where there were a plentiful amount of cheap flights day and night were to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I haven’t heard much about KL other than it was cheap. People in Bangkok even say KL is cheap which leads me to believe it is dirt cheap.

Flying Air Asia

I took the 6:15pm Air Asia flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur which (along with a return flight on Wed Night) cost me 5,725 baht or $166USD which believe it or not, is way overpriced for the 2 hour flight. If I booked it in advance like any responsible traveler would have, it would have probably cost around 4,000 baht or $116. The AirAsia flight which happened to be on a Airbus A330 which AirAsia publicly hasn’t modified since the news of the crash of Air France Flight was as smooth as any flight I’ve ever been on. Seeing lightening in the distance kind of freaked me out for a second but when the flight is so smooth there was no stress.

Keep this in mind it doesn’t include the 1,000 baht rape by the taxi driver to the airport who I evidentally paid for his return back to the city or the hour plus taxi ride with a Malay grand-pa taxi driver traveling around 80km/h on a wide open expressway. You can tell upon arriving in the Kuala Lumpur airport it is going to take a while to get to the city as you see NOTHING in all directions.

The hour drive reminded me of driving on highways in Oregon. Lots of trees is about all you see until about an hour when huge high-rise apartment buildings pop up out of nowhere. These apartment buildings looked modern. They were all wide, rectangular buildings as opposed to the narrow, square apartment buildings (slums?) in Hong Kong. The apartment buildings are everywhere you look and they block the most famous site of KL the Petronas Towers. They look cool but it seems no matter where you are there is a large building obsuring their view like in the picture (which I did NOT take). I ended up at a hotel semi-near the Thai embassy which I must goto bright and early in 6 or so hours tomorrow morning.

Finding a Hotel in Kuala Lumpur

My first night I’m staying at the Flamingo Hotel. It’s the second choice after the first hotel which was recommended by the information kiosk at the airport the DePalma was booked except for the rockstar suite which I didn’t even want to know how much it was. The Flamingo hotel is one of those wannabee nice hotels which over charges for crap that I don’t care about. The room cost about 325 Malaysian Ringgits ($90) per night which is why I’m up at 2am looking for cheaper hotels.

I still have no idea how to pronounce their money (EDIT:  ringgets ), more on that later. I was looking for cheap hotels for short trips like this one and I came across a new looking cheap place called Tune Hotels in the flight catalogue in the airplane which I may check out tomorrow.

I have to wake up and get to the Royal Thai Embassy early so I can come back to this wanabee fancy, 32inch Sony Bravia (which I won’t turn on) having, no food anywhere in Kuala Lumpur after midnight hotel and check out to find a cheaper place with less bells & whistles which I don’t care about before noon. Sorry about the pathetic attempt at English Grammar but its late and know it’s going to be tough to wake up in time tomorrow if I don’t get to sleep like now!!!