A.S.I.A: A few hours doesn't mean 8

May 1, 2010

Kuala Lumpur-->Kuala Perlis, Malaysia

Petronas Towers

We woke up early the next day and headed downstairs for a filling breakfast before making our way to the famed Petronas Towers. When we got to the Towers we were all set to get our tickets to head up to the observation deck only to find that the rest of KL and its tourists had had the same early morning idea. After standing for a bit-and Soup being hit on by an overly friendly Iranian man-we decided instead to walk through the city to the KL Tower. Walking around KL you realize that it is an overall very nice city with clean streets and well manicured landscaping, however, it seemed to me more empty and less lively than BKK. Anyway, we finally reached our destination and took a free shuttle up to its base. Basically, the KL Tower is a giant communications tower that also has a revolving restaurant and loads of cultural activities, all while being surrounded by a nature preserve.

KL Tower

At the top we did a 360 degree walk around with a headset and handheld video guide that pointed out the various landmarks around the city. I'm actually glad we went here, because we were able to see the Petronas Towers in the distance and got some great shots looking down on the city. Included with our ticket was a walk through the cultural village so we spent some time taking a look at traditional houses, food and dances of the various Malaysian subcultures from throughout the country before we got a cab back to the hotel and then to the bus station.  As the main bus station was under construction we were driven to a massive tent in a parking lot outside the city. It was one of the most chaotic and insane places we'd ever been. You step foot in the tent and within milliseconds you're hounded by about 33098 people all trying to direct you to their bus and their destination. We finally found a bus that would take us to Kuala Perlis which they said was just a few hour bus ride that would get us to the pier in time to get the ferry to our actual destination, Langkawi.

Sue and Mom are happy listeners

Getting on the bus we were in fairly high spirits with spacious seats, loads of leg room and plenty of Dots for eating (think we ate about 25 boxes of Dots during the 2 week trip.)  We made a stop on our way out of the city where we were uprooted from our seats by some unhappy women, even though we were told that we could sit where we wanted.  Needless to say those women were not offered any Dots (although a bit later, after the steam had stopped pumping from our ears we realized they were actually really nice and helpful...still, no Dots.)  The bus ride was pretty smooth and I was so impressed at Mom and Sue being up for a cross country trek through Malaysia.  The scenery was really beautiful as we went from the city to some flat lands and suddenly up amongst the greenest highlands you could think of.



A view from KL Tower



We made a pit stop a little while into the trip and the 3 of us indulged with a bit of corn-in-a-cup.  I know, I know it sounds like a really exotic treat but it's pretty much exactly as its name states: corn with butter, sugar and coconut milk served in a cup with a small spoon.  It's one of my favorites and I'm pretty sure Mom and Soup are converts as well as we couldn't stop raving about it (and it's kind of an unwritten rule that you have to refer to it by its full name which lends to a bit more fun when discussing this relatively simple dessert.)  Anyway, I digress.  The ladies went off for a touch of rest stop shopping while I headed back to the bus and I'm really glad I did.  About 30 seconds after I got on the bus started to pull away and I jumped up to say they were still shopping, but the seat-stealing ladies were already on it (you remember the really rude and nasty ones from before :) )  The bus honked it's horn for about 2 straight minutes until we were able to see Mom and Sue sprinting through the parking lot in the rain and fog until they reached the bus and we could continue on our journey.

It started to feel like this was taking longer than it should as we realized that everyone else seemed to be getting off the bus except for us.  Then it dusk came, then sunset, then darkness.  We kind of figured that we probably weren't making the 6pm ferry when our bus pulled in after 9pm to a seemingly abandoned bus station in a seemingly abandoned Kuala Perlis.  Not seeing much other choice we made our way to the nearest hotel, the KL Seaview, which, according to its brochure, was at one point very high class--something had changed.  We were immediately greeted by the overwhelming odor of Durian fruit which can at times literally smell like a mixture of onion, puke and sewage.  I went out to help Soup with her bags and was met with an excessively overwaxed and sllippery ramp on which my feet slid right out from under me and I landed completely flat on my back on the hard ground (thankfully I'd kept my back pack on or I think I would have cracked my skull!)  In tears from laughing so hard we went back in to meet Mom and see our rooms, which weren't terrible; I mean what more can you ask for than aircon, enough clean beds to sleep on and arrows on the ceiling pointing us in the direction of Mecca...oh yea, this part of Malaysia is very Muslim.

Starving from our endless bus journey we ate at a pretty lively restaurant, Azira, which was serving local and very tasty Muslim dishes next door.  They clearly didn't get many foreigners in there, but we tried to blend in as much as we could, bobbing along as the locals stepped up to karaoke one after the other.  Our facade was shattered however, when Mom decided it would be a good idea to launch her chocolate milk across the table and spill it over everything.  Embarrassed we continued to bob along and speedily ate up before sneaking away to the luxurious Seaview for the night.