This day was a little disorienting. It started off with a very early morning frenzy as we searched everywhere for Jack's wallet. Nada. We left the hotel, hoping that it was in our luggage somewhere, which was already locked up in the storage compartment of our airport shuttle. Keeping our fingers crossed, we boarded an early morning flight which brought us from the Malaysian island of Borneo, back to the peninsula, where we land in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. It was strange to suddenly be surrounded by tall buildings and so much traffic after spending two weeks in jungles, rainforests and tropical beaches. Upon reaching the airport, we rummaged through the suitcase in search of the wallet. We nearly dumped the whole thing out. There was only one place left to check. I reached my hand into the pocket that held all of my underwear and felt around. What's this? Could it be?? Success!! I triumphantly pulled my hand back out, holding the wallet up high like a trophy. Maybe it would be a good day after all! We locked our suitcase back up and sent it on the bus to our hotel. Jack and I separated from the group and took the brand new, high speed train into the city center, reducing a 1.5 hour bus ride to a mere 28 minutes!
We immediately set off in search of food (it seems like we're always hungry!) and ended up at the City Market, a large warehouse structure filled with small craft stalls and a decent sized food court. We were naturally drawn to a stall advertising claypots- buy 2 get one free! Nevermind that there was just the 2 of us, we still got a third one for free.
After spending some more time shopping for souvenirs and bargaining with the vendors, we decided to catch a bus to the Batu Caves, about 13 km outside of the city. Doesn't seem that far, but with all the traffic, it took us over an hour to get there, and gave us only about a half hour to explore them if we wanted to get back in time for our farewell dinner that evening. We went into fast forward mode and bolted out of the bus as soon as the doors opened. What a sight! The ancient limestone caves loomed before us, and a large, golden statue of a Hindu god guarded the entrance. The caves are a sacred place for the Hindus in Malaysia, and the 272 steps leading up to the entrance of the caves bring you to several temples inside.
We ran up the steps, passing the monkeys that were hanging out on the banisters, feeling our legs turn into blocks of lead (too many buffets!) and found ourselves in a hushed, mystical place, with the chanting of Hindu prayers coming from somewhere deeper inside.
All too soon, we had to run back down those steps and hop into a cab to make it back to our hotel in time for dinner. Our cabbie did not seem to sense our rush, and decided to stop for gas along the way, even urging us to come out of the car and watch. It seems that cabs in Malaysia run on a mixture of compressed natural gas and regular fuel, and when we hit the highway, he proudly hit the switch and declared that we were now running on gas. Yay! We made it back to our hotel on time, but wait! Who had the suitcase key? Not me. Not him. Uh oh. The concierge at our hotel was very kind, and a nice man with huge scissors cut of our heavy duty luggage lock (so easy!) and brought our suitcase to our room. But that was after we locked ourselves out of the room and had to go downstairs again to get an extra key so that we could get back inside to accept the suitcase that was coming from downstairs. But all's well that ends well, and this is what we saw from our window! The Petronus Towers! The tallest twin towers in the world! They used to be the tallest buildings until Taipei 101 was built a few years ago.
After dinner, we headed out again, this time to the night market in Chinatown, where we were greeted with a hustling and bustling scene. Chinese people will sell anything. We even got a new luggage lock. This one is keyless and requires only a combination.
We were excited by the vision of roasting chestnuts, but it was really too hot to get some. 
And just when we thought all the excitement was over, we saw the royal motorcade go buy. "It's the King!" said Thomas, who we happened to bump into as we were stepping off of the monorail.
It made me feel quite welcome in the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment