Arrival into the country was 1.5 hours late and the trip from Auckland was scheduled for 11 hours but went 11.5. When we got to Malaysia there was lightening in the area and also some fireworks on the ground. Uber is not in Malaysia so I had to take a cab to my hotel. The drive was about 1 hour from the airport to the hotel and my driver was nice. The Ritz hotel room is very nice and with my status I have access to the club lounge for breakfast etc. I find it interesting that in the Asian countries I have been to there is the new build and then the old. MY hotel is new and when I asked about walking to an ATM was told to go through the walkway to the next hotel and then they would show me the way to the ATM. Well I found it without issue but did walk the streets for a bit and saw a bunch of old Kuala Lumpur. The area did not seem bad just old, where everyone lives. I decided to go to the top of the PETRONAS towers. I walked to the towers and was able to secure a ticket to the observation deck but at 5:30 and it was 2:30. Oh well I guess I can explore for a few hours. Between the two towers is a mall and it seems there is nothing but high end stores in mall. It is an exaggeration but the number of Louis, Coach, Salvator and other designers was amazing to me. There are plenty of people out and about today either in the mall or walking around it. In one side is a nice park with a swimming area for kids to cool off. A fountain area is just outside the mall on the way to the swimming area. Malaysia is a Muslim country with many of the women in head scarfs but others are in full burkas. In my hotel room there is an arrow under a shelf in the dressing area. That arrow is pointing towards Mecca allowing people to pray.
We had some rain today that did not help the humidity and it is still hot. As I sit outside the towers having a snack and writing there are men asking to take my photo with the towers in the background for money. They have their smartphone or phones on a contraption that will impose your photo on the one they have of the towers. I passed on their offers. I also notice a guy cleaning the park area with tweezers to get the small stuff out of the grates around the trees. The city is fairly clean but I did see a bunch of rats in the park.
I walked around for a few hours and even got a beer at the W hotel near the towers. I saw the Pakistani embassy today and last night I saw the Indonesian embassy. The only American Embassy I have seen if the Golden Arches of McDonalds. I am back into the towers and have 40 minutes before my visit to the observation deck. I think about mission impossible looking at the towers as I believe they were in one of the movies.
The towers opened in 1999 and projected 4,500 people per tower and 1,500 visitors per day. People were working in the tower in 1997 but the grand opening was 1999. It is on 130 acres of land with 66 of the acres being public land. There are 29 double decker lifts, 6 freight lifts, and 4 executive lifts. They travel between 3.5 meters and 6 meters per second depending on the zone they service. The sky bridge is also double decker on floors 41 and 42. The 41 floor is for tourists and the 42 is for people working in the towers. The bridge is not attached to either side and is free moving due to wind. There is not much wind in Malaysia except for tsunami time.
Chinatown – it seems that all major cities have a Chinatown and Kuala Lumpur is no different. Chinatown is all of the stalls selling knockoffs and trinkets that nobody really needs. If you want to be a negotiator this is the place for you. Everything has a price but the marked price is not the final price in most cases. I am not a consumer these days to I walked the stalls saying no to watches, pens, purses for my lady and just about anything you can think of. I did go into the food court and get a beer to cool off. The beer was a quart of Carlsberg and it was 20 MYR. The beer also allows me to sit in a hot area and enjoy the cold beverage. There are plenty of food choices here in the food court but I am still not hungry after the breakfast in Ipoh.
Batu Caves – the caves are in a mountainous region within Kuala Lumpur and is an active Hindu temple. I went on a Saturday and it was packed with local families who were there to worship not just explore something new. The caves are the largest temple outside of India. The base of the cave you look up the over 290 stairs up into the cave and yep you need to go up the stairs. The stairs are painted various bright colors and are done in sections between landings. I started my journey to the top and was surprised to see monkeys along the side of the stairs. There were 4 or 5 adult monkeys and a baby attached to its mother. When you get to the top the cave is massive not only in height but width. There was also a religious ceremony going on within a structure. When going inside the structure/temple you need to remove your shoes. Lots of shoes were outside the temple as people were actually praying and many were gawking at the festivities. At the far end of the cave there are a few more stairs that will go up to another temple. This temple was still in the cave but higher and smaller area. The cave walls were very high and even have greenery growing on the walls. The temples are decorated with bright colors and many statues. When I made it down the stairs, they are steep and not a fixed rise or run so you have to pay attention. There is another cave to go into that tells the story of the Hindu religion but I could not read the signs. A man in the temple mentioned to me the Hindu doctrine was created 1,300 years ago. Further along the cave there was a walkway to a third cave. Between the second and third cave was a stage and I have 15 minutes before next performance. I made it through the third cave in time to see the performance of dancing. There were 3 separate songs and a total of 5 dancers. The first song featured 2 dancers, the second was 3 dancers while the last had all 5 dancers. I found it amazing that the dance moves are similar to those of other cultures. The performance lasted about 20 minutes and I was happy that I saw it.
Grab – no Uber in Malaysia but there is Grab. I signed up for Grab and used it to go out to the cave. The Grab ride was 18 MYR or about $4.00 and the trip was 45 minutes with the traffic. I was worried about getting one back to the hotel but as luck would have it I got a ride in less than 5 minutes. The ride home was about the same cost but was only 20 minutes. The doorman at the hotel said that a cab would have been over 200 MYR in both directions. I guess it was worth signing up for Grap as I have to get three more rides before I go to my next stop.
Ipoh – I decided to leave KL for some of the other areas of Malaysia and chose the town Ipoh. It is a 3 hour bus ride from the KL bus and train station. I got on the bus after putting my backpack in the luggage area. My seat was 2C a window seat on the 11:15 out of KL. The ticket had my seat number and also the license plate number of the bus, don’t want the wrong bus. The ticket as 33MYR or about 10USD. The station was interesting like when I took the had seat train in China. I was one of maybe 5 European descendant people out of the 1,000 or so in the station. Being the outsides in the train station I did not feel bad or worried about someone hurting me it was just an observation. The restrooms of the station were quite smelly and it was interesting that the stalls had a pictorial description of what kind of toilet was behind the door. The two choices are Western (like what we have in the US) or Eastern (basically a porcelain hole to squat.) Thankfully, I did not require either of those two choices. The waiting area for the bus was clean and the information boards were in English and Maylay meaning I was in good shape to get on the correct bus. My bus arrived a few minutes before 11:15 and the driver opened the luggage area for us to put our own bags in the luggage hold. My small bag did not fit into the very small overhead locker so to my feet the bag went, three hours with the bag at my feet. The seats on the bus were plush and laid way back like Cadillac seats! Not bad if you want to sleep but reading was a bit tough. The bus as did not have a restroom so you had to hold it the entire way if you did not go, hope I don’t have to go. On the motorway the little motorcycles are driving like they are race cars. The little engines are all wound up and they are screaming down the E1 highway. When they go by the bus it is loud otherwise it is quiet on the bus. The bus has wi-fi but needs a password that I can’t seem to locate and the young man next to me is sleeping so I go without. We had a stop for fuel and a restroom break for passengers after 1 hour. The little motorcycles were also fueling up as I think they may have 1 or 1.5 gallon tanks on these little bikes. After fuel we got everyone back on the bus and also picked up another passenger who had to sit on the steps next to the driver. My seat mate is a young 18 year old who is studying medicine at university but he was born in Ipoh. The E1 Highway is a modern highway like you would see in the US and has 4 lanes. Travel is through green forest areas with plenty of palm trees and ferns. There are a few rest stops for fuel and if you were traveling on the other side of the road it could be in America.
Weil Hotel – the hotel is not the Ritz but is nice. It has an infinity pool on the top floor with a bar but the bar is closed. The space on the roof is still very nice place to relax. You get a free breakfast buffet with your room and they have all kinds of food for breakfast. With all the efficiencies in the hotel I got up to get additional food and they not only cleaned the table but were about to seat an additional party at my table!
Observation – being the only Western Person in a room of 100 or so is interesting. First thing you are the minority but nobody seems to notice me except the staff. Also the language barrier is something as a solo traveler in a foreign country you have to deal with not really speaking to many people. It can be lonely if you want it to be and that in itself is strange that you are lonely or could be lonely in an entire crowd.
Sam Poh Tong – this is a complex of 3 temples but as luck would have it only 1 of the three was open. My Grab driver even waited for me to walk around the temple as he recommended that I go to it and since only 1 of the three were open he stayed. The temple is a Chinese Buddhist temple and it is a tourist temple since no monks live at the temple. The temple had three Buddhas and one was a woman. The driver did not charge me for the ride to the hotel and when we got to the hotel I gave him 10 MYR which he did not want to take. I convinced him to take the money and I left with a heartfelt thank you from him. I have to say that the temple is very small and would be something that unless all three are open would not be worth it.
Perak Cave Temple – a short Grab (Uber for Malaysia) and you come to this wonder cave temple. The cave’s roof has many paintings and there are many different religious statues here in the cave. The highlight of the cave is that you can take the stairs to the top of the mountain where you get a 360 degree view of Ipoh and a slight breeze. The temperature is about 90 and humidity is about 98% with rain predicted all day today. I took the stairs to the top and the views are worth the climb over some sketchy stairs. If it was raining or more wet it would be very hard going. I am at the top currently and trying to cool down and stop sweating before I take the stairs down but after 20 minutes all I have done is gotten a puddle of sweat below my hands and face. The breeze is nice but it is very slight. You can look out and see sparrows flying around up here but no monkeys. One thing that disturbed me was all the graffiti on the cave walls on the journey up but you have people like that everywhere you go. Guess everyone needs to know Bob was here on 18/12/15 or whatever their name was who wrote on the wall. We should all remember to leave no trace. The way up I saw 10 other people and that is about all the people in the entire cave structure. There was a group of 4 who stopped 1/2 way down a flight of steps so I waited for them to finish what they were looking at only for them to continue looking. I then started up and then they decided to start after I was halfway up. The stairs are barely wide enough for two people and as they passed they said sorry. Guess they understood the width after going around a fat guy like me. The stairs to the top and down from the top are different. When going up you will come to a structure with stairs to the right of it and these stairs look like building stairs not mountain stairs. You also could follow the red painted sign and arrow saying stairs to top. The top of this cave/mountain is so peaceful I can see why people wanted this as a temple. Well the way up is the same way down! There is a trail around the top but not many views with the vegetation. I would suggest when you get to top go left and then up the stairs and have a nice view. You can continue and not go up and there is another viewing area but only 180. Of you have the energy, I didn’t, you can go up to another viewing area from the half way point and the red arrow to top.
Kek lok Tong – the Buddhist temple in a cave has a wonderful garden out the back of the cave. Inside you can see all of the various cave items such as stalagmites with some Buddhas. You exit the back and the garden has two ponds and a lazy river you can take a paddle boat on if your heart desires. Getting here you will go through a nice neighborhood of single family homes. The garden has geese and monkeys which are wild. The monkeys have babies and it was fun watching them try and climb
Concubine Lane – this is in Old Town Ipoh and is home to wall art. It is not like the Windward Walls in Miami, FL as most of these have been around for years. There are 7 different painting on the walls or there was at one time. The names of the painting are Old Uncle with coffee cup, Paper plane, Kipi-O, Hummingbird, Evolution, and Trishaw, Girl. There are a few others now but these are the original 7. Hummingbird, is behind a fence now as there is a new building going up next to it, maybe it will still be visible when the new building is built. Paper plane, Kipi-O and Old Uncle I could not find anywhere even with the map so I am not sure they are still around. I even had a map of the area showing the various art work’s locations. Trishaw is a paining on the wall with a trishaw on the ground next to the building allowing the building art to look like it is being carried on the trishaw. I did find some additional wall art and enjoyed looking at the old buildings in Old Town Ipoh. If I was a consumer to purchase items to head back home with, no room in bag, I would have loaded up on items in Old Town. The area is packed with visitors to the area and is quite safe to walk around. One thing that I found interesting when walking about was how many of the shop owners wanted you to take your shoes off prior to coming into the store. The stores had slides out front by the doors with people inside. The jewelry stores had a counter but the people working at that store were behind bars separating the workers from the customers but still able to show the jewelry. One jewelry store had a guard with a shot gun on his chest, guess they were not kidding about security but I felt entirely safe the entire time walking. Many of the buildings have lawyers and accountants offices including PWC so the area could not be all bad. Just know it is old Asia not new so the building are not pristine and a few of them are in the photos. I took a Grab to Old Town but walked back since it was not that far. It was raining but that is why I have a rain coat with me. A few people commented to me that I should have an umbrella in lieu of the coat as it would keep me dryer. All in all was a great day despite the rain.
