Yep we are in Malaysia... We decided to come to Kuala Lumpar etc for 10 days rather than doing a 'VISA run' to Ranong/Burma to extend the Thai VISA for 15 days (a visa run is basically a quick exit and entry of the country to extend the VISA). It was a random late decision, just our style, to catch the 715am flight to KL on Sunday, which was the one we booked at Sydney airport so they would let us on the plane. This was decided at 8pm on the Friday night so we had to run to a travel place to get it sorted and book tickets back to Bangkok.. These ended up costing 850bht each so about $35each. So anyway the 24 hour trip was like this: We got up at 9am on Saturday, got in a taxi van at 11am for an hour, got on a boat for 3 hours at 1230pm, got on a bus for 1hr at 4pm, waited at some random Sonserm bus hangout for an hour, got on the back of a ute for 15min to another random bus hangout for 2 hours, which we were intially told would be a half hour wait, got on the bus at 8 pm which was suppossed to leave at 6 pm and we were shitting ourselves we wouldnt make the flight. The bus ride was 11 hours or so and quite crazy.. We somehow got in to Bangkok at 530am and very suprisingly on time. So we now have less than 2 hours till our flight leaves and some crazy thai man trying to rip us off and charging us 800bht to take us to the airport.. We literally tell him to piss off and jump into a cab with a meter.. We ask the cabbie if he can take us to the airport in about 20 mins and he laughed saying no way cause of peak hour traffic.. It's a Sunday for christs sake.. Anyway this cabbie turned out to the best cabbie ever cause he was driving like 120 km per hour and got us to the airport in just about 20 mins and only cost us like 240 baht.. We tipped him like 150 baht cause if it wasnt for him there was no way we would have made our flight.. So we ran to catch our flight and in typical fashion.. We just made it!!! We chilled out on the plane as the flight was 2 hours.. Air Asia was actually really good, we had no problems.. So we landed on time and prepared ourselves to exit the airport, expecting the normal harrassment from touts but there was none! We felt neglected. So its been 24 hours and we have hardly had any sleep. We found a bus company with buses to the Sentral station for 8 Ringos (Ringett) each which was cheap.. We both slept on the bus for close to an hour.. We got in to the station, jumped off and sorted a cab (by a ticket system) to the dragon backpackers.. this was 8 ringos as well.. The cabby took us to Dragon Hotel as oppose to Dragon Backpackers Inn but we were rather tired so just booked one night for 60 ringos.. about 20aud. We got straight into bed and i swear within about 2 minutes, we were out!!!!!!!!!
We woke up 5 hours lator and decided to get some malaysian food into our belly..We went for a wander which was quite suprising.. People here stare like crazy.. I mean stare.. But they are mostly very friendly. Dales stares them right back too LOL. Cause it is a muslim country we do get quite a few strange looks but it all seems harmless. We went to this Indian Place for dinner and had the most amazing food. Our tummies werent too happy with us later but at the time it was soo yummy. We ordered 2 curries rice and 4 breads and the entire restraunt was staring at us cause we did not say a word too eachother but just stuffed our faces like animals.. haha very funny! Soon after our tummies were moaning.. We went back to our hotel room to chill and watched malaysian tv..quite funny too.. About 3 hours lator we got a bit hungry again and headed to Mc Donalds which we have right next door and opposite us :) woohoo! and they deliver and there is no minimum order..how good is that!! We ended up crashing about 2am.. We were sleeping soo peacefully untill we heard this crazy banging.. We were still half asleep and had no idea what was going on.. About 2 minutes later we realised it was someone knocking on our door..and he was still knocking on our door.. Dale got up and was like what do u want and this man was speaking some bizarre language we couldnt understand.. Dale thought he was trying to sell us lotto tickets at 8 am and was about to punch him in the face only to realise it actully 12:30 and we are way past our check out time.. So dale gives the man some money and we are back to sleep!!! We eventually got up at 5pm or so and went for a wander again.. We went to a shopping centre across the road and it was a bit wierd because it was suppose to be a major shopping centre but 90% of the shops were shut. We started to go to a supermarket - the night before it was full, but now it was empty. It was very strange. We eventually left and realised that the major shopping centre was right next door so obviously this one was closing down or something. We only stayed for 5min and left... We went down Petaling Street, which is the main street in China Town and checked out all of the fake stuff like DVDs, watches, bags, clothes..everyting you can think of there were fakes. We bought some DVDs and got ripped off.. Greys Anatomy Season 5 to be precise, Samina was very happy.. Just as we were leaving for dinner, we meet this random asian lady in the lift. She asked us if we knew of any good backpacker places. We pulled out our lonely planet book to show her some and even wrote them down for her. She then asked us to walk her there as she was scared at night. We were abit suspiscious but went ahead with it. She told us that one of the places she had been to before rejected her because they thought she was Chinese but she was actually Malaysian. She kept telling us she had hardly any money and had run away from home. It all seemed quite bizarre to us but we thought we'll help her for a little longer. We took her to one of the places and they didnt accept her because she was Malaysian. We couldnt believe it. We took her another place and same thing. They would let Dale and i stay but as soon as they saw her they said the wouldnt accept her. It was just so wierd. So we finally found her a hostel that would take her. After that crazy and random mission we went back to our Indian man for dinner again!!!Our stomachs were ok this time :)
We decided to stay at our hotel for another 4 nights. Got up about 11am and decided we would spend the day walking round to different monuments! We started at Merderka Square which is like a victory monument. It also has the highest flag pole in the world - 100m. We continued to Little India which is like China Town and there were loads of shops selling textiles etc.. We went to a shopping complex and had lunch in the food court.. it was very cheap - 6 ringos about 2aud. We also went to another shopping place which had loads of clothes etc but we werent in the mood for buying. There are soo many shopping centres here. Its soo hot outside and dale is making me wear a scarf around my head LOL (i look like a good little muslim girl), (Dale: I am not forcing this, we have read that it helps to try and fit in rather than stand out and get stared at even more, Sem knows she can wear whatever she wants), so every half an hour or so we would go into one of the malls for the air con. The roads are quite polluted and you get the random yucky smells every 10 mins but we are getting used it.. We headed home and stopped by at the Central Market which was pretty cool, it had quite a few arts and crafts stores but was a bit touristy. We found a cinema and got all excited and thought we could watch the new Transformers but they only played Indian films haha ..So thats where we are.. Now we are writing this.. The internet is cheap at $2aud an hour.. We'll hang out in KL for another few days and then head to Melaka on the west coast, then back to Thailand..
We are really liking Malaysia. Its got a cool feel to it. We were warned because it was a Muslim country and werent sure how they would take us being not married but so far its all good. When shopping in Thailand, if you werent going to buy something you picked up to look at, they would be quite rude and abrupt but they are really nice here and dont seem to mind.
Ok thats it for now be safe we'll update again soon.
Dale and Sem
