19th January – I got up at 3:30 as I had a very early flight to Kuala
Lumpur (KL). I had said my goodbyes to Phil and Jemima the previous night so
didn’t wake them up. I just jumped into a taxi and headed to the airport.
Once I arrived in KL I got a bus and then a train to my
hostel on the edge of Chinatown and Little India. The
hostel was called “BackHome” and I would definitely recommend it to anyone
going to KL as it is really nice. After a much needed post flight shower I
decided to explore the local streets for some food.
As I said before I was staying on the edge of Little
India and I hadn’t had a good curry in a while, although the one in Sydney
was also good, so I decided to find somewhere. I walked down the road next to
mine and it was full of curry houses but they were all empty. Finally I found a
little gem. Not literally as it was filthy but it was also full of Indian
people. Obviously this had to be the one. I went in and after a brief chat with
a waitress that new little English, more than my Hindu or Bahasa, I asked her
to bring me something out and surprise me as I didn’t have the foggiest idea
what I was doing. After a while she brought out a kind of savoury and crispy
pancake stuffed with vegetable rice, it was a veggie restaurant, and she poured
3 different sauces over different areas of, what I later found out to be a,
Massala Dosa. It was delicious and to ingrain myself with the locals I went and
washed my hands before tucking in with just my right hand, no cutlery or
anything. It was great fun. I also decided that I would have a Massala Tea, no
beer or G&T available, which is quite an interesting taste but very good.
By this time I was quite full but in a slight mix-up over me asking what
everyone else was eating I ended up also getting a Tiali. A Tiali is a Palm
leaf with a pile of rice on it. The waitress then places 3 curries around the
outside before drenching the rice in a sauce. Obviously I tuck in again and
when sufficiently full and very happy with my new experience I pay, and
outrageous £2, and head back to my hostel.
Back at the hostel I just hung around in the communal areas
and ended up making friends with some English and Australian guys. In the
evening they were going out for some dinner and then to see the Petronas
Towers, Ex-Worlds tallest
buildings, at night. After my two main course lunch I was clearly too full for
dinner so I just ad a drink wit them before we went to the towers. The towers
were pretty cool and they light them up at night time so some good photos were
taken.
20th January – When I got up I went down to
the communal area of the hostel and met some people going to the Batu
Caves. They asked if I wanted to
join them and I had previously heard that there was a Buddhist pilgrimage on
today so went along to have a look. We caught the bus to the caves and when we
arrived it was packed. There were lots of people on the pilgrimage and just as
many watching them. Many of the pilgrims were carrying an offering of a milky
water to the gods in urns on their heads but others had other ideas. Quite a
few of the male pilgrims had frames supported by their torsos and on top of the
frames were pictures of various Buddhist gods. There was even one pilgrim
hanging from a frame by a number of meat hooks going through his skin. As the
pilgrimage was on I felt it was slightly wrong for me to go into the caves so
after taking lots of photos and watching for a while I got the bus back to the
hostel. Once I got back I went for some lunch with a girl I went to the caves
with and then just chilled out in the communal area of the hostel. In the
evening a number of us decided to go to get a curry from around the corner.
Regrettably we didn’t go to the same place as I went to yesterday and the food
in this one wasn’t as good. Ah well never mind.
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