On the Loose - My South East Asia Adventure My travel adventure through South East Asia starts on the 16 April 07, and includes a little side-trip to New Zealand to begin with. On the 31 July I will be landing at Zurich Airport in an attempt to try and settle back into life in my country of origin. If you want to know where the road of travel is leading me then read on. I will try and update this journal as often as possible so that everyone with a genuine interest is able to share some of the experiences I'll encounter. Sit back and relax, over a cold beer or a glass of wine, and enjoy!

After 5 days in New Zealand and another 1.5 days in Sydney I finally managed to catch the plane to Singapore on 24 April 2007! Short stop over in a city hotel as I arrived late at night and straight to KL the next day with the first flight!

So here I am now, in the middle of the hustle and bustle of busy Kuala Lumpur, trying to acclimatise and settle in.

First impressions

Traffic

Traffic lights mainly don't work and if they do, no one cares what the colour on the box is anyway...you just walk across when you see a small gap, and hope that the approaching driver sees you and will slow down:-)

Don't ever wait for a gap big enough to feel totally safe to cross as you'll be standing on the same bloody spot still 3 hours later...

The big junctions have traffic lights that are intact but there's normally two or three traffic contollers standing in the middle of the junction directing the cars...I have no idea what the lights are for as really no one seems to care...

Transport

Taxi drivers are annoying as they won't leave you alone and usually need 2 or 3 times a firm 'no' until they understand...Some of them are unliscensed and will charge you more than you'd really have to pay...modifying the meter when you don't watch etc.

I reckon that discovering the city by foot is the best thing to do. Most of the attractions are pretty close together anyway. Otherwise there's a good train network which is really cheap, not to forget the buses which are a little crazy (drivers) but will get you from A to B.

I've done most of my sightseeing over the last 2 days by foot - actually I think I've spent about 6 hours walking each day. Long enough to have sore mussels last night...and a little reminder of the times when I was training for the Oxfam:-) By the time I'm finished with my trip I'm probably going to be ready to run the 100km:-)

Shopping

KL really is a shoppers paradise and I feel kind of sorry for myself that I'm here during the beginning of my trip rather than at the end:-) Oh well, there's always the opportunity to send something home I guess.

From the branded goods through to rustic handicrafts, foodstuffs to electronic equipement etc. KL has it all!

There's a few good shopping centers and then there are the markets in Little India and Chinatown which are great and a must-see! Only thing is not get annoyed with the stall owners. You can't take a foot step without someone yelling from somewhere "Mam, mam, new watch...", "Mam, handbag for you?", "Mam, hungry today"? etc. etc. etc. The best option is to just ignore it, don't even look. If you're interested you can go and have a look, and then just say 'no', firmly but nicely, and with a smile, and leave again...

Chinatown's market (where I have been staying the last two nights) opens up at around 11am in the mornings, and transforms into a night market at around 5pm. In the evenings the entire street which is then closed off to traffic is full of stalls on both sides. It is so crowded I had to take a detour a few times to get to my hotel because I couldn't cross the road where I wanted to...You have to see this for yourself - it's great:-)

Also, a short stroll to the supermarket early in the morning is a must. I went to UO this morning to buy an adapter...electronics are on floor 4 so I took the escalaters upstairs...and on every floor there was a group of 4 staff, ususally a mix between woman and man, who stand to both sides of the escalaters and greet you with a smile as they are saying 'good morning mam' when you get off:-)

Maybe our supermarkets in OZ and CH could learn something here:-)

Food & Drink

I did eat in a couple of restaurants in Chinatown and around the large shopping areas the first day, but the food is quite expensive (for Malaysian terms) compared to the hawker-type stuff you get on the street...so I now go where the locals go. A meal costs between $3-6RM, that's around AUD$1-2...i.e. 'nothing'.

In many places there seems to be a dual price system, as in most South East Asian countries I guess, i.e. the locals pay less than you do... But one can't really complain I think, at the end of the day it is all still very cheap for us...

Only problem is that the people in the hawker stalls often don't speak much English, so you're best to just have a look at the food and point at whatever you want:-)

In terms of drinking: It's so hot and humid that 3 liters of water easily go down your throat every day! Alcohol is something to spare for the weekend...it's very expensive (given this is a muslim country where most people don't drink...), sometimes hard to get (only in touristy areas), and won't make you feel all too great if you have it in the midst of the hot afternoon sun...

Scams

I read in my lonely planet guidebook when I was planning the trip to SEA that there are a number of scams in place...and yep, after only two days in KL I can definitely confirm that this applies to KL as well.

I got approached by about 4 different people yesterday...who first made a compliment about the bracelet I was wearing on my wrist, then asked where I bought it, and once you tell them where they say, oh, you live there... and if you confirm that, then they tell you about a cousin, sister, uncle, friend etc. who just happends to have planned a holiday or relocation to exactely that place you named... they then try to talk you into meeting them for a drink, or go for dinner, etc. and it all ends up in gambling where you lose a hell lot of money.

I didn't remember the gambling bit when I got approached but I smelled the rat when the first young lady wanted to meet me for a drink after we had only a quick chat on the street for a few minutes (her friend and/or boyfriend looked a little quirky too...), and was 100% sure something was wrong when I got approached the second time, by another woman with the same story i.e. some friend who was planning a trip to Melbourne...

I said to her that I thought it was funny as she'd be the second person today whom I met who has a friend that is going to Melbourne and gave her the 'I know exactely what you are doing-look'. She didn't take it that well, muttered something along the lines: It's not funny a lot of Malaysians want to go to Australia, see, but it's very espensive... 

Whatever...!

(It seems the scammers are mainly from the Philippines though, rather than Malaysians...).

You really have to be careful and alert here...

Malaysia's King