30th August 2012 Malaysia:-
We leave a 'wet' Singapore and get the train straight to Kuala Lumpur. It should be a 7 hour trip, we'll see! (It ALWAYS takes longer than what they say!). We are served by a friendly chap at the train station, who asks where we are from (as is the norm.), Engalnd we say, then the usual 'Oh, you from London?' No, we say, 'Manchester then? good football team'!! He then proceeds to tell us how he couldn't eat or stop crying for 3 days, when Princess Diana died! (Bless him, he was so sincere, I felt like crying there and then!)
Anyway, we board the train, he has told us it has a cafe on board, which is a good job, because as usual, we have nothing with us (we don't carry anymore than we need to!) and there are no shops around the train station. It turns out the food car sells pot noodles and (if you are a veggie) egg sandwiches! After 4 or 5 hours of looking at Palm trees, - unfortunately, all of the rain forests are being cut down to make way for palm oil, (which makes your margerine, so start eating butter)! the trains stops at a station called Gemas for approximately an hour, while they 'fix' the wheel back on! I must admit for the next 3 hours, we did have a smoother ride!
Due to this 'small' delay, we didn't arrive in KL until 10.30p.m. It's not a time of night we like to get into cities at, but sometimes it can't be avoided. We had thought we would make our way to Chinatown or Little India, but there is no way we are going to do that, at this time of night, so we come out of the train and ask in the first couple of hotels that we find. We have learned after 6 months of travelling, first ask the price, then, if it is within budget (20 pound), ask to see the room! They never go with you, they just give you the key, if you are lucky they might tell you what floor it is on, and if they smile at you, they are good at their job! We get in the lift to look at a room, it is on the 3rd floor. When we appoach the room, we can hear the T.V. I gingerly open the door, yep, the cleaner must have left it on while she was 'cleaning' the room! It has a musty smell, but the toilet worked okay!! We are not going to take the room, so head back for the lift, we end up in the basement! we try again and it goes back up way too many floors, where a couple of men get in, by this time I am getting the titters! they get out and eventually we get back to reception. (Bearing in mind how long we have been, the girl didn't bat an eyelid!) (Sorry, I'm rambling, but it was funny at the time!)
We find a nice new hotel at just over 20 pound. We didn't realise it, but yet again, it is public holiday the next day, so our room will be an extra 6 pound tomorrow!
The girl on reception tells us of some big parade that is happening to celebrate National Malaysia Day, we get to the centre about midday and it's all over!!! It looked like it was a big affair, but unfortuately, we'll never know!
We head for the Petronas Towers, there is some live entertainment on for the celebrations, so we stay for an hour or so to watch some Indian dancers and then some really good young musicians, playing some great hypnotic music with didgeridoo's!
We spend the rest of the day mooching around Little India and then head to Chinatown. We were here (briefly) 7 years ago on our way to NZ for my 40th, it is still as chaotic now, as it was then, but still great fun.
Time to head East!
