welcome to the concrete jungle...

the fusion of wanna be - clean green singapore - and dilapidated polluted and busy indonesia, is kuala lumpur. a mixture of concrete buildings, scooters, side walks, trees, high rises and high ways is what sets the scene of this make-shift modern city. malaysia’s capitol hasn’t changed in the least since i visited in 2006, however the type of holiday i am on now, compared to then, has changed dramatically. last time consisted of lazy 10am lay-ins to get to the buffet style breakfast by 11am before hitting the malls for hours of shopping, pedicures and massages and happy hour cocktails. this trip, we’re up at 8am lining up for complimentary toast with butter and tea with powered milk. im not complaining in the slightest, just making a necessary comparison as to what was then and what is now.

we arrived from singapore on tuesday evening and decided to book into the green hut lodge, one of the few highly recommended and available hostels, named in the lonely planet guide. we have settled in quiet nicely here and raffa the on-duty manager has loads of personality. wednesday was spent inspecting the petronas towers and walking through central park before heading into the air conditioning at klcc for lunch and a movie. we then headed to china town for the night markets and dinner at one of the hawker stalls situated on the side of the bazaar. we had traditional steamboat food, which is where you select food on skewers and they either barbeque it or you cook it in a boiling hot water which is in the middle of the dining table, super tasty and a great experience.

today was probably the first off day we have had so far, with nothing really going to plan. bummer. after spending the morning researching the jungle line (east coast railway) from kl to kota baharu, we took a cab to the train station where we were hellbent on getting second class sleeping tickets, only to find out all the tickets were sold out. four cab rides later and getting an un-planned tour of the city from the back of a cab, we were told there were only two seats left for the following evenings departure because its a public holiday in malaysia tomorrow to the end the month of ramadan. so we ended up wasting the day in cabs trying to figure out our route out of kl and along the way had many cab drivers suggest newer and better locations than tropical palau perhentian, which we had our hearts set on. tonight we toured little india which was a crazy hectic mess of clothes, food, plastic flowers, fireworks, jewellery, hand bags, watches and balloons. here’s hoping to a more successful day tomorrow.

new word which were liking. chindian. a racial mix of a chinese and indian person that resides in malaysia.

pics. a few from kl thus far.