Kuala Lumpur

Actually I had messed up a little bit when planning the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur trip. For some reason I booked the flight between the two on the wrong day and so got 4 days in Singapore and 2 in Malaysia. Oh well, maybe Kuala Lumpur was not that interesting after all.
I flew in with AirAsia, a Low Cost Carrier, as they are called, I didn't even know they had a special name for those who sell cheaper flights. There was no paper to fill out, boarding card, no questions asked in the immigration, they were just happy that I would come and visit them.
Had read the instruction of how to get to my hostel on the web, and it said to take the direct train to Kuala Lumpur. After walking around a few minutes in the airport, there were no signs to a train anywhere so I asked and they told me to take the shuttle to the train station. Got on a bus and after 15 minutes on dark strange roads, we were left at a train station in the middle of nowhere. I checked on my GPS and there was nothing there according to the map data. The station was brand new, maybe that was why. Half an hour later a train arrives and finally we were on our way to the Kuala Lumpur central train station, a lot of people looked relieved 
Turns out KL has a very developed underground train system, compared to many of the western cities in the world. They had at least 3 different types of trains running, so when exiting the train I couldn't find my station since it was on another system. Luckily that line was located at the same central station though, maybe that is why they call it the central train station. The time was close to 22:00 when I got of at the right station, but now the instructions became really bad just mentioning MacDonalds and Burger King. What was this now, and I started walking around the neighborhood thinking that maybe I would, well, find it just like that? Out of the station and the first thing I see is the Golden Arches and on the other side of the street a Burger King. Ha, how difficult can it be? I walk over there and actually find a big white building with music on the top. Damn, a night club or bar, that's not what I was looking for. Hmm, walk a little around the neighborhood and end up back at the same building, where I now read with big letters, Reggae Mansion. Well, that was where I was going to stay, but I am pretty sure that sign was not there when I looked the last time?

The hostel I had booked had gotten the best reviews on the different sites. That doesn't usually mean too much I have found out, but when I entered this hostel, wow - is this really a hostel. It looked better than many of the hotels I had been staying at so far, in fact very professional and friendly staff as well. The entire place had been renovated not long time ago, that was clear very early. The room was kind of a pod, with a mattress and a curtain in the end. All build in very sturdy wood structure, so no strange sounds there. Up on the top of a building there was a bar, I had to go up and check that one out. Really good view of the city center, with the two KL towers and the TV tower. Got a beer and within a few minutes a pair at a table sitting and talking invited me over to sit, instead of standing at the bar. Hmm, this hostel thing might not be that bad of an idea to meet new people I thought.
The guy was Scottish and the girl American. When I told her I lived in San Diego, she asked where and thinking that PB wouldn't mean anything to her, I said PB, haha. She grew up in Point Loma which is less than 10min away from PB, what are the chances. The couple had been traveling for 5 years on and off, but were not really a couple in that sense. We talked for a while and at some point I ask the guy how old they where thinking they must be almost the same age as myself, but no, 23 and 25. I almost fell backwards on my chair. The girl had been 15 when I moved to SD, and now she had traveled and worked all over the world the last 5 years. Amazing lifestyle, but not so tempting after all. Anyway, we were joined soon by an Australian guy who had quit his job 10 years ago as a lawyer and was now traveling the world too taking pictures in water and above and selling them to a professional market. 10 years of traveling, that's a long time. He had probably been more places in the world than I even know, quite amazing stories.
The bar ended up swallowing all my Malaysian Ringgit, and the bar tender had already poured my drink when I found out I had no money. I ended up paying twice as much using USD, but at least I got my drink. Then I looked at the time and it was probably time to go to sleep as it was 5.30 in the morning. Good drinks!
Next morning I spent more than an hour finding a place to exchange my last Singapore money to local money, as I was without a single Ringgit. Had give the bar tender all the metal I had, and when he was searching through it and found a Singaporean coin he was happy. Apparently worth a lot more in Malaysia than Singapore. With some flash cash, I headed to the metro to catch the train to the local KL city centre. I didn't know I was going to go there, except at least see the KL Towers. I went to the train station and wasn't really prepared for the ticket machine, as it only had names of stations. I must have had too many rum and cokes the evening before, because I thought there would be a button to press where it said the KL towers... Oh well, had to sit and surf the internet to figure out where it was located. My flipflops were not that good anymore so walking the 500 meters would be out of the question. After a few minutes I concluded it should be close to the city center according to the Internet, but where is the city center located? 15 mintues later I found a station on the machine called KLCC, well too easy, right?

I took the subway the 3 stations for $1.60 local money, and it took me to a 5 level huge luxury mall filled with very sexy Malaysian Christmas girls singing Christmas songs, kind of nice but weird lyrics to well known tunes. But the towers were nowhere to be found. I went outside and looked up, well, actually I was just below the towers, so I went in again. After 30 minutes of walking up and down the mall I found some corridor that lead away from the mall and I walked in there to find that there was some concert being played at the KL towers and a lot of people were standing in line to hear that. Hmm, I figured I was close but not there yet. I found one of the military looking security guards, he was more than the mall security for sure, and he told me to go around a corner and down an escalator. But I wanted to go up I said, no he said, down. Oh well, he probably could not understand me, but I followed his advice anyway and ended up at a ticket counter. Cool, 1 ticket to the top please. No more today he answered. It was around 15:30, and I looked at the schedule in front of the guy that said tours until 17:00. But I want to go up to the top today, when can I go. You can not, no more tours today. Arghhhh, traveled all the way here for the Towers and sold out? Who else than a stupid tourist would go up there. Oh yeah, a lot of other stupid tourists. Ha, but the next day my flight was not until the next evening, so I just buy a ticket for tomorrow instead then, problem solved. Sorry, Mondays we are closed for tours. WTF?
The only thing I could do there then, was to go outside and take a few photos. Kind of disappointing, but that's as good as it gets. I walked around outside the area for a while, but there was not really anything that caught my eye as interesting.
I was getting a little hungry and remembered that the hostel had BBQ night the previous night for almost no money, that sounded good. When I came back, there was no BBQ, but instead they were having a turkey dinner. I was so hungry by now that I could have eaten anything, but after finishing that dish, I was even more hungry. I went out of the hostel and started walking around, there had to be a restaurant somewhere, and 10-15 minutes later I finally found an Irish Pub. If I could not get something to eat, I could at least chew on a pint of Guinness! They had a full menu in the restaurant, but could only make 5 of the dishes as the place was quite new, like 4 months old, haha. It is probably the best fish and chips I have ever had, and washing it down with a couple of Kilkennys. After 2 of them, the bartender poured another one and said, it is free. Oh thanks, but why? Every 3rd beer was free, it was a promotion to get customers in, I think it was a brilliant idea, haha. The only problem was that after having one, you needed another one to get the free one.. Talking about putting pressure on myself.
When I came back to the hostel it was quite late and I went to the room to lay down for a second - and then I woke up next morning, haha. With the checkout at 11:00 and the flight in the night at 19:00, I had some hours to kill. Took the train to the city center again and just walked around for a couple of hours. A lot of different people live in Malaysia, a real mixture of Asia's country.
I ended up back at the KL towers with the shopping center and thought I would have a beer or two. Turned out that the only place in that complex that served beer was Chili's. Of course they where there too, with the same foods as in the US too and almost the same prices. But I went and got myself a Guinness, some food and read the news paper, had gotten a little out of sync with reality lately. A few beers later it was slowly time to think about going to the airport.
Picked up my backpacks at the hotel and headed for the Central Train station again. Bought I ticket to the airport that this time cost 35 instead of 12.5 last time. What do I know and continued, but when I was standing at the train platform looking at the schedule and map, it turned out that there were two airports and I had bought a ticket to the wrong one. I needed to go the el cheapo one and so had to go back and get a new ticket. I got my money back and went through some different ticketing system, that again looked familiar from when coming there.
Got to the airport, very fast check-in, was on the plane not long after since I booked a premium seat for the long haul flight. Got a pretty cool seat where I could swing my legs up on the emergency door, not sure everybody thought that was a good idea. Then the plane took off and headed away from Asia towards the big land down under, Australia