Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
This morning I was up decently early to catch my flight to meet Scott in Kuala Lumpur. The alarm going off at 9AM wasn’t enjoyable but it wasn’t as bad as one might have thought after such a long travel day. The location and niceness of my sleeping quarters may have had something to do with my quality sleep. Below is a picture of the view from my hotel room. I checked out of my hotel in hot and steamy palm treed Singapore to the soundtrack of Have Yourself a Merry Christmas. I was on the tram from terminal three to terminal one by 10:15AM.
Check in with Air Asia X took a while but it was relatively painless. By 10:50AM I was through customs. My flight left Singapore a little late because our arriving aircraft was delayed. I slept the entire flight, which in the air was all of 35 minutes.
Arriving in Kuala Lumpur was a kick. Since Asia Air X is a discount carrier, it flies into the ghetto airport. I’ve been to some random places but this airport was unlike one I’ve seen. I didn’t see any actual jetways. Planes were parked all over the tarmac in what appeared to no real order. After disembarking the aircraft there was no real signage on which way to go. Occasionally airport personnel would point us in one direction or another. I was distracted by all of the random happenings around me to the point that I just continued to follow the passengers that got off the plane before me. This approach eventually led me to the domestic arrival area. I, of course, was an international arrival. I very easily could have entered Malaysia without ever showing my passport. However, since I had checked luggage I had to retrace my steps back out onto the active tarmac, where I easily could have boarded one of many planes going who knows where, to then proceed to the international arrivals area.
I cleared customs, grabbed my checked baggage, followed Scott’s directions on how to best catch a cab and was finally on my way into the city by 2:30PM. I was surprised to found out the drive in from the airport was an hour long, at least if your cab driver doesn’t get lost. If your cab driver does get lost, it’s more like an 1:45 minute drive.
At 4:15PM I FINALLY met up with Scott at the Hilton Kuala Lumpur. All in it took me close to 44 hours to get door to door on this adventure. We caught up while eating snacks in the executive lounge. The lounge in this Hilton is one of the best I’ve ever experienced. The food offerings are extensive and it’s open from 6AM to 10PM. I’m fairly certain I will be able to drink $125, our nightly rate, worth of Coke Light.
Post refreshments Scott and I made our way over to the Menara Kuala Lumpur aka KL Tower. The concierge recommended to Scott that we go up in this tower as opposed to the more famous Petronas Twin Towers because this tower offers a view of those towers.
The Hilton Kuala Lumpur is conveniently located virtually atop the KL Sentral train station. We purchased 70 cent train tickets and rode to the tower. Tickets to the top of the tower cost 47 Ringgit (roughly 15 USD). In order to use a credit card a purchase had to be 50 Ringgit. To this end Scott and I decided to add one bonus activity for six additional Ringgitt. I let Scott pick because I didn’t care. He decided we should go in the 6D theater experience ride. It was actually pretty cool. It’s amazing how realistic a virtual roller coaster can feel with today’s technology.
The observation deck of the tower was neat. I always like starting off a trip with a high view because it lets me orient myself with a city. It also lets me scope out basketball hoops. Unfortunately I spent a lot of time studying the scenery and no great hoops jumped out at me. We stayed up in the tower through sunset and dusk.
After descending the tower we hopped in a cab and headed for dinner. Scott picked a restaurant based on Trip Advisor reviews. Pampas Grill was the fourth ranked restaurant in KL. It lived up to the billing in my book. I had a stuffed chicken dish that delicious.
Scott and I were both pretty beat after dinner. We decided to walk a little bit and then rode the monorail back to the neighborhood of our hotel. We do not live at the KFC stop but I find it hilarious that the Colonel is big time enough to get his own station. It’s now 11:30PM and even though that’s generally early for me, I’m ready to sleep.
Until tomorrow,
Katy
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