Kuala Lumpur, First Impressions

Posted by Brian

Posted on August 28, 2007

After about 26 hours of traveling, me and Ian have finally made it to Kuala Lumpur. The journey was long but fine. We spent the night in a boat which was mad choppy but we had beds so we could sleep. When I say beds though, the whole floor was like one big mattress with loads of pillows along it. If the boat was full it might have been slightly uncomfortable but it was fine. I slept nearly all the night. From the mainland then we got a mini bus and a bus. Both were nearly empty so we had loads of room and again slept loads. I reckon of the 26 hours I might have been awake for 4 of them.

The first thing I noticed about Kuala Lumpur is how amazing it is. Massive buildings that normally you would be in sheer awe of but for the spectacular Petronas Twin Towers. We arrived at 1 in the morning and these things were lit up like Christmas trees. So amazing. They are 1,482.9 feet tall and were the tallest buildings in the world until 2004 when Taipei 101 beat it. Me and Ian went down to take some photos of them when they were lit up but of course they turned off all the lights and we lost them! We eventually saw them again but will have to wait until the next time we come back to take night photos. Will take some day time ones tomorrow though.

Its hard not to be impressed by the city as well although so far we have only have gotten a very small taste of it. Its fairly nice to walk around and is probably my favourite city so far. Will have to see what the day brings but hopefully it wont disappoint. It seems so relaxed and apart from being asked if we'd like a taxi, whilst looking at a map, we have gotten absolutely no hassle. Some lady boys did try to entice Ian though. Think my red pants scared them off! I'm definitely glad I left the islands though because if missing this would be a pity. I hope Jonny and Joe have time to get here and give themselves some time. Our plan now is to try and come back to spend another night here on the way back. Will have to see how it goes though. Anybody who is traveling through SE Asia, if you don't see this city at night, you're missing out. Completely different to every other city.