Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I am so glad we decided to keep heading south and into Malaysia. Don't get me wrong, the beaches and islands of southern Thailand were amazing, but it didn't feel that much different from Chiang Mai. Once crossing the border into Malaysia, it really felt like we were far away from home. New language, new food, new culture... it felt like we were worlds away. I really didn't know that much about Malaysia before coming here. In contrast to Thailand's Buddhist religion, Malaysia is mainly Muslim. Most women are covered head to toe, and I now felt like I really stood out as a foreigner. You'll often hear the “call to prayer” played over loud speaker where ever you are because most likely, there is a mosque in ear shot distance. The food seemed like a combination of cultures... but mainly has a Chinese and Indian influence. We LOVED the roti and naan while we were here (and probably ate it every single day). Prices were a bit more expensive than in Thailand, but it's hard to beat the low cost of Thailand. Overall, we had 7 days to spend in Malaysia, so we spent the first 3 days in Kuala Lumpur and 4 days in the Cameron Highlands.

We began our journey to Kuala Lumpur on January 1^st. Side note: Somehow, we always seem to be traveling on New Years Day (two years ago we were driving home from Montreal, and one year ago we were flying to England from Spain… but no better way to keep that travel bug alive, right?) We caught a mini bus from Krabi to Hat Yai on the morning of the 1^st, , planning to then catch an over night train down to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This drive was not the most comfortable of drives, as we were literally bumping all over the place and though the AC appeared to be on “high” it was incredibly stuffy in the back seat. To top it all off, when we arrived to the train station (all sweaty and dehydrated), we were told all trains were full. Well, great. We ended up finding a nearby bus station and booking an overnight bus, which seemed like an alright decision until we found out that there were no toilets (and if you know Zack, you know that his bladder is the size of a pea). We booked it anyways, as it was really our only option other than staying in Hat Yai for the night (which didn't really seem appealing). We had about 4-5 hours then to wander Hat Yai. I'm not sure what it was about that city, but it seemed like just such a strange place. There was no sense of local charm, the architecture was stark but weirdly colourful at the same time, and then when I ordered some vegetable soup, I was given basically every meat ball they had in their shop (not that that has never happened elsewhere in Thailand, but it just added to the weird feeling we had about the place). We were happy to board the bus that evening and make our way onwards to KL (Kuala Lumpur). How was the overnight bus, you ask? Surprisingly, it was really lovely! Perhaps it was because I had set my expectations so low, or I compared it to that dreaded mini van we took that morning, but I found the seats incredibly comfortable, the air conditioning worked like a charm, and the seats reclined so much that I had no problem sleeping. I was actually so comfortable that when we arrived in KL at 5:30am, I wished I could have just stayed on the bus for a few more hours to sleep, haha. PLUS, Zack survived with no toilet! Take this as an open invitation to send him your congratulations, when you get a chance. Anyways, after waiting around in a random hotel lobby for a couple hours, we were finally able to book into our not so nice hostel for the next couple of nights. I wouldn't really recommend Fern Hostel, but it was a bed and we didn't end up spending much time there anyways.

Our first full day there was actually Zack's 27^th birthday, so we set out to enjoy a day of exploring the city. We started off wandering through China town, where we ate some delicious “Apim Balik” aka Malaysian peanut pancakes.

Birthday boy!

We wandered through markets, enjoyed the city architecture, and when we were too hot to keep walking, we relaxed in a nice park we found near the modern Petronas Twin Towers.   Kuala Lumpur had a strange mix of ultra modern and not-so-nice-more-run-down areas. There are some impressive shopping malls with highly expensive shops and then there are areas that I would be scared to venture after dark. In fact, the area our hostel was in was one of those. There seemed to be a lot of people hanging around on the streets at night, and there were signs all over our hostel to not leave any of your belongings unattended. We also met a guy the first night that may have set the tone a little harsh for us. He was staying at the hostel, and was really quite friendly, but I couldn't help but notice his black eye. He ended up telling us that he was mugged on his way back to the hostel one night. Needless to say, that's not the first thing I would have liked to hear (he did come back at 3am however, and I think there was more to the story than was initially shared). I know every city has it's dangers, and as travelers we need to be smart. But there was something about KL that urked me the wrong way. Not to say we didn't enjoy our time, it's just not somewhere I'd ever choose to live.

There were some pretty sights however...

What we did love about KL was the food. The curries, the naan bread, the roti… we loved it all. Malaysia also has a well known dish called Nasi Lamak, that I tried on a couple occasions. It is a chicken dish where the rice is cooked with coconut milk, and then served with a spicy sauce, roasted peanuts, fried anchovies, fresh cucumber, and a fried egg. Aside from sometimes being too fishy, I enjoyed it but did not love it.

On our second day in KL, we visited the Batu Caves, which is well worth the visit! 272 steps bring you to a massive cave opening, which inside lies a Hindu temple. Along the way, there are loads of monkeys! But we were warned- and consider this your warning if you ever visit- they can be fierce, these monkeys. Lots of tourists that visit bring food to feed the monkeys, in order to get close to them. So now, the monkeys are literally eyeing every person who comes past to see if there is the slight possibility they have food. We actually saw a monkey jump at a lady who was carrying some bananas. They are really cute, but I'd rather not have them pouncing on me. The caves themselves were incredible. It was crazy to see how such a small opening in the rock opens up to such a naturally grand space!

He was busy painting these sculptures

One last thing we did with our time in KL was visit Kampung Bar, a small area of downtown that is said to be a "slice of village life" within the large city.  There are loads of markets and is definitely a good place to go to find some good, local food.   Unfortunately I don't have many photos to share of our time there since we actually spent most of our time walking around trying to find our way to this "free walking tour" we were told about (but were silly enough to forget to screenshot the details onto our phone).

Overall, our time in KL was an adventure to say the least. It was great to step a little out of our comfort zone and experience a culture that differs so much from our own. I can't say Kuala Lumpur is one of my favourite cities, but I am thankful for the chance to have visited.