Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur

Day 113 - Monday, May 14

I had an early afternoon flight to Kuala Lumpur (KL), which meant I could sleep in and take my time packing up, etc. So Monday was mostly a travel day. I got to the KL airport around 4 and got on the bus to the city center, which dropped me off at the KL Sentral station (train station, light rail station, etc.) I went upstairs to buy a ticket on the MRT (light rail) and realized I didn't have my bag. Oops. So for about the 3rd or 4th time on this trip, I broke out into a full on sprint while people stared at me, trying to get back to the bus before it left with my bag to go back to the airport. When I got down to where it had dropped me off, the bus was gone and my bag wasn't on the curb. Ugh. I toldd a police/security officer what happened and luckily they had seen the unclaimed bag and put it to the side, figuring I would come back for it eventually. So, crisis averted, but I was pretty scared there for a little bit.

I got checked into Reggae Mansion hostel close to Chinatown and then went and checked out the city a bit. It was fairly late by the time I went out so a lot of retail outlets and restaurants were closing, and I headed back home after getting some food and wandering around a bit. It was clear from just a little exploring that KL likes its shopping malls, which I figured was a good thing as I was now in desperate need of a pair of jeans and a working camera. A picture of one of the big malls in Bukit Bintang, the main shopping / nightlife area, from my wandering around:

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

Day 114 - Tuesday, May 15

My mission for the day was to find a pair of jeans and buy a new camera, and I figured it might just take me the whole day to make it through the giant shopping malls that are so prevalent in KL. I probably got to the first of the 6 or 7 malls I browsed a little before noon, and as of about 7:00 pm: I had probably walked 10 miles; I hadn't seen very many cameras and the ones I had seen were twice US street/amazon prices; and I had discovered that a country full of short Asians is most certainly not the best place for a tall American to be shopping for jeans, and as with cameras, I found that in all the name brand stores, the prices for jeans in KL were significantly higher than in the US. What happened to shopping being cheap in Asia? Oh sure, you can buy a pair of cheap sunglasses for $1 or 5 t-shirts for $7. I could even have bought a pair of hideous jeans that were way too short for less than $10, but that's not really what I was looking for.

Eventually I found my way outside of the giant fancy malls and into Sungei Wang Plaza - which had small little stalls instead of giant stores and was not nearly as nice inside (but still was 6 floors and a giant mall). I got price quotes from a couple of camera stores which seemed more reasonable, but still a bit higher than US retail prices. I also found a pair of jeans that weren't the best fit and I never would've bought in US, but were the best I'd found after 8 hours of shopping, and I was sick of looking. I then headed over to Low Yat Plaza which is an entire 6-floor mall with nothing but electronics, and I got some more camera price quotes. I decided not to buy a camera at that point because I didn't have enough cash (most charged extra if paying by credit card) and I wanted to do some more research before deciding on one and then go back and try to haggle the price down. I also wanted to see if it might be cheaper to wait and buy in Singapore - my next destination. (Turns out, Singapore is even more expensive).

Day 115 - Wednesday, May 16

After spending my first couple of days in the Golden Triangle area of KL a bit north of the city center, I wanted to check out some other parts of the city on Tuesday, and I wanted to go to KL Sentral to see about train tickets to Singapore. So I walked through Chinatown, and by a cool looking train station,

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

and a cool looking museum,

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

and then to KL Sentral, where after less than awesome experience on the overnight train, I opted for a day-time train to Singapore on Friday. Then on to Little India (which I would have pictures of, but turns out my memory card was full and I had no idea, so I just kept on taking pictures that never got saved to anything).

That night I checked out the rooftop bar on the top of the hostel, which was quite nice, with a nice view of the skyline, though not a great angle from which to view the famous Petronas Towers. Again, I tried to take pictures, but I was still unaware that my attempts at pictures were a complete waste of time.

Day 117 - Thursday, May 18

Finally got a new camera today! I opted for the Panasonic Lumix DSC-TS20 (FT20 outside the US), which is a waterproof camera.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

I've been keeping a running list of things I would do differently if I was to do this trip again / advice I'd give to others making a similar trip, and I plan to do a few posts along those lines at the end of the year when I'm back in the US. At the top of the list to this point has definitely been that I would've brought a waterproof camera, (or if not a waterproof camera, then a nicer point-and-shoot camera with better zoom capabilities and that would take pictures nice enough that I could print out and frame a few of my favorites). There have been countless opportunities where a waterproof camera would've been so nice to have (though I don't think SCUBA diving is one of them, as you really need a specialized case for going that deep). But I could've gotten some great pics/video snorkeling in Fiji, the Great Barrier Reef, and the Thai islands; pictures at various places when it was raining; pictures and video swimming with dolphins; caving in New Zealand; and all sorts of other places that a normal camera just can't go. In terms of specs, this camera is quite similar to the old one, but will allow me to take HD video and the whole waterproof thing.

That evening I went and checked out some more of the city I hadn't seen and got a close up view of the Petronas Towers, which are quite impressive.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

Not a bad picture for a waterproof camera right? Just kidding. I stole that one from google. I was jogging at the time, so I left the camera at the hostel. Here's another of the towers.

From Malaysia - Penang & KL

I checked out the rooftop bar again that evening, and having finally realized that the majority of pictures of KL that I had taken with the old camera were never recorded because the card was full, snapped a few pics with the new camera:

From Malaysia - Penang & KL