Asian backpacker

Come to think of it, I really didn’t stay that long in Kuala Lumpur. not that I have anything against it but, at this point in my trip, I was getting tired of all the traveling and the exhaustion of having to move from place to place was getting to me, therefore I think my enthusiasm for visiting new places has dropped significantly compared to the beginning of my trip. However, I tried to make the best of it coz… if this is the hardest thing I had to endure, I had a pretty good life. 🙂 Anyway, in Kuala Lumpur I managed to find a couchsurfer to host me. Dilip invited me into house rather LUXURIOUS apartment just outside of the city center. I really enjoyed my time with Dilip as we hung out for 3-4 days and exchanging a lot of stories. He’s from Indian descendent and has also took a year off to travel and now has come back to pick up where he left off. He educated me a lot about the difference ethnic groups and religions living together in Malaysia and how it actually works with people with different ethnic backgrounds living together and mixing in with eachother.

In Kuala Lumpur with the mix of all the ethnic groups it is quite obvious there is a Chinatown and even little India. The first day I went around the center of KL and explore Chinatown, Merdeka Square and Little India as these were quite near eachother and quite walkable.

Chinatown in itself was pretty interesting though. It’s always nice to see “your own people” and get some excellent Chinese food while I was at it. But for some reason, every Chinatown I go to they have tons of people selling random tourist fake crap. The area itself was nice to walk around, there’s some temples here and there and the whole neighbourhood was pretty lively even during a normal weekday.

From Chinatown I made my way to Merdeka Square where it’s surrounded by several colonial buildings. Apparently this is where Malaysia’s independence was proclaimed. As it was raining quite heavily at the point of time, I didn’t get to enjoy much of the colonial buildings but, even walking around the square and Chinatown, you can see many colonial houses dot your route.

Later at night I met up with Dilip, who showed me around little India a bit and took me to eat original Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaf! I asked him about Indian parties and “clubbing” and he told me about punjabi parties where people go party on punjabi music. Now I’m not mocking the music itself, but for outsiders, punjabi music sounds pretty funny and it was pretty odd to hear that they have punjabi parties. I wanted to go to one so bad, but sadly there weren’t any during my stay there. This is on my to-do list for next time: check out a punjabi party!

The following day I went to visit Batu caves, the most famous Temple Cave, reached by a straight flight of 272 steps, guarded by a 43m-high Murga statue, the highest in the world. It was quite an impressive sight the cave itself and the statue, but me being me I was more fascinated by the monkeys on the way to the cave and in the cave itself.

In the afternoon I went and checked out the Golden Triangle, KL’s business, shopping and entertainment district. Here you could find all the fancy commercial shopping malls and buildings. Just walking around here I felt poor, especially in Bukit Bintang where most of the big brands are located at. It was still pretty interesting to walk around and see how the malls here look like.

The other reason to come to the Golden Triangle was thé tourist highlight: Petronas towers, formerly the world’s tallest skyscrapers are quite a sight from below. Impressive sight and surrounded by a nice park and shopping mall, where you can hang out after work or after a busy day of shopping and enjoy the water and light show at night.

On the last day before I got on the bus to Melaka, Dilip gave me a tip to visit the Lake Gardens. It’s a nice escape from the heat and concrete in this garden district. It’s nice to walk around in the garden district and there are tons of other attractings sucha s the Bird Park and Butterfly park (Taman Rama Rama). On the edges of the park you can also find the National museum and Islamic Arts Museum. At nightfall you can find tons of people jogging around the area as the streets and pavements are excellent for a nice stroll and jog.

After a packed 3-4 days, I made my way to Melakka, the other UNESCO world heritage town I mentioned before.