Day 140: Kuala Lumpur

As you would imagine for a country located so close to the equator, it is hot here in KL. There is not much to do in this country's capital aside from shopping and nice restaurants. From what I could find, there were only two things that I want to see and both of them are better seen at dark, so I just stayed in all day, talking with some of the other backpackers trying to figure out what else there is to see in Malaysia.

That afternoon, I walked around the neighborhood in an attempt to find some local food. I passed a McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks, KFC (all on one little road), and then I finally got to the Malaysian street-ish food. The restaurants were new to me, all the places to eat were inside, but the food was cooked out front of the restaurants where they were also selling meat. The food wasn't much different from what I have already had, I had sliced beef with noodles, maybe I wasn't eating at an authentic enough Malaysian restaurant? The beer that I had was more expensive than my meal was, I think it has to do with the fact that ~60% of the population practices Islam, which bans the consumption of alcohol (it is also recognized as the country's religion), leading me to believe that it is heavily taxed.

The first thing I wanted to see as the sun was setting was the Batu Caves. The main cave is the most popular shrine outside of India for Hindus and is within a limestone hill. I allotted a little over an hour to get there by public transportation; definitely not enough. Kuala Lumpur has the worst system of public transportation I have seen (to be fair, I have not been on any form of public transport in the US). Right outside my hostel was the monorail stop, the car came once every 7 minutes and only had two cars, not nearly enough to fit all of the people. 

As soon as the doors opened, people were rushing out of there as fast as they were rushing in, cramming themselves in there like sardines. I do not understand why they only have a two car monorail system when the platform could have handled probably 10 cars? To add to the chaos, all transportation lines went to the Central point and then went outwards. Instead of making the network like a spiderweb, having every line connected to one another, they made it like the spokes of a bicycle wheel, all lines come to the center and then out. I took a train from the central stop to the Batu Caves and this was even a longer process. No lie, I could have run faster than this thing moved; it was painful to watch the elderly people creep past us on the sidewalks!

The stop for the caves couldn't have been any closer to the entrance than it was. By the time I got there, the sun had already set, it was dark out, and all of the caves, except for the main one, were closed. 

After a 200 stair hike, I made it to the cave. To be honest, I was rather disappointed with the cave. The whole place was lit up with large street lights, the floors were immersed in concrete, and the inside had what looked like a bunch of small shops (they were all closed, I assume because it was so late). While there wasn't much to see, I think I came at the right time, because I have heard that it can get really crowded and hot during the day. As I tried to snap a couple photos, I was dodging bats. It was pretty freaky to have the small animal darting at me, from one side to the next, with no idea if it is about to land on my face.

Eventually, I was forced out of the cave because it was closing so I headed to the station to get back home. I waited on the platform for 45 minutes for the train to come. When it arrived, the train was going back to central and stopping by every stop that I took along the way, however, we were going in the opposite direction from which I had come?? I have no idea how that works. To top it off, the lights on the map that highlighted the current route were completely off. Not sure what was going on.

Once I finally made it back to where my hostel is, I headed off for the Petronas Towers. To get there, I walked along a raised walkway that was enclosed and air conditioned; keeps everyone from melting during the day. I decided against reserving a ticket to go up into the towers because Kuala Lumpur does not have much of a skyline and I have heard the view isn't good. The long walk showed off a lot of Malaysia. It is the Middle East meets the East. One minute I think I am in Egypt, with all the Middle Eastern looking men and the women all wearing burqas, then I'm in India with all the really dark skinned men and the tilakas on the foreheads (the religious paint that is placed on the foreheads of men and women on a daily basis), then I see what I would think of as an Asian. Quite a melting pot!

I went to the Towers not expecting much, I just wanted to these famous large buildings. I was upset that the pools and fountains in front of the building were all drained, oh well.

Pouring sweat, I made the walk home, showered, and got some rest. I have a flight tomorrow to Kota Kinabalu on the island part of Malaysia. There are some great national parks on the island and it will give me a chance to escape the concrete jungles I have been hiding in for the past week or so.