For the majority of people the vision or expectation of a place is shaped by outside influences before or even ever visiting. There are a number of these potential picture painting influences, but one particularly powerful opinion generating machine is Hollywood. The movie Entrapment staring Sean Connery and Cathrine Zeta Jones, places the two stars dangling from the mammoth Petronas Towers in grandiose Hollywood fashion. At the time they were the two tallest buildings in the world, and today they are the twin symbols of Malaysia.
As a powerful drifting trio, we cruised into Kuala Lumpur at about 4:30am. It was still dark and the taxi totes were on us as we made our way off the bus, which seemed to have dropped us off at a city bus stop, as opposed to a depot. Still sleepy and not knowing exactly where we were, it would have been easy to get disoriented and opt for the taxi; it also would have cost us about 120 ringgit ($40). But since Chels and I were becoming pro’s at this 4am, pitch black, sleepy drop off thing, we collected ourselves, crossed the street and boarded the 2 ringgit city bus which was to drop us off right in Chinatown (if we knew where that was). When we all were feeling like we were in the area we wanted to be we hopped off (usually the bus drivers are really friendly and tell us but not this early), plus there was a McDonald’s. I don’t know about other travelers but the sight of a McDonald’s when sort of lost in a foreign country gives me an easy feeling.
Nice view!
We needed to sort out accommodation and since it was the only place with internet that was open And serving breakfast, we indulged. We scarfed down food, cleaned up in the bathroom and semi-sorted where we would get accommodation. As we were leaving the ladies had a creepy crazy guy following us which had to be told to bug off. Guess they don’t see too many blondes or something.
Knowing that we didn’t have long in the city we figured a hostel could be sorted later. We stashed our bags at the nearest place that would have them and headed for the most famous landmark in Kuala Lumpur, Petronas Towers.
Famous Petronas Towers!
We rushed to get there because they stop selling tickets for the viewing floor at the top around 10am. Unfortunately they close the top on Monday’s and we just happened to be there on one. They were still a sight to see and hard to even fit properly into a photo. There was a mega mall inside that was nicer than Lenox or Fipps Plaza…all high end fashion shops. The bathrooms were the cleanest we had seen all trip! I wanted to hang around just so i could go in there again 
I felt cleaner after I had been in there! Poor Ashley was probably loving the shopping, but Brad and I were heavily avoiding shopping….sorry Ash Bash! We walked around a bit before taking off to figure out our next move.
The rest of the day was spent cruising through the shops of China town and finding accommodation. We had read about a few places in Lonely Planet in the China town area and the spot we ended up choosing looked abandoned and rundown from the outside, but was truly a hidden gem. Wheelers It was a smaller hostel but had just what we were looking for, cheap rates, a private room for the 3 of us…breakfast… and Ashley shelled out the extra money for AIR CONDITIONING!!! Wooo we hadn’t had that in ages! SCORE!
KL was a bit of a different destination that what Brad and I were now set of visiting. After exploring Europe for 6 months, we were OVER the cities, and ready for jungles and beaches…so although I am sure there is TONS of amazing things to do, and of course, AMAZING shopping, we didn’t actually do or buy much!~ We did check out the Batu Caves, which were easy to get to…just outside of the city. The train ran straight there, and after walking up decently steep stairs, and heavily avoiding the monkeys!!!!… we were given a nice view of the city in the distance, but were able to enjoy some natural beauties at the same time!
The view from the caves!
Ashley held a snake!! Very cool, i was tempted, but just jumped in the photo instead! The actual cave was nothing special, but still easy to appreciate. The middle opened up, with clear sky above us, and a small temple covered with monkeys shined in the light!
Snakes!!
We visited a few botanical gardens, considered checking out a huge bird sanctuary, and of course browsed through heaps of markets. Actually we stumbled upon an orchid garden and both bought our Mum’s some Orchids in a jar….which i think turned out to be total FAILS! I know my Mums did…!
Orchid Garden
I think one of the highlights for Ash and myself was getting ancient Indian body art…Mehndi, or Henna as most know it, or I think it’s called Inai in Malaysia… on our hands! It was so incredible watching how quickly and easily this woman did it, but when she was finished, it looked like such a work of art! I had wanted to get one on the streets in India, but never found any, so i was super thrilled! I think she only charged 10-15 ringgit! (5 bucks max!) We were starving, and poor Brad waited so patiently for us girls, so we ducked into a food hall right next to us, and very appropriately grabbed…. Indian food.
Mehndi!
The next morning, we all left with excitement running through us, because Bali was our next stop and the place all 3 of us had been waiting for!
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