Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
We left Saskatoon at 5:30 pm October 19, 2022. We had 3 flights, Saskatoon to Vancouver, Vancouver to Manila and Manila to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. Total flight time about 20 hours. We arrived at KLIA airport around noon October 21. That is 10 pm October 20 in Saskatoon. Just under 30 hours from home airport to Kuala Lumpur airport, that doesn’t include the time we spent checking in or getting transported into Kuala Lumpur, approximately 43 KM, about a 1 hour drive.
Once we got through immigration we found our suitcases at the luggage carousel. Gary’s had some minor damage, we need to find some 2 part epoxy glue. We brought some crazy glue with us for emergencies. The glue job looks ok but it will never hold.
Before leaving the airport we bought Umobile brand sim cards for both phones. The cost of 50 MYR (Malaysian Ringit) is $14.40 CAD which gives us unlimited data and unlimited voice calling in Malaysia for one month. When we renew for the second month it will be less. Sweet deal!
The young lady at the Umobile helped us get a private vehicle from the airport to our hotel. The driver’s name was Kamal and he was a wealth of information. Gas in Malaysia is 2.10 MYR a mere 61 cents CAD per litre. No wonder the cost of our airport transfer was $23. CAD, half the cost of an airport taxi. We rode in a recent model Honda sedan which was very roomy.
We are staying at the Swiss Garden Hotel, Bukit Bintang. Once we got checked in we both showered and brushed our teeth – absolute best feeling after very long travel days! Although we were exhausted we found our way to Jalan Alor, a famous street food market. We thought we’d head to a Mexican restaurant we’d enjoyed on our previous travels but got enticed into another restaurant where we enjoyed chicken satay, vegetarian spring rolls and a couple of cold beer. The staff were great and we enjoyed chatting with them. The funny thing about this restaurant, The Grand Sky Restaurant, we had eaten very near here in 2016. After looking at our photos on the phone, our waiter said the owner had sold the place across the street because of the pandemic (where our picture was taken in 2016). That owner then bought the place where we were eating now.
We had been seated at one of the street side tables but when the rain arrived we moved inside! By the time we left it was dark and we added a couple extra blocks to our walk home after taking a wrong turn! We felt like walking zombies. Once back at the hotel it was time for another quick shower before we fell into bed! You’d think we’d sleep like the dead but our bodies still are figuring out the time change and we both made multiple trips to the bathroom through the night and woke up multiple times. It will take a few days to get our internal clocks reset!
Saturday, October 22
Our hotel room includes a free buffet breakfast. We had cappuccinos and all sorts of interesting Malaysian food both hot and cold. The oddest thing was yellow watermelon which tasted just like the red watermelon.
We walked down the street to get our bearings in the daylight. It was sunny, humid and perfect 30º weather. We have never stayed in this area before so we found it a bit confusing. The streets of KL are twisting around hills and through tunnels. You can see buildings ahead but you can’t just walk directly to them. We headed to the Kuala Lumpur Eco park and when we got there we discovered the gates locked. Closed for 2 days. Not sure why, plus all their signs were in Malaysian. We will go back another day. We walked back to Jalan Alor, the street food market in search of a drink. We passed the side street with some amazing street art. Whole buildings are painted with murals. The picture at the top of this page was one of the murals on an apartment building. It really cleans up the local neighbourhood.
tWe purchased 2 dragon fruit bowls 5 MYR ($1.44 CAD) each and 2 freshly juiced pineapple juice 8 MYR ($2.30 CAD) each for a lunchtime snack. Total approx. $7.50 CAD. We ate the fruit in our room. We have already logged 5.6 KM just walking around getting our bearings.
Back in our room we cooled off and did some research on finding GoPro batteries and planning our next few days of city touring. We need to figure out the MTR subway and monorail so we can get around faster. We also got both our our phones equipped with the Grab app and our credit cards loaded to pay for Grab rides. The cost is very affordable to take Grab rides around town.
After a rest in the afternoon we got ready to go out for supper. We went to lock our safe and the battery was dead so that took an extra half hour to have the safe expert come and diagnose the safe with a little hand held computer.
By the time we left we were already exhausted. The 15 minute walk got our blood flowing again and we ended up at the same place as the previous night, The Grand Sky Restaurant. First off we ordered drinks. Linda order Kedondong juice with sour plum and Gary ordered Calamansi juice with sour plum. They were refreshing. For supper Linda ordered Sweet and Sour Chicken, Gary decided on Kungpow Chicken. They were both really good. Total was 78 MYR about $22.50 CAD. It would have been less but we ended up with beer before we were done.
Of course it started raining after we arrived for supper, we watched people walking by in rain coats and with umbrellas. We were dressed in t-shirts, shorts and flip-flops. The air was warm and wet. Lots of people here wear masks outdoors. We’re a little more brave than that. I guess if you are shoulder to shoulder there might be some rational for masks but no thanks. We used our umbrellas we bought the previous night to keep us dry on our walk back to the hotel. Our total distance walked today was 7.2KM.
