ok, things are falling into place now for my bday
this is where i'm staying for the same price as that place in singapore!!

http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-545 1-grand-mercure-yogyakarta/index.shtml

the photos dont do it justice
anyone that comes has to stay in this hotel
it is so amazing
they're all in traditional clothing
its a period colonial building and the furnishings all have that feel too
i took loads of pics to see
this place is too much
i cant get over it
i dont want to go anywhere and just stay in the hotel its so amazing

so this place is basically nazimabad with nice paved roads
lots of richshaw drivers
i ended up going with a tangee walla for a tour around
he charged 10,000 which is only $1
everything is real cheap here
20 min taxi ride from the aiport was 60,000 = $6

even in KL it was pretty reasonable
i took $100 cdn for KL and was there for how many days
and took buses everywhere and was eating out and bought all those
shirts and still had money left over when i left KL

tomorrow i have to figure out how to goto borobudr the big
buddhist temple and paramabian the hindu temple
they are both centuries old and unesco heritage sites

so the last day in kuala lumpur went up the twin towers skywalk
you have to queue from 7am
i got there are 7.45 and there were already 200 people ahead
by the time the counter opened at 8.30 there were upto 500 people
this place is not very organized for the ticket distribution even though
its free. the day before i came around 11am and it said no tickets available
so i knew to come early as it was my only chance today

so u go up to the 41st floor and they only give u 8 minutes
didnt like being so high up again so just took my pics
u dont even get 360 views as its just left and right
they have the KL tower with 360 but the roads are so bad i didnt bother

then wanted to goto melaka which is the old dutch settlement
i went to the pudra raya bus station and they said the buses go from
bukit jalil now... so now i have to figure my way over to the station
then took the bus to melaka which is 2 hours
then in melaka there is a new bus station which is not where it showed
in the guide book so i was thrown off again and had to figure out
how to get to the centre

this was the best place i saw in malaysia
its an old dutch settlement from the 1600s and u can see the date stones
on some buildings. they also have a recreated malay palace from the 1700s
basically its a barge on stilts. they have the model lifesize figures inside
depicting the royal court.
they also have an old chinatown here which is from the 1930s
again it feels like the old movies of shanghai from that time
they also had chinese mosques which i'd never seen before
the minaret is like a pagoda and the roof was like a buddist temple

didnt have a chance to goto shah alam which was another suburb of
kL as the bus to/from melaka took most of the day with 2 hours each
way plus wait times. city centre KL is bad like karachi wiht the roads
but they have built new suburbs and they are quite nice and modern
and reminded me of parts of turkey which are the same in the suburbs

so wanted to take the airport train back to leave
when i went to putra jaya the return ticket was 19 rg
to goto the airport which is the next stop one way was 35 rg
i mean lets rip the tourist off one last time!!

when i get there it was really nice like terminal 3 but then i panicked coz
not only did i not see my flight, i did not see any air asia flights making
me think i'm at the wrong airport
i asked where the LCC terminal was and they said i have to take a bus 20 mins
you'd think this was a 'secret' terminal as there are no signs posted or directions
of how to get to thisterminal

when i arrive i find out why
it was the old airport terminal on the other side of the runway and was
basically karachi airport it was old and yuck!!!
when i landed in yogyakarta we were the only flight and it didnt
even have a luggage belt
it was funny, its like pakistan the whole extended family comes to
pick up each passenger

since KL crossing the road is a challenge
u wait for someone else to cross and go with them
u dont try alone
yogyakarta is worse than KL so dont know what jakarta will be like

yogyakarta seems so nice so far
the main blvd has richsaw drivers and is very traditional
you see more poverty and its not as modern as KL