Hat Yai to Kuala Lumpur continued...
After a sleepless night scared of seeing anymore unwanted visitors (rats!!) we quickly got ready and went to the lobby to meet our fellow travellers as planned at 08:30.
Quickly running round the corner for a Mcd's brekkie in anticipation of our 10hr travel while they negotiated a tuktuk to the bus station. We arrived at the bus station in no way willing to play the haggle game with the various operators and demanding we pay no more than 400baht per person...we managed to agree on 430baht per person in the end but it was a very nice bus with air con, reclining chairs and a travel blanket for each person. The best thing was the cleanliness (no ants or shrooms)
Stopping numerous times for toilet breaks and to pass through immigration (so glad we have British passports) we arrived in a busy Kuala Lumpur city centre at night. Our new friends had took time to learn us a few basic Malaysian phrases to get us through such as 'apa khabar' - hello, 'terami khasi' - thank you and 'no maslai' - not foreigner. They'd also give us a list of things to see whilst there along with travel information like using the monorail.
Luckily our Chinatown based residence, coincidentally called Chinatown Boutique Hotel was literally around the corner from the main bus terminal we were dropped off at and we found it easily.
The hotel was in the centre of the bustling Chinatown market which is an experience in itself (video uploaded). We were pleased that we received a discount as the air con was broken in the room n they supplied us with a fan but this was more than sufficient. The room was small and cosy but very clean and most important for me now, had no holes enabling rodents to enter (I still felt the need to stuff the bottom of the door just to make sure).
We ventured out although exhausted from travelling looking for food and didn't have to look long been in the centre of the market. Laurahs craving for Indian food was satisfied and we dined at an Indian stall after 5mins of price negotiations, something we are getting very good at doing lol
We quickly found out that most things in Malaysia aren't as expensive as we 1st thought if you go to the right places but alcohol, due to the high tax prices, is very expensive no matter where you go (same as in UK if not slightly higher)
We returned for a well deserved nights sleep but I still had problems, backlashes of seeing Roland had made a permanent indentation on my relaxation n a night of tossing and turning ensued.
We came out set to cram as much sight-seeing in as possible heading to the nearby and famous Cental Market where we browsed and picked up a city map. Wanting to head to the Petronas Twin Towers we caught the KTS (one of monorail companies) to our destination. Enjoyed this system, similar to the underground in London but the tracks are about 10-15m above street level. The Towers were stunning pieces of architecture and the surrounding buildings also gave us various priceless photos opportunities. We decided not to go to far into the massive designer mall at the foot of the building seeing names like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Prada and Roberto Cavalli we gathered it would dampen the day as we are more than aware of our spending capabilities.
We enquired about ticket prices to the top of the towers and after some careful deliberation we thought the £16 a ticket although a little pricey was worth the photographic and once in a lifetime opportunity. We booked the 18:15 slot as we were advised we would get the day, sunset and night photos all in this time frame.
Heading off to find some more attractions we were caught in the blistering sun and after an hour of hopelessly walking around in which turned out to be a massive circle (map reading skills are a little rusty) we bought a 24hr city tour bus ticket taking us around the cities attractions.
Now maybe it's just me and Laurah who aren't the typical tourists or we lack in what we thought was meaningless history but the tour was DRY! There were a few good photo opportunities and some of the information on the speaker system was interesting (when laurah decided to stop talking to breath lol) but for the best part of it we weren't that bothered. The tour bus was just a way to see the whole city and get around as you could hop on or off at all the stops within 24hrs of ticket purchase so used it as our own personal taxi service.
Jumping off in an area filled with low cost food restaurants and a row of hostels we were starving and needed to refuel. We stumbled across a gem of a place serving all of Indias most treasured foods (thanks to Laurahs Indian food craving)
I think we left there spending just under £4 and both having a curry with an array of Indian vegetables (not a clue what but scrumptious) 2 roti each with dipping sauce, a lemon ice tea and a cold horlicks on ice (only available in Malaysia it seems)
Stuffed to the brim and after a good chat with our waiter who was the nicest little indian guy ever, we waited at the bus stop for our tour bus as it was approaching 16:45 and we needed to be at other side of town...or so it seemed.
Once tge bus came we soon realised the bus would take a further 2hrs 20mins to get us to our destination due to the rush hour traffic so we decided to walk. After all it was probably a good idea to try burn some of the calories from our feast. Trouble was we'd sat on the bus for 15mins and been taken further away frim where we needed to be. Not bothering to read the map (cos we're so clever) we stomped and stomped and stomped in a variety of directions before we saw the towers on the horizon. Realising we had approx 25mins to reach we power walked heading in the direction of the colossal structures arriving just in time but very hot, sweaty and looking like we'd done a marathon. (Numerous pics and a video uploaded of the tour)
That night we had took too long getting ready to go out and eat not realising that the Central Market shut at 22:00 and Chinatown became a ghost town at 23:00 :-(
We were lucky to come across a little stall again around the corner from our accommodation which was one of the few things open late apart from KFC and McDonalds. All meats, fish and vegetables were on skewers marked with diff colours to indicate price and were all raw. You simply took what you wanted and gave to the cook who BBQ'd it, fried or boiled depending on what it was or how you wanted it. Some of the things that could be boiled you could do yourself as each table had an in-built cooking pot in the centre of the table (pic uploaded)
The food was amazing especially the crab and fish with soya mmmmmm (I could eat one right now)
The following day we'd planned to get some laundry done and use the remaining time left on our tour tickets. Was funny as we jumped on the bus 35mins before our time expired and did a full journey around the city lasting nearly 3hrs. The guy wasn't pleased but what could he say. You can't jump on once your time has expired so we didn't jump off despite his numerous attempts, stopping for breaks and encouraging people to stretch their legs or take photos...we jus sat in same place smiling and saying we're fine thanks lol
That night we headed to the Central Market to dine as we'd spotted a little stand doing savoury filled pancakes, chapatis and parathas. We ended up having 2 each as they were just too nice and less than a quid each!! A few hours later we were back at the same light night stand selecting a few skewers each to snack on before we called it a night.
The next morning we arose early to pack up and get to the bus station and see if we could get a bus back to Thailand (Hat Yai) so we could catch a night bus up country to Hua Hin. We'd decided to spend Xmas somewhere with a beach but not on an island as it got a little too pricey and this seemed perfect.
After a few haggling bouts with various tour operators in the bus station we managed to get one at a reasonable price and took off enjoyin one last glimpse of the urban jungle that was Kuala Lumpur and saying bye to Malaysia.