When I booked my flight to the Philippines, I had no idea if I would enjoy the country or not. My original plan was to see it all with the 30 day tourist visa I received on arrival. Turns out I like it here and with over 7000 islands, there's A LOT more to see and do. 30 days is not even close to enough time. So I have to go back. Word on the street is that the Philippines require you have your exit flight to leave the country already booked before you arrive. Supposedly, Air Asia won’t even let you on the plane to go if you can’t prove your intention to eventually leave. Whether that’s true or just a technique for the airlines to sell tickets to people that won’t use them or will pay to amend them later is debatable. But this is one case where I won. I bought a round trip ticket from the Philippines back to Chiang Mai Thailand where I was staying prior to going. BUT the flight to Manila connected each way in Kuala Lumpur. So I decided since I am traveling with ONLY carry-on luggage this entire 6 month trip that I would throw away the last flight back to Thailand and just stay in Kuala Lumpur. This move would save me a ton of time and money by NOT having to travel out of Chiang Mai again later. Especially since I wanted to get to Bali, Indonesia which is waaay south of Thailand anyway.

So the day finally came when I had to leave the Philippines. I told the airline check-in attendant my final destination was indeed Chiang Mai, Thailand. But with my carry-on luggage, when I arrived in the Kuala Lumpur airport, I just walked away from the terminal, went through immigration, and made my way downtown. This move puts me so much closer to Bali and in theory, cheaper flights or boats to get there.

Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia in general is really clean and organized. Public transport is cheap and frequent, so getting around is a breeze. Oddly, the only thing I ever wanted to see in Kuala Lumpur was the Petronas Towers. In 2004, they were the tallest buildings in the world. That record has since fallen many times over but I still loved seeing them.

I’m sure KL deserves more time for exploration but I wasn’t feeling the need to stay here for more than two nights. I can say that the food is outstanding. Next stop, Malacca, just a couple hours to the south.