The Orange Pekoe hotel (formerly called The Nest, 1, Jalan Angsoka, 50200 Kuala Lumpur) was stuck down a small alleyway but was remarkable easy to find with the directions the hotel provided me. The rooms, like the backpacker hotel in Beijing were sparse, a bed and a sink, shower and toilet. Once again the shower nozzle was directly over the toilet. The clerk at the front desk was super helpful, quickly presenting a map and answered all my questions on what to...

The gal behind the reception desk at the backpacker's hotel insisted that I leave for the airport at 6 AM for my 9 AM flight. I was at the gate by 7:40. I tried to find postcards to no avail so I ended up at one of the four or five hundred Starbucks located in the Beijing Capital Airport. Landing in Kuala Lumpur or KL as the locals call it the first thing that you notice was the heat and humidity. Exiting the airport was like hitting a wall off stickiness. T...

In the afternoon, I headed to the noodle bar restaurant recommended a couple days prior at the hutong cooking class. I wanted to experience hand pulled noodles expertly prepared. So far, the Android "Trip Advisor" Beijing app had been my main source for directions and for information along my way through Beijing. It was awesome; however it failed miserably when it came to the Noodle Bar. The description read that it was in courtyard 4 of the 1949 "hidden city...

Now into day three I was getting a lay of the land. The metro system was simple to use; the city radiates out from the Forbidden City. There was the first ring road, the second ring road, the third ring road and then the center of the city disappears into the outskirts where there was the fourth ring road. All in all travel was easy here; I think even easier than Europe. Everyone knows by the look of you that you were not Chinese, so there was none of that fi...

I woke up at about three in the morning realizing that my plan of using the cooking class to meet and tag along with other travelers was a bit of a failure so at just past seven in the morning I headed down to the front desk and booked the Great Wall tour at Jinshanling. There was one spot left. Score. I was told I needed to bring my own lunch so I headed out of the hotel in search of my hutong market. There was not an indoor market as there was in Dongchen...