Moping around in Modern Malaysia

At each end of the Sri Lanka trip, we passed through and changed planes in Malaysia. On the return journey, we had about 7 hours there - just enough time to pass through customs, take a train into the city of Kuala Lumpur, and do a tiny bit of sightseeing.

Setting the Scene: Let me say early in this description that on the previous day, our last day in Sri Lanka, I had begun noticing several small wounds (probably insect bites) that were clearly infected - they each had small buildups of white pus and were rather sore. They seemed minor so I cleaned them out with soap & water and moved on. But they became increasingly tender, and I was tired and irritable all day during the travelling through airports and Malaysia. After getting home to Sidoarjo late at night, I went to bed with a significant fever. In the morning, I cleaned the areas out and applied antiseptic but entire areas of my arm, leg, and foot were red and swollen. I ended up on antibiotics for 5 days which solved the problem.

I know now that I was not at my best (to put it mildly) during that final day or two of the trip. I sniped at Chris and Ryan about minor things and was generally unpleasant. They were both been very kind about it (well, at least to my face - LOL)! So my experience of Malaysia was much less pleasant than it should have been, and please take any negative comments with a grain of salt.


KL Tower
Since Chris had previously visited Kuala Lumpur, he was able to make an informed recommendation on the possibilities so we went up KL Tower for a view of the city. KL is the tallest telecommunications tower in Southeast Asia and 6th tallest in the world, although Kuala Lumpur has also a pair of taller buildings - the Petronas Towers.

After going to the top and taking some photos of the skyline (ho hum), we went down and had a delightful meal. Then we were able to walk around a Malaysian Cultural Center (price included in what we paid to go up the tower). Unfortunately, we were in too much of a hurry to linger and fully appreciate the displays but I enjoyed that little bit that I had time to see. We also were able to just get a tiny taste of the rainforest preserve at the base of the tower - there's a free park there but it closes at 6pm and we were poking our heads in at 6:30. I guess I'll have to go back someday ...

General impressions:

Of course, this is all based on a very limited sample but Malaysia seemed quite nice - pretty clean, lots of signs in good English, and many people who spoke English quite well. They had a nice high speed bullet train into the city, good, well-labelled buses to link the airport and train, and modern, clean stations.

If I have a chance, I will try to drop by again. I'd love to travel outside the city and see a bit of the countryside, for example.


Humorous Ending
While we were waiting in a big line at the KL airport, I was very amused by the fact that we were standing under a sign that says "No Waiting" (that fuzzy one up above us). Yes, I know it probably means that cars aren't supposed to pull over and wait but I was laughing anyway.

May you find a laugh even if you're in pain!