Tuesday, 02/10/2012 – 110 A.D.
Lift was out of order this morning. Not guilty. Try getting past the cactus guarding the entrance on the fourth floor!
Today was a slow day, the morning taken up with the dreaded admin as we planned our future journeys through Asia. Although we like to be flexible in light of possible (or probable) delays, it makes sense to book a few steps ahead and be aware of where we can and cannot go. Last thing we want is to turn up in central Cambodia to discover the jungle is closed for repairs!
Getting out to breathe in the air, and the various noxious aromas that populate it, we returned to Chinatown and went to Central Market. I toyed with the idea of getting a kaftan, but they didn’t have my size – they were all either XL or XXL. Maybe that’s the way they’re supposed to be worn? Upstairs in the market are various eateries of medium standard and we sat down for lunch. I had “USA Fried Rice”, which seemed like sweet and sour chicken with an egg on the side for good measure. It was very tasty, but my palette was screaming at me that I’m normally eating bread by this point in the day. We were pleased to once again eat where the locals eat, although I fear we may be getting a little cocky and will end up riding our luck once too often.
After lunch we went to another of the Indian-run places with every type of product you could imagine by brands you’ve never heard of. You can still buy albums on cassette there. It took me a while to find suncream, a rarely used item here no doubt. I thought I’d best not risk the skin tone of Ripened Beetroot and stuck with factor 30. After this we walked to the Kuala Lumpur Tower, which used to be the main draw to the city before the twin towers muscled their way in with their extra height. Once again we weren’t bothered about going up it and were treated to some kind of display of traditional dancing in the lobby. The music was quite catchy, the moves lazily hypnotic, but some of the male dancers looked a little…not like male dancers.
Heading out to dinner that evening, there seemed to be some kind of strike action by the taxi drivers who parked about a hundred vehicles in the road and did a bit of chanting. I was really tempted to raise my hand and shout, “Taxi!” but thought better about it. Not sure what they were protesting about, but once the police presence swelled to sufficient numbers they peacefully moved them along.
Maybe we'd come to the realisation that we were riding our luck, or maybe we’re just getting more picky, but either way we spent a lot of time walking round to find somewhere to eat. Eventually we got fed up of walking and nipped into a Thai place that seemed to possess the twin desirables of cleanliness and popularity. I ordered the Special Thai Noodles. Tim did not…but the waitress brought him some anyway. And we both enjoyed them. The bill came to 54 ringstings and we both only had 50 ringgit notes. I made it extremely clear to the waiter that we were giving them 60 ringgits, not 100…or else there really would be ringsting!
Wednesday, 03/10/2012 – 111 A.D.
It was going to be one of those days – check out of the hotel at midday, then spend time “doing stuff” until our train at 21:25 that evening. These days can always be a bit taxing, especially because you feel doubly homeless – far away from your real home, and even without a temporary home. Plus the Malaysian climate isn’t great for wandering round aimlessly. Therefore we took a train up to the area north west of the city centre, where there sits Malaysia’s very own “World Trade Centre”. Oh really? According to our map, it was supposedly the symbol of the city before the KL Tower and then the twin towers came along, but I was sceptical about this. Whatever its importance, for the casual visitor there’s absolutely sod-all to see! Despite killing some time, the trip wasn’t entirely wasted because we went to a nearby shopping mall and saw a security guard carrying a pump action shotgun. Yeah, I know, it was a slow day.
For lunch we returned to our favourite food court and had a big bowl of nasi goreng, which is goreng with rice, unlike mee goreng, which is goreng with noodles. What’s “goreng”? I’m not exactly sure, but it was very tasty. And we asked the cook-cum-salesmen if it was a typical Malay dish, and he assured us it was, though I think he would have said anything to get our custom.
Despite not having much of an agenda, the day actually passed pretty quickly and we found ourselves leaving the hotel and heading down the hill to hail a taxi outside the 7-11. The driver spotted us from afar and came towards us and it was at this point that I perfomed my first fare haggle:
DRIVER: Where you wanna go?
JAMES: Kuala Lumpur Sentral Station.
DRIVER: Sentral Station, 20 ringgits.
JAMES: Ah no, we can’t go for 20 ringgits.
TIM: We only paid 10 ringgits to come here from the station.
DRIVER: Yes, but at this time of day that is not possible.
[Pause.]
JAMES: What about 15 ringgits?
[Pause.]
DRIVER: Okay.
JAMES: [silently, in his own head] Result!
I still actually had 20 ringgits on me, in the form of two 10 ringgit notes, but I needed the rest for my tea. The traffic to the station was very busy, but somehow, despite the chaos, every vehicle always manages to keep moving. If you want to automatically gain an advanced driving qualification then take your test in Kuala Lumpur! When we reached the station, the driver tried his second trick to get 20 ringgits. When I handed him the two 10 notes he made out he didn’t have any change. Fortunately between the two of us we could find another 5 ringgits, so got the fare for the agreed amount, but it was something to keep in mind for future occurrences.
Now I sit in the station, at a table outside KFC and await the arrival of our train. This is a sleeper train that will take us across northern Malaysia through the night, then get us over the border into Thailand come morning. There are two types of sleeper class here – “soft sleeper” in which you have a small berth of 2 – 4 beds and relative comfort like your own plug socket, possibly even your own mini TV, and “hard sleeper” which treats the whole carriage like an open dormitory. We will be travelling in hard sleeper class. To make matters worse, there were only two beds left on the train, which are at the end of the carriage, where you must suffer the noise of the wheels grinding against the track and people banging the door closed as they pass through. I know we’re travel-hardened veterans who’ve managed many an overnight journey in little or no comfort, but this one is going to be a whole new experience! Wish us luck, dear readers, and I hope to see you on the other side of the border come morning - goodnight for now!
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