Kuala Lumpur

Hello guys! :D

We arrived in the capital of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, two days ago. We drove here from Singapore with a sleeping bus. The bus left Singapore at 11:50pm and took us to the border were we had to depart Singapore and enter Malaysia. Everything at the border went very well, and we could enjoy our amazing bus and sleep during the rest of the drive. It was so comfortable!!! :) 

We arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 4:30am, earlier than expected, and took a cab to our hostel, the Reagge Mansion. We couldn't check in yet, so we slept on some couches in the common area of the hostel for the rest of the night. At 9am in the morning, we were finally able to check in and go to our room. The hostel is very nice! Our room (we had a 4-bed-dorm for ourselves) was clean, the hostel offered free dinner, laundry services, and even had its own cinema! 

After unpacking our stuff, we found out that there was a big demonstration here in the city centre today. (The opponents of the Malaysian government demonstrated for more democracy as the leading party is known to be very corrupt here.) All the streets around our hostel were closed, so we couldn't really go anywhere. We decided to give it a try and go visit our German friend Marc, who is currently working for a volunteer program here. The organisation was based in a suburb of Kuala Lumpur, so we had to take the train (which was still in service) and the bus to get there. After fighting our way through the crowded streets to the train station, we didn't have any problems on our way there. 

Marc showed us around the suburb, we went to an amazing local restaurant with a big buffet, and walked to a viewpoint afterwards, from where we could overlook the whole city. It was great! On the way back to our hostel, we found ourselves surrounded by yellow t-shirts (the protestors) at the train station.
We had to wait in line for over half an hour to get our tickets! However, the trains were so overfilled that we had to wait even longer. After 2.5 hours, we arrived soaked (it had started to rain) and tired at our hostel.

On our second day here, we had planned to visit the Batu caves (batu = rock). On our way out of the hostel, we met a really nice other German traveller, Joshi, who wanted to go there as well.  After finding a really cute market hall with lots of different shops where we ate delicious Crepes for breakfast, we went to the train station to catch the train to the caves. They were located just outside of the city inside a little mountain. A big golden statue was standing right before the entrance, it was so impressive! Behind it, a set of really steep and long stairs led up the mountain to the entrance of the caves. After fighting our way to the top, accompanied by lots of wild monkeys :), a we were astonished by the huge cavern of the Batu cave. The cave was gigantic and a Hindu temple was located at the back of it. It looked so cool in there! We spend some time walking around the cave and taking pictures.

Then, we went to the Dark Caves which were

right beside the Batu Cave. That one, you

could only visit with a tour guide. Along with

a few other tourists, we followed our guide, a

young girl named Shah, inside the caves. Shah

told us a lot about the history of the caves, its

eco system, and its inhabitants. What was

really interesting, was the fact that the whole

life inside the cave is based on bat poop. Yup,

bat poop! ;)

There are so many bats in the cave that fly

outside to get food. They are the only animals

that actually leave the cave. All the others

including various insects, spiders, and snakes,

live of the nutrients in the bat’s droppings. Our

guide had lots of fun explaining that to us in a

very sarcastic way, so hilarious! :)

After we finished our tour, we went back to

Kuala Lumpur’s city centre where we went

straight to the market hall to get some food.

Back in our hostel, we just relaxed after the

exhausting day.

Today, our third day in Malaysia, we went to

the central market (again) and sat in a little

café. We had breakfast there and made plans

for our next stop: Bangkok. Afterwards, we

stopped at one of the food stalls outside of the

market hall and bought some spring rolls,

samosas, and other fried delicacies. Then, we

went to Chinatown where we walked through

the streets filled with different booths selling

clothes, fresh fruit, souvenirs, etc. We ended

up buying more food and went back to our

hostel where we had a little picnic in our

room. :D

In the evening, we went to visit the city centre

and Petronas towers and watched a little

lightshow of the fountain in front of them.

Tomorrow, we will leave Kuala Lumpur to go

to Bangkok where we will stay three days

before we fly to Hanoi, Vietnam. 

Talk to you soon,

Annette <3

 Entrance of the Batu caves

 

Inside the cave 

 

 

Our friend Joshi :) 

Monkeys :D

 

 Kuala Lumpur 

 

Chinatown

 

The petronas towers