Part 1 – Cape Town - Kuala Lumpur
Richard and I recently turned 30 and 40 respectively (on April 30th) and decided to celebrate this with a trip to Thailand, which is a place we'd always wanted to go. We decided to make the trip alone, as we'd never had a proper holiday together before, and the children aren't really old enough for the sort of trip we were planning (in lots of ways) ;) So they stayed home with their nanny Tiny, and we had had schedules and shifts of friends and family on stand-by. In fact planning the children's holiday took far more work and effort than ours, and once I'd planned that I REALLY needed a holiday!
So on the morning of April 19th we set off for Cape Town international airport, where we bid our friends, and children good-bye for 2 full weeks. However The first thing I did after going through to the 'international passengers only' side, was go into the book shop to buy a postcard for the kids! In fact while selecting the card I was called by name to please go to the gate for boarding 'immediately'. We posted it at JHB airport where we stopped for an hour, so it could reach them quickly.
We flew Air Malaysia, and I enjoyed it. The plane was comfortable (ok I am not 6'3", Richard wasn't actually that comfortable) and the air hostesses were all pretty, friendly and helpful. Each seat has it's own TV, and we could chose between several movies, TV sitcoms, PC and Play station games, In flight trivia challenge, music stations and a GPS system which showed the route, progress, altitude, temperature and relatives times throughout the trip, which was very interesting. The food was also very nice, and varied. In fact the flight went by so quickly with all the entertainment that I didn't even get a chance to read my magazine. Can you tell I don't fly a lot? The last time I was on an international flight I was 12!
We arrived at Kuala Lumpur international at 5:30 the next morning, where we were going to spend a night. KL airport is big and slick. After following people around for a short while we figured out that you have to catch an express train to another terminal to collect our luggage and go through customs and immigration. The express train was fully automated with a firm but polite female voice recording telling you what to do. We found the female Moslem ground staff to be very serious and quiet and not at all friendly - but it was before 6am, so maybe they were just tired...
After emerging through customs unscathed (even though Malaysia is very strict and has loads of rules i.e. No chewing gum, no spitting, no jay walking, no public affection, no littering etc, and drug trafficking has a mandatory death penalty), we made our way towards the various transport. A thousand taxi drivers and touts approached us. But we remained firm about wanting to catch the airport express train to town, as recommended by our hotel. However one gentleman convinced us that we should let him drive us in his taxi as he'd charge us the same price as the express train, but get us there quicker and take us right to our hotel doorway. We finally, reluctantly and with due skepticism, conceded and started following him into the still dark Kuala Lumpur morning. Where the thick hot and humid air hit us, it must have been at around 30 degrees Celsius already!
We stood on the pavement and he said 'wait here'. He then make a cell phone call and started walking away into the still darkened morning. As we saw him start running and go around the side of the parking building we decided he certainly didn't seem to be a legitimate taxi driver. We thought that at best he was chancing his luck posing as a taxi with his private car and at worst would possibly abduct us or mug us, or drive off with our bags, or who knows what...? We quickly agreed we didn't like the feeling we were getting about the situation, and rather than risk a bad experience right at the start of our holiday, we went straight back into the airport building and disappeared into the crowd. We soon found the airport express train and caught it into KL central, it is a quick, quiet and a smooth journey. About an hour long and we had a lovely view of the sunrise on the way.
The countryside from the airport is covered in Palm tree plantations, which harvest palm oil, one of their main produce items. By about 7am and another train ride later we had found our hotel, 'The Heritage Station Hotel' which is right on what was once the main city train station. It's huge and I'm sure it was spectacular and majestic once - perhaps 50 years ago. Now it's rather run down and dingy! We had opted for a budget room, and that's just what we got. But there was a clean bed, and aircon and that's all we needed. The fact that we didn't really have a window and the entire bathroom floor operated as the drain were beside the point.
KL has 4 different train companies operating 4 different lines, so you often need to use more than one line to get somewhere and have to get 2 tickets and pay separate fares for each leg of the journey - a bit confusing.
After a quick shower we hit the streets to discover what Kuala Lumpur was all about. It was probably about 8:30am. We found nothing but closed shops and markets and very few people. It was already well over 35 degrees. We walked all over and didn't find much of anything except dirty and smelly streets. Having not slept the entire day before and with the heat it felt like we were in a ghost town. All the food we saw was weird looking and strange smelling, and worse most food vendors seemed to have positioned themselves next to stinking drains. Needless to say we were not at all hungry!
We discovered that no one wakes up early there and most shops and markets only get going at around 10-11am. So we kept walking and watched as the city
By the afternoon things were buzzing along and we managed to explore some markets and bustling streets. We ventured into the Jelan Petaling Street China town market where we saw fish, chicken, meats and vegetables of all shapes and forms.
There were live chickens, dead chickens, plucked chickens, de-skinned chickens, cut up chickens and strangest of all BLACK chickens. We asked the vendor what they were and he jokingly said ' those are African chickens'. We told him we were from Africa and had never seen anything like it. Apparently these things have white feathers but their skin and meat is a dark grey/black colour. Not very appetising at all...
In the early evening we caught 2 trains and made our way to the landmark Petronas towers. Which are very spectacular. Richard who loves asking for directions asked someone where the Petronas towers were, when we were standing right under them! An easy mistake I suppose... but really we hadn't looked up yet ;)
Anyway we did the obligatory photos in front of them and then hit the shopping centre, which is between the 2 towers. It's a FABULOUS centre. Much like Cavendish/Sandton etc. Though obviously rather pricey and with all the designer brands well represented. It was just great to be out of the heat and in an air-conditioned environment, and in civilisation. We window shopped a fair amount, and then found a grocery store, and the first food that looked really edible and safe all day. I was determined not to eat anything too ordinary though so I got Malay spicy rice and beef dish served on a banana leaf from the cooked food deli section, while Richard decided a regular Cadburys chocolate was all he was ready for. The food selection in the shop were really diverse and interesting, and just the number of varied beverages you can buy in a can are amazing! I am still trying to figure out what 'yoghurt flavoured water' is though, as it sounds quite vile to me...
After our small dinner we went out the other side of the centre as night was falling and found some beautiful fountains. The nightlife was starting up and all the city lights were lit and looking beautiful. We were starting to really settle in and get to grips with the many wonders and differences of South East Asia.
We sat in the warm evening heat and watched dark clouds forming, with some thunder rumbling and then huge drops started falling, which soon became a proper thunderstorm. So we headed back into the centre for some more window-shopping. We found an Italian Ice-cream parlour, and after the heat and not much other food all day I chose a delicious Pistachio nut ice cream. Very yummy!
After the brief downpour we ventured further a field and walked around the neighbourhood. We found lots of bars and restaurants etc. After walking for quite sometime we decided to have a drink and rest at a roadside pub. This was staffed by Chinese looking girls, as opposed to the reserved and formal Moslem girls seen in the rest of the shops. These Chinese girls were overtly friendly, and seemed to be offering more than just drinks. Which I am sure they were! We ordered a beer, after thinking the bar lady had said it costs 1.40 Malaysian Ringitts. (About R3), considering a coke costs Rm1, we thought that was pretty reasonable. Luckily we only ordered 1 initially. Since it actually cost Rm14 (nearly R30!). We decided one was enough and nursed it for a while.
We were exhausted after that and very ready for some rest. We figured out how to get back to our hotel directly, without retracing our steps, and using only 1 train and a short walk, with a detour through the Chinese market to see it at night. It was much more vibrant and colourful, and quite a contrast from our first impression in the 'early' morning. After that we tumbled into bed and only woke up at 11:30am completely missing breakfast.
We hit the streets looking for something to eat but were still finding the food near our hotel a bit dodgy looking and smelly. Eventually we settled on a good old McDonalds coffee and I found some Malaysian Style croissants at one of the uncommon bakery shops. Everything there is different! We were still wary of stomach ailments and weren't yet ready to really dive into more authentic South East Asian cuisine.
We then found a 6-storey indoor flea market with everything you can imagine and spent a few hours there just looking at everything, and then went back to China Town to get a last look.
Sadly our time in KL was over, just as we started adapting and we had to go back to the hotel to leave for the airport. We were met by a friendly (and real) taxi driver, who took us from our hotel doorstep to the airport for the same price at the express train, but with lots of intelligent and interesting conversation on the way. He told us our previous 'taxi driver' was most likely after a quick buck, and no harm would have befallen us... we are still not sure about that.
Once back at KLIA we boarded our plane for Thailand - the Land of Smiles.
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