On the plane again…Stop 3 Part 3 (The last for this trip!)

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Feb 052010
 
From KL, I took a short flight to Kuching, Sarawak located on the Borneo island, but still a part of Malaysia. The remainder of my trip was spent with a friend in this area. Kuching means “Cat city” in Malay, so there were a lot of cat statues around the city. I don’t have too much to say about my impressions or daily activities. Most of the time was spent exploring on the back of a scooter and seeing the sights. The weather was fairly unpredictable as it was the wet season there and not many tourists or activities were seen around town. So, here are some photos and more can be found (eventually) on my main website. Enjoy!

 
One of the many cat statues
A poor mangy kitten on the street, but so cute!
Museum or something…
Chinese temple
Night view of the boardwalk
Top Spot food court…poor fish….
Food court – was really good seafood, actually!
One day kayaking in the highlands
 
A Malaysian night
While I’m definitely glad I made a visit here, I’m not sure that I would go again…, but you never know! It was a good holiday and I’m already thinking about the next adventure!
Until next time…
-T

On the plane again…Stop 3 Part 2

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Feb 042010
 

Feeling refreshed after a good long sleep, I awoke ready to explore outside of the city for a little bit by visiting the Batu Caves. It’s a mere half hour bus ride from the city centre to the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur to climb 272 steps to the caves that hold a Hindu shrine. I don’t really know much about the history, but Phyllisse recommended that I see it and I figured it was a good chance for me to get out and explore on my own a bit.

Entrance to the Batu Caves
Shrine inside caves
Monkey attraction

While finding the right bus was a bit of a challenge, I did eventually find it and made it out to the cave. It was an interesting experience and while I think the monkeys are perhaps the main attraction to the area, I’m told that the attraction is really the shrine and the Thaipusum festival draws quite the crowd (which I thankfully missed by a week as I’d hate to visit anywhere with thousands of other people…).

After seeing the caves, I ventured back into the city centre and enjoyed Chinatown a bit more.

Petaling Street (Chinatown)

In the evening, I met up with Phyllise for dinner and she showed me around Bukit Bintang area, which is part of the Golden Triangle section of the city. This area is known as the main shopping and entertainment area where you might find more of the pubs and tourists.

Chinese New Year decorations inside mall
Food stalls

While I really enjoyed getting to see the city of KL through the eyes of a couple of local ladies, I was happy to be escaping the city for my next destination in hopes of seeing a bit more of a quieter and natural-side of the country.

More to come…

-T

PS More pictures to be found on main website.

On the plane again…Stop 3 Part 1

 General, Meanderings Abroad  No Responses »
Jan 272010
 

It only took me about 24 hours to get to Malaysia from Hawaii, but I made it! I’ve wanted to see Kuala Lumpur for a while now, though I can’t remember what caused me to have an interest in the city initially. With vacation still left to use up, hitting this Southeast Asian country seemed like a good idea. πŸ˜€

Upon arrival, I caught the KLIA train in to KL Sentral station to drop off my bags as I had decided to take advantage of Couchsurfing and couldn’t meet my host until later in the evening. However, through Couchsurfing, I met Nicole who had contacted me about staying at my place when she visits Abu Dhabi. So, she kindly agreed to meet with me and spent most of the day driving me around the city showing me the sites.

Thean Hou Temple
Merdeka
The National Mosque
The famous Petronas Towers
It was great to get oriented to the city of Kuala Lumpur via car as I was kept from having to traipse around on the trains in my very tired state.
I finally was able to meet my host, Phyllisse, in the evening, but was so exhausted that we went to her place where I got a short nap and got up for quick Chinese food dinner near her place, then went back and crashed out! More pictures and update for the following day to come!
Until then,
-T
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