I have posted a lot of photos of my travels, but I’ve never really written about them, so here’s one from 2013.
August 6, early morning
Facebook chat
A: So…where are we going to travel?!
K: I would like to go to some place exotic.
(browsing webpages of all sorts of airlines)
August 6, 13:25
e-mail:
Dear …
I would like to check availability and prices for 2 passengers to…
Sincerely,
A.
August 6, 19:55
Dear A.
I made the reservation and will send the invoice shortly …
Regards,
Estravel
November 12, 23:04
And so we were at Istanbul airport waiting for our next flight..
By the eve of November 13, we had landed in Malaysia and hopped on a train with the direction to Kuala Lumpur city center. We knew we had to get off at the last stop and then find the monorail stop to get to our hotel. Monorail is pretty much like a tram, but it’s driving on one rail..hence the mono before the rail..and at least in Kuala Lumpur it drove high above cars, highways, people..and at times above smaller houses.
Take note that at this point we only had one tiny map printed straight from googlemaps…and that was supposed to lead us to our destination.
We felt a little anxious as we left the first train – after all, we had not yet felt the Malaysian air or seen the local life. We were walking towards the station door, waiting for the moment ’til the cool air-conditioned air ends and we “officially” set our feet on the ground of Kuala Lumpur.
“My God, how warm!” we both said at the exact same time, followed by a satisfied burst of laughter.
As I was standing in the ticket queue, I remember myself thinking, “I wonder how well the local speak English..and if they at all understand what I am asking them”. All I said to the clerk was: “2 tickets to Bukit Nana (stop near our hotel), the same time holding up two fingers of my left arm, just in case, hoping he would understand me better if I do so. And a moment later we were on the monorail. I guess he understood.
Location – bewilderment! This is exactly how we felt when we were looking to the left, then to the right and drilled our eyes deep into the printed “map”. Where are we supposed to go now?!?! 10 seconds did not go past, when the 1st local came up to us and asked if he could help us.
15 minutes later we were on the elevator, heading up towards the 28. floor of our hotel. We had arrived.
Chinatown
Second day in KL – November 14
The 10 o’clock alarm clock wake up smoothly became a wake up by the maid’s doorbell – about around noon…
Got dressed and headed for an adventure!
We had previously read from books and webpages that Malaysian traffic culture does not exactly favor pedestrians, but we had not prepared for it to be that bad. The appropriate Estonian way of “step on the road without looking while on pedestrian crossing” does not work in this country even when all the traffic lights are green. If by any change you manage to make the cars stop behind the red light, the scooters (which you could usually see about a couple of dozens on the same picture) did not obey any regulations. Even when it was green light for us, we ran across the road, because it was impossible to tell if they are about to drive or consider letting us cross.
We were heading toward the Batu caves. About 35-minute metro ride from Kuala Lumpur city center. We met our first local friends at the entrance, where little monkeys came up to say “hi”..and they had set their mind on retrieving the nuts I had in my hand..by any means necessary…and at one point they even tried to hijack my backpack that was just next to me..
To enter the Batu caves, we needed to go up 272 steps. And without any trouble whatsoever we made it up (read: 6 beverage breaks + momentary pauses for photographs..yeah..for photographs..).
Up there, we found an incredible view of Kuala Lumpur. We could even see the Petronas Twin towers there.
There were several different caves. At one point we made it to the entrance of a completely dark cave. One could enter with a group lead by a local guide and as the cave was pitch black, everyone would be handed a flash light. We were discussing whether to go or not..right up to the point when we saw a sign “one of the world’s most poisonous spider lives here”. Walk into a pitch black cave with spiders?! How about NO!
November 18 (7th day)
Having slept only 3-4 hours, I hear something ringing through my sleep. Wake up call – it’s 5:35 A.M. Half-asleep I look for the off-button in the dark night, eyes squinted from the bright light of my phone. I crawl out from under the blanket into the freezing room (the air-conditioning!).
It’s November and it is about 30 degrees Celsius, even in this early morning. Well, not in our room, so we got dressed and headed out to the warm. We had about an hour and a half until the bus departed, but as we did not know the city that well, we wanted to get there in plenty of time.
Wow, it’s hot. We had been walking for about 3 minutes and had sweat falling down our back as a little personal waterfall.
Before we could enter the bus station, several people “asked” (polite way to say “yell”) us “where do you want to go?”, “come and buy the ticket from us”, “Singapore, Taman Negara – wherever. Buy the ticket from us”. And they did it all at once. Luckily we already had a ticket, so we just walked to our departure point…but talk about obtrusive marketing….
A moment later we were on the bus, driving up to the Cameron Highlands..reminiscing about the conversation we had the night before “What happens when we arrive?”, taking into consideration that we had no map of the village we were heading to..or any knowledge of how far the bus stop is located and how far the tea plantations, strawberry farms and butterfly houses are from there. the last sentence before going to bed was: Well, I guess we’ll step off the bus. Look to the right. Look to the left. Then look at each other – with glowing question marks above our heads – so what now?
You know that cozy sleep you fall into on long rides with a bus? Well, ours was shaken off by our bus driver, who was frantically beeping every other second. It turns out it’s a local custom and precaution to beep when you’re driving on a narrow and curvy mountain road, so the vehicle driving your way, would hear you coming. Thanks for the heads up. And so we drove on..for an hour and a half..beeping every couple of seconds. and you’re wrong if you think that despite the narrow and curvy road and the ravine right beside us, the driver would slow down..luckily we made it..
And so we stepped off the bus in a small village called Tanah Rata. Looked to the left. Looked to the right. And then both burst out laughing. So seriously, what happens now?! The weather was warm and sunny, but a bit chillier than in KL. We walked down the main street and soon found a little tourist info “center”, where we could by a map of the city and surroundings for a couple of ringgits (local currency).
Our first instinct was to walk. From birds view the tea plantation was only about 5 km away – a perfect walk. After walking uphill for about 500 meters, we gave up, turned back and decided to use the local transport as we had only a few hours before our bus headed back. We did not understand the bus system, so decided for a taxi as we had read that many locals use it for it cheap prices. But first we stopped in the parking lot to discuss if it was a good idea – after all, we were 2 blonde snow-whites, from the other side of the world in a distant place. So you can understand the need for rationalization. As there was really no other good option and we had already come all this way, we went a talked to one of the taxi drivers. And I think it was one of the best decisions we made on that trip. For a 3-hour taxi ride we agreed the price of 75 ringgits (which is about 25 euros). If only taxis in Tallinn had these prices..
We probably got the best taxi driver ever as he was more like a personal guide to us. We showed the driver the places we would like to got on the map, and he then decided the best route. PS! 5 km birds-eye is not 5 km in the highlands. The driver told us about the history of the city, how he has worked in Singapore and how he ended up in the Highlands and after having worked at a tea plantation, he told us how tea is really made. Making photos through the window, one could hear us say “it’s so cool”, “it soooo beautiful” etc., because the nature and views in Cameron highlands are magnificent. And so, again accompanied by the beeping, we headed even higher.
At one point the driver said: “Something is wrong with my horn“ , and the only thing I could reply was: „it’s getting tired of all the beeping“. And so we all laughed for a while…:)
FYI:
– If the bus driver asks you if your destination is “k-l-si-si”, he is not speaking half Spanish. It means KLCC as in Kuala Lumpur City Center.
– If the security guy at Petronas Twin Towers looks at you and starts moon-walking, you’re probably too pale.
– If you’re too pale, you might consider yourself a “celebrity” (read: a wonder of the world), as the locals will ask if they can take a picture with you..just on picture…several times..
– If you say you’re from Europe, they might ask you how did you discover this place (meaning Malaysia)..
– 15 minutes of sun without sunscreen equals sunburn.
A completely silent lightning at Sepang coast.
But in short – it was a fun and adventure filled trip! Would definitely go back any time!
PS! I posted some postcards on November 15, 2013. The first one arrived Estonia on January 14, 2014, with a big red stamp in the middle saying “Missent to Kenya”.
AT VISUALS PHOTOGRAPHY 