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Arrived at Kuala Lumpur around 8pm and had no idea where to go. Before my bus arrived to take me to KL I went on the Internet for 2 seconds to at least get a name of a hostel off hostelworld.com and made a mental note of a place called "Sunshine Bedz" (highly rated). So when i arrived in KL centre I was pretty near an Internet cafe so went in to ask directions/look it up online, and turns out a guy overheard me asking and he knew the owner! So he kindly said if I wait 15 mins then he'd take me. In the mean time I managed to Skype mum and dad which was SO good to see them! Mum was on an iPad and so she could move around with it and so gave me a tour of the house haha (never seen my room so tidy).
The guys name was Zach and he worked as a security guard in a posh hotel in KL (tried to blag a cheap room but he wasn't having any of it). As he dropped me off at the hostel he gave me his email address and offered to be a tour guide around KL if I needed one which was nice of him. Sunshine Bedz seemed super central and on one of the biggest roads, but once inside and upstairs it didnt seem like it as you couldn't hear a thing. Seeing as I hadn't even read any reviews or looked at pics it was a pretty good choice - I was back to Japan standard hostels yayyy ;) Lovely and clean and in a female dorm with LOCKERS at long last. I dumped my stuff and than plonked myself down in the common area to watch the film Taken that someone had put on the tv. I got chatting to a girl named Natalia from Brazil who had been in KL for a couple days and was going to Malaka tomorrow with 2 others and asked if I'd like to join them :) I met the other two later on - Jose (also from Brazil but not travelling with Natalia) and Gary (from Walsall near Birmingham but worked in OZ for 2 years).
The next day I caught a train and then bus to Malaka with Gary, natalia and José. It was a Monday and for some reason most of the main places and museums were closed :/ In all honesty I hadn't looked into going to Malaka before the others had asked me and so i hadn't read up anything about the area so didnt know what to expect. All i knew was it was extremely hot and wanted to sit down at every opportunity! There was an old open air church-like building which you could walk around (one of the only places that wasn't closed but probably because there wasn't a door they could close. Or roof.) A guy was busking inside, playing guitar and singing and was actually really good. Then a little chinese girl came up and was dancing along next to him so he went from singing malaysian to playing twinkle twinkle little star & humpty dumpty for her!
By the time we left here it was so hot that I bought a fan. We managed to get into a museum but was so hot/tired/delirious at this point that everything just seemed funny - Jose and I laughed at some suspicious looking transgendered mannequins for a while and then sat under the air con.
When we made it back to KL later that day it was around 8 oclock. Natalia felt ill so had gone to bed and Jose had started watching a film (giant tv in communal area and catalogues of films to watch) so Gary said he'd come with me as I went for an explore. I knew it was the beginning of the end for me when I accidentally came across a Topshop, Starbucks, MAC and Marc Jacobs all within 2 minutes of each other... all my ideas of coming travelling and returning home less materialistic seemed to just vanish on the spot as I realised I hadn't been SHOPPINGshopping in the 3 months I'd been out here and for months leading up to my trip back home (the joys of saving). Luckily it was night so they were closed, but there was always tomorrow...
When we got back to the hostel a woman from New Zealand had arrived and was sharing the female dorm. She was in her late 50s and had been working in England as a care worker, before travelleing through asia on her way back home to NZ. She was really lovely and extremely chatty but soo loud - one of those people who have no grasp on any sort of volume control, which is both cringey and funny. She asked where I was from so I said near Liverpool (I've found it much easier to say this rather than being more specific) and she said/yelled "where's ya accent gone", so I said I didn't have much of a scouse accent and then she asked why it was called scouse and whether it was because we were 'dockys' and all on the dole. Ok... She then spoke/yelled to Gary asking his story and he explained he'd been working as a gardener at Ayers Rock for a couple months before travelling OZ and she yelled "WELL WHERE'VE YA MUSCLES GONE THEN EH" !!!
I was only in KL for a couple days before catching my flight up to Korea and to be honest it was nice just to be back in a busy city that was was fairly Westernised for once (is that really bad to say that??) I passed quite a lot of time just wandering around and sitting with a coffee and people watching. I maaay have been shopping on one of the days - but I had budgeted for stuff like this so it was fine (at least I told myself that!). I got to view the famous Patronas twins towers, I didn't go up them however because it turns out you book your tickets with an allocated time slot to go up and they had all gone by the time I had got there, but I got some sweet pictures from the ground eitherway :) I was very tempted to give that Zach a call (guy who'd shown me to the hostel) to show me around the city, but I wasn't sure what the situation/etiquette would be in that situation. Would he want payment? How much do I give? Etc etc so I decided against it in the end.
The hostel is normally run by women who works shifts and are lovely (they make a point of remembering your name, whereas a majority of places you are just another bum in a bed) but the day before I left the owner of hostel turned up - Patrick Jones! He was Malaysian but apparently makes an effort to come in and see visitors if their surname is jones! Before he arrived the lady on reception called me over and said the owner wanted to meet me, it felt like I was back in school because immediately I presumed I'd done something wrong and felt a bit sick haha. He was really funny and told me I was the 7th Jones he'd had stay in 18 months (maybe how long they'd been open?), and then made me sign the wall! - they had an area of wall by the TV which has writings of thanks etc where travellers have signed.
The next morning i was up super early to get to the airport. I was flying from the small of the 2 airports in KL and so had I catch an hour 1/2 bus journey to get there. I remember on the way I saw two immigration police cars go zooming past and then a big green truck with a caged back and you could see loads of people inside! Ooerr.
- comments
Helen P. Walsall is near Wolverhampton, not Birmingham! Lol. Love reading your blog Sarah, your mum gave me the link :-) Great to hear you're having such wonderful adventures. Lots of love xxx
Hilbre Stafford Hey Sas!! Loved this installment. I wouldn't worry about wanting to go shopping, remember I work in a shop and shop pretty but everyday! hahaha People ask me about my accent all the time too! that girl sounds hilarious! hope you're having a great time xxxxxx
Alma Just caught up with you again Sarah, it's great reading about all your adventures. Hope you keep on enjoying yourself. Lots of love as always.xxx