I landed in Kuala Lumpur at around 7:00 this morning. I was actually kind of sad on my flight - we were flying over parts of the world that I've never been over before but I was not near a window AND it was night, so I didn't get to see anything. Our pilot had to engage in some evasive maneuvers over Iraq but everything else went smoothly. (JUST KIDDING - we were not attacked over Iraq, although we did fly over it.)
KLIA, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, is a wonderful facility and apparently has a reputation as one of the world's nicest. It had free wi-fi, so after passing through immigration and customs, I internetted for a while and had a chat with Shelley. It was also still early enough that I figured I wouldn't be able to check in to my hostel.
I took an express train from the airport into the central train station, and then light rail to my hostel. My hostel is in the Chinatown area, which is all decorated and getting geared up for Chinese New Year, which is February 3, when we will ring in the Year of the Rabbit. (Note to self: find accommodation soon for that weekend.)
Overall, my first impressions of the city have been incredibly positive. It's generally pretty clean, and my two experiences with public transportation have been easy - I took the monorail to the restaurant/shopping district where I'm now sitting, waiting for my meal. My hostel is OK but not ideal - seems to be populated mostly by skinny barefoot dudes with dreadlocks. It seems safe enough and I've already paid for tonight, but I may look for somewhere new tomorrow. My original plan was to not stay in the city long, but I think I may have to revise that and spend some time exploring here. I feel a little guilty - my preconceived idea was that this city would be crowded, dirty, and full of touts, but so far everything has been quite pleasant. Technically, it is the "rainy season" here, but my experience today seems to indicate that this means "rain in short bursts which can be waited out under an awning" rather than "constant torrential rain". The rainstorms are actually somewhat helpful in that they help reduce the humidity slightly, for a little while. Right now it's about 85 degrees, with 89 percent humidity, according to Weather Underground.
My dinner has arrived - I ordered a fairly safe seeming chicken curry but little did I know that it would be seasoned with Guatemalan insanity peppers - my mouth is ON FIRE.
Tomorrow I will continue to explore the city and probably go up in the Petronas towers to have a look around. I am now 14 hours ahead of CST, so hopefully I can chat and catch up with some people that I haven't been able to coordinate with recently!
KLIA, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, is a wonderful facility and apparently has a reputation as one of the world's nicest. It had free wi-fi, so after passing through immigration and customs, I internetted for a while and had a chat with Shelley. It was also still early enough that I figured I wouldn't be able to check in to my hostel.
I took an express train from the airport into the central train station, and then light rail to my hostel. My hostel is in the Chinatown area, which is all decorated and getting geared up for Chinese New Year, which is February 3, when we will ring in the Year of the Rabbit. (Note to self: find accommodation soon for that weekend.)
Overall, my first impressions of the city have been incredibly positive. It's generally pretty clean, and my two experiences with public transportation have been easy - I took the monorail to the restaurant/shopping district where I'm now sitting, waiting for my meal. My hostel is OK but not ideal - seems to be populated mostly by skinny barefoot dudes with dreadlocks. It seems safe enough and I've already paid for tonight, but I may look for somewhere new tomorrow. My original plan was to not stay in the city long, but I think I may have to revise that and spend some time exploring here. I feel a little guilty - my preconceived idea was that this city would be crowded, dirty, and full of touts, but so far everything has been quite pleasant. Technically, it is the "rainy season" here, but my experience today seems to indicate that this means "rain in short bursts which can be waited out under an awning" rather than "constant torrential rain". The rainstorms are actually somewhat helpful in that they help reduce the humidity slightly, for a little while. Right now it's about 85 degrees, with 89 percent humidity, according to Weather Underground.
My dinner has arrived - I ordered a fairly safe seeming chicken curry but little did I know that it would be seasoned with Guatemalan insanity peppers - my mouth is ON FIRE.
Tomorrow I will continue to explore the city and probably go up in the Petronas towers to have a look around. I am now 14 hours ahead of CST, so hopefully I can chat and catch up with some people that I haven't been able to coordinate with recently!
yes, my understanding of Kuala Lumpur is that it is relatively sophisticated. In addition to Petronus Towers, I knew of the city from my time at Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, when my planning dept was in the running for a major development plan. Never knew how it turned out. Have fun! Remember - bread, not water, to ease those fiery peppers.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the earlier misspelling of Petronas: am getting Harry Potter patronus and this mixed up.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you have an opportunity to take a trip to the top of the Petronas Towers!
ReplyDelete