KL&KK: The First Episode

I am back. After almost two weeks of sleeping in different beds and under sometimes unusual conditions it was nice to have the king-size bed back tonight here in Penang. But that was probably the only thing I missed and that I was looking forward to see here “at home”.
I really had a great trip and did so many things that I could fill at least half a book. That’s why I will start today and see how far I get until my fingers are tired.

We started on December 19th a day that seems to be ages away. We took the night bus to get from Penang to KL where we arrived at 5am. After dropping the bags at the hostel (very nice one I can only recommend named“The Haven”) we decided to go to the Twin Towers. Due to the Holiday it was not possible to go up and we went to the KL Tower (Fernsehturm). Since we weren’t able to find the entrance (aka passed it without noticing) we just went around the whole thing once. As we arrived there it was still closed and we had to wait until we could go up. It was great though and it is the best way to see KL. Since I already did the bus tour before I knew most places and could locate them easily. The German digital tour guide was great as well and her pronunciation was good for quite some laughs.
After that I bought myself a new digital camera as an early present and we ended the day playing pool at the lobby. Next day w e went into the new mall in KL named “Pavilion” which is probably mall number six and totally unnecessary. But they had an A&W restaurant there and I was able to get a Root Beer floater for the first time since my stay in MN.
At night we went to Julia’s place and had some Punsch and German Cookies and the best view of the Twin Towers you could imagine.

On the 21st we went for dinner to “The Ship” a restaurant that also exists in Penang. They serve nice steaks and also German size beers which was very nice to have. On the way out we grabbed some more beers and saw the car you see below standing in front of a hotel. A car like this one I can’t even resist and so we had to look at it and take pictures of it until somebody mentioned that it was already passed midnight and my birthday. Kind of funny I think and the first time I had my birthday on a sidewalk.
Later we went into “The Beach” which is a nice place but they don’t have any birthday specials (bad for Schwaben) and drinks are quite expensive. Anyway it was great fun.

Next morning to my surprise I didn’t have any problems getting up because we had to go to the airport very early because it takes about 2hours to get there from the hostel (its 80km outside of KL). After having a great McDo lunch there we entered the plane and were off to Kota Kinabalu the capital of the state of Sabah. After 2h of flight we arrived there and were welcomed by some nice rain and fog. The hostel we decided to go to in the taxi turned out to be the best. They served beer for 4RM!! You can’t find it as cheap anywhere in Malaysia. They also had Astro TV and a great lobby with nice couches, open windows and a great staff.
In KK we didn’t find a lot of other tourists and the people seemed very surprised as we entered the market area to get some food at the Hawkers as we are used to in Penang. The food was very good and cheap. People there were a lot more relaxed and almost no girl was wearing a scarf. Every night the streets next to the sea changed into a big market where you could buy anything from pants, shoes, jewelry, fruits and fish. The 23rd we used to organize the next couple of days that lay ahead of us and we actually made it to get some tickets to stay overnight at the Laban Rata hut on Mount Kinabalu on the 24th. As we found out later some other people we met had problems to find a place booking already six month in advance!!!! We also had to get some sweatshirts, gloves and raincoats with proved to be worth the 9RM we spent for them. We also did some sightseeing which ended to get us lost somewhere since there is nothing to see anyways. We did run into a church though and listened to the choir practicing for Christmas Eve.

But nonetheless after watching some European football including Liverpool, ManU and the game Inter vs. AC Milan I went to bed and we left KK the next morning at 8am on our way to the highest point of Southeast Asia.
But more about that in the next entry.

See you soon

Robert