Kuala Lumpur

We finally made it to Kuala Lumpur yesterday afternoon. The journey from Singapore to KL was quite long and exhausting, but of course, lots of fun.
We left Aunt Sandy and Uncle Vic's house bright and early on Tuesday morning. First we had to catch a public bus to the MRT (rail) station. We then got on an MRT for one stop, got of and transfered to another MRT, rode that MRT to our final stop, got off and got on another public bus that goes to Johor Bahru in Malaysia, got off the bus at Singapore immigration/customs, got back on the bus after we had our passports stamped, got back on the bus, and then got off the bus again at Malaysia customs/immigration, got our passports stamped there and then rushed to the train station to catch the express train to Kuala Lumpur. Whew... All that while carrying 30 pound backpacks. Unfortunatley, we ran as the KL express train left the station arriving about 1 minute after it departed. Darn. Apparently the express train to KL leaves from Johor Bahru at 9 am, not 9:30 am, as the Lonely Planet instructed us. I guess you can't count on Lonely Planet for everything. All that work for nothing! I was really looking forward to taking the train, so I was slightly disappointed. Both of us were dripping sweat by this point, and it was only 9 in the morning. We decided to regroup for a while and get some Malaysian money (called Ringit). After a quick visit to the ATM we found a street side Roti Pratha stand where we fueled up with two roti with egg's each. So delicious! Especially delicious after all that getting on and off buses.
Finally we figured out how to get to the bus station (Larkin Station) by taking a city bus. Everything turned out fine because we quickly found a bus that went to KL for 30 RM.

We arrived in KL with no guidebook and no idea what we were doing or where we were going. I knew that there was some afforadable hostels in Chinatown, so thats where we decided to head towards. A man quickly approached us, describing his fantastic guesthouse. Both Eric and I were pretty weary at this point, so we decided to go check it out because the price was right (25 RM a night!) The guesthouse, called Wheeler's, turned out to be suitable for our tastes so we sealed the deal and settled into our new room. As the guesthouse owner opened the door to our room he said: "I hope you like pink!!!" in a very enthusiastic tone as he flung the door open. Our 25 ringit room is truely pink. The room is 8X10 and comes equipped with a full sized bed, on small table, and a fan. The sheets and pillows on the bed are extremely pink. The color of pepto-bismol. The walls are painted purple and pink. Yikes. This room is a 7-year-old Barbie lover's dream! Oh well... Maybe the color will be soothing on our stomachs if we eat anything disagreeable. Anyway, our room doesn't have a bathroom attached but there are shared bathrooms for the whole floor. Two toilets, two cold showers, and two sinks. There is always an interesting bunch at these sorts of grungy guesthouses. Lots of backpackers from around the world, usually between the ages of 19 and 25. There seems to be some people who live in the little rooms too.

We've spent the last two days getting aquainted with this city. Kuala Lumpur feels like a mix between Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, and Bangkok. The high rises and financial districts are similar to Singapore, the crazy traffic and seeming disorganization is similar to Bangkok, and alot of the store colonial-esque crumbling store fronts and architecture reminds me of Ho Chi Minh City.
Yesterday we walked to the Petronas Towers and gaped at their height. We spent hours walking through the streets yesterday looking at everything.
We started the day today by finding a little street stall near Chinatown where they were cooking up some mean looking Roti-Prathas. We each ordered two. It is fun watching them make the roti. The vendor starts with a small ball of dough and then stretches it until it is almost paper thin. Then he cracks and egg and drizzles the raw egg in the middle. Then he folds the roti prata over itself a few times so there are multiple layers and then puts the whole thing on the grill. It creates a crispy layered chewy crepe and is served with a small bowl of curry for dipping. We also ordered coffees from the next door beverage stall. The Malaysian coffee is different than the Singaporean coffee, but still good. Apparently the coffee we got was "Gingseng Coffee" whatever that is...
Tomorrow we are going to go to one of the biggest wet markets in KL called the Padu Market. The plan is to leave to Penang the next day by train (if we make it!). We are going to our first WWOOF farm on Monday/Tuesday of next week, but we just got word that there is a train strike in Thailand so the train we were planning on taking from Butterworth, Malaysia to Bangkok is indefinitely suspended. Hopefully the buses are still working!