Now’s as Good a Time as Any

Metropolis

August 18th, 2007 by Greg

Getting into Malaysia wasn’t too complicated. From Singapore we took a fairly short bus trip just across the border to the city of Johor Baru, and from there another bus which brought us the rest of the way to Kuala Lumpur. The whole process took maybe 5 hours, and which was a good introduction for Juliana to life on the road.

The arrival in KL was a bit disorienting as, instead of stopping at a station, the bus pulled up to the side of the road and dropped everyone off. Fortunately, after checking a few street signs and consulting the guidebook map, I found we were very near the hostel I had booked, so we decided to hoof it. We got checked in to what I would say was one of the nicer hostels I’ve been to, and then went out to find some dinner in the area. We had some local specialties from an outdoor restaurant nearby, satay and “chicken fish”. It really did taste like chicken!

The next day we got up bright and early to get in line to take the elevator up to the sky bridge between the Petronas Towers, now the second tallest buildings in the world (surpassed by Taipei 101 in 2004). Real early. We had to be there by around 7:00 am to get in line for when the doors open at 8:00, as they only let a certain number of people in every day, and turn just as many away. We only had the one morning to go and try, so I wanted to make sure we got in, and we did, after standing in line for about 2 hours.

The elevator ride up to the sky bridge was amazingly fast, taking us to the 41st floor in a matter of seconds. Once there, we were given just a few minutes to walk across the bridge and take in the view of Kuala Lumpur. We snapped a few photos, and then were ushered back into the elevator and taken down just as quick. The whole process was very regimented and on the clock, and it seems like they could just keep the bridge open a little longer each day and not have to rush everyone through, but I guess that’s the way they want to do things.

After our tower visit we made a stop in at a local aquarium located nearby. It was a great new experience seeing fish that I now recognized and could name, after having seen them in the ocean. It made me anxious to go and do some more diving, which was our next stop. Early the next morning (3:00 am) we had to wake up and catch the long bus ride to the airport and catch a 7:00 am flight to Tawau, located on Borneo in the state of Sabah, and make our way to Semporna by bus, the jumping off point for world class diving and Sipadan.

I got a new camera in Singapore and can take photos again!
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia