Day 1 - Arrival in Kuala Lumpur (3/7/06)

[gemfyre]

Quick note - some of this is written in notes, because I didn't have time to write more or couldn't be bothered.

Plane
Middle aisle seats, oh well, it was nighttime.
Hot towels not hot
Good radio channels not available, nothing in English for the economy passengers. :(
Air in planes is terrible, thin and dry, sore throat, thirsty, hard to breathe.
Slept fitfully.

I used to wonder why dad whinged so much about take-off and landing. But I understand now. On landing the pressure changes were quite painful and just dizzying on takeoff.

First cultural experience – a squat toilet. The hose things are weird. The lack of toilet paper in some toilets is weirder.

Drivers in KL are insane, especially the motorcyclists. But amazingly there are few crashes/deaths.

New birds so far today –

First bird IDed – House Crow, acting like a nightjar beneath a streetlight at first light.
Common Mynah
House Swift
Osprey?
Spotted Dove?

When we arrived and went to get our bags a hotel guy told us that he’d take care of it. I guess it’s one of the services provided by hotels. But now it’s been an hour or so, we’ve had breakfast and our luggage STILL isn’t at our room. That’s not a service, that’s an inconvenience.

Breakfast was okay, a lot of the stuff was cold. None of the foreign food was labelled so I we had NO idea what it was, which is a bummer because I want to try new stuff, but I’d like to know what it is.

Hah, baggage just arrived thinking we were checking out when we’ve just checked IN. *rolls eyes*

Big cities and crowds just don’t appeal to me. I think I’ll much prefer Kuching.

The Petronas Towers, which we can see from our window (26th floor), however are beautiful shining silver (the outside is all glass and stainless steel). Almost ephemeral against the grimy old buildings. Reminds me of the ivory tour from Neverending Story.

Petronas Towers The view from our hotel window (26th floor). The towers would twinkle at night, very pretty.

I hope my ears will be okay for roller coasters. Stupid badly pressurised plane.

So we did the basic city tour. Not bad, saw long-tailed macaques on one of the hills, lots of turtles in a pond and lots of fancy buildings. And a Rajah Blue butterfly. Visted the King’s residence, Hindu Temple, Mosque, National Monument, Pewter Factory and Batik Factory.

While at the King's Residence police suddenly appeared on the road with sirens blaring controlling traffic and the guards were moving all about as the gates opened and two cars drove out. One was apparently the king off for a shopping trip or something.

At the mosque you are required to wear a long gown and headscarf, inside the guards suddenly started to yell and blow their whistles. One group of tourists had removed their headscarfs to take photos (photos are permitted in most areas of the mosque) and completely ignored the guards requests to put them back on. Sheesh, even if it's not your religion, you're in their place, show some respect. They were promptly shown out of the temple.

$150 AuD – 402RM

Dinner at “Kenny Rogers Roasters”. Was just a quarter chicken with various salads, and a rather yummy chocolate muffin.

The toilets here use WAY too much water. But showers are awesome, they’re like sleep. :)

Bedtime around 8:30. Pretty buggered really.

Ack, I have to deal with dad’s 7-on-the-richter-scale snoring now. At least Matt is quieter volume wise, just more wheezy. Dad doesn’t need to be snoring in my ear to be a pain in the butt.

More photos from Day 1 (and I may upload even more later) can be found here - http://pics.livejournal.com/gemfyre/gallery/0000c5dt

Comments

[miwasatoshi.livejournal.com]

Squat toilets are terrible for those of us with bad knees and ankles ... ugh.

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

And I really wonder what wheelchair bound people do! Doesn't seem to be such a thing as a disabled toilet there.

[miwasatoshi.livejournal.com]

Hah, disabled access in Asian countries? You're kidding, right?

I shouldn't be so cynical, actually, especially given that I'm Filipino, but after watching the near complete disregard of public access for disabled people in Japan (a first-world nation by any barometer), I have very few expectations for any other East or Southeast Asian country in that respect.

[pooxs.livejournal.com]

I've just been around Victoria and at the toilets at the 12 Apostles car parking bit there were 2/10 squat toilets for all the Asian tourists :) how civilized are we :D

also highly amusing are the signs in the toilets in the EDFAA building at UWA - along the lines of "put used toilet paper in the toilet" (all the foreign students learn English in the EDFAA building)

[pooxs.livejournal.com]

I always bring a flannel (face cloth) with me on planes, and if the air is too dry I wet it and lay it over my mouth and nose, hook it under my face mask and voila! instant air humidifier :D

I take it you've never flown before - so another hint: take lollies to suck on for take off and landing, the sucking and swallowing helps relieve the pressure in your ears. Also worth doing if it's really bad is holding your nose shut and trying to blow air out of your nose (obviously with eyes and mouth shut).

[gemfyre.livejournal.com]

I'd flown before but only on short domestic flights where the pressure isn't so bad and the air doesn't get so stale.

My mum had lollies on hand and I also do the other trick (heck, I even have to do it when going up and down Greenmount hill), but I guess longer flights fly higher so the pressure change is more intense. Strangely, the flight back was no worse than those domestic flights, so perhaps it was just my body going, "Holy crap 6 hours in a plane!" before getting used to it.