Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1

Day 17

I woke up very early. I went to the computers and the guy from reception was also still sleeping on the couch. Soon I got company when other hostel guest, a girl from Canada, woke up too. Receptionist guy also woke up when someone called him. We had breakfast together with the girl and enjoyed morning sun while talking about travelling. Soon other guests started to woke up also and I then started back my things up and get ready for new adventure in a new country. I said goodbye to other hostel guests and then I hunted for a real legal taxi. It took some until a real one passed me.

In Indonesian airports you should always remember that there is a tax to be paid when you leave from them. I forgot this in Bali airport and changed my all money to Malaysian ringgit before the point where you pay the airport tax. Thankfully it was ok to pay with ringgit too. I was hungry so I was looking for a restaurant where I could pay with card because I didn’t have any Indonesian rupiah anymore or US dollars, Singapore dollars, Euros, Australian dollars or British pounds which were ok in the airport restaurants but credit cards were not. Finally I found one café which accepted card payment. One good thing about the airport: toilets have aquariums.

My flight arrived to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in the afternoon. At the airport I was surprised when they took my finger prints at the passport checking point. Later I heard that they only do this in the low-cost terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport. I bought ticket to Skybus from a ticket booth inside the airport but it was quite hard to find the bus from the airport parking lot. At one point of the bus ride I thought the bus was going to break down when it suddenly made loud noise and smell of smoke came inside. Other passengers looked worried too. But in the end we all got safely to KL Sentral. And in there I finally met my friend Mason. He was meeting me with an American guy called Jon. Jon was couchsurfing at Mason’s place and he ended up hanging with us for my whole stay in Malaysia.

As I was horribly hungry without any proper food for whole day I ended up eating at the closest place from me at the KL Sentral: the McDonald’s. After food we went to Mason’s place. It was New Year’s Eve so we watched the New Year’s celebrations from TV and talked about everything what have happened since we last time met. Jon went to get Indian food for all of us and Mason had bottle of white wine so we had small New Year’s party. You could see the Petronas Towers from the building where Mason lived so we followed the official fireworks show from the balcony. So I started the year 2012 in Malaysia and I already knew that my trip in Malaysia would be unforgettable.

Day 18

On my first whole day in Malaysia and for the celebration of New Year I and Mason decided to get a haircut. My hair was definitely too long for this weather. We went to some shopping centre where Mason’s favourite hairdresser was located. Jon came with us too but while we were cutting our hair he was shopping. After the haircut we went to eat at IKEA. Eating at IKEA has become tradition for me and Mason. And I have never seen so full IKEA restaurant, Malaysians clearly love this place.

After lunch we took a metro to KLCC. Mason and Jon first looked for clothes and then we walked in the KLCC Park and marvelled the Petronas Towers in their nightlights. There was exhibition of United Buddy Bears in front of Pavilion shopping centre. I have seen this exhibition before in Helsinki with Mason so visiting this exhibition is also almost tradition for us. From the inside the Pavilion had amazing Christmas decorations still on display. Last thing for the day we had dinner in an Italian restaurant.

Day 19 

I don’t have any memories of this day. I have only 3 pictures from this day and those are evening views from Mason’s apartment. Most likely we stayed the whole day inside and probably ate somewhere in the neighbourhood.