Ku Ku in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I was feeling pretty burnt out from traveling in Myanmar, so going to Kuala Lumpur was a relief for me. Modern conveniences everywhere: light rail transportation, malls galore, and all the American fast food joints right around the corner! Not that the city didn't have more things to offer. I checked out the National Art Museum, Islamic Art Museum, National Mosque (pretty cool, because they actually allow non-Muslims in during off-prayer times).

But really, the best thing about KL were the people I met (in chronological order)...

1. Weizhen



I met Weizhen while staying at the Reggae Guesthouse 2 in Chinatown, KL. It was my first day there, and she was heading out to the Batu Caves by herself, so I asked if I could tag along. Even though I had been traveling alone for a while, it's always nice to make friends in new places. It turns out we were in similar places in life, so not only was it nice to meet another solo female traveler, but also nice we understood each other pretty quickly. She was visiting from Taiwan, stopping over in KL on her way to Burma (where I just came back from) so we had some tips to share over our train ride out to the caves. She ended up showing me around Chinatown and went to check out some other hostels in the area, since I didn't book enough nights at RGH2. I only hung out with Weizhen for only a day, but she left a great impression on me.


Batu Caves


Jalan Petaling, Chinatown, KL

2. Memoria



I was fortunate to have met Memoria in Koh Tao, Thailand. Who knew we would cross paths again? I didn't plan to go to Kuala Lumpur, but I'm glad I did; and even better was knowing a familiar face there. He lives in the KL area and was kind enough to take me around a couple days. First night, we went out to some local hawker stalls in a suburb of KL and had some yummy grilled cuttlefish and fish. M taught me how to eat the dish properly with the curry and veggies: scoop some curry onto the rice, top a spoon of rice with the chili sauce, pickled veggie, and fish and eat! Then eat a bit of the fresh veggie. Didn't think there was an order to it, but there was. Afterwards, we went in search for teh tarik (pulled tea), Merdeka Square, and we tried to get a good view of the KL skyline from Sky Bar. Not a shabby night at all.


Merdeka Square


Petronas Towers


The following day, we took a ride out to the Berjaya Hills and visited Colmar Tropicale, which reminded me a little bit of Leavenworth, WA, only we were in Malaysia. The drive there was gorgeous...lush green hills with nice, clean air. I couldn't believe where I was. Memoria rolled down his car top, so we had an awesome convertible ride...until the rain came in. It was pretty hilarious. We thought we could ride it out, but it started pouring and we were getting drenched. It was all good though. We made it to the top of the hill and had a nice stroll around the "neighborhood".


Colmar Tropicale, Berjaya Hills, Malaysia


3. Sunshine Bedz KL Crew



I stayed in Chinatown the first couple nights, but after seeing there was not much of a nightlife there, I decided to check out the Bukit Bintang area (more known for it's shopping) and found myself at Sunshine Bedz KL . But it wasn't just any hostel...it felt like home away from home, like I was going to my aunt's house. The staff there was awesome! Isabelle, her daughter Alexandra, and co-manager Patrick were super welcoming and fun to hang out with. Having kaya toast for breakfast and chatting with Isabelle in the morning to hanging out with Patrick and Alexandra in the wee after hours at night were definitely highlights of my stay in KL. If I ever go back there, I'd definitely stay again...or at least make a visit and say hello to the family.

4. Dave


Yes...that's a shark behind him. Did I mention this is in a club?!

I couldn't have asked for a more awesome person to hang out with on my last day in KL. After I moved to Sunshine Bedz KL, I wasn't feeling too social at the time, but knowing that my backpacker lifestyle was coming to an end soon, I decided to go hang out in the reception area. I'm glad I changed my mind, because I wouldn't have met Dave or had as much fun if I didn't! He's from Baltimore, but had just come in from Australia. We were both thinking of going to the top of the Petronas Towers, so we decided to join forces and take on KL the following day. Another American, Esther, joined us as well. We ended up ditching the 3 hr wait line and skipped over to the
KL Craft Complex, which was pretty neat (my fav were the bird traps). Afterwards, we went for some Indian food at a nearby mall food court.


Petronas (Towers Day Time)


Esther + Dave + Indian Food

After that, Dave and I snagged a pair of KL Tower tickets for later that night, then went on to the Berjaya Times Square to check out the rollercoaster. Unfortunately, you couldn't buy a ticket just to ride the coaster; you'd have to pay for the entire park fee, which was kind of pricey. Had to pass on it, even though it looked pretty fun.


Berjaya Times Square

And then...part 2 of the day: night time! It was my last night in KL so I wanted to go all out. Dave was up for it, so we started off at the KL Tower.


KL Tower. We thought the view would be nice at night, but the souvenir shops' bright lights created reflections on the windows, so we barely got a nice night view :/

We walked back to Jalan P. Ramlee to check out the bars/clubs, but they all had a high cover (which included a "free" drink).(Alcohol is not cheap in KL since it is a Muslim country.) Fortunately, we ran into some other people staying at our hostel, who had gotten to one club free. We followed them back in and it turned out to be really fun! Our new friend Paula (Scotland) hung out with us until the club closed. We spent the rest of the night hanging out with Patrick at the hostel, and even made a run to McDonald's, in time for breakfast at 4am! Thanks to Dave for stickin' it out the whole night!


with Paula and Dave

Back in the States

So...I didn't do that great of a job of keeping up this blog during my SE Asia trip. I was just caught up being wherever I was. It is a lot to process and write about everything and anything, because you are just THAT excited about where you are, and you want to share it with everyone! To tell you the truth though, you just had to be there.

But now that I am on (f)unemployment, I have the time to catch up on my thoughts and write some entries for the remaining countries. Stay tuned...

One Backpacker's Wishlist...

When I was in Myanmar, I compiled a list of things I am looking forward to when I get home...

1. Showering without flip-flops on all the time, and without the hot water cutting out (actually, a shower with hot water would be a bonus already! It's such a luxury here.)
2. Not having any attention: not getting stared at, asked "where are you from", "are you married"...etc.
3. Wearing a nice dress and a pair of heels. Can't wait to feel like a lady!
4. Doing some yoga. Haven't really been able to do it yet, not even in Thailand. That might change when I get to Chiang Mai.
5. Using my MacBook Pro. I miss that lil guy! This netbook with Windows Starter 7 does not even compare.
6. Running. It has been almost 8 months since I ran :(

Food-wise, I can't wait to eat:
1. Stuff that isn't fried.
2. Mozzarella and any other good cheeses.
3. Dark chocolate...not Asian chocolate!
4. Fresh veggie salads, with a simple olive oil dressing.
5. Pasta done well. (Specifically from La Spiga in Seattle)
(The weirdest craving I had was for Tootsie Rolls, which is strange because I don't even like them.)

Yeah, not very long lists, but there were just simple things that I missed. I had to wash my own dishes from breakfast at a hostel one day, and as I was washing the dish, I was really enjoying it! It had been so long since I washed anything myself (except for maybe underwear), so it was a nice feeling being domestic and all.

All of these will be within my reach in a mere couple weeks...

What's in da Bag?

Thought I'd take a photo of what I have been packin' in my 65L bag + little day pack. It's been interesting living out of one bag basically. This totals probably 14kg or so. Mainly clothes, but, as you can see, a crap-load of miscellaneous things as well.


Yes, I brought a hair dryer. It came in handy for drying clothes FYI.


12 tops, 6 bottoms, some acquired along the way

I did have to ship stuff back to Hong Kong a couple times to lighten the load and make more space. We'll see how my return luggage shapes up, after combining everything together.

I Survived...25 Days in Myanmar

I left Yangon, Myanmar yesterday, after 25 days in the country. I have to say I feel pretty relieved right now. Towards the latter half of my stay, I finally got burnt out on traveling, mainly because traveling in Myanmar was just draining. It was not as easy to travel there, compared to the other SE Asian countries I had been too, and it finally took it's toll. By the 19th day in Myanmar (18.5 weeks/4 months into my trip to be exact), I just wanted to go home. We scrambled through 12 cities total during our 25 days. Maybe if we hadn't pushed to go everywhere, I wouldn't feel this way, but honestly, I don't think I would go back to Myanmar to spend more time there. Well, maybe to go to Mrauk-U, but that is a whole different travel situation.

Sagaing and Amarapura

I actually set up my alarm today for the first time in a couple weeks, so we could get a start on seeing the 3 nearby cities of Mandalay: Sagaing, Inwa, and Amarapura. We met up with two other travelers, Jake from England, and Laurie, from America but living in England, to share a "blue" taxi for the day. The "blue" taxi is so cute! It looks like a toy truck. It costs K25,000 to rent one taxi for the entire day for the 3 cities, so the more people in it, the better price you will get.


Little Blue and our driver

Our first stop was Sagaing, 45 minutes away from Mandalay. On the drive over, we saw the view from across the Ayeyarwady River, and it looked like beautiful town; tons of golden stupas dotted the green hills, making it probably the most interesting "skyline" I had seen in a while. Our driver took us straight to Sagaing Hill, and dropped us off at a side entrance, so we could bypass the entry fee.
Upon entering the gates and seeing the hill of stairs looming in front of us, it just reminded me of our previous day on Mandalay Hill. Were we really going to make it to the top this time?



During the climb, Jake and I were walking a bit ahead of Laurie and Andi. At one point, we heard a loud scream, and I thought I heard someone say " Get them off me!" I didn't think it sounded like Andi or Laurie's voice, but it the girl spoke English, so Jake and I walked back down to see what happened. Next thing I know, we see all these people surrounding Andi, so we ran down to see if she was ok. Turns out she had walked on a side path, where she encountered some territorial dogs. They actually chased her and bit her! Luckily, she wasn't hurt and not bleeding, otherwise, she might have had to check for rabies or something. It was so strange, because so far, we noticed the dogs in Myanmar have seemed scared of people. I guess not these dogs.

We did eventually reach the top, after 380 steps, and the view was very nice, but the stupa at the top was under repair. Burmese temples are so glittery and colorful; lots of mirror mosaic tiles, lights (sometimes neon) highlighting the buddha image's head, and pastel colored tiles along the floor, walls, and columns. Makes me feel like I am in a religious Candy Land of some sort. We hung out at top for a little bit and then made our way back down (which is always shorter).





Next up was Inwa, but our driver stopped at a longyi making shop first (of course. Earlier, we stopped at a gold leaf making place, but we didn't check it out). We walked into a small, noisy weaving factory with 1-2 people working on at least one piece. I thought it was a little funny that one loom had pictures of teen heart throbs taped to the side. It's like a teenage locker space, or some one's cubicle...it is a working space after all.

When we got to the point to take a boat for Inwa, we were starving, so we stopped by the local restaurant. It was getting pretty late already, and with an additional cost for a boat and carriage ride (K1000 + K3000), we opted out of Inwa and headed for Amarapura to see the famous U Bien's Bridge, a 200-year old 1.2km teak bridge.

I was expecting the teak bridge to be delicate and fragile, and somewhat of a red type of wood with a nice dark finish, but it was totally opposite. It didn't look that much different from regular wood, and it was just rustic looking. There was certainly a lot of traffic - a lot of tourists and some locals passed through (even locals on their bikes). It was a nice and pretty peaceful walk across the river. Views included fishermen and women wading in the river (riding about mid-chest height), tourist boats floating across the river and under the bridge, oxen plowing through farm fields, and a couple stupas were scattered in the background. We stayed for sunset, where we managed to steal a few good photo shots from the fields below the bridge. It was nice to see a quaint, rural side of Myanmar, even if it was a little touristy.







Speaking of, there really are not a whole lot of tourists in Myanmar. On our first full day in Yangon, we probably only saw a handful of travelers. I have recognized several people traveling already, because we have been on the same route. It's different from traveling in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, where even though there is the well traveled route, there are a lot of options of places you can go, as well as ways to get there. But Myanmar is still not as well traveled (probably due in part that foreigners have limited access to places to go around the country), so people tend to stick to the more traveled areas. Most travelers I have seen are from packaged tours, mainly middle-aged French or Korean.

We've definitely been getting a lot of stares as well. In Yangon, it was not so bad, but in Mandalay, we definitely stick out, and are constantly being asked if we need a taxi or a tri shaw.

Mandalay was ...alright. I thought it would be more developed than Yangon, having read that there is more Chinese investment in building here, but it didn't seem anymore developed than Yangon. I found it a little harder to orientate myself, despite the fact that the city is built on a grid. (Yet in Yangon, I got my bearings quite quick.)

After returning from our day trip, we had dinner at the Chapati Stand on 27th and 82nd for dinner again, but this time, Jake and Laurie joined us. Andi and I shared a potato curry, a vegetable curry, and the briyani with 2 chapatis (each)...yum! It came with this olive-tasting-but not-olive dish. I had a tea again, which came to a total of K1500. Such a good deal.

Mandalay

We arrived at the Mandalay bus station at 6am, and it was not as scary or chaotic as it was when I first arrived in Saigon. Yes, there were people trying to solicit their hotel and trying to offer taxi rides, but I read on WikiTravel to just by pass this all and walk West outside of the station to take a pick up to the center of town. The ladies who were already waiting in the pick up said it was K300 to get into town, but everyone else was telling us K400. It was a little frustrating, because even a monk told us it was K400! So we just went along with it. After all, it was a fraction of the price of a taxi. We ended up getting door to door service, right to our hotel.

I had to take a nap, since I didn't sleep much on the bus, so we had a late start on our first day in Mandalay. We started off with a late lunch at this food stall we stumbled across. We had chicken curry and rice, which came with a vegetable soup, and several side dishes, like kimchi sprouts, boiled spinach, fresh cabbage/lettuce/cucumber/mint leaves, fried peanuts, and a few other dishes down the table I didn't get to try. All for K800! It was the cheapest meal we have had in Myanmar, but it came with so much stuff.

After that, we planned to go to two sights that day; the Mahamuni Paya and Mandalay Hill. But they happend to be at opposite ends of the town. Easiest way to get around? Rent a bike! Sure glad we did too, because it would have been one hell of a walk. Since it was later in the day too, the guy only charged us K1000 instead of K1500.

Mahamuni Paya was interesting to people watch. I'm starting to see a common theme of the Payas here....it's where locals just hang out, and where some pray. There are usually sections too where there are vendor shops or just vendors selling food (if not outside, it's inside the paya grounds). People will have lunch or a snack at the temples. Another thing we are learning, just carry your shoes when you have to take them off at the temples. Or else you have to pay K200. Oh, bike parking was K100.

Afterward, we biked all the way to Mandalay Hill, on the northern side of town. We were trying to get to the top by sunset, but the only thing that stood between us was the stairs. Oh...the stairs. The climb up the stairs was pretty tiring. We had to take our shoes off, so walking up on concrete stairs just got harder and harder on the feet. And at every platform, there was a Buddha image to see, with another flight of stairs waiting for you to get to the top. When we reached a (seemingly) top platform, we saw the sunset over Mandalay, but then learned we WEREN'T at the summit. Andi felt she had to just climb to the top, since we were there anyway, so I followed suite. Maybe after 10 minutes of stairs, we ran into Martin, the Czech traveler we shared a taxi with to Mandalay. He said it was about 15 more minutes to the top, but since it was after sunset, we figured it was best to start heading down since we would have to bike back to town in the dark (darn).







After getting back into town, we were pretty famished. We went to a popular chapati stand for dinner, and we had a great meal. I had the mutton curry, 2 chapatis, and tea for K1500. I am so glad the curries here aren't spicy. I was getting tired of ordering Thai food, only to find it was too spicy for my taste buds! But the curries here are just right for me :)



When we finished dinner, we took a walk down to the "Entertainment" district (I'm not sure what that describes, honestly) and caught The Mustache Brothers show in their little home garage theater. The comedy troupe had been performing for years (even performed for the Lady), but were arrested and even detained in prison for making jokes at the governments expense. They put on a comedy/cultural/dance show every night at 8:30pm for foreigners (they aren't allowed to perform in Burmese/for Burmese people). It costs K8000, but the proceeds go to political prisoners. It was pretty silly at times, but definitely entertaining and worth supporting. After the show, we took some pictures with the Brothers and chatted with them for a little bit.