From Phuket, getting to Malaysia was an absolute nightmare… We took a bus down towards the southern tip of Thailand to take a ferry into Malaysia. The bus was supposed to take around six hours, but ended up taking over nine hours. It was the most frustrating experience on a bus I have ever had. In addition to the length of the bus ride, the TV on the bus was showing, on repeat, a puppet play that was spoken all in Thai. Up until this point, I had absolutely no problem with the Thai language. After this excruciating bus ride experience, I now hate the Thai language… Okay, so maybe that is a bold statement. I don't actually hate it, but I was happy to be leaving Thailand so that I wouldn't have to listen to people speak Thai. I can't even explain how annoying the man's voice was. It was so high pitched. Listening to music on my iPod with the sound turned all the way up couldn't even drown out the sound. It's in the past...
When we finally made it to the pier at 6 PM, we realized that we had missed the ferry. Wow, we were angry. We had to sleep in a pretty creepy hotel that night…
We got the first ferry out of Thailand in the morning. Penang, here we come!
Penang
Penang was really cool and we really enjoyed our time there, even though it was quite short. We stayed in Georgetown, which was a very colonial style area of the city. The British had a very strong presence in Penang for a long time and built a lot of European style buildings in the area.
I now realize that I took very few of all the colonial style buildings in Penang… My bad… But in the picture above and to the left you can see some of the colonial style buildings that were scattered throughout Georgetown. On the right, you can see the main port. There were a couple cruise ships in the port. The weather was amazing as you can see from the pictures.
One of the places of interest that we visited was an old fort that had been in Penang since the 1500s. It wasn't very spectacular, but still cool to see.
The view from the tip of the fort. Pretty awesome ocean front property…
Then of course, maturity at its finest…
Georgetown had a very small city feel to it. There weren't many sky scrapers, or tall buildings at all for that matter. It was a very laid back part of Penang.
It was an awesome city. The nights there were so beautiful. The streets were lined with different colored lights and packed full of people. Georgetown had an amazing atmosphere and I would love to go back eventually. I definitely want to spend more time there.
Next stop… Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is easily one of my favorite cities. I had such a great time while I was there. I met some amazing people and saw some amazing sites. The city was full of awesome buildings and a very diverse group of people. I also had some of the most delicious food in the city. From Chinese street food to authentic Indian food, I ate it all. Soooooo good!
I actually spent Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, in Kuala Lumpur. The hostel that we stayed at was located just outside of Chinatown. On Chinese New Year we walked around China town to see the festivities.
Upon walking into the temple, we were met with a giant cloud of smoke. I have never seen so much incense being lit in a small area. The entire temple was filled with smoke and people praying. It was still pretty cool to see. We definitely got some awkward stares from Chinese people in the temple, probably because we were the only white people there…
Other than visiting this temple and the constant blowing up of fireworks, Chinese New Year was relatively mellow. Most Chinese people spend this time with their families and they do not work or travel. All of the shops in Chinatown were closed and there were not many people on the streets. It was still very cool to see all the fireworks at night, though.
Other views from around the city
An astonishing mosque in the middle of Kuala Lumpur. It really was a beautiful building.
And finally two different views of the Kuala Lumpur Tower.
I never actually made it up into the tower, but I'm sure that the view is amazing.
There is one tourist attraction that everyone has to see while they are in Kuala Lumpur, and that is the Petronas Towers. They are the most amazing buildings I have ever seen in my life. During the day they look extraordinary, and at night they look even better…
The Petronas Towers during the day…
These towers were incredible. Now for the night time…
You could basically see the towers from anywhere in the city…
Now… up close…
Entirely unreal. There really are no words that can be used to describe how amazing these towers are. The pictures alone barely do it justice. You really have to see them in person to understand how insanely impressive they are.
One of the nights we got an entirely different view of the towers. While we had been in Kuala Lumpur we heard about a roof top bar that was a must go for tourists. Well, we did just that.
The Sky Bar atop the Trader's Hotel was probably THE BEST place to view the Petronas Towers. The bar itself was pretty incredible.
So amazing… The view was incredible from the bar. What was even cooler, is that the lights of the Petronas Towers shut off exactly at 12 AM every night. Here is the before and after. It was really cool to see the buildings go completely dark immediately at 12 AM.
I wish I had gotten a video of the towers turning off… It was pretty astounding.
The Sky Bar, itself, was awesome. They had tables and seats lining the windows of the bar for the best view of the towers. The coolest part of the bar was definitely the swimming pool that was in the center…
It's kind of hard to see, but it is definitely there. It wasn't particularly crowded on this night, thankfully. I was told that it can be very crowded there, especially on the weekends.
More about Kuala Lumpur…
The Chinese population in Kuala Lumper is quite significant. The Chinese New Year decorations were all over the city, especially in this one shopping district…
Lanterns, lanters, and more lanterns. They were everywhere. You couldn't avoid them even if you tried.
I had such a great time in Kuala Lumpur and I was sad to leave when the time came. However, I knew that I was on to bigger and better things….
Next stop… Beijing, with mom and dad!
Hope everyone enjoyed this post. The next posts will be from China and my trip with my parents. Lots and lots of pictures in those posts…
Jono
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