I stopped in Kuala Lumpur on my trip to Indonesia last September, but besides a blissful sleep on comfortable benches and a bus ride around the airport, no time was actually spent on Malaysian soil. After Amy and I had a mediocre (read: frustrating) experience traveling in Gujurat, we started looking into destinations nearby India for a taste of something different. We found cheap flights from Mumbai to Kuala Lumpur, and our next adventure was set.
A maddeningly slow rickshaw driver starts off our journey taking us to the airport at 20kmph, but we arrive in Kuala Lumpur with no other hassles. KL, in contrast to the insanity of Mumbai, is incredibly clean, orderly and functioning. An express train runs straight from the airport to the Sentral Train Station and many busses offer even cheaper means of getting to downtown. Amy sleeps for the hour and half trip and I entertain myself with the badly subtitled english movie. We had set up with a couch surfer to stay at their house, but we realized when we arrived at their train station that they are pretty far from the airport and far away from everything in the city, so we got back on the train and found a small room in Chinatown. The market in Chinatown is overflowing with activity, vendors selling everything from fresh fruit to footwear.
More photos and story after the break! -->