Nilesh's Posterous

End of Family trip.. Beginning of Solo Backpacking trip..

17/12/2008 -  After spending the past 10 days with me, my mom, sister and nephew flew back to Mauritius today by the early flight. I had well planned these past 10 days as they were with me and I did not want any bad surprises, but from today till the 31st December (date when I fly back to Maurtius), I had not made any plans at all, did not have the slighest clue about where and how it'll be.

After dropping them at the airport, I came back to the hotel and slept off till noon or so and then went out to look for a cheaper accomodation. Chinatown has plenty of hostels and there was one close to the hotel we were staying - Red Dragon Hostel. I had stayed there before and enjoyed it. So, I went there and fortunately they had vacancy. I got a room with shared bathroom for about 35RM, which is about $10USD. Not too bad given the location, free internet access and air con in the room. I checked out of Swiss Inn to the hostel.

At least I knew I'd stay in Kuala Lumpur for tonight. I dropped my bags in the room and went to a cybercafe to start planning my trip. I wanted to go to places which I had not yet been to, but to which Air Asia (Malaysia discount budget air carrier flies to - http://www.airasia.com). I considered Krabi, Phuket and Chiang Mai in Thailand, Manilla and Cebu in the Phillipines, Other cities in Malaysia and Vietianne in Laos. After a few hours and considering the prices (most prices were in the $70 - $150 usd range), availability, traveler reviews, logistics, places where I needed visas or not etc.. I finally chose to go to Vientianne, Laos (as it was a brand new country for me, and I could get a visa on arrival, and Laura had highly recommended it). It was about 11:30pm by now and the next flight was in the morning at 8:00a.m. I bought that flight for about $105 USD and went off to look for some last dinner in KL before my flight in the morning.

Had some great chinese dinner on the streets and went off to sleep for a couple of hours before catching the 5:00a.m shuttle bus to reach the airport on time. Fortunately, there were buses leaving from neigboring Pudu Raya Bus station early in the morning to go to the airport for RM9. I was so glad of all the 24 hours restorans around Pudu Raya which allowed me to have a nice hearthy breakfast before my trip. Reached Airport around 6:00a.m and easily checked in for my flight to Laos to begin my solo trip !!

Pic 1 : Air Asia Plane
Pic 2 : Boarding Pass (budget)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

13/12/2008 - 17/12/2009 : Reached Kuala Lumpur from Bangkok at the LCCT terminal, the low cost budget airlines terminal in Kuala Lumpur -- its really budget.. we get off the stairs from the airplane and walk to the terminal in the light rain. After immigration and all, we took the airport shuttle bus to the city for RM9. For the first two days, I had booked a hotel in the Bukit Bintang Area and the next two days in the Chinatown area so that mom, sis and sid could experience both very different parts of town.

The first hotel was one block away from Jalan Alor, a main food hawker street in Kuala Lumpur. The entire street is closed at night and many food sellers set up their tables and chairs by the roadside for people to eat at their eateries. All different kinds of food from Malaysia and south east asia but a slight bias on seafood. We stopped by one of the street stalls and had dinner there and later on went on to walk around Bukit Bintang to check out the scene at night in the main shopping district.

The next day, weather was pretty bad. It was raining and pouring intermittently, but we still decided to go out and see the sights. We took the KL monorail and the commuter trains to go and see the KL twin towers, some shopping malls and Kuala Lumpur's Little India. The KL twin towers were impressive, great architecture and nice shopping mall within. After Twin Towers, we went to Jalan Sultan Ismail area (Little India) to have lunch and do some shopping.

So, we spent two nights already at the Bukit Bintang Hotel and the next two nights, I had already booked hotels in Chinatown. We had to check out from one and check in to another hotel today, but doing so might make us lose the whole day. So, we decided to check out early morning, ask the hotel to keep our bags and go and do some sight seeing.

We decided to go to the Batu Caves today - famous religious cave at the top of a hill where you have some temples. We took a taxi and went there. Batu Caves was very nice and spiritual. We climbed up the 272 stairs to the top to see the caves and the temples and carvings within. As we climbed up, many monkeys were coming up to people to beg for food. One even jumped on ashveena and stole a packet of biscuits from her bag. They have a very good sense of smell.

After the temple, the taxi driver dropped us at MegaMall where we had lunch and they had a kid wonderland there where Sid had a great time. We went back to the old hotel, took our bags and checked in to the new hotel in Chinatown. Mom and me, went to take a walk around chinatown and we were passing by the Mariamen kovil just in time when they were doing the daily prayers. So we stopped by to receive the blessings and then continued on our chinatown visit. The night market on Petaling Street was starting to form and vendors were starting to bring in their wares. In about 1 hour, the streets were packed with vendors selling anything from fake Dior Bags to fake puma shoes. We browsed along the road checking our some stalls and doing some hard bargaining.

Raining Cats and Dogs again the next day. We did not do too much. We went out to take the train and do stuff, but was too rainy to want to be out much. We had lunch at an Indian Banana Leaf vegetarian restaurant and then came back to the hotel to nap/relax and get ready for the departure the next day. My mom, sister and Nephew are leaving tomorrow. Their flight is around 8:30a.m. So we got to reach the airport by 6:00a.m or so. I boooked a taxi which came to pick us up at 5:00a.m. Dropped them at the airport, then took the KL Express back to the city center and went back to the hotel to sleep till check out time. I had previously asked for late checkout and they gave me till 2:00p.m. Had nice good sleep in a nice hotel before my solo backpacking travel starts :)

Pic 1 : Cold Drink Seller
Pic 2 : Roasted Chestnut Seller
Pic 3 : Roasted Duck and Chicken Rice Food Hawker
Pic 4 : Kuala Lumpur Twin Towers
Pic 5 : Dining outside on the streets on Jalan Alor
Pic 6 : Chinese Temple in Chinatown
Pic 7 : Batu Caves Monkeys
Pic 8 : Muruga inside Batu caves
Pic 9 : Ashveena and Sid in front of xmas tree
Pic 10 : Chendol Desert
Pic 11 : Ashveena Drinking tea from plastic bag
Pic 12 : Satay Vendor
Pic 13 : Giant Muruga in front of Batu Caves
Pic 14 : Taxis and Bikes
Pic 15: Chinese Store Facade
Pic 16 : Claypot Chicken Rice