Kuala Lumpur

We landed in Kuala Lumpur early Friday afternoon. We took a bus to the main airport (we landed in the LCCT airport, which has the budget airlines - like AirAsia)... and then two trains on the light-rail system to get to our hotel.

Waiting for the light-rail.

(A voice kept coming over the microphone each time I stepped over the yellow line for a picture. Ha! It wasn't even a recording... the voice got angrier and angrier each time! Once I was finally satisfied with a picture... a lady came down the steps and crossed over the yellow line! Ahhhh! The Voice was so not pleased.)

The Petronas Towers are the KL twin towers. They were the tallest buildings in the world until a building in Taipei beat them out in 2004... but are still the world's tallest twin towers. (You can read more about them from the Wikipedia article here.)

We stayed at the InterContinental (or as we jokingly called it, The InterCon). After Borneo we went swanky! Haha. Actually... the girls had me book the two hotels in KL (beginning and end of the trip) - I was feeling pressured, having never traveled with them and not having much experience booking hotels. I kept reading reviews and looking at all different places in our budget... mostly going in circles. Finally I found one and just went with it - the reviews seemed to be pretty good, the price was good (it was quite a deal on Agoda actually), and something just needed to be booked. I felt like I had heard of the name of the hotel before but wasn't really sure and just hoped the girls ended up being ok with it.

Well... come to find out, Riki and Saleshni were more than ok with my booking the InterContinental! I had no idea it was such a nice hotel. We were there for less than 24 hours but became buddies with the guys at the concierge desk - they booked a dinner reservation for us at a great Mexican restaurant (ahhhh, so nice to get some good Mexican food)... helped us check into our flights... called cabs, etc.

Calling a cab might not seem like a grand thing to have done BUT in Malaysia apparently it is. All 3 of our other hotels said that they could not call us a cab because there is not cab company -- no number to call. You have to have a diver's cell phone number to be able to call a cab. SO when the InterContinental was able to call cabs for us and schedule one to take us to the airport Saturday afternoon, it was quite the lovely luxury.

Another note on cabs -- they do not use a meter (some wouldn't even though they are supposed to, while others don't even have a meter inside!)... you must decide on a price before taking off. We got completely ripped off, come to find out, our first night in KL for our layover. We went from the airport to our hotel and THEN the driver doubled the price because it was after midnight - it was all quite ridiculous.

Next time I'm in KL, I want to get to the libraries!

Saturday morning, after an awesome buffet breakfast (of course!) we went to the Pavilion - a huge shopping mall. It was so nice to be in a mall with familiar stores and clothes that fit me!  :) 

The Deepavali (Festival of Lights) was going on while were in KL. The decoration above was on the sidewalk and made with grains of colored rice; it is a tradition for the holiday. You can read more about this holiday here.

After the mall we went to Little India and it was awesome! There was music and booths filled with saris, beautiful fabrics, foods, and more. Riki and Saleshni were beaming and it was pretty cool to learn about India and its culture through their eyes.

We had lunch in Little India... eating off of banana leaves and using our hands to scoop up rice... Lesh was at home, as this is how they eat in Fiji.

It was delicious. Just looking at these pictures again makes my mouth water! OH! And you can see my Teh Tarik tea in the background... it's CHAI! You can read more about Teh Tarik tea here.  (No wonder I liked it so much... it's made with condensed milk haha... oh sheesh... like I really needed 3 in one day!) I could not get enough of the Teh Tarik... a flight back to KL for a weekend of Teh Tarik, shopping, and Mexican food would be worth the trip.  :P

But alas... we had to rush from Little India back to the hotel to pack up and head to the airport.

Every AirAsia flight does this (below)... I'm not sure if it's like a giant humidifier or the AC but the flight from KL back to HCMC had it the most...

And then landing back in HCMC... it was such a great trip... and then a mix of emotions hit me -- knowing I love parts of Ho Chi Minh City helps but... wanting to head back to Denver since this "trip" feels done now... and being apprehensive of going out into the crazy traffic, heavy air, and humid heat made it a bittersweet return.