Day 93 – Langkawi to Kuala Lumpur to Hanoi.

I woke up when Steph and Lucy were leaving to say goodbye, one of the worst things about travelling is saying farewell to people you meet! I then got up and caught a taxi just gone 9 to take me to the airport. Today was mostly spent in airports and on planes… WOO!

My flight from Langkawi was supposed to leave at 11.25am but didn’t end up leaving until just gone midday, which for once I wasn’t bothered about as my flight to Hanoi wasn’t until 7.10pm. That flight landed in LCCT so I then had to get on a shuttle bus to take me to KLIA. I arrived over there just gone half 2 so I had about an hour until check in and 4 hours until my plane. I wrote some more of this blog and updated Facebook. Once through immigration I then had to get on a train to my gate. Luckily the wifi in the airport was pretty good, giving me something to do!

I’ve become one of those people who wait to the last minute to board the plane. Well, I sit by the gate and don’t join the queue until there are only a few people in it. I don’t really see the point in queuing when I don’t put my bag in the locker and I have a seat number anyway. My flight was with Vietnam Airways and I didn’t realise until I looked yesterday that the flight included a meal! It’s only 3 hours long and cost me about £40, winner! It was some chicken and rice dish and is probably the first plane meal on this trip where I’ve eaten all of it. We had little turbulence and overall was successful journey.

My visa was really simple to do and I don’t really know why I was worried about it. As soon as I walked out there was a guy waiting for me and within 40minutes I was at my hostel. Absolutely cream crackered I went over the road for some water and then just crashed out. I’ve gained back an hour though! WOO!

Day 88 – Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi.

Check out was 12, which worked well with me as I needed to leave around then as my flight to Langkawi was at 3. I could have got a train but after walking around with my bags in Melbourne for too long I’ve decided to treat myself when it comes to airport drop offs/pick ups. Right outside my hostel was a taxi rank so I jumped in one of those which took my right there, I was going to the LCC terminal as it’s a domestic flight, I hope it’s easy to get from there to the International airport, as that’s what I’ll have to do when I get back here on Monday.

The LCC is probably the most disorganised airports I have ever been to. It was a right nightmare to navigate around and I’m glad I grabbed something to eat before going through because there is nothing by the gates. The internet was quite quick in the airport, which meant I could do some research on Vietnam and collate everything everyone else has told me about the places I’m going to.

My time in Langkawi will be spent at 3 different places to sleep. This is because I arrive a day early and leave a day later than Steph and Lucy. My first check in was at Adina Drive-In Motel. The room was massive but quite grimy. Only good thing was I got given a towel and nothing beats a fresh towel.

I arrived just gone 5 and didn’t really do a lot with my evening, I went and found some free wifi to check the plans for tomorrow, grabbed something small to eat and chilled in the room. This island is already more commercialised than I thought it was going to be as it has a mini shopping mall with a Starbucks, McDonalds and a KFC!

Day 87 - Batu Caves & Petronas Towers.

Josh needed to be back by 3 at the latest to grab his bags and head to the airport to fly home so we decided to get up early and make the most of the day. The journey to the Batu Caves was straightforward by train so that is how we got there. The Batu Caves is a limestone hill, said to be around 400million years old, that has a series of temples and is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India. There are 272 steps to climb to get to the top and to the right of these stairs is a gold statue, which stands at 42.7m and is the tallest statue of Lord Murugan in the world. This statue took 3 years to build and was only unveiled in January 2006.

The stairs gave me a good work out and apparently some people go there every morning just for their daily exercise. In the caves are monkeys who were quite crazy and climbed pretty high up the caves. The caves don’t take that long to look at, so we left here and made our way to china town.

In china town we bought some iced tea in a bag, bartered for stuff as Josh wanted to buy some souvenirs to take home and we also bought some elephant trousers which are SO comfy! Instead of getting the monorail (Monoraiiiiil!) back we decided to walk as it’s not that far. Josh sorted out his stuff and left so I made my way to the Petronas Towers to pick up my ticket.

I ended up going up at 4.15pm as that was the only time slot left, I probably should have got it earlier but oh well. Going up is better than not going up! There are 88 floors and the viewing platform is on the 86^th so we get to go pretty much to the top, which is cool! The first stop is on the 41^st floor where the Sky bridge is located it can also be accessed on the 42^nd floor making it the highest two story bridge in the world. The bridge isn’t attached to the main structure of the towers as it is designed to move in and out so it doesn’t break as both towers can move differently in high winds.

The views were pretty cool but you couldn’t see the whole way out and it looked quite cloudy. I thought it might rain and well, it certainly did that about 5minutes after I thought it! It was quite scary being so high up when a massive thunderstorm is happening and it feels as if the lightening is hitting the towers! Obviously when all of this happened the only thing you could see out the windows then was the other tower. At least it wasn’t raining the entire time I was up there, otherwise it really would have ruined the experience.

Once again I was going to go to the bird park etc. but it’s not exactly what I want to do in the rain so I opted out and grabbed some dinner in Suria KLCC which is the shopping bit underneath. I got the train back to Bukit Bintang which was a right nightmare as every was getting it to stay out of the rain. Finally back I sorted out my bag ready for tomorrow.

Day 86 – Kuala Lumpur exploring.

I had a bit of a lie in after the long and early days but obviously got up just in time for free breakfast. I say free, you probably partly pay for it in your living cost. First port of call was to do some washing so I dropped it to a place a few roads down around midday and he said I could come and collect it at 6pm, same day service, winner! It cost me £3 to do pretty much my entire bag, bargain.

I then decided I should really go and see the Petronas Towers as I hadn’t quite made it there yet. The towers were opened in 1998 and were the tallest twin towers in the world at the time of opening at 452m. Taipei 101 then took over in 2004. The west tower was built by a Japanese company, whereas the east tower was built by a South Korean company. I discovered on arrival that they aren’t open on a Monday and I couldn’t even buy a ticket for tomorrow so I’ll need to see if I can get it online. The towers are surrounded by a big shopping centre so I had a quick look in there and got some lunch in one of the food courts. Most places I’ve been to in Asia do the best Satay Chicken, I don’t think you can get it as good at home; it’s just something else.

It started to rain again which ruined my plans of walking around the bird park and getting to the museum, so I decided to head to Midvalley to have a look at another little shopping centre. I didn’t really buy anything in KL but they are quite interesting to look at. There are too many Japanese shops around, everything is so cute!

I went back to my hostel and everyone who was in my room had now left and a Canadian guy had moved in, we got talking and we both said we planned to go to the Batu Caves tomorrow so we’re now going together, I also managed to book myself to go up the Petronas towers at 4.15pm! Score!