Chinese New Year Travels

I had a week off for Chinese New Year from March 15-19. On the morning of the 16th I hopped on a bus and went down to Kuala Lumpur. I had slept for about two hours the previous night since I had some business back home in the US to attend to via email and Skype. I slept the whole bus ride ride down there. I was in such a deep sleep that I woke up on an empty bus around noon, looked out the window and saw the ugly structure that is Pudaraya bus station and realized I was in Kuala Lumpur. I was having some sort of dream that I was in a cooking class. I was happy to have woken up and been in KL. Although waking up on an empty bus was a bit unnerving for a moment.

I stayed in a hostel near the Masjid Jamek metro station. There was a Burger King and a McDonalds facing each other across the street so I had all I needed. My hostel was pretty nice as it seemed to be brand new. In the dorm I stayed in was this Japanese guy who said he had been living there the past two weeks. He seemed like an all right guy up until he asked where I was from. Upon hearing I was American he started gushing out all these 9/11 conspiracy theories and etc. However, he wasn't as crazy as the guy who told me that the Titanic was sunk so the Federal Reserve Bank could be created.

I spent the remainder of the day walking around KLCC. It was my third time in KL, but this time I really, really enjoyed it. KLCC is a park right beside the Petronas Twin Towers. It's a nice place to unwind amidst the hustle and bustle of the rest of the city. Also, I could sit and admire the Petronas Towers for hours.

I went to the aquarium in the adjoining convention center. I like aquariums for the most part, plus it was a good excuse to get out of the KL heat. The aquarium was nice and had all sorts of crazy organisms from across the country. However, I did manage to pull off the feat of getting motion sickness on the moving walkway going through the tunnel through the tank. Something about the glass made everything terribly out of focus and I just suffered through the 90 meters that it lasted.

The next day I went to Merdeka Square. The Malaysian flag flies upon tallest flagpole in the world there. I asked this tourist couple, I think they were from Japan, if they could take a picture of me in front of the square. The husband then asked me if he could take a picture of me with his wife. I obliged, finding it to me one of the more hilarious "can I take a picture of you?" moments.

After that I went to the National Museum, which was pretty cool. It only cost RM 2 to get in and I learned a lot about the colonial era and more about the politics of Malaysia when the country first gained its independence from Britain. I also learned a lot about the Malacca Sultanate which I found to be quite interesting since I was heading there next.

All in all, KL was great.

On Thursday, I took a bus to Malacca. Malacca is a city that has Arab, Dutch, Portuguese, Chinese, British, and of course Malaysian roots. I hope I didn't forget anyone there... It was a trading hub back in the day and regarded as a strategic port because it was in between China and India.

Malacca was pretty hoppin' as it was jam packed with Chinese celebrating the New Year. I spent the day walking around the city checking out the old colonial buildings and watching kids set off firecrackers at every corner. I went to one museum that was the rebuilt palace of the Malacca Sultan. It was pretty cool and filled with terribly cheezy manikins reenacting this scene and that.

Some parts of Malacca were pretty tourist trappy. There were gift shops in every church, temple, restaurant, museum, you name it. There was a museum for everything as well. There was the "Malaysian Youth Art Museum" and the "Beauty Museum" and the "Kite Museum" and "The People's Museum" and etc.

I liked Malacca overall. Living in Penang for a little over eight months has made me accustomed to "Malaysian life in Penang," so seeing "Malaysian life in Malacca" was nice.

On Friday I took a bus further down to Singapore.

And that, my friends, will be another post for another time.