Day 6 – KL

(By the way, I uploaded three days' worth of posts tonight, so be sure to start with Day 4)

Well, this morning started off auspiciously. I’d set the alarm for 7:30, turned it off, and was awoken two hours later by housekeeping. Ooops. Not that I have anywhere in particular to be. I started to walk towards the transit station, but heard this loud music coming from a mall, so decided to check it out. Apparently it was the opening of Big Apple Donuts & Coffee….you should have seen the line! And it’s “Big Apple” as in NYC as I saw pictures of the city on the boxes of donuts. They didn’t seem like anything in particular to me and there’s already Dunkin Donuts all over the place. So on to the transit system – this line had the monorail. So off to KL Sentral I went. Found the buses ok and what I need to do on Friday to get to the airport. I’ve decided to leave the hotel by 11:00, just to be on the safe side. The flight is at 3:15 and the noontime bus should get me there by 1:15, but I’ve seen the traffic! I want an earlier bus if possible and certainly not a later one.

Next, on to Chinatown, which basically is Julan Petaling (Petaling Street). I’d found the Petaling stop on the transit stop and finally figured out that it was on the KTM Koumter line. Bought a ticket and off I went………ahem. The fact that it was a COMMUTER train should have been my first clue, as we headed OUTSIDE the city. Guess there’s a town with the same name. It was only two stops and there was a return train in 10 minutes. Back to KL Sentral I went.

So far every single train station I have seen has some sort of a covering (if it’s outside) and you’d really be pretty protected – both from the sun AND the rain. All the walkways and escalators all have roofs.

This time found the correct train and got off at Pasar Seni stop and walked a couple of blocks to Julan Petaling. Which pales in comparison to Chinatown in Singapore, seemed to me just like anything you could buy at a street fair in NYC, and I bought nothing, other than lunch at the Swiss Hotel. I had a hamburger (it had a fried egg on it!) & fries – the hamburger looked a bit “suspicious.” It amused me that the Pepsi Light was KM 1 more than just a Pepsi. I was sitting in the bar and ESPN was showing a soccer (football) game – Everton vs. Sunderland (score 3-1 @ halftime which was when I left) and I *think* they’re two Australian teams, plus the fans (cheering for Everton) and the coaches were wearing heavy winter coats. The volume wasn’t up enough and during one break, ESPN was showing scores from a Saturday back in November and then when they went to halftime, I could have sworn the screen listed the game as being in Liverpool. Needless, to say, I am not quite sure what I was watching! Might have been a repeat.

After walking back and forth several times along Julan Petaling and taking a couple of pictures, decided to head to the tourist office to check my e-mail on the free internet. My timing was pretty good, as the heavens OPENED up and we had quite the thunderstorm for about an hour. I was sure glad to be inside and once again, I had good timing (which I know will have to end soon & I am purchasing an umbrella when I get back to Singapore). I spent a lot of the time watching a video of the “Colours of Malasyia” – an annual cultural dance & music program celebrating the country’s anniversary (this year it was 50 years, though I think the video was from 2007). I really liked the traditional Indian (as in India) dance.

Oh my word, on the way to the tourism office I passed three tourists – the woman had TAKEN OFF her shoes and was walking along the street (not even on the sidewalk) in her BARE feet. Ick!!! That’s a prime way to get diseases! (yes, I was reading the guidebook section on disease last night)

Once the storm was finally over, I made my way back to the hotel – via monorail – and just finished watching game 5 of the Boston Celtics vs. Detroit Pistons, which the Celtics just barely won. It wasn’t live, as I started watching it during the 2^nd quarter at which point it would have been 5 AM in Boston.

Well, as it is after 7 PM now, I should go scrounge up some dinner and then head to Starbucks so I can upload everything I’ve types to the blog (I love copy & paste) and the pictures to Facebook. Seems so strange that everyone back home is just starting Thursday and for me, it’s almost over.

PS. Had a Thai Chicken Salad for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Have been at Starbucks for about the past hour, uploading pictures and posting - doing a lot of waiting for the pics......

Chinatown - Thursday