So Not Lost!

I decided to take it a little easier on my first full day in Singapore, leaving most of my sightseeing for the walking tour I was planning to do the next day.

Because I was staying right at the heart of Little India, I figured the most natural start of my day was to look around that particular neighborhood. Little India is very different from the rest of Singapore, pulsing with a different, vibrant energy. It really does feel like a slice of India within Singapore, even as it (generally) conforms to Singapore’s penchant for cleanliness. The shophouses in the area have been restored and repainted with bright colors, making them even more eye-catching.

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I woke up on Saturday morning wondering if I made the right decision to stay for just one full day in Kuala Lumpur. On one hand, I’d already seen all the major sights and destinations that I wanted to visit: Petronas Towers (even if I didn’t get to go up on the skybridge), KL Tower, Bukit Bintang, Merdeka Square, Little India, Chinatown, and Jalan Petaling. On the other hand, there were still a lot of things I missed out on. I didn’t get to enter a single museum, for example, though whether or not that was such a big loss is still debatable. I didn’t stay long enough to get the hang of the railway system. I missed out on some quick day trips outside of the city center, like Putrajaya or the Batu Caves. As I started to gather my things, I contemplated staying in Kuala Lumpur just a little bit longer.

I didn’t have a set schedule for Kuala Lumpur and Singapore; all that was set in stone was that I had to be in Singapore by Tuesday morning to catch a plane to Macau. I debated whether or not to spend a little more time at Kuala Lumpur at the expense of time spent in Singapore. Ultimately, I decided that not seeing everything at least gave me some incentive to return to Kuala Lumpur in the future. With that decided, I called up the bus companies to figure out the departure times of their buses to Singapore. I settled on one that left at around noon.

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The second half of my whirlwind tour of Kuala Lumpur began after the lunchtime rain. While seeking refuge from the rain in a restaurant along Jalan Bukit Bintang, I tried to plot out the rest of my day. The guidebook I borrowed included suggestions for some walking tours around Kuala Lumpur’s Colonial District and Merdeka Square, Little India, and Chinatown. Each tour route seemed to flow into each other, so that was the perfect itinerary for the second part of my day.

I walked towards the nearest train station, but I was sidetracked by a couple of malls that I had to go through in order to get there. Okay, that made it sound like I didn’t want to go through the mall; the truth is that my guidebook mentioned a Borders bookstore at one of the malls I was going to pass through, so I had to check it out. Being at Borders was like the mothership calling me home. The bookstore carried a lot of books that I was interested in: Plays and scripts, travel books, even Broadway music sheets. I picked up a few books (a couple of plays, a Bill Bryson book, and a pocket guide to Singapore) then continued with my plan for the afternoon.

The first stop on my walking tour was supposed to be Masjid Jamek, one of the oldest mosques in Kuala Lumpur. Unfortunately, I spent so much time distracted by Borders that by the time I got there, it was closed to visitors (or at least I assumed it was closed to visitors). The exterior looked absolutely wonderful, and I had a nice view from the top thanks to the train station beside it. It’s too bad I didn’t (or couldn’t) go inside.

From there, I walked towards Merdeka Square, passing beside the Sessions and Magistrates Courts. That building was built in 1910 to house the Federated Malay States Survey Department. It’s a pretty (and large) building that was a good introduction to the architecture at the old Colonial District.

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I only had one full day to explore Kuala Lumpur, so I wanted to make the most of it. I borrowed a Malaysian guidebook from my CouchSurfing host Angelo, and I had some idea of what I wanted to do that day. Unfortunately, my day started out as a comedy of errors.

I meant to wake up early to have enough time to do laundry and head to the Petronas Towers, get a ticket, and go to the observation deck. Unfortunately, my exhaustion from the day before made me wake up later than I had hoped, so I had to scratch the Petronas Towers observation deck from my plans.

I was further delayed by my almost comically bad attempts to make it to the nearest train station. I made it as far as outside the apartment complex when I drew a blank on where I was supposed to go. (That’s what I get for not paying attention when my host picked me up from the station and brought me to his apartment.) I made a wrong turn and walked further away from the station. To make things worse, when I finally figured out what direction I needed to go, I totally forgot that people drove on the side of the road opposite from that in the Philippines. So, instead of looking to the right before crossing the street, I looked left. Needless to say, the driver of the car coming in from the right was not pleased to see me walking down the street, oblivious to her presence.

The Kuala Lumpur rail system was quite possibly more confusing than the one here in Manila, probably because there were more lines and stations in KL than in Manila. I knew I had to switch stations and train lines at some point, but of course I couldn’t figure out where the other line was when I got to that point.

Once I had figured everything out, I ended up at Suria KLCC, a mall so huge they actually offered maps of the mall for visitors. (Maybe that’s something the owners of SM Mall of Asia can take a cue from. I still get lost and confused in that place.)

After eating a quick breakfast, I began to look for Petronas Towers. I consulted my guidebook and my Suria KLCC map. I went outside, looking for signs and directions pointing me to Petronas Towers.

I should have just turned around and looked up.

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After three full days in Siem Reap, it was time to head to my next destination: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After breakfast and some last-minute browsing at the markets, my tuk-tuk driver, Mr. Bill, picked me up from the hostel and brought me to Siem Reap Airport. He gave me his contact information, asking me to refer him to my friends who needed a tuk-tuk driver in Siem Reap; so, if anyone is heading to Siem Reap anytime soon, I highly recommend Mr. Bill, and I can give you his contact information.

I was a little early in arriving at the airport; in fact, my flight hadn’t even begun boarding yet. It gave me a little time to explore the airport. It was a relatively small airport, but it was quite charming. There were lots of Khmer architectural touches in the design and decor of the airport.

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