Kuala Lumpur

I arrived at the capitol of Malaysia around lunchtime yesterday. Made my way to Chinatown where I had one hostel reserved, but I was having trouble finding it and another one I came across had an empty room so I took it. Kuala Lumpur is a bustling city with a ton of diversity. It is in some ways advanced yet still has a wild-west feel a little bit. Honestly, my first impression is that it was a blend of Nairobi and Hong Kong.

Yesterday I spent most of my time wandering around. I went to the Petronas twin towers but couldn't get a ticket to the top so I went up the "KL Tower" instead, which is a really tall spire w/ a rotating restaurant at the top. Got a good view of the city that way but it was foggy so pictures probably aren't fantastic. After that, I went down on a hike on the side of a hill in a sort of nature-preservie-type-area (as much as there could be one in the middle of a city).

That night I asked the taxi driver to take me to "a good authentic Malaysian restaurant". He took me to this place, the name of which I tweeted earlier, that I quickly discovered was a total tourist trap. The food was dumbed down for a Western palate, and there were some "ethnic" performances that seem somewhat contrived. I was disappointed - will hopefully do better tonight.

During the day today I did some walking and then went to some caves, pictures of which I will post soon. The caves were originally the location of a Hindu shrine, although I think its been tourist-ized to some extent now.

I was originally going to take a sleeper train into Thailand but unfortunately I delayed and the tickets are sold out. I secured a last minute flight for not too much that will go direct from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket island, which is in southern Thailand, a good resort area with some beaches and maybe snorkeling.