|
Travel Notes |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Sat Apr 27 04:51:16 2002 (rr) Book: Moon SE Asia Location: Kuala Lumpur KL notes: We watched an amazing lightning storm from the 14th floor of our hotel in KL. The storm passed overhead as we counted the seconds between lightning and thunder. The motorcycles and scooters disappeared from the streets. Pedestrians in KL need to be brave and fast. There are never crosswalks when you need them, and when there are, the cars still don't stop for you. There was also a lack of sidewalks and an abundance of construction sites (forcing one to walk in the road). KL has some nice malls, especially the KLCC which lies at the base of the shiny silvery Petronas towers. There is a nice view of the towers from the top floor of the mall. The bookstore in the mall, Kinokuniya, has a cafe with excellent view of a huge curvy reflecting pool and people sitting on the steps around it. We wanted to see an Indian movie, Aankhen, but unfortunately it was only subtitled in Malay. Bummer. (or perhaps a chance to learn Malay?) Bangsar - a suburb of KL. Lonely Planet wasn't too useful except for telling us about this place (bad travel instructions). Filled with trendy restaurants serving a variety of cuisines and lots of night clubs. More western food available than usual there. We chose The Red Chamber. Walls were dark pinkish red, gauzy curtains gave a sense of privacy, and cool chandeliers added to the atmosphere. Unfortunately, five minutes into dinner the music began to suck (and be played at loud decibels.) THe menu was fusion Asian noodles/rice dishes. I had chicken char siew ramen, Nathan something Japanese with rice. ALso, two memorable drinks. I wanted Kumquat juice, which wasn't available, so I ordered Green Boy. It tasted not unlike cough syrup (but more watered down). Nathan got BHS. Banana, Honey, and Soy Milk. It was very good. Sat Apr 27 04:38:57 2002 (rr) Book: Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei LP After a few days in KL, we hopped on a bus north to the town of Tapah, where we ate some curry and caught a taxi up the winding roads to Tanah Rata. The taxi was an old Benz, which seems a popular choice for cabs around here, and slowly worked its way up the mountains into the Cameron Highlands. Cameron Highlands is one of Malaysia's hill stations, where the Brits used to come to cool off. The temperature here is much cooler than KL's 90-something degrees. It even gets cool at night. The general scenery is the "mountain jungle" look. Lots of colorful flowering bushes and trees. The fuschia bougainvilla is especially nice. Clouds obscure the peaks of the mountains. The highlands are known for their tea, which is sold and served everywhere around here. Tea plants look like fuzzy hedges from a distance. At night, walking home from dinner in the nearby town of Brinchang, we could see purple flashes of lightning off miles away. |
nmcfarl.org email us email Rachel email Nathan See the pictures. Palau Pictures Yap Pictures Hawaii Pictures Taiwan Pictures View the original itinerary
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||