What I Learned About Life in Kuala Lumpur

I learned a lot about myself and the world in KL.

1) Know how to get from the airport to the hotel before you arrive at 12:30am. Points go to Indonesia here for always having friendly ibus on call to guide you in the right direction. We did not have such friendly help in KL.

2) Promptness is a thing pretty much everywhere outside of Indonesia. John and I had grown pretty Javanese in regard to time and showed up 15 minutes late to our scheduled time to go up in the Petronas towers. As a result, we were asked to wait as lines of others went ahead of us, resulting in our missing a meetup with fellow PCV, JHo. We couldn't get in touch with him since we couldn't use our Indonesian phones in Malaysia. 

JHo took his own picture at the Petronas Towers after our missed meetup.

 

3) Cupcakes heal. Feeling down about missing JHo due to my own inadequacy, John and I hit a cupcake place in the KLCC mall. After taking down a chocolate cupcake with peanut butter/caramel frosting, I felt almost ready to forgive myself. We also found out later JHo missed the appointment as well due to an issue with waiting for his Kazakhstan visa. 



4) Leave for the airport more than 2 hours before your flight - if the airport is an hour and a half away. Again, due to our Indonesian-ness, we were happily writing postcards, chatting with an Iranian friend in the hostel, and eating pork buns before we waltzed over to the train and bus. The AirAsia service assistant, Zainal, advised us that we'd have to pay a large sum to get on the next flight. When I asked him if this was our only option, he thought it over, avoided the usual round-about "polite" antics, looked me straight in the eye and said, "Yes". We all had a chuckle over this, and John handed over the large sum of money. Oh, Zainal. Due to our missing the original flight, I was able to spend time in the KL airport where I purchased Reese's and got to play with a happy Chinese baby. So win win there. 

Travel Info
Hotel: Ribbon Stayz (25 RM per person)
Dorm-style, shared bathrooms (I couldn't figure out how to work the shower), but a good place to meet other travelers, and there was toast for breakfast!

Food:
Bijou Cupcake in KLCC mall
Chocolate with caramel/peanut butter frosting is the best.

Sites:
Central Market
Really stress-free to walk around and pick up some souvenirs

Petronas Towers (about 30 USD reserved on-line in advance)
Don't be late to your assigned time, as mentioned above.