And getting there was no easy feat. Because of the 4-5 hour bus ride back to town on top of the 45 minute ferry ride just to get to the mainland, I needed to leave quite early to get anything accomplished in the daylight in Kuala Lumpur. And quite amazingly I did manage to get up by 7. Now, I had originally planned to try and catch a flight back to KL to save more time, as my guidebook talked about there being an airport on the island for just such flights. However, that airport had closed down some time ago, so it was bus or nothing. No matter. I'll just have the desk call a cab, then I'll be to the port in time to catch the 8:30 ferry. Ohhh, the taxi drivers aren't answering? Well, that makes sense. They are obviously still sleeping. Let's try walking to the corner and see if we can flag somebody down coming our way. After 10 minutes of seeing no cars pass by whatsoever, I figured I might as well just start walking towards the port and hope for the best. And the best was what I got, as after 5 minutes walk I stumbled upon a taxi stand. And then we were on our way.
But I didn't make it back to port in time and missed the 8:30 ferry by mere minutes. BOO. And I had to wait for another 45 minutes for the next ferry at 9:15, which would put me dangerously close to missing the 10am bus back to KL, meaning I would then have to wait until 3 or 4 pm to leave for KL. MAJOR BOO. But then the 9:15 ferry ended up being free for some reason. HOORAY. And I made it back to town by 9:50, leaving me a small window to catch a bus. HOORAY^2. But I couldn't find the ticket counter at the bus stop. POTENTIALLY DISASTROUS BOO. But I did find my bus and just decided to sit down and take my chances, sans ticket. POTENTIALLY PREMATURE HOORAY. Then the bus driver came to collect tickets and allowed me to stay on and pay at a later time. BREATHING A MAJOR SIGH OF RELIEF HOORAY.
With all the drama now behind me, I could relax and just enjoy the trip back to KL and all the pretty scenery. There was still the issue of paying for this bus ride though. During a routine rest stop, the driver encouraged me to go out and get change for my large bills so that I could finally pay him for my bus ticket. I was skeptical that the vendors would be able to break my bill, seeing as how I had only 100 ringgit bills and most items at the stand sold for 3, maybe 4 ringgits. Sure 100 ringgits only is 33 American dollars or so, but given the prices he normally sells stuff at, He would have to empty his entire register to give me my change. But he did actually manage to make change. And he didn't even threaten to inflict serious harm on me or even burn holes in me with the hate in his glare.
Back in KL, I headed back to the same area I stayed in last time. Trying to stay on a budget, I opted to avoid the super nice hotel from last time and just find a hostel or guesthouse. But they were all booked. On a Thursday. What gives? The oddity of the rooms all being booked on a weekday aside, I was, after considerable hiking, able to find a room in a Middle Eastern themed guesthouse. Sure it was kinda shady and that random girl sleeping out in the common room all day (turned out she was an employee or something, but still sleeping out in the open in a big city in a guesthouse full of random strangers....not for me certainly) unsettled the hell out of me, but it was a room. And with a room finally acquired, I could safely venture out into KL and see some stuff.
Since KL is a very compact and walkable city, I decided to hit some of the sights on the edge of town and save the stuff within walking distance of my hotel for later when I'll be more pressed for time. Also, the temple that I chose to visit didn't figure to be open in the evening. The route to the temple seemed to be very straightforward. Key word: "seemed". My book said "take the monorail to this stop, get off, use the overpass to cross the highway, then climb the hill." Easy enough. So I rode the monorail to the specified stop and got off. Easy. On the subject of the monorail, I must confess it was super cool. In reality its nothing special, just simply a subway train riding 20-30 feet above the street instead of that same distance below the street. Hell, it was only a baby monorail with just 2 cars. It was just the novelty of traveling directly above all those cars, looking down on all those small tiny people below me, that really delighted me. Kind of silly to get so worked up about towering over people, especially when I do that on a daily basis living in Asia, but to be honest I don't feel tall most of the time. In the monorail I did though.
But back to the trek to the temple. I had left the proper subway and now all that was left was to cross the overpass and climb the hill. So I crossed the overpass. Now I must climb the hill. Only there didn't seem to be any well marked hill which to climb. To my left there was sidewalk that wound around following the highway. But I knew that couldn't be the right way, as the maps put my location as Northwest of the temple. So I knew I needed to head right. But when I looked to the right I saw plenty of construction and buildings along the road but zero hills. Hmmmm, this is interesting. The directions said nothing about any major walk in any direction after the overpass, so I best look for some sort of hill in the very close vicinity. And sure enough there was a set of stairs heading up a hill. These stairs did seem to be very poorly marked and very small for the entrance to a major temple, but perhaps this is just a secret back entrance. The guidebook did mention a bus that went to the entrance, so maybe this is the less well known footpath there, while the bus follows the main road entrance.
So I climbed the stairs and immediately got the impression that if this is a secret/back door entrance, then maybe its so secret that I'm the only person who knows about it. It was a dirt path leading through some woods and open fields. On either side was a fence. And to top it off there was a stray dog running around. Yup, this clearly looks like the way to one of the biggest temples in Kuala Lumpur. Here take a look. See if you can spot the temple (Hint: there isn't actually a temple in these shots).
Hmmm, no temple but I did find lots of old run-down buildings, various mechanical vehicles in varying stages of decay, and lots of grass. But at least I found my shoe!
The dirt trail eventually opened up into a real road with real pavement and real cars, so maybe I was heading the right way. But after wandering around a bit more, it became evident that there wasn't a temple nearby. And I had no idea whether any of the roads went towards one. So I eventually gave up and asked the only people nearby, which happened to be an armed guard watching over the back entrance of some important building. She was nice enough to answer my questions and send me on my way. Her mouth said "You went the wrong way. Just go back down the hill and follow the highway for a few km." while her eyes said "You are a freakin' idiot. Stupid ass tourists." So I headed back down the hill and followed the road towards my destination. Now maybe its just me, but if a temple and its hill are actually 2-3 km away from the subway stop, I would mention that in the directions to the temple. "Take X subway stop, get off, cross overpass, climb hill" is very, very different from "Take X subway stop, get off, cross overpass, walk 2.5 km, climb hill". Do you see the difference? Apparently the guidebook's writers did not.
To annoy me even further, the powers that be placed several small Chinese temples along the highway on the way to Thean Hou Temple just to taunt me. "Hey Eric, we hear you are looking for a temple. Well, here's one or ten!! Ohh, that's not the one you are looking for??? What a pity...chump."
Ohhh hey, look its a temple! Just not the one I want.
In time, I did indeed find the temple. I'd love to say it was worth the struggle, but (no offense to the temple intended) I went through a lot of bullshit to get to this point. But I made, so best enjoy it. Thean Hou Temple folks. Have at ya.
They also had all the animals for the Chinese "Year of the ____" stuff as well. Would have taken shots of them all, but the camera was flashing low battery at this time, so quickly took pics of the 3 years which actually corresponded to people I know. Sorry everybody that isn't Year of the Snake, Ox, or Tiger. Maybe next time. If you are one of the 3 years listed, then check to see if all the qualities they list apply to you. If they do....you're a liar.
As to why I took the picture of the tiger from the backside, ummm, its because we Tigers are so cool that all you ever see of us are our backsides when we are walking away from your lazy ass? Because we like it from behind?? I have no idea.
While being a super enormous and super cool temple, the highlight was definitely the turtle pond at the back. Now, I would have been content with just a few turtles just hanging around and swimming. But this pond was overrun with turtles. It's almost like Turtle/Tortoise had spent too much time with his buddy Hare from the children's story "The Tortoise and the Hare" and thought, "Man this having sex constantly sounds like a pretty good idea." Then you magically end up with this many f'n turtles.
It was at this point, while snapping shots of the turtles, that my camera died. Battery gone. Well, now I'm in a pickle. It's mid-afternoon, I still have lots of stuff to see in the daylight, but I have nothing to record the shots with. Part of me said "screw the camera and recording what I see and just go out and record the images using your mind." But the rest of me said, "No, thats no good. Your memory is absolute garbage. If you don't take a picture with a camera you'll forget this by tomorrow." I wisely returned to my room and set out searching for a power converter for Malaysian outlets.
I lucked out and found a electronics store/cell phone store just down the street, so within minutes I was back at my hotel room, with the camera charging and free to contact people via the interwebs to let them know I'm still alive.
With that stuff done, I was free to move on to more sightseeing. But first, more pressing matters: food. My hotel room was located 2 blocks away from the famous Jalan Alor night food district. Jalan Alor consists of a single road that ran for 2, maybe 3 blocks and was filled with restaurants and food stands on both sides of the road. Now because the weather in KL is beautiful and warm 365 days a year, most of their seating was simple plastic picnic furniture tossed up in the street. Just the kind of no frills, simple eating I like. The problem was deciding which stand to choose. I can't remember exactly how I selected the restaurant I did (paper, rock, scissors? eeny meeny miny mo? I just got tired of walking?), but it ended up being a good choice, as I imagine any of the restaurants would have been.
Dinner in my stomach, I was free to move to the markets of Chinatown for some name brand products that are absolutely not black market knock offs. I promise. I went there looking for some gifts for people back home, but was quickly disappointed, as nearly every stand was selling the knock off, err, I mean name brand merchandise. Shoes, shirts, jackets, underwear, watches, purses, bags, etc. All nice stuff, but nothing I'd be interested in buying for people back home. So I just wandered back and forth through the tight spaces, just taking it in, desperately looking for something even a little interesting to me. No luck though.
Since Jalan Petaling (the main market in Chinatown) hadn't really supplied the goods I was looking for for everybody's presents, I had to move down the street to Central Market. As soon as I walked in, I knew I should have looked here from the start. The particular salesman I purchased from kept trying to push his luck, even after he got the sale. "Well, that's nice, but for your mom, I recommend this one. Only the best materials for your mother." Obviously this guy didn't know me. I'm pretty sure my mom will be shocked to get anything from me, such is my past track record. But because I was in a good mood, I humored the salesman and asked how much the "good stuff" cost. Ohhh, 4 times as much as the one I bought for her? I don't think so, sorry. I love my mom, but not that much. Sorry mom.
I closed the evening wandering around the ritzy downtown area just down the street from my hotel. I should mention if I haven't that KL is wonderful to walk, as Chinatown was 15 min walk in one direction and the ritzy mall area called The Golden Triangle was 10 minutes in the other direction. So I wandered, watching the lights and malls and restaurants I had no intention of setting foot in. Not much more to say about that. Just look at the pics.
The day overall had been very good but there was still something missing, some unnamed emptiness needing to be filled. Then I saw it and knew what I had to do.
I had to walk inside this wonderful, wonderful place, order a Root Beer or Root Beer Float as quickly as possible, then once it is in hand, drink that piece of heaven faster than i had ever done anything in my life before I wake from this dream. An A&W in KL? I must be dreaming. Better to just drink it and not ask questions before I awaken again in a A&W-less Asia. Quickly, quickly. And I did. And it was wonderful. So I guess it was real. Or I never awoke from the dream.
Perfection. In a glass.
P.S. I realize now that I forgot to address the issue of the title. Sadly, that story will have to wait for the next post. Apologies.
Pictures: See Malaysia and Singapore Vacation Pics (Album 2)
No comments:
Post a Comment