Rainy Kuala Lumpur

Originally, we thought that we wouldn't even get as far as Kuala Lumpur but since we didn't enjoy Malaysia so much in the end and rushed through it, we had a couple of days to spare to visit the capital. Also, most of the long-haul buses for Thailand depart from here, so it was only logical to make Kuala Lumpur our last stop in peninsular Malaysia before returning to its northern neighbor.

KL, as it is called here, is nothing like anything we've seen so far in SE Asia. It is no secret that it is an important metropolis so I will not bore you with the obvious cliches about how overwhelming, modern and chaotic it is. Even Bangkok looks like a provincial town next to KL, whose transportation system is way more efficient and above all more straightforward and manageable (having signs written in Latin script helps too). It obviously is also more expensive than other cities than we've visited - we ended up paying almost 20 euros for a room with shared bathroom which would cost half anywhere else.

Odds were against us in Kuala Lumpur. It rained both days we were there, and after a few encounters with the KL's fierce air-conditioning I got a sore throat and a bit of a fever. Even despite that we managed to do some tourism:

We saw the famous Petronas towers, impressive at night

 .

... and less so on a cloudy day

We walked around the hilariously named Merdeka Square that commemorates the declaration of the Malaysian independence (=Merdeka) from British colonial rule in 1957

We visited the Museum of Islamic arts, our second museum in just a week! Here the up-to scale model of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina

We passed by the huge National Mosque but were not let in...

...wrong timing

On our walk through the Chinatown we met the KL's firefighters!

Half of one day was dedicated to what is becoming a quixotic task - look for Le Petit Prince in Malay. We visited several huge shopping malls around the posh area of Bukit Bintang, took two shuttle buses around the city to find more book stores, but to no avail! I am starting to think that I should start collecting something else...

And as for the rest of our time, we made quite a good use of our expensive guesthouse and its strong wifi, and just stayed indoors trying to cure my swollen tonsils. Thanks to the staff's kindness (or lack of interest, we are still not sure which it was) we even got to hang out there our last day until late in the evening and I could get some rest before starting another long overnight journey back to Thailand.