Remind me never to leave so early from Macau: a flight leaving at 10:45 had me leaving Lingnan at 5:30. That wasn’t strictly necessary, but it was close enough. We’d booked a Turbojet ferry online for 0700 and taking the first West Rail train at 0547 got us there in time to grab breakfast. After waiting almost an hour for the an AP1 bus to stop (two didn’t) we gave up and caught a cab to the airport in Macau, where (due to the smallness of everything) we had about an hour to kill. Introduced Becky to egg tarts, I think she approves.
AirAsia proper was a much improved experience compared to Thai AirAsia, which I’d flown to and from Bangkok last month. Leather seats, new A320, less aggressive anti-outside-food-and-beverage policy, and reasonable prices and better selection on the inflight service. We snagged exit row seats—not as impressive as the missing-seat legroom I had on the tired 737s of the Thai version, but still a good three times the normal legroom or so. After a flight that was shorter than I expected (because I’d forgotten that Malaysia and Singapore share the +8 timezone with Hong Kong, despite all the +7 countries between them), we were at the very unimpressive LCCT (low cost carrier terminal) in the outskirts of KL International Airport.
After waiting for immigration to get its act together, searching for phantom (yet to be installed?) ATMs, and so on, we caught a bus to KL Sentral (the transport hub) where we ate and got in touch with our couchsurfing host. We took a Komuter (Malay transport words aren’t too confusing, eh?) train to her home town of Shah Alam, the capital of Selangor province (surrounding KL) and something of a bedroom community. It does have a fantastic(ally big) Blue Mosque, which we didn’t see since Friday is a tough day to get in mosques.
I’ll write more about our couchsurfing experience later (after we’ve finished it), but suffice it to say that it’s been very welcoming at times and very… cross-cultural at others. And some cultures are more cross about some things than are others. Remind me if I don’t write about it, there’s a lot to write… it may have to wait until I’m back in Hong Kong.
Today we’ve been out and about in KL. The dearth of people at what I thought would be packed tourist hotspots… even perhaps for locals… even outside of prayer hours… has been very strange. Merdeka Square, where independence was declared, is pretty and big and centrally located… yet for a while we were the only people there. Friday can’t explain all of it, as Malaysia’s substantial Hindu and Buddhist populations don’t have anything special to do on Friday. The weather is a bit gray, so going up the towers isn’t that interesting. However, the Petronas Towers are neat-looking and the surrounding gardens are nice. Chinatown is… kind of Chinese. I don’t think any Chinatown will cut it after Mongkok.
Food is great, lots of it from lots of places. Western, Malay, Thai, Chinese, Indian… yum.
The exchange rate is not so great these days, from 3.77 in the days of the printing of my Lonely Planet to 3.4odd today. Prices aren’t great in general, but I guess that goes with development.
The highlight of KL was easily the Batu caves, a complex of limestone caves north of the city containing Hindu temples and big golden god-images. And the aircon bus ride provided some much needed cool relaxation. Overall verdict: KL isn’t packed with attractions (unless you’re better dressed and cultured and timed, for all the lovely-looking mosques), but it works. Unfortunately, impending floods (if you’ve been watching news about Malaysia, more of them) are expected to hit the area north of here over the weekend. This includes Georgetown and Penang Island, our tentatively planned next stop. But, according to Thorn Tree, some attractions in the south, specifically Melaka, are visitable despite earlier flooding there, and the routes to Singapore if we decide to dip down remain passable. We’ll go somewhere southerly tomorrow, most likely, and hope that Penang etc. clear up in time to see stuff up there on the way out.