Trip

4/4/02 Kuala Lumpu, Malaysia (Phillip)

4/4/02 Kuala Lumpu, Malaysia (Phillip)

Phew! That was a long trip down here. Started out on an overnight boat, sounds quite luxurious, no? No! 180 people crammed onto two floors (literally 'floors') of a rickety old boat. Luckily I met two insane Irish girls who made the trip much more fun. From the boat (docked at 5am) we were all split up to the different bus companies and herded onto mini-buses for a grueling 4 hour ride to the Malaysian border. This time I met two crazy Canadian guys and we poked fun at the whole situation. Immigration at Malaysia was a bit iffy too, I did manage to make it through passport control after some interrogation and then we all got back on the bus. However, as we pulled away we were stopped by the police and the few backpackers onboard were reinterviewed. Pretty insane.

Pulled into KL very late last night, after being ripped off by a taxi driver (took me to the middle of nowhere and told me my address was wrong before returning me to Chinatown and demanding extra money) but I found a shady little place in Chinatown. It's fine, I suppose, but I can't imagine staying there long. Need to call my friend Jamie and meet up with the Irish girls in a few minutes.

Initial impressions of KL, hmm, not sure. It's obviously a Muslim country, woman in headscarves etc... Haven't seen any terrorists (that I know of) yet, but I'll keep looking. Most likely they're staying at the same place I am! You have to love the 'No Porn Surfing!' sign over my head right now!

Saying goodbye to my little travel group was a bit sad, but it was time to move on. Ironically one of the girls was also teaching English in Japan, so perhaps if I go to Japan I'll see her again.

Keep smiling!

Posted by Admin at April 3, 2002 06:30 PM