Alone in Sydney

13th December 2007 - Sydney. Weather Sunny

One thing that I think that I failed to mention about Kuala Lumpur is that it is monsoon season so I was looking forward to getting out of the rain and into the sunshine of Oz and on leaving the airport I loved the blistering heat. I dutifully purchased my Australian simcard to save money and phoned the person that I had met at Heathrow to find out which hostel she was in, got the train to Sydney Central and walked to Pitt Street into the welcome 'arms' of the Wake Up Hostel at 10.30am with it's banging house music (I think that's what the young folk call it).

Having checked into my luxury 4 bed mixed dorm and cursing loudly that the one free bed was an upper bunk as although I could possibly hide my age with thick applications of stage make up, I would never be able to carry it off attempting to get up to a top bunk without the aid of ladders, ropes and climbing boots, I found my very tired mate and we set off on the 30 min trek to circular harbour to see the well known sights and have a beer. On our return we ventured into the hostel 'discotheque' and met an Australian guy called Matt who promised to show me Sydney the next day......hoorah!

Met my roommates briefly (2 boys and 1 girl) before elegantly battling my way up to my rickety bunk, an occasion which I marked with the placing of a flag for achievement on completion

Alone in Kuala Lumpur II

OK, so my day of extensive day of sightseeing didn't quite go to plan. I had an early night to ensure mental sharpness and had consulted the map that I had managed to acquire with a little haggling. Now, I don't know if any of you have been here but it's not a very easy place to navigate due to there being few road names and that if the green man flashes, it doesn't necessarily mean cross the road.

I found the towers which had been my point of reference the day before - obviously couldn't go up them due to my fear of heights but they looked quite pretty and like tall towers from the ground. I went into the shopping mall and window shopped because my windows at home are leaking and I need new ones and then set off on the treacherous journey to the Central Market 'Home of Malaysian Arts and Culture' as it said in my map....apparently not on a Wednesday though as it was empty! Took me hours to get there too! So admitted failure and went back to the hotel......

Things that I feel that I should share:

1. Half a pint of local beer costs about 3 pounds! Blimey!!!!!
2. A packet of cigarettes cost about 1 pound 20p! Phew!!!!
3. You can smoke anywhere i.e restaurants, shops etc but not in this Internet cafe.
4. All local Malaysian food is cooked in chicken stock (Quite tricky that one with me being a vegetarian and all and as the bible says man cannot live by crisps alone.)
5. Buying a cheap belt because of sudden weight loss due to the chicken stock scandal costs 20 ringgits (about 3 pounds!!!)
6. Being gay here is an offence apart from the transsexuals who are loved because they are obviously not gay!?!!??
7. There is no air conditioning in this Internet cafe.

I think that's enough really interesting facts as I don't want to cram too much in this blog which is probably going to be discovered and printed as a travel book!

So, I'm sitting here filling time as I wait to go to the airport to continue the next exciting leg of my travels which will take place in Sydney. I have not arranged anywhere to stay as I'm disregarding my age and going youth hostelling (I'd like to thank my friends who insisted on making me watch Hostel 2 before I left!) so the next post could be interesting.

G'day for now!

Alone in Kuala Lumpur

How funny is this whole travelling malarkey? After 12 hours on a plane with some woman drooling on my shoulder whilst asleep I arrived at KL International and then set to on the tricky task of finding a cab which wasn't going to rip me off for the 45km journey into KL. (I did get ripped off and we did get lost!)
After checking into my hotel, I endeed up last night doing karaoke in a locals bar and then got a guided tour of Kuala Lumpur where I had to get out of the car and really appreciate it fully until 4 this morn here which is only 8pm there.... and I was knackered! My tour included a really dodgy locals hangout out the back of nowhere where I was plied with free drinks as the only tourist ever to have visited it....did I feel special? (Not really very safety conscious but will try harder in future) Left the hotel today and then promptly lost it....note to self - must get map! Still I obviously found an internet cafe which is a starting point. Looking out of my 16th floor window, which in itself was brave seeing that I hate heights I had decided that my point of reference was the Petronis Towers (the tallest standing twin towers in the world... I did listen to my guide last night!) and thought that I couldn't get lost. However, I soon realised that when all the buildings are tall they are not that visible at all and spent the next three hours trying to find the sodding towers just so that I could find my way back! I remember doing exactly the same in Paris and obviously didn't learn from it! Anyway, I've planned major sightseeing tomorrow having worked out the rail system and the money - sort of! Keep your fingers crossed!