So I arrived the next morning in Kuala Lumpur by taking the 8am train from Ipoh. Pretty impressed by Malaysia's train system, smooth as a cloud and only about 5 minutes late after a 2.5 hour journey.

Since it was still early I got lunch, an amazing beef noodle soup. One of the best I've had including China and Taiwan, but it also could be because it's been a year since I've had beef anywhere but McDonald's. I wanted to see what was around, and after so much trekking in Ipoh, being outside was at the bottom of my list. All the museums in the city are pretty much next to KL Central, so that sounded good. And The National Museum was next door. It was only 3 ringgit to get in to boot. Anyway, the National Museum is worth 3 ringgit, maybe 5. A lot of stuff, just none of it too terribly exciting. I learned a lot about Malaysian history, which I guess is kind of the point. Across a footbridge from the museum was a small observatory, with some neat interactive stuff. As I was walked out I saw a sign for the Royal Malaysian Police Museum, with free entry. I like free stuff. Normally I would skip this one, but it was actually pretty impressive, especially their firearm collection. Apparently I was in the museum area, so I stopped by the Islamic Arts Center before checking into the hostel.

The hostel has a really cool vibe to it, very much a place to meet people. I ran into someone I met in Myanmar, oddly enough. She introduced me to the crew, and they mentioned they were going to the roller coaster. Inside the mall. I had to get in on that.

It was 40 ringgit ($14) to get in the theme park, and that gave you unlimited rides. It was 8 o'clock, with them closing at 930. But the ticket let you go out once per day. They had quite an intense roller coaster, with 3 loops, and various other theme park staples. We were one of the few people there so we went on the roller coaster 3 times, which was pretty great. Also a scrambler, bumper cars, upside-down spinny thing... you could come here in the morning, leave for lunch, come back and leave before dinner and have quite a day. And there's nothing like being upside-down above shoppers at H&M.

After, we went out to see the famous Petronas Towers at night. You can see them during the day, and yeah they're not bad. But during the night they're really beautiful. They do a fantastic job of lighting them. But really, they're a lot smaller than I thought. I guess compared to the 101 everything except the Burj Khalifa looks puny, but overall the height was unimpressive. It's very expensive to go to the top, I'll probably skip it.

Next day I scoured the internet to find stuff to do, and ya know... there's really not much. I mean apps like Triposo and Trip Advisor have hundreds of places listed, but they're all skyscrapers, malls or restaurants. Looking at tall buildings doesn't really interest me unless there's something special about them, and yeah, there's a lot of really fancy restaurants I can't or don't want to afford. And malls... well they're malls. You've seen one Amazon.com showroom, you've seen them all. I think KL is a city designed for young women. If you like window shopping all day while occasionally stopping in Starbucks, this is your paradise. If the idea of it seems mind numbingly boring like it does to me, this is not your city. You can't even get drunk here without breaking the bank. Being an Islamic country, the sin tax is quite high, and alcohol is about 3 times as much as Thailand's, 4 times in a bar.

Anyway, I did go out and do something. With a guy from the hostel, we went to see this traditional Malay house they moved to the city. They gave us a very thorough tour, showing us the ins and outs of the whole thing. I liked it, though the lady was a bit long winded at times. After lunch we split up, and since we were next to the IT mall I replaced my terrible, Thai street market power bank with hopefully one that gives me more than 40% battery and doesn't take a day to charge. I also phone shopped to replace my struggling S3. I found a Malaysian exclusive one I really like a lot, but with virtually no modding community I'll probably have to pass.

After I set out to take the LRT to Masjid Jamek Masque. Really digging the bottom of the barrel, it was fine but Penang's was far more impressive. I was close to Chinatown so I wandered around there. I always feel so comfortable in Chinatowns. I love the energy they have, the cheap stuff, and the amazing food. I don't know why anyone would eat in a fancy restaurant when food in places like that are 1/5th of the price and so much better. I stopped to try some weird snacks and drinks before going to KL tower.

KL tower is odd. It's like, someone had a park and said "Fuck it, let's build a tower." Now it's a restaurant and meeting space for the very wealthy, apparently. While shorter than the Petronas Towers it actually has a better view because the observation deck is higher. But at about $35 just to go to the top, I noped right out of there back to the hostel. That night I met some Scandinavians, and we all went to the bar for trivia night. It was pretty hard, but we managed to get in 6th or so place out of 13 teams. We got some pitchers, at only 30 ringgit for 2 pints, it was probably the best beer deal in the city. Still a lot more than Thailand though.

Next time, KL part 2. With a lot more exciting stuff, and a travel companion.