The airport is fairly modern by our standards let alone Cambodia’s. I have to say that we were glad to be finally leaving Cambodia, having been constantly asked if we want a taxi, food, drink etc. It had finally got too much. Also Phenom Penh (and Cambodia come to that) was much more expensive than we had anticipated, especially considering how poor a country they are. Unfortunately, it just made you feel even more aware that you are being ripped off and you’re not even getting a smile when they do it. The final indignation was a $50 departure tax for all passengers flying out from the country. After having to pay for two visas to get in, this really was rubbing salt into the wound.
We arrived at KL airport without incident and exited customs ready for the onslaught of taxi and hotel hawkers……nothing…..no one stood in our way to try to sell us anything….calm at last.
KL is a cultural melting pot with the population split between Middle Eastern, Asian and Westerners all living and working together in seemingly perfect harmony. Its fascinating to see, being around so many cultures in one place. The only down side is that most of the restaurants don’t sell alcohol as the dominant religion is Muslim. We‘ve been dry for 2 days and the shaking has finally stopped!!
Many countries have a national sport. Australia has cricket, Germany has football, England has…..??????? And Malaysia has walking round shopping malls. To facilitate this very popular sport they have so many malls that at times it seems like they are connected and you could walk from one side of the city to the other without seeing light. In fact, they take their malls so seriously that the local security you usually see patrolling these centres to move along groups of teenagers or loiterers, carry pump action shot guns. I assume shopping lifting just does not happen in KL.
One of the larger malls and more upper class in terms of the shops there was the Suria KLCC centre which also happened to be positioned under the iconic Petronas towers. The twin Petronas towers are the 5th tallest twin towers in the world (proudly promoted by the Malaysian tourist board J) and is the only real sightseeing in KL. To go to the sky bridge on the 48th floor (not even close to the top) that connects the two towers is free, but to get a free ticket you have to queue at 7:00am and try your luck. As we have done much taller buildings on this trip and as a 6:00am start to get there on time did not appeal, we decided to pass on this opportunity and just take some photos of the towers instead.
With nothing much to do other than wander the city and take in the ambience and daytime temperatures reaching a cooling 36 degrees, we spent quite a bit of time walking the malls and enjoying the air conditioning. The malls not only have the usual shops but the corridors and walkways are also packed with stalls. As I passed one of these stalls, the women came out to try and sell me something. With the reactions of Karate Kid I put my hand up and said “no thank you” and walked on not even hearing what was for sale. Emma was lagging behind looking at some shoes or something and heard what the woman had said…..“Hair loss treatment sir?” Emma was beside herself laughing at this little incident, retelling it several times during the next few days - Oh how I laughed. The sales woman obviously does not know the difference between a short haircut and balding!
As we had arrived in a new country we quickly started our usual routine of planning what are we going to do and try to see, so with guide book in hand we started mapping out where we could get to bearing in mind that we have to be in Singapore for the 12th July and our flight to Australia. After several false starts trying to book trips and onward travel, we finally decided to spend some time in the Cameron Highlands doing some trekking in the mountains and jungles of Malaysia.
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