Petronas Towers Sky Bridge

Every day they are handing out 800 or so tickets for the sky bridge tour at the probably most known landmark of Kuala Lumpur. This translates to huge queues and fierce combat for the free tour tickets early in the morning. I was there at 8:20 as the ticket counter opens at 8:30. As you can see, there were quite a lot of people already there...

Thankfully the queuing went fairly quickly as there was an older Australian mate there with whom I talked about barbies and leather thongs amongst other things. One and a half hours later I had a ticket for the 11:30 tour. Off to the Suria KLCC shopping center which is located at the bottom of the towers. You can find pretty much every luxury brand in existence having their shop there. Armani exchange, Brioni, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi, Gucci, Hermes, Issey Miyake, Jimmy Choo, Karen Millen, Louis Vuitton, Moschino... I bet you could fill out the whole list with shops in there but that would be a waste of valuable blog space.

Anyway, the time was really easy to spend in the air-conditioned shopping environment and before long I was standing in the elevator to the 41st floor. There was also a 3D presentation about Petronas as a company and the building of the twin towers. But the true tour in my opinion began when we stepped out of the elevator:

The views were pretty amazing and even though you were only allowed at the sky bridge for a bit over 5 minutes it was still worth it. Enough time to take the compulsory posing pictures and marvel at the surrounding rooftops. I just wonder how spectacular the view is from the top floor offices...

Happy posing tourist

ps. scroll down for some additional pictures. I added some to the previous posts.

Juho the computer wizard

Electronics is quite cheap in KL, so I bought myself a 16GB thumb drive from a mall dedicated only to electronics (how heavenly is that?). a 16GB model basically costs a bit under 100 ringgits or 20 euros, but I opted for the titanium reinforced Sandisk one for a bit more. Anyway, after coming back to the hostel and plugging the device in ... nothing happened.

Is it a faulty drive? The light comes on normally, so it should be fine. Does the OS support it? Well, it's Vista, but still it should be no problem. Just click on add new hardware! Oh, no new devices found. Maybe another USB port, if the hardware is somehow faulty? No reaction. Could the U3 stuff be messing with it? Heureka! You might need admin priviledges to install new software as the U3 tries to launch for the first time! Maybe I should ask the guy in reception about it.

Or maybe I should just stop shoving it to the computer to my left and put it in the correct machine. Yeah, works perfectly.

Impressions on Indonesia vol. 2

Indonesia is quite a liberal country, especially when it comes to different restrictions and regulations. Smoking seems to be allowed everywhere and buses seem to be particularly popular places for smoking. One of the minibuses was seriously driven by a 12-year-old. If there is not enough room inside the bus, you can always climb up to the luggage rack and travel with a lot of legroom.

Indonesians, especially in Lake Toba, are also quite laid back about plants and fungi naturally growing in the mountains and field sides and marijuana and magic mushrooms are being offered constantly despite their illegal status.

The only people likely to screw you around are the rickshaw drivers. The locals are friendly and helpful and some of them even speak nearly perfect English.

I trekked a volcano and spend a night in Berastagi on my way to Medan. Pictures are to follow. Berastagi was a really nice place with lots of fresh fruits, flowers and vegetables spread around the massive marketplaces. Guess the volcanic soil makes for a good growing ground.

Now I am back in KL and after sleeping almost around the clock (the volcano trek started at 3am) I am finally ready to hit the streets. So stay tuned for some more pictures and stories. :)

Impressions on Indonesia

Well, the title might be a bit misleading as I've actually done only one island within an island (Samosir Island in Lake Toba, Sumatra). But generally the people in Medan were as helpful and friendly as the locals here. Samosir island is in the heartlands of Batak people and the lake is about 900 meters from sea level. It seems that everyone here is a musician and no matter where you are sitting in the evening, at some point someone always takes out the guitar and starts singing and playing. Drums and djembes are usually joining in quite quickly and suddenly there is a whole band playing both Batak and English songs.

The scenery is mountainious (is that a word?) and green and the fresh water in the lake makes for an excellent swimming place. Days are mostly sunny but short rains are quite common as it is the rainy season. Still warm and no need for long sleeves, so I'm not complaining. The day temperature is around 25 degrees centigrade, so slight downfall of water is not a problem. Nights are around 20. Pretty much perfect weather. Too bad the clouds are blocking the starry sky, but it is extremely enjoyable. I know I will miss this place and the laid-back atmosphere.

The food is also great with Rendang, the local version of curry, being served almost everywhere. I prefer the indian ones but they make for a good food. And for 1,5 euros per portion there is not a lot to complain about. One local treat is Gado-gado, a local salad with peanut dressing. The peanut dressing is spiced sometimes with coriander and ginger, but lime juice and chilli are most common spices. Sugar is also added for a bit of sweetness. It has a great nutty flavour and definitely will be missed. Western food is also widely available but the greatest flavours are generally found in shady roadside stalls you wouldn't describe as a restaurant in any western nation.

I was supposed to decorate the post with luscious food photos but left my USB cable for the camera back in the guesthouse. Oh well, I'll post them later on. update: added pictures

I will be flying to KL on the 25th. From there, probably back to Thailand and around mid-October towards Cambodia. Looks like I have to pack my bag once again.

And I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but all my belongings weight in at 15 kg. Seems pretty light for half years supplies, but so far I haven't really missed anything (a roll of duct tape - or jesus tape as we call it in Finland - does wonders).

Tragedy

My hammock is destroyed! Some french guy was sitting in there with her girlfriend and it was torn apart. The guy paid up and actually I made a nice profit with it as well, but I would rather still have the hammock intact.

In 5 days I will be flying back to KL. Should meet a friend in there and the original plan is to head towards Thailand and spend a week or two together.

Thursday night roast

We are still rallying for some people to join our suckling pig feast tonight. There was some misunderstanding apparently and instead of the piglet that would have fed five persons, we got a bigger one good for 10-15 people. So we are just inviting strangers to come and share the pig (and the costs) with us. So far one certain and two maybes, but the search continues. :)

Fruit of the day #2

And here it is ladies and gentlemen
The impervious Jambu

The fruit actually goes by many names and from wikipedia you can find the following name list: wax apple, love apple, java apple, Chomphu, Bellfruit, water apple, mountain apple, jambu air ("water guava" in Malay), wax jambu, Rose apple, bell fruit, makopa, tambis, and chambekka in Malayalam, Jamrul (in Bengali), and jumbu (Sri Lanka). The local term is just jambu.

The fruit is an interesting mix of radish and something sweet. Texture is a bit firmer than with ordinary apple and all in all it wasn't that impressive. The search for the perfect fruit continues...

Bugger

The other night I came across the following little beast:


Picture somehow doesn't do justice to the sheer size of the thing. :) For the record: it was a friendly encounter and no animals were harmed taking the picture.

Fruit of the day

May I present to you:The Mighty Salak

The skin is almost like a snakeskin. After peeling it, there is three segments, a little bit like in a garlic. The aroma isn't very strong and the taste is quite mild. Remarkably acidic and resembles an apple. Especially the texture. Something worth mentioning was the really strong tannic mouthfeel while eating the fruit. A nice fruit, a bit too acidic to my taste but the ones in Bali are apparently sweeter and more costly. Have to check it out if I come across some.

Street food

I have also had some other rather nice taste experiences, most of which coming from small food stalls. Above is pictured a dish that I would call potatoes, grilled meat and sauce on a banana leaf. Really good and cheap. The meat tasted like chicken but the consistency was a bit hard and not as flaky. Ignorance is bliss I guess. At least it was delicious and that's what matters. :)

Stranded

When traveling in a Muslim area, one should keep in mind that the Ramadan is happening around September... Not getting food in the daytime is a minor complaint but when everyone flocks to the airplanes after the Ramadan (Sept. 19th this year) the ticket prices tend to soar a bit...

Guess I might have to look at this a bit longer:

Quiet and peaceful

My hammock by the lake

My 3,5 euro room

There isn't that much to do in lake Toba. The spot looks like it has been quite popular a few years back but now there is just a definite lack of tourists. That translates in to cheaper accommodation and quite obviously rather relaxed atmosphere with no flocks of westerners.

Days pass lying in the hammock, reading, eating and occationally canooeing on the lake or just riding around the island with a scooter. Excellent place to relax and chill out as there really isn't that much to do around here. Maybe a few more days...

The weather is nice, not too hot during the day and not too cold in the evenings. Just perfect.

Lake Toba

My arrival in Indonesia was a bit more exciting than usual because it turned out that you can't pay the visa on arrival with a credit card in Medan. (The airport is called Polonia airport for some reson, btw). Not possessing US dollars either I had to resort for an unsupported currency (euro) and paid 20 euros for the 25$ visa. Still okay I think.

There was a flood of hellomisters at the airport and it was really hard to get out of there without a taxi or a tuk tuk. But made it still and walked straight after the ATM to the nearest street vendor, bought some of their "something in a dough, served with fresh green chilies". Also got a very vague instructions about taking a bus to the city. Well, after finding the bus stop and boarding one - errm, bus? - i was greeted with three teenaged indonesian girls who all wanted to take a picture with me. They also were kind enough to tell me how to get a minibus, or a questionably modified Toyota Hiace that would be more describing, to the city. Actually everything went really quickly and I was almost tossed to a bus to Parapat because I mentioned the Danau Toba trip. Paid 22000 rupiahs for the 5 hour ride. Mind you that 14500 rupiahs equal to 1 euro, so it was basically nothing. I was quite in luck because the bus made it in front of the Tuk Tuk Ferry about 4 minutes before the last departure.

Wound up in a way more posh accommodation than I had planned, with hot water, bathtub, balcony and a double bed. Three and a half euros per night, so no complaints. And marijuana and magic mushrooms seem to be very common around here as two persons have already tried to sell me some. "Remember, I've got the good stuff! So just ask me..." And this coming from a waiter in the guesthouse restaurant. Reminds me of Goa a couple of years back.

The nature is awesome and the sunsets are stunning. Nothing much to do around here but chill out and relax. Might rent a scooter some day now and take a little ride around. There is supposed to be some hot springs about 50km from here. But if the road is anything like the trans-Sumatran highway, I don't want to risk my life in that traffic. It is quite chaotic and in the buses and restaurants people are just smoking all the time. Pretty different from Thailand or Malaysia, where smoking is much more controlled.

Easy and carefree staying, but apparently there are a lot of finns here so quite a lot of "mitta kuulu? Mitas mies? Mitas tasa!" that I'm not too fond of. But the surroundings are very forgiving.

Sunset at Lake Toba

Sunset at Toba #2

View from our dinner table in Georgetown

Georgetown

They are quite big... Petronas towers in KL.

Kuala Lumpur

In spite of being labeled as a person who is doing nothing during his travels but blogging, here is the second entry for today:

I really like KL. The atmosphere is really nice, the infrastructure is good (although not really pedestrian friendly) and prices are right. I was just walking around town for about four hours and could really see myself spending more time in here. Maybe even live for a few months/years. I just wish I would have gotten the feeling in Bangkok. :D But I guess only the next visit there will really tell me how I feel about it.

As of now it is sad to leave, but most likely I'll be back for a round two soon enough.

Snake temple

Yesterday I visited the notorious snake temple of Penang. Now, when I think of a snake temple, I think of an Indiana Jones -type of snake temple crawling with reptiles. So understandably I was somewhat underwhelmed by the seven sleeping snakes in an otherwise just a normal buddhist temple. In my opinion not worth the 45 minute busride. Or it would have been 45 minutes should the driver actually have kept his word and told me where to get off and not drive me up all the way to the airport... Well, everything worked out after a while and it only took like 30 extra minutes. Thankfully the weather was too nice for me to be able to stress about such things. I would have to kill some time anyways as my train was leaving at 9pm. Sadly it is Ramadan, so the awesome-looking food fair in Georgetown opened after the last ferry to Butterworth left so I had to settle for some generic indian food in the Little India. Rice was cold, chicken korma not very tasty but at least the naan was top-notch. And all that and a pepsi for a bit under 10 RM or 2 euros is still quite bearable.

The train was quite nice (40RM, upper bed in sleeper car) but as can be mathematically proven, a 181cm person cannot really sleep comfortably in a 180cm long bed. Especially if he has to have his backpack in there as well.

So at 5am when I arrived to KL, I was actually kind of happy that I was travelling alone and being able to just go and sleep in the departure hall for 3-4 hours more without having a well-rested travel partner with me. After the extra sleep (and a latte from Starbucks) I was set to find some accommodation. Walking towards chinatown and after checking out some places I got a room that was actually even smaller than the one in Bangkok. But it didn't smell funny and there were no bed bugs (at Oasis Guesthouse, 20RM single room) so I was kind of happy with the hostel. Still feeling like just running around (or how does 4 countries and 3 capitals within one week sound?) so hopefully my stay in Indonesia will bring the pace down a little bit. I've heard that Toba is perfect for relaxing. :)

Tomorrow morning to the airport and a flight to Medan. Now to see if I can find some suspect meat on a stick from some chinese food cart.

Hello Malaysia!

I actually got on the train and everything went really smoothly. Had an authentic "soup of the day" at the train station canteen and as great as it tasted, it was still a bit weird to have maybe four different ingredients you couldn't really put your finger on. It was supposed to be a pork noodle soup but some of the white, semi-elastic balls tasted a lot like seafood... But nice still.

I arrived to Butterworth after an 24 hour train trip. Sleeper car with AC, so pretty comfortable and nice (1120 baht). Lacks the atmosphere of Indian trains though. Food was good there as well, so still a perfect score for Thai food from my experiences so far.

I am spending the night in Georgetown, a 15 minute ferry ride from Butterworth (1,2 Riggit). I am sharing my dorm with two brits and we visited one temple up in the hills and hiked to the top of the "mountain". Sweaty and fun, but the view was maybe not totally worth the trouble after all. :) Back to the city and some food from a streetcorner stand. Mindless strolling around the town before coming back to the guesthouse (12 Riggits, dorm bed). Tomorrow evening I will be heading once again with an overnight train to Kualla, Kualalu, Kua-la France. And from there catch an AirAsia flight to Medan and after spending a night there, head towards Lake Toba. Maybe I could settle down there for a while now that I am starting to slowly adjust myself to the time zone.

Necessities

I am heading off towards Malaysia and Indonesia without a guide book. It would be a nice tool every now and then, but people could live happily even without cell phones at some time...

So we'll see how it goes.

Pushing my luck

For me, Khao San road was seen rather quickly. Lots of people, lots of bars, lots of services (Fish massage! Feed our hungry fish with you dead skin!) and lots of food stands. If you are in to drinking and clubbing I guess it really is the place to be. At least you might want to check it out. Personally I am planning on taking an overnight train to Malaysia tomorrow. I haven't got a ticket but am still kind of hoping I can get one from the train station tomorrow...

Here is some price information:
Bus to Khao San road from airport, 150 baht
Single room in Khao San, 250 baht
Internet: 20-40 baht/hour
Pad Thai from a street stall: 20-40 baht (veggie-chicken)

The Pad Thais are really nice. Cooked in front of you and you are free to cast in the desired amount of spices yourself. So if you want to eat cheap, take a veggie portion (add 5baht for one egg) and throw in as many spoonfuls of crushed peanuts as you dare. The egg and nuts should keep you filled for a while. But be careful with the chili, no matter how delicious it might look and how accustomed to it you think you are. :)

Otherwise Bangkok is one of the largest cities I've been in with only London coming close and Mumbai topping it. And from an overall view, Bangkok has a lot more of a metropolitan view to it with more skyscrapers and more rats than the two combined. Nice place to stop by, but staying here now would have made for a quite a boring blog. So hopefully tomorrow I will be southbound.

City of angels

The heat strikes you instantly as you come out from the airport. It fills your lungs with a heavy mixture of air, moisture and pollution. On your skin it feels like you are covered with warm rags all over. You get used to it fairly quickly but come across an air-conditioned area and you are in for the same treatment over and over...

I took a bus from the airport directly to Khao San road. "The" traveller centre of South-East Asia. Signed myself in to a fairly nice hostel (had a bed, always a plus) and mainly went to bed somewhere around 7pm local time. I couldn't really sleep on the airplane and the four hour time difference seems to have taken its toll on me.

Last night I just grabbed some Pad Thai from a street vendor, bought some water from a local 7-eleven and wandered around the local streets and alleyways until I got lost. Got a bit more systematic and in a truly masculine fashion found myself back on my own. Best hour ever spent for a five-minute walk...

I am still totally unaware of the time. It tells me on the screen that it's around 4:14 pm but I feel like I would be ready for the bed soon. It's around noon in Finland, but it feels like 10pm. Hello jetlag.