More about KL and Solo Travel

Visiting Batu Cave (13km outside of KL) turned out to be extremely easy. There is bus station near my hostel and the fare is only 2RM. I hopped onto the bus around 9:15AM, got to Batu Cave around 10AM. Walked around and took pictures. The 272 steps to the temple was not as bad as the book described (probably because I been on training, aka getting lost and ending up walk miles for the last few days). There were a lot of free range monkeys running around and lots of water dripping down from the cave ceiling (or was that bats urinating?). At 10:45AM, I hopped onto the same bus (on it's return trip) to get back to Chinatown. By 11:30AM, I was back in Chinatown.

 

Then I decided to check out Mydin per Lonely Planet's suggestion. Bad bad idea. Two hours later, I walked out with 20+ panties and an emtpy wallet (I withdrawed enough money to last the whole Malaysia leg, assuming no shopping); so ended up going to ATM again.

 

I was planning to visit the Bird Park and the Butterfly Park after lunch. However, I got lost again and ended up walking into the middle of freeway (don't know how) and then underground and by the time I found the Bird Park, it was 3:30PM already. Admission to Bird Park was 30RM (quite pricy in Malaysian standards) but I think it is worth it. I don't think I ever saw this many birds in one place. Compare to Thailand, Malaysia doesn't have mosquitoes so I haven't bother to put on mosquito repellants since first day in Penang. Unfortunately, near the pond area in the Bird Parks, there were tons of mosquitos. Damn! Now I got many itchy bumpy spots all over my arms and legs. Since I got lost getting there, no time for butterfly garden.

 

It was raining when I left at 4:30PM plus I don't know how to get back to my hostel (since I got lost getting there), so I took a taxi back (10RM). After a nice cold shower, I met up with my coworker's friends at Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) for dinner. It was interesting learning about Malaysia from locals. I now know why the toilet floor is usually wet and what the extra water hose near the toilet is for. I also learned even after bargaining, I still paid twice more. And interestingly, although Malaysians earn less, they pay a lot more for cars (a 3 series BMW is about $80K USD and a Toyota Corolla is about $25K, mostly due to heavy tax). And their real estate market is as crazy as LA's. Everyone speaks some English here because it used to be a British Colony and in school, math and sciences are taught in English.

 

I been traveling for over two weeks and from what I experienced so far, solo travel is good. You see what you wants to see, you go on your own pace, you met lots of interesting people, peoples seem more friendly and more willing to help when they see you're by youreslf. But there are a few annoyances, such as:

1. You get stare at a lot (especially in Muslim country such as Malaysia. I would imagine worse in places such as India).
2. Shady men approaches you. Like today in Batu Cave, a middle age Chinese man came up to me and started to ask me where I am from and such. Locals usually do like to make friendly conversation and I thought he was one of them. However, he started to get creepy saying US has a lot money and if I am rich, if my parents are rich since I am from US, if I have boyfriend, if I am here alone, if I want to become friend. I started walking really quick and gave him one word response and hoped he'll go away. He finally stopped following me but told me he'll think of me before he took off (EW...)
3. It gets lonely sometime.