George Town & Kuala Lumpur

Our way onwards to the next destination obviously started in the last one: Bangkok. A dirty and smelly city. We were glad to leave, but first we needed to get to the train station. For a change we learned from our past experiences and took the easy route via Metro. The Bangkok Subway system is surprisingly decent and our one time taking it left us with enough expertise to partake in a survey about the general subway system. The woman who handed out the questionnaires was very persistent, so we spend 10 min writing our very intricate opinion on whether or not pets should be allowed on the train. I could confidently say that I will never bring my cats on the Subway in Bangkok, but my reason “I don't live here” might not help the people trying to design a pet friendly subway. After that we only had to find Platform E with the helpful signs pointing to platform 1-8 and wait till our train arrived.

After 4.5 month of travel we have taken a large variety of transportation devices and it is no secret that trains are our favorite, especially overnight trains. We were accordingly exited for this one and it did not disappoint. The beds were large and decently comfortable, there was more than enough room for everyone’s luggage, we had tables and someone even walked through the train to prepare the beds! The only downside were that our beds were on the opposite sides of the wagon and the beds were not entirely flat. Another noteworthy thing was the toilet: just a hole leading directly onto the train tracks. However as toilet paper and soap was present, it exceeded our expectations.

16.2.

We awoke early after a decent night on the only slightly rattling train. We departed the train in Padang Besar and crossed the boarder into Malaysia, country number 16! Filled with excitement we took the commuter train to Butterworth. A very adorable name, that could have come straight out of a story told by Paddington. Sadly we did not stay in Butterworth but proceeded on, crossing hazardous waters to George Town. A town with a multi-colored soul. Where skyscrapers line the edge of town and small, brightly colored houses, who’s walls are pained with beautiful murals, fill the center. We spend the day walking through the winding streets with lampions hung between the houses, past temples and mosques to the harbor and back, indulging in the truly amazing food in little India. George Town is a town of artists, where the people are as colorful and kind as their art.

17.2

The next day we had only a little time to meander through town before the ferry whisked us away back to the mainland. But fate was not on our site. Standing in Butterworth station wanting to book the train to Kuala Lumpur we were informed that the train is already full, so was the next one. With heavy hearts we turned our backs to our favorite way of transportation and sought solace at another one: Buses. We secured two seats on one departing an hour later. So we spend the hour in the search of magic potion and wondering if the bus was going to be like a European long distance bus, with Wifi and tables or more like Laos Minivan, filled to the brim with people and their stuff. To our amazement the bus was more like a Korean luxury vessel, with large comfortable seats but no tables. The roads are also more up to Korean than Lao standards, so we spent four comfortable hours finishing the first season of Outlander. Arriving in Kuala Lumpur later than expected we took the subway to our Hostel and had only one more quest in mind for the day: dinner. The Indian place downstairs offered us great Nasi Goreng for only 6 Ringgit. We also brought breakfast, for the next morning: with our future breakfasts in mind, we bought a reasonable amount of instant oats (1 kg, stored in a 30cm large plastic box, that luckily fits in Pascal somehow) and some overpriced bananas. I am still very much confused about the different priced bananas throughout south east Asia. For the price we paid for the two bananas we bought there we could have had 20 in Vietnam.

18.2

This day was a roller-coaster of a day. Filled with all kind of emotions and twists of fate, but one step at a time. We got up early and departed our place of sleep quickly after a good breakfast, eager to see as much of the city as possible. Our first destination were the Batu Caves. On the outskirts of the city nestled between sharp cliffs lies a rainbow temple complex, watched over by a gold giant. To enter the true caves one must simply climb the 264 (counted them myself) colorful stairs to the entrance, bonus if none of your stuff gets stolen by the monkeys. It also does not help that even in the morning it is already 30 °C and we were drenched in sweat when we arrived at the top. The cave itself is a huge stone cavern where altars for Hindu Gods are tucked away in the corners and small ferns grow all over the walls. Truly wonderous. By the time we reached the bottom of the stairs again, our circulation system was already starting to give in, so we took the train onwards, to KLCC. A place where the stone cliffs were exchanged for glass ones, the trees as mighty as before were growing in regular intervals and refuge for the relentless sun is sought with modern technology and not ancient stones. The KLCC is the Kuala Lumpur City Center, a cluster of skyscrapers and shopping malls. A shopping mall was also the place, where we left the metro and found some snacks and revive drink (desperately needed). There we took advantage of the wifi to do some research for our next journeys. There we found out, that we could not get directly from Jerantut to Johor Bahru (read our next blogpost) but instead had to get back to Kuala Lumpur to then take the bus on. This would cut our time in the jungle short. This was a slightly frustrating information but within the next hour we booked an early bus for the next day to increase the little time we had as much as possible. Wandering further through KLCC we past more malls, and marveled at the Petronas towers from the beautiful park below. Having restored our circulation back to a more healthy level, we decided to walk to the next sights. On the way there, we passed a restaurant advertising offers for ramadan for March. At that time we noticed another problem: We will be in Indonesia in March. 88% of the Indonesian population are Muslims and during that time the country is on the move and food is hard to get during day time… As two hobbits with low blood pressure and the tendency to get hangry, not eating during the day is not an option. On top of that, we had read that the Indonesian transportation system is already overcrowded in non-Ramadan days. Advice online: book everything well in advance. Well, at the point of writing we have not booked anything in Indonesia yet. We hope that 2 ½ weeks counts as well in advance in Indonesia, as you usually book everything one day in advance. But we will figure that out when we start planning that.

After an hour walk through the blazing sun, discussing how much Ramadan would be a problem, we sought refuge again in another mall, as we were not sure how long we would remain upright if we continued on (the pain of low blood pressure). And again we took advantage of the wifi to book our ferry from Singapore to Indonesia for the following week. There are multiple ferries going in between the two countries to multiple destinations. Our plan was to take one on the following Sunday evening to Tanjung Balai on Sumatra. We had done some research on this before, this ferry exists. However, after scrolling through multiple websites it became clear that the ferry we wanted to book was very likely destined to the wrong Tanjung balai which was set on an island close to Sumatra. From there we would have to take another 22 hour ferry to get anywhere close to where we wanted to go. So now we would need a new plan how to get to Indonesia. We decided that this would be a later us problem and first prioritised getting some more food and to get to the Merdeka square. We took the subway as we finally accepted the limitations of our low blood pressure. With a juice and an icecream in hand we marveled at the beautiful Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Yet at this point we were exhausted and decided to head back to our hostel to find a new solution for our trip to Sumatra, we would also need some new cash and some snacks. At the hostel we both had a cold shower and felt much more alive again. A quick search revealed that finding a new route to Sumatra without taking a plane would require more time than we were willing to commit that evening so we delayed that to some later day. Instead we ventured off to find an ATM and get us some dinner. Already in Georgetown we had problems getting cash with the card to our common bank account, so we resolved just using one of our other cards while paying as much as possible cashless. This quest for cash would turn into a disaster. We found an ATM just fine, however it would not give us any cash, nor would it give our card back. This was on a Sunday evening. So the bank was closed and it would not open again until after the time our bus was suppose to leave the next morning…. We took a picture of the emergency contacts and resolved to our emergency plan: Whenever something goes wrong, get some food and try to resolve the problem with a clearer head. While Artey waited for some food downstairs at the Indian place we already had dinner the evening before, Sesy sought some help from the hostel manager to call the customer line. He turned out incredibly unhelpful. So we sat down, had some delicious dinner and weighed our options. In the end we decided to go to the bank in the morning and see what they would tell us to do. We could still book another bus to the jungle later that day. Worst case we would stay a bit longer in KL. In the meantime, Sesy was also convinced that she lost her Bandana (we found it later), but it just added a bit too our stress level.

19.2.

Plan for the day: get our bank card back and get to Taman negara (the latter would depend on the outcome of the former). We had breakfast, packed our stuff and walked to the bank. There they informed us that we would have to call the customer service as they had already send our card to a collection point (it was 9 am in the morning on Monday). As we didn’t have a Malaysia sim card we asked if they could support us with that. It took us a while to convince someone to help us in that office but in the end someone called and informed us that we just had to call our bank to order a new card. Our bank is in Germany, how is that supposed to work we asked. We continued pressing on if there was any way that we could get our card back. Everyone in that bank was incredibly unhelpful and repeated that we had to just call our own bank and that they couldn’t do anything for us. They mentioned we could call the customer service again if we wanted to but our card has very likely already been destroyed.

We left the bank very frustrated and went to look for a Malaysian sim card and some comfort food. We had read online that something similar had happened to another tourist, but he had got his card back so we wouldn’t give up that easily. Equipped with a new sim card and some chocolate we started our own attempt to call the customer service. Sadly, they gave us the same information. It was 10.30 am, so too early to call our German bank to ask for advice. With nothing holding us in KL, we instead booked a new bus to get to Taman negara at 1pm. We were a lot calmer at that point as we had backups for everything: we have more bank cards with us and can book stuff online through a card that is waiting at home for us.

With this in mind we boarded our next bus in the direction of a new adventure, where our story will continue.