Hello 50!

After spending a few days in Phuket, I was off to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I was super excited because this would be my 50th country. I was not excited to fly Malaysian Airlines.
When I tried to book a ticket, I was overwhelmed with all the options. I thought Ryan Air was bad about fees. I ended just paying double, $120, for a business class ticket because I could not figure if out if the $60 ticket included a seat or checked bags. I get that Southeast Asia is backpacker heaven, so low cost is King. But man I felt like I needed an advance degree in travel language to figure out how to book that ticket.

The airport is bit out of town, so the easiest option is to take a train to Sentral and then a taxi to your hotel. I would suggest if you need a taxi, prebooking the KLIA Express  with the VIP treatment. I did not and when I got to Sentral, I overpaid for taxi to my hotel.

I booked into the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur.  The hotel is located quite close to the Petronas Towers and is walkable to other tourist sites. The hotel was amazing. I highly recommend it, if you will be visiting KL. In  fact, I’ll go with you.  One of the nicest features of the hotel, was the huge bathroom. I was able to do laundry. Something I had not thought about when I took off traveling for 3 weeks.

After rain bound for days, I was excited to get out and explore KL. I originally was going to walk, but the hotel concierge convinced me to Uber to start my day. I should have stuck with Uber.  My day took my to Chinatown, which honestly could have been any country in the world.

It’s funny since I’ve been living in Australia, I’ve become climatized, the heat no longer bothers me as much. So I walked and walked and walked, 10 miles later, my back started to hurt. I ended up at mall about 1/4 of a mile from my hotel. I had pinched a nerve in my back and at that point I just needed to lie down. I finally found a taxi stand, only to realize I did not have enough cash. I would have ordered an Uber, but I could not figure out where to go for a pick up. So I hobbled back into the mall, found an atm and back to the taxi stand I went. I made the mistake of sitting down. I almost passed out from the pain. It hurt. When a taxi finally showed up, I did not care that it like small clown car, I was just happy to heading back to hotel.  ***I really had to think about if I wanted to share what happened next. I was worried that if by sharing someone might be less inclined to visit Kuala Lumpur. It’s an great city and stuff like this could happen anywhere. *** The driver saw me limping over and opened the front door of the car. The driver was horrible.He started out quite chatty, asking me to direct him to the hotel. He kept touching my arm, on purpose. Without going into too much detail,  he keeping touching me, to the point where I ended up jumping out of the taxi, pinched nerve and all.

When I finally returned to the hotel,the staff immediately assisted me in contacting the authorities and reporting it. I had been able to take a picture of him touching me, which helped in providing my side of the store. It was quite the unpleasant experience. Much appreciation to Rachel, with the concierge, who arranged for me to have a massage the next day. I was not so excited about being touched, but turned out to be just what I needed.

I realized I could not hide in the hotel forever, so I ventured out the Skybridge at the Petronas Towers.

Kuala Lumpur was interesting place to visit. I would go back, but probably not alone. I barely scratched the surface on what there is to see and do.

Stay tuned…….