A Night in Malaysia

After departing Denpasar International, and spending an unfortunately uneventful day in Java, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 3:30pm. Starving, and malnourished from the lack of fresh vegetarian options while traveling, our food prayers were answered in BMS Organics. BMS (standing for Body, Mind, & Soul) offers a variety of vegetarian and vegan options for my health conscious traveling friends and it has my highest recommendation. I ordered a vegan burger on a charcoal bun and it did not disappoint. Sam ordered the sweet and sour tofu with rice, which was equally as enjoyable. The whole meal was under USD$12, including two drinks, which is a steal compared to American organic restaurants.

Their airport was much larger and more technological than Denpasar, and we had multiple options into the heart of the city. We took the bus into town, which cost USD 4 for both of our tickets. However, the “fastest way into Kuala Lumpur” is by train and cost USD 14 per person.

Once at KL Sentral, we found the local transportation system easy to navigate. Additionally, there were lockers large enough to store our bags. We packed light, but not having to carry our bags around was definitely a relief and allowed us more focus to enjoy what we were doing. USD$3 well spent.

We had scheduled a night bus from TBS to Hat Yai, Thailand, as our final destination is Phuket. The bus didn’t depart until 11:30pm, so we had some time to kill. We decided to visit the Petronas Twin Towers, boasting the tallest sky bridge in the world. It was four stops away at KLCC on Route 5. From KLCC station, it couldn’t have been more than a five minute walk to the towers. Coming from Indonesia, it felt like I had been transported to a different world. Kuala Lumpur is definitely every bit of the city feel you would expect. I stood outside of the H&M Home Store (yes, they have one of those) and tried to orient myself with my GPS. It said I was right next to the towers, but in front of me I only saw one massive building…because it’s twin was hiding behind it.

I entered through the mall, where names like Armani, Coach, and Gucci lined the shiny marble walls. Hmmmm…wasn’t I just in the land of $2 t-shirts?! I made my way to the Petronas Towers and by this time it was roughly 7:00pm. I was disappointed to hear the tours had been sold out for the entire evening, but this allows me to pass a lesson onto you, my readers: BUY TICKETS ONLINE IN ADVANCE. Being as impromptu as it was, my disappointment turned into appreciation that I was able to experience this at all. The base of the towers offers a lot of information on the building process and you can still enter the gift shop.

Hungry yet again, we had dinner at Limoncello’s just outside the mall, overlooking a multicolored water show. Malaysia was a food PARADISE. I had a caesar salad and minestrone soup, which would seem very average, but for an Italian girl who had been eating lots of curry and rice in Indonesia, it was a godsend. Thus far, my favorite meal in Asia.

We walked around the fountain show before heading back to the station at around 8:45pm. The train that would take us to the bus stop didn’t show up until 9:40pm, and it was recommended we be at the bus stop a half hour early. Once on the train, we accidentally got off one stop shy of where we should have, where we had to wait another 20 minutes for the next train. 10:30pm and finally we showed up at TBS…where we found that our tickets from busonlineticket.co.th had never been emailed to us. We ended up repurchasing tickets through the booking agent at the terminal, deciding to deal with our online fiasco the following day. It has yet to be resolved, but I will update this blog post when it has.

At 11:45pm, we were on our way to Hat Yai.

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Coming Soon: Team Nessa in Asia

Plans have been made and tickets have been purchased!

On June 17th, we will fly to Bali, Indonesia from Vancouver. We’ll stay roughly five days, at which point we will fly to Phuket, Thailand. My goals in Thailand are simple: personal growth, business development, and life experience. The balance of these goals is what I would label my own recipe for all encompassing success. Your recipe may be different from mine, and may morph over time as your circumstances change. Although I may seem to just “go with the flow,” I trust that there is no such thing as the wrong path. You and I are consistently in an experience of enjoyment and learning. Occasionally, we get so distracted by thinking we must plan everything that we forget to just “be.”

A recent example would be that for the past month, we had been preparing for a different journey entirely. However, we refrained from buying tickets. We held off until three days ago, when hours before we made our purchases, we drastically changed destinations. Taking this new route would require some sacrifices, but the shift felt necessary. It didn’t take much pondering to be convinced.

The sequential preparations for our new destinations all landed in my favor. I got an unbelievably affordable new storage unit that would fit both my car and the contents of my other storage unit, my airline miles covered the entire cost of my ticket and insurance, and currently 5 days before my trip, I have almost everything organized and ready to go. If you are unsure of something, ask yourself for the answer and it will reveal itself, because the answer is already known. You will know when you’ve been met with the next piece to your puzzle.

Five days and counting!