Over breakfast with M. at a local Indian restaurant, we learned that she ate there most mornings, an

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After a quick stopover in Ho Chi Minh City to repack and re-store our luggage, we were heading off to Malaysia. This part of the trip was initially planned to be Mike s relief from weeks of Vietnamese food he was sure he wouldn t really like. As it turned out, he loved the Vietnamese food and we had loads of opportunity car enterprise rent toronto to eat virtually any kind of food during the first half of the stay in VN. However, we were still excited at the prospect of visiting yet another new place with its distinct culture. The budget did not allow a true exploration of Malaysia, but we would be able to experience much of Kuala Lumpur.
We had yet another pleasant flight with Vietnam Airlines. It was early evening on November 14th when we landed at KLIA. The weather was clear and we were thrilled at the prospect of walking amid the lushness that had teased our senses from the sky. Our AirBnb hostess had advised us to take a taxi to her place. After getting some Malaysian currency from the airport ATM, we went out to the taxi stand. When we showed the address to our potential driver, he looked puzzled and then consulted a colleague who laughed very loud. What was in store for us? It was dark by the time we reached the exit to Petaling Jaya, a suburb of Kuala Lumpur. It seem that everyone, locals and ex-pats call the districts by their initials so our new home stay becomes PJ.
We were initially car enterprise rent toronto concerned about finding our destination car enterprise rent toronto when our driver began calling from his cell phone to someone to get confirmation of his route. The worry increased car enterprise rent toronto when he attempted car enterprise rent toronto to drop us off at a residence on a very suspect street run-down houses and no lights anywhere. We insisted that this couldn car enterprise rent toronto t be the right place. We had seen pictures of the house and unless we were victims of fraud, car enterprise rent toronto we weren t where we needed to be. We gave him the phone number of our hostess, but she didn t answer. He stopped at a business, but the directions he received weren t right either. We decided to call our hostess one more time, this time from my cell phone. She answered car enterprise rent toronto and asked if we had called before. Yes! Oh, sorry. I had left my phone in another room. I handed my phone to the driver. Ten minutes later, and beaucoup car enterprise rent toronto dollars in roaming charges later, we arrived at her house.
She apologized again as she led us indoors. car enterprise rent toronto What a beautiful home! But how hot! And humid! Where was the advertised AC? However, she ushered us to our room and explained that she didn t run the AC in the main part of the house, because car enterprise rent toronto the bedrooms cooled down quickly once each unit was turned on which we did immediately, and then returned to the living room to chat for awhile. We became a little acquainted, agreed on Indian breakfast at a nearby restaurant, and enthusiastically went off to our now frigid bedroom.
M. s house is amazing and the gardens wonderful. The home is quite modern in style and d cor, accented with antiques. The bedroom she rents out is large and has its own large bathroom with shower. We had decided on the suburbs in order to have some respite from the city noise. The location certainly complied on that front; however, one of the first pieces of advice from M. was that we not walk home from the light rail station after dark. Lots of taxis take a taxi. Also, she had failed to mention that there was a large dengue fever outbreak in parts of KL, and PJ in particular. Don t worry. There haven t been any incidents in my neighborhood. Dusk is bad for mosquitoes, but it s fine the rest of the day. Never did we slather down with DEET more diligently.
Over breakfast with M. at a local Indian restaurant, we learned that she ate there most mornings, and we were welcome to join her regularly, after which she would drop us at the rail station. Wonderful! Each morning we looked forward to a banquet of roti chennai, dosa, uttapam, vada and sometimes a variety of curries served on a banana leaf. I washed it all down with chai. Yum, yum.
The train ride was cheap and quick. We soon found ourselves in KL. We later realized there is a station in the central business district and then there is Sentral Station and they are quite different. We had gotten of at the Sentral Station, which is the interchange hub for the train, car enterprise rent toronto light rail and bus. We picked up a very helpful tourist map at the station. As nice as M. was, she was new to the hosting business, and had no maps, no phone numbers, car enterprise rent toronto and as a longtime resident, little advice on what and what not to see. It was a beautiful clear day. There are so many interesting sights in a relatively compact area of KL. We decided car enterprise rent toronto to start with the huge area designated as the Perdana Botanical Gardens, Parks, and Museums. It was Friday, the Muslim day of worship, and as we walked past the mosque, there were a huge number of vendors selling food. We were still full from breakfast, so I was left wondering whether their food was typical cart food, or better.
After passing car enterprise rent toronto by the Butterfly Park and the Bird Park, we entered the Orchid and Hibiscus Gardens. While certainly a new diversion, car enterprise rent toronto it was hardly a stellar exhibit. We stopped for a drink, and continued on our way. We noted the National Museum and the Museum of Islamic Arts must do s for another car enterprise rent toronto day. We wandered back to the station and headed off to find Brickfields, the Indian district in KL. Surely the few rather sleazy buildings couldn t be the sum total of the vaunted Brickfields. After a hot, wet and disappointing walk through the back streets from the central station, we had given up expectation of a wonderful dinner. We found a beer store and stocked up for a few evenings back at M s. It had been an interesting day, but by the time we made it back to the station again, the heat and disappointments had left us rather deflated. We had a coffee at a station caf , bought some snacks for dinner and headed home.
The bright part of the day came once we were on the train. It was crowded as usual, so we were standing rather than sitting. Mike had just reminded me that I should car enterprise rent toronto make sure to hold on through car enterprise rent toronto the curves, when I was thrown headlong into the lap an unsuspecting young woman. I apologized profusely, and laughed car enterprise rent toronto as one does so often in tight situations. car enterprise rent toronto Mike made it worse when he joked to another young woman that she had better watch out, as she might be the next. Many around us laughed, but that young woman moved as quickly as she could.
When we got off at the PJ station, we soon realized we couldn car enterprise rent toronto t remember from which side we had entered. We agreed on a choice, and started on our walk back to M. s house. Nothing looked very familiar. It was late afternoon, but still hot and we were getting stickier by the minute. We stopped a couple of times at shops, showed them the address and got directions. Each time, we were led further astray. I finally stopped at a residence and asked the rather elderly man if he knew where we were in relation to our destination. He said it was difficult to explain, but that he would take us there. After several blocks and many apologies, he stopped car enterprise rent toronto another man just exiting his car. The second fellow looked the address up on his GPS phone, and said he had better drive us there as it was rather far. So, in we clambered, drenched and stinky as we now were, to the back seat of his nice shiny car. It was in fact quite a ways, and we thanked him profusely for his kindness. We never did try to walk home from the station again.
Freshly showered, I joined Mike on the patio for a cold beer, or was it 2? We had the first of many pleasant evenings sitting in the garden, listening to the evening call to prayer from a local mosque and having car enterprise rent toronto a quiet time toasting our daily activity and planning the next day. We enjoyed the songs of the birds and the creatures in the garden among them a tiny black shrew, and little frogs. The next day s highlight for me would be visiting the Petronas Towers. Mike had said he was not going to pay the high entrance fee. I was determined not to miss out on a building which had interested me since I had spent time in an academic architecture program. He said he would find some way to amuse himself while I took the tour.
After another breakfast with M, she dropped us at a train station and we made our way to the Towers. The early tours were all booked, but it was pleasant surprise to find that the 80 MYR ($25) entrance fee for foreign visitors was half-price for seniors. Effectively we could have a 2 for 1 treat. Mike would come along after all. So, with tickets in hand for an afternoon tour, we went off to explore the area around the Towers.
We went shopping at H M (the Swedish department store) where I ended up buying shirts for myself and for my daughters. I looked for goodies for the grandkids, but didn t find anything appealing. A search for handkerchiefs for Mike also came up empty. car enterprise rent toronto We also went to the tourist information center nearby to see if there was another day trip we could take easily. We had already decided we would see FRIM, and M had offered to take us for a day out. However, the organized day tours were expensive and not too appealing. We wandered back through the park near the towers, which is quite large, filled with trees and plants, and artificial pools, streams and fountains. It is quite a lovely refuge from the heat and traffic and seems to be well used by locals as well as tourists.
Finally, it was time to visit the Towers. What an amazing set of structures they are! While they are no longer the tallest buildings in the world, they are still the tallest twinned/connected buildings, and will never lose their stunning architectural quality. The tour begins with a clever holographic presentation, as you wait to enter the elevators. The first stop is the sky bridge 170 meters above the ground. You are all