Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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We arrived in Malaysia by train from Singapore. When we got off the train it was morning so we were blurry eyed. We went upstairs to what I would describe as a very old-school ethnic food fair. It had this felling like we were in Vietnam or Cuba in a sense, it did not feel modern. Not that this is bad, we love Cuba and Vietnam but we were expecting a modern city.

Later we made our way downstairs and found Mc Donald’s, Starbucks, etc. Still the train station felt a little drab but the internet was good at Starbucks so we killed time there until we were ready to leave for our hotel, closer to check-in time.

Our first hotel was technically a “serviced apartment”. It was decent, had a kitchen and a living room with maid service and a pool etc. It was $USD 70 per night, that's a little bit rich for us to sustain long term. We were in a diplomatic area with lots of embassies, it was kind of boring and drab. People here don't smile to strangers (I am pretty sure it's just a cultural thing) but when you put that together with the drab boring areas we were in it was kind of disappointing.

To add to all this I kept reading about the pedestrian robberies and the “crime wave” that was hitting Kuala Lumpur we were thinking maybe we should move on.

So, we were disappointed.

But if you compare it to the violent crime in the US or even the rougher parts of Canada, it's not bad here. Also I think it's the contrast from Singapore and Japan that threw us off, although we know not to expect anything as safe and clean as those countries anywhere else in the world.

We have since moved hotels and explored the city and are really starting to love it here. The food is SPECTACULAR, our new neighbourhood is a lot of fun! We are going to blog more about our neighbourhood specifically.

Also we have explored the main train station quite a bit more (we live near it now) and it's actually pretty modern, with banks, shops, restaurants and all kinds of different trains, LRT, Monorail, Inter-city Rail (like VIA or Amtrak), etc. It was just our odd route through it and out the back initially that gave us the wrong first impression.

The Petronas Towers are stunning, with a post modern art deco feeling and hues of steam punk, it's a completely different experience in real life. I was never impressed by them before in pictures but they are impressive no doubt!

- Jason