Kuala Lumpur: Days 1 to 6

I’ve stayed in Kuala Lumpur for six days now. I plan to leave tomorrow, but I still don’t know if I should stay a few days longer since I’m tired of traveling. I will have to make a decision soon.

When I first arrived in Kuala Lumpur, or KL as the locals call it, I checked into a the KLCC Dorm Hostel, which is in an apartment inside a hotel. The place felt crammed and only had two bathrooms, but I had access to the hotel swimming pool. I stayed for three nights before moving to the StarQ Hotel in Bukit Bintang, which is the shopping district. I wasn’t able to extend after two nights because the hotel was full so I moved to another hostel called Travelogue Guest House that is across the street from StarQ Hotel.

Before I booked Travelogue, I booked a room in KLCC Summer Suites, but the property manager informed me that they won’t take me because the price on Booking.com was too low for them. I was upset since they won’t honor the price that they had set on the website. There’s nothing I can do except book somewhere else. I’ve never experienced anything like this before and was quite mad. I calmed myself by telling me that it’s part of traveling.

Another unfortunate event that happened was my Google Pixel phone became unresponsive and won’t turn on. This happened the first day when I changed to StarQ Hotel. I think it’s because the phone got so hot from the days before that it fried the motherboard. Luckily, I was at the shopping district and went to an electronic mall that had all kinds of cell phones for sale. I bought a used Samsung S10e for 600 MYR (about $125). This phone has short battery life, worse camera, and just generally isn’t as good as my Google Pixel 5a. It also doesn’t have eSim capability so I had to buy a physical sim card for 30 MYR (around $6). Without eSim I’ll have to look for a sim card every time I go to a different country, which makes traveling annoying. Thus, I’m rethinking about going to Cambodia and Laos.

I met some excellent people while in KL. They were all from KLCC Dorm Hostel. The first person was Martin, a Swiss marine biology student. We had dinner together on the first night I arrived and chatted quite a bit. He had to move to a different place the next day. I also met Jonathan, a mobile game developer from Germany. We ended up hanging out the second day and went to Batu Caves together. Afterward, we walked around south of KL and visited Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia. He left for Cameron Highlands the day after. Lastly, I met Miriam, a German designer. She loves art, so the next day we met up in Bukit Bintang and walked to REXKL and a print shop. I enjoyed hanging out with all of them and they helped me stay active so I wasn’t so lonely.

Yesterday, after changing to Travelogue Guest House I didn’t do anything. I think I was feeling a bit depressed and indecisive about my future travel plans. I thought about taking the bus from Kuala Lumpur to Cameron Highlands, then to Ipoh, then to George Town. But I feel that’s too much time spent on the bus. Maybe I should just fly from KL to George Town and skip Cameron Highlands and Ipoh. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow. Maybe my mood will be better and I end up taking the bus anyway.

Menara Kuala Lumpur