The alarm went off
at 6am this morning and we were packed and downstairs for breakfast a
bit after 7am (the packing process complicated by a dearth of plastic
bags, which had been scattered around the adjacent roofs by
yesterday's marauding macaques). Just after 8am we set off up the
path to the main road, the owner of the Garden Inn pottering along
behind us on a motorbike. When we got to the road he ushered us into
a minivan and bid us farewell and we embarked on a high speed run to
the airport. Not that we were in any hurry that we knew about –
just that we were being transported by another crazy Southeast Asian
driver. He wasn't even going to let the terrible traffic in Medan
slow him down, slipping out and into a series of narrow potholed rat
runs to avoid the worst of it.
We arrived at the
airport at about 12pm – too early to check in, as it turns out, so
we went downstairs to see if we could find something to eat. We ended
up getting some burgers at a Wendy's – my first and hopefully my
last. We sat on a skanky sofa and ate some pretty dire burgers as
flies buzzed around us. We followed this up with a visit to Dunkin'
Donuts – as though we were on a tour of the worst that American
fast food has to offer.
By now check-in had
opened up for our flight so we got rid of our bags and went through
immigration and to our gate. The flight only took 50 minutes and we
were soon descending through a hazy sky over an endless expanse of
oil palms as we approached KL. After clearing immigration and
grabbing our bags, we hopped onto a bus and into more bad traffic.
Once again we had a resourceful driver who made use of every trick at
his disposal to get us to our destination, including speeding down
the hard shoulder and going off the freeway at each exit and then
straight back on again to bypass the stalled traffic.
When we finally got
into downtown KL we spotted our hotel, which Kate had booked on the
basis of it being next to the bus station, which we also spotted on
the other side of the road. We were thus understandably distressed
when the bus kept on going straight past the hotel and the bus
station, but then, thankfully, it looped back around and dropped us
off not too far away, leaving us with a relatively short walk. We had
had to book two rooms, but when we got up to them we found that we
had been given connecting rooms, which we opened up into what then
felt like a luxury suite.
It was dinner time
by now so we went back downstairs and headed out to see what we could
find. First, however, we visited the bus station across road to see
about getting some tickets for tomorrow's trip to Taman Negara
National Park. It took us a little while to navigate the warren of
shops, restaurants and waiting areas, but eventually we found the
ticket office area, where there were numerous counters selling
tickets for a variety of bus companies and to a plethora of
destinations – but not ours. Of course the bus station we need is
actually located elsewhere, but thankfully it's on the train line and
there's a station not far away, so we should be able to get there
with relative ease.
When we got back
outside, Sarah started angling for the Nando's that we had seen on
our way to the hotel, but we were close to Chinatown so it was there
that we headed. Walking down the road, we passed a number of
different street stalls and were eventually drawn to a place with a
big display of meat, seafood and vegetables on skewers. There were
two different options – you could get them grilled or cook them
yourself in a hotpot of boiling water located in the middle of the
metal tables set up on the pavement. We naturally went for the former
option and enjoyed a really nice and really cheap meal. We then had a
bit of walk around the cheap-knock-off market across the road before
heading back to the hotel, where we spent some time puzzling over
what to do tomorrow. Kate has been sneezing all day and it looks a
lot like she's coming down with something and today's journey took a
lot out of us, and being back in a nice, comfy hotel room, with hot
water and cable TV has been so nice that we're tempted to postpone
our trip to Taman Negara and spend another day in KL...
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