more facebook pics!!
Melaka is one of the oldest cities in malaysia, settled circa 1406 by an exiled hindu prince. as a result, its had quite a bit of influence from plenty of different cultures, including indians, portugese and dutch. each of these cultures has their own little area where you can still see some of the historic buildings and things left behind, so we explored those areas a bit. the chinatown was quite interesting--we went during the night market. to our surprise, there was a live performance going on, some four girls and a dude in chick's clothing singing in chinese. either way, good times. we spent some time here, took a tour of the city in a boat that ran on the river through the city, and eventually caught a bus to come back home. at the bus station, i saw something i didnt expect to see at all...a taco bell! i couldnt believe it...i know exactly where it is and how to get there now, so i expect that i'll make a trip DAMN soon haha
so, good times this weekend. we left on friday afternoon, a couple of us skipping a class or two, and took a train to Kuala Lumpur (henceforth referred to as KL), the capital of malaysia. the trip was more or less a spontaneous decision--we'd only thought about it for a few days or so. luckily, there was still space in the hostels that we booked on hostelworld.com (fantastic site if youre looking to travel for cheap, even in the US). either way, we trained it up there which took 10 hours or so (4 more than the purported 6 hour trip it had on our tickets, to our dismay). got there around 1AM and had our first meal -- McDonalds. im just as disappointed as you are, honestly. we go to a foreign country from a foreign country and are greeted by the world's food ambassador as the only place open in the train station that late at night. anyway, we proceed to our hostel, the Pudu Hostel, from there and take a night's sleep.
next morning, three out of the four of us (the fourth hanging back to gather a spare key as she'd locked herself out lol) went to the Petronas Towers (wiki) to get the free tickets they give to take a trip up to the skybridge in the towers (on the 41st floor out of 100+). just as background, these towers were completed in 1996, sponsored by corporate oil giant Petronas Oil, and they are the tallest twin towers in the world and among the tallest buildings as well. either way, i've been dreaming of coming here for ages now...when i was younger, a friend had a book about skyscrapers and these were easily the two coolest looking buildings in the book and im SO happy i finally got to see them.
next morning, three out of the four of us (the fourth hanging back to gather a spare key as she'd locked herself out lol) went to the Petronas Towers (wiki) to get the free tickets they give to take a trip up to the skybridge in the towers (on the 41st floor out of 100+). just as background, these towers were completed in 1996, sponsored by corporate oil giant Petronas Oil, and they are the tallest twin towers in the world and among the tallest buildings as well. either way, i've been dreaming of coming here for ages now...when i was younger, a friend had a book about skyscrapers and these were easily the two coolest looking buildings in the book and im SO happy i finally got to see them.
anyway, after getting the tickets we collected our fourth member and headed off to the Batu Caves (wiki). these were def cool. took quite a few pictures. the caves were beautiful, and a couple were decked out in indian statues and paintings. its apparently a really big hindu attraction, drawing quite a large religious crowd. the caves themselves were beautiful, but there was definitely some questionable material....
we ate some lunch there (south indian food--dosa!! shown below) and took the half hour cab ride back to KL to see the towers before we caught our bus and headed to Melaka, anothr city in malaysia.
Melaka is one of the oldest cities in malaysia, settled circa 1406 by an exiled hindu prince. as a result, its had quite a bit of influence from plenty of different cultures, including indians, portugese and dutch. each of these cultures has their own little area where you can still see some of the historic buildings and things left behind, so we explored those areas a bit. the chinatown was quite interesting--we went during the night market. to our surprise, there was a live performance going on, some four girls and a dude in chick's clothing singing in chinese. either way, good times. we spent some time here, took a tour of the city in a boat that ran on the river through the city, and eventually caught a bus to come back home. at the bus station, i saw something i didnt expect to see at all...a taco bell! i couldnt believe it...i know exactly where it is and how to get there now, so i expect that i'll make a trip DAMN soon haha
i figure nows as good a time as any to introduce my friends, or a few of them anyway. below, from left to right: Thuy (belgian french speaker), Raymond (the dude who owned the hostel in Melaka), Noura (canadian egyptian), Olivier (or Oli as i call him, french canadian), and me. likely you'll see some more pictures of these guys if you keep up with the blog or my facebook photo albums.
all in all, the following picture pretty much sums up the entire weekend.
off to indonesia until next monday tonight!! will definitely have a good story by the end of this week :D
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