Kicking off the trip out of KL

On the way. 40,000ft above Southeast Asia.
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It's always nice to start off a new year with a good trip.  I'm hoping that 2007 will bring several more journeys around China and other parts of Asia. One of my best friends Ann, has been talking about visiting me in this area ever since I moved to China 2 1/2 years ago.  When I found out that she had booked a flight, I knew it was on.  After a few extra hours of work, and some Christmas love from the folks, I threw some shorts and t-shirts in my day-pack and hopped a flight down to Kuala Lumpur.  It was great timing, the city of "Eternal Spring", Kunming, was dipping into the freezing zone and my sandals were feeling mighty neglected.

Petronas reflection.
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Arriving in KL International Airport, I at first thought I must have hopped the wrong flight and slept for at least 10 hours, because at first glimpse of the airport and it wasn't at all the Asia that I've come to know over the last couple of years.  Fancy schmancy, KLIA is nicer than most of the airports that I've ever been through.  Being the budget traveler that I am, I instantly felt a little out of my league.  The Malaysian Ringgit was bound to make quick work of my Chinese Reminbi!  Coming out of customs I found Aspen Annie waiting for me, eager to move on in to the city, which seemed like it was half way down to Singapore.  I arrived after the train had quit running, and the taxi line was a half mile long.  We paid the five extra bucks and caught a Benz for the hour long journey to the city.  We stayed at the Swiss Hotel the first night.  Way over priced for a muggy room with no windows.

Aspen Annie and I in the City Center Park.
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Up bright and early the next morning, we hit the streets in search of better accommodations.  Something near the bus terminal seemed like a good plan as we were both rather anxious to get to some beaches.  Found a place right across the street from the buses called Anuja Backpackers Inn.  Really friendly staff and clean rooms for a third of the price, and most importantly for me...with windows.

The rest of the day we roamed all over the city by foot.  First passing some beautiful old Mosques, markets, and city parks.  Then we came up on the Petronas Towers and decided to stop for some lunch.  The towers are quite impressive, modern Islamic architecture at it's finest.  We checked out the 6-floor shopping mall in the bottom of the towers and had lunch and coffee.  The remaining RMB in my moneybelt tried to hide behind the dollars, all of them exuding major greenback envy.  Wandered our way around the City Center Park and then back into the streets.  KL may very well be the cleanest city that I've been too in Asia, I hear that Singapore has it beat though.  We strolled back towards Chinatown via the Bintang Walk.  Lots of trendy clothes shops and nightclubs.

Now here's a sign that needs to be posted all over China.
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Petaling Street runs through the heart of Chinatown.  Can't say that it really feels like China though.  I guess it does slightly resemble the old "Fake Market" in Shanghai in some ways.  "Hey meester, you need shoes? I have watch.  Handbags? DVD'S? Sex DVD! You look, meester, just look."  Maybe the 100,000 people jammed onto one small street resembles China also.  Shoulder to shoulder.  We bought a bag of Mangosteens and got out of there.  A Kenny Roger's Roasters was sitting right across the street.   Ordinarily, that wouldn't excite me in the least, but the only fast food we have in Kunming is KFC, McShit, and Pizza Hurl.  Aspen Annie doesn't do meat though (except for the occasional insect...we'll get to that later) so we went in search of some Indian Food.

The Petronas Towers and the leaning tower of Islam.
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Little India is a pretty cool area.  Lot's of aesthetics sorts hanging around numerous temples.  The food was all good at the time, but looking back on it, some of it was only good because there is no Indian food in Kunming, and I had been jonzin' for some for a while.  If my liquified guts were any indicator, maybe the food wasn't so great after all.  Oh the joy of it all.  After dinner it was back to Anuja's for some reading and attempted sleeping.  We soon realized that three floors under our window was a bustling 24-hour street eatz.  When the sun finally came up, we were up with it, and moved straight on over to the bus terminal.  Off to the Cameron Highlands we went.