27th – 28th September 

Back to the Explorers

I checked back in at the Explorers Guesthouse in KL, the same spot I stayed last time. I liked it and knew how to get around from there. As I was tired and just wanted to chill, I went round the corner to China Town for street food. It was ok, but at least I really enjoyed looking around the China Town market. Getting back to the guesthouse, I met Simon (from Georgetown) who had also booked in here and was also flying to Laos on the same flight early Saturday morning. We chatted for a bit then hit the hay.

The next day we had the usual toast & jam breakfast and did some research plotting our next move. There were a couple of travel guides at the hostel so I read up a bit more on Laos. After a leisurely start, I decided to go explore the central market again, just round the corner from the guesthouse. There’s outdoor and indoor stalls selling food, drinks, clothing and other souvenirs. I wandered round, grabbed some nice bamboo rice desert thing and some spring rolls, then made my way to the Sultan Abdul Samad building, where I ate my spring rolls. I’ve heard a lot about westerners often being the attraction with locals or tourists from other counties, aka China and Japan, but hadn’t experienced it myself yet in Asia. Well on the way to the Sultans building I did and it was hilarious! A guy out of a group of Chinese tourists pointed at the camera, I thought asking me to take a pic of them all. But no, he passed the camera to one of his group and posed next to me, then the whole friggin lot of them joined in! I was a celebrity in a great deal of photos for 5 minutes, ready to see my face plastered on Chinese SM 😂. Naturally I had to then document the moment myself.

Over the bridge from the Sultans building was one of the biggest mosques in the city. Friday is prayer day and there were hundreds of Muslims praying whilst the call to prayer blasted out over this part of the city. Afterwards the people descended on the streets, I grabbed a mango shake as I enjoyed the hustle & bustle. When returning to the hostel I managed to block another bank card and faffed around with that for a while – the biggest pain in the arse whilst travelling!

360 City View

In the evening Simon & I went to check out a bar called he Heli Lounge for sunset. Perched on the top of one of the high rises, this cool bar boasts a 360 view of the city skyline, it was an awesome place to watch sunset! We had a couple of drinks before heading back to Johor Alor for their epic hawker market. I would highly recommend for dinner! We then went back to the hostel and got an early night.