Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

From Merdeka Square. Now they let you walk around on it.

In contrast to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was full of memories. Good memories, bad memories, and bittersweet memories.

I walked past one place and realized that was where I ate spilled potato chips off the ground because I was so hungry. I remembered the McDonald's where I would fill up my water bottle everyday because I didn't have money to buy a new bottle. And the initial cause of those two incidents, the place has changed some, but I still remembered the place where I got pick-pocketed.

I saw the place where I called home to have all my cards canceled and the stupid bank who wouldn't listen to me and ran my replacement credit card through the card reader causing it to be invalidated for a couple of days leaving me with no money again.

Some of the better memories include the park where I picked up some bright red seeds which I later made into a necklace for someone special. And all the places I visited and took photos with that someone special on a subsequent trip. All those picture spots happen to be the locations of the bittersweet memories, also. You can probably guess why.

Still, even though I remembered a lot of places, I would be in Kuala Lumpur for at least 5 days waiting for my India visa, so I decided I might as well make the best of it. One nice thing I did was visit the KanChing falls outside the city to try and find a geocache.

One of the may cascades at the falls.

I didn't find the cache, but the scenery of the falls more than made up for my failure. and the jungle was full of life. Lizards, termites, and leeches, oh my!

The first leech I found was on the ground, on the move. As soon as my leg swung close it stood still, pointing straight up. As I backed out of the way, it actually followed me. It must have sensed my body heat, or something. The second leech I found on my ankle. He was on the move too, north. Since he didn't have time to grab a hold of me very well, it only bled a little when I yanked him off.

The one who didn't suck my blood.

The falls were really beautiful, but at times rather high. I slipped once and nearly fell off as cliff, but I caught myself. That made me wonder how long my body would have lain there at the bottom of the falls until someone found it. The area I slipped was in a less climbed location of the falls. How long would it have been until some would wonder where I was and why I was out of contact? Months, maybe? And then they would have to try and find out where I was. The could have probably narrowed it down to the last city, but beyond that ...

I did find some other geocaches in Kuala Lumpur. One near the bird park, one in a nice park outside the downtown area, and one near the ASEAN sculpture garden. Geocaches can take you to some pretty interesting places.

I went up in the Petronas twin towers, but you can only go up to the sky-bridge, so it is really not that impressive. Still it is one more place where I can say, "Been there, done that."

At night from behind.

I ended up having to stay in Kuala Lumpur seven days. I think I pretty much did nearly every touristy thing possible, especially if it was free or cheap. By the time I left, I was certainly ready to go.

Have a look at what I saw around Kuala Lumpur.

Oh, by the way, these photos may not have geotags associated with them or may in fact have incorrect geotags. I had forgot to match the times in my camera and GPSr. Sorry.