Temple Cave and Scenic Views

Sep 15, 2017

After a full day of shopping yesterday, today we decided to finally visit some of the sights of Kuala Lumpur. One of these sights are the Batu Temple Caves, and another one is the Menara KL, a TV Tower with a fantastic observation deck in the middle of the city. More details below.

Batu Caves

Located around 15 km north of the city center, the Batu Caves are advertised as one of the top attractions of Malaysia. Under a big lime stone rock, there is a network of caves that contains several historic hindu temples. Being a fan of caves and temples, for me it was a must to go there.

Once arrived, we were greeted by an impressive golden Buddha statue and some long, steep stairs up to the cave. In the tropical heat of Kuala Lumpur, we climbed the 272 steps up to the cave and arrived quite exhausted at the top. Along the stairs and also inside the caves, we were welcomed by curious and hungry monkeys, which however were not aggressive at all.

The cave itself was very impressive from the dimensions, however, the place was poorly maintained and there was no spiritual ambience at all in or around the temples. Noisy groups of tourists and garbage made the place much less attractive. Around and also inside the caves were tourist shops selling useless stuff. All-in-all it was still worth going out there, but for a top sight a bit disappointing.

Menara KL / KL Tower

After returning to Kuala Lumpur and a short snack, we were heading for the KL Tower. The view from the Sky Deck, located around 400m above the city, was fantastic. Also, due to the higher elevation, the climate was a bit better up there than down in the streets, and the wind also helped feeling more comfortable. As we went up in the early evening, we could view at Kuala Lumpur and the surroundings before, during and after sunset.

Gourmet Dinner at Manja Restaurant

In the evening we tried TripAdvisor’s #1 restaurant in Kuala Lumpur. For around $80 we had three excellent dishes and drinks. Not cheap for Kuala Lumpur, but back in Zurich you would maybe get two pizzas with salads and drinks for the same price.

Shopping in Kuala Lumpur

Sep 14, 2017

As SWISS airlines is showing no efforts and hence no success in finding Ilinca’s missing luggage, we will have to rebuy things here in Kuala Lumpur. Luckily, there is a mall basically at every street corner, the closest one just across the street from our room, and a huge one just about 2 km away. We took an Uber ride to get there easily.

Pavilion Mall

I have seen many malls on my trips so far, but Pavilion Mall is one of the largest ones I have ever visited. Apart from the usual brands, there was also a Marché restaurant, which is a Swiss chain owned by Mövenpick. It was somehow weird to see the same kind of food and interior design as back home, but everything is operated by Asians.

As Ilinca needed everything from underwear to shoes, Pavilion Mall came in very handy as there is basically everything available under one roof, and after a few hours, Ilinca had found everything so she can live more or less comfortably for the next few days.

IT Mall

One thing that also got lost with Ilinca’s luggage was her power supply for the MacBook. Luckily, the MacBook itself was in the hand luggage. In the Pavilion mall that we visited before we found an Apple store that sold the correct power supply, but it cost around $90! Apple really rips off everybody with their replacement parts. This is one more reason I would never buy an Apple product again. Luckily however, here in Kuala Lumpur there is a so called IT mall, a concept that I have not encountered before. It’s basically like a regular mall, but only with small to medium sized electronics stores, and there were hundreds of them. For me as a tech geek a true paradise! Also, there were many repair stores, so a broken screen of a phone can be fixed in no time here. And, in our situation, a cheap replacement power supply for Ilinca’s MacBook could also be bought for less than $30 (after a lot of bargaining). Of course it is not a genuine Apple product, but power supplies are not rocket science and the imitation we bought worked just fine.

A Long Journey to Kuala Lumpur

Sep 13, 2017

Our first destination is Kuala Lumpur, which is located less than an hour away from Singapore by plane. Unfortunately, there is no direct flight from Zurich to Kuala Lumpur, so we chose to fly via Bangkok. And then, in order to save some money, we booked the flight from Milano via Zurich to Bangkok instead of flying directly from Zurich. A ridiculous concept from Swiss Airlines, I am going to explain this below. While Ilinca and I arrived well in Bangkok and later on in Kuala Lumpur, unfortunately Ilinca’s backpack did not even make it to Bangkok, and hence also not to Kuala Lumpur.

Saving money by flying from Milano

As mentioned in the introduction, it can be a lot cheaper to start a long distance flight with Swiss Airlines in Milano and then use a Swiss connecting flight and fly from Milano to Zurich in order to catch the very same plane that I would also have caught in Zurich. In our case, the flight tickets were around 30% cheaper than if we had flown directly from Zurich. While for Economy Class, the savings are not so big because of the additional transport to Milano, for Business and First Travels it really makes a difference.

One thing I don’t get is that these practices are allowed. Everybody is speaking about reducing CO2 emissions and governments are making laws in order to enforce these goals, at the same time airlines like Swiss are allowed to encourage people to cause even more CO2 emissions. I understand the economical aspect of this as Swiss wants to get more Italian customers to fly via Zurich instead of flying overseas directly from Milano, and the only way of doing so is by being cheaper, but I still think this practice should be forbidden.

Nevertheless, we took advantage of this discount and therefore were flying from Milano to Zurich prior to boarding our plane to Bangkok. And in order to get to the Milano airport in time, we spent a night in Como, close to the Swiss border and the airport and celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary.

Stretching the legs in business class

Every now and then, Swiss offers special deals on business class flights, and combined with the discount by flying from Milano, we allowed ourselves to fly business class for a very low price. Of course economy class would still have been cheaper, but flying business class is always an experience and being able to lie flat on your seat increases the chances for arriving relaxed at the destination.

In addition, the quality and choice of food is a huge difference compared to economy class. It is however a bit ironic that I started having stomach problems during the flight to Bangkok. I don’t know if it was from the Sashimi I had as an appetizer or from the lounges in Milano or Zurich, but I know that it prevented me from sleeping well on the plane, despite the possibility of lying flat in the seat.

Missing luggage in Bangkok

After a bit more than 10 hours of flight, we landed on time in Bangkok and proceeded quickly through immigration to get our luggage in order to check it in again for our connecting flight with Malaysian Airlines. Because that flight is on a separate ticket, we could not simply forward to luggage to Kuala Lumpur and had to go through immigration twice in Bangkok.

Bad surprise when we arrived at the luggage claim in Bangkok: No sign of Ilinca’s backpack. It seemed to not have made it to Bangkok, but none of the staff at the airport could figure out where the luggage is. This is especially bad as we continued the same day to Kuala Lumpur, and with a different airline. After filling out the paperwork, we received $200 of compensation in order to buy some emergency clothes and toiletries, and we also received a reference number with which we can check the status of the luggage and they promised us to forward the luggage to Kuala Lumpur… If it ever gets found… I will keep you updated.

Arrival in Kuala Lumpur

After a not so comfortable flight from Bangkok to Kuala Lumpur and a bit more than half an hour of queuing at the immigration, we took a bus to the city of Kuala Lumpur and were happy to reach our Airbnb-room. Tomorrow will be about buying the most important things for Ilinca so she can at least enjoy the first few days here in Kuala Lumpur, but tonight we only went for a quick dinner and then to sleep after a very exhausting trip after all.

Off to New Adventures

Sep 12, 2017

Two months after my bicycle tour through Central Asia, I started travelling again. This time with my backpack instead of my bicycle, and this time together with Ilinca, who quit her job end of August to join me on a six month trip through Asia and Australia. It is for the first time that Ilinca and I travel for more than three weeks in a row, and I think it will be good for both of us to disconnect a bit from our life in Switzerland.

Planned destinations

One key to an adventurous trip is that we plan as little as possible in advance. Like this we will have lots of flexibility to adapt our travelling plans depending on our mood. So far, we only booked three flights and our accommodation in Kuala Lumpur for the first four nights, everything else is still open. Of course, we already have some ideas which places we would like to visit, so here is a list of our current favorite destinations:

Malaysia

In 2013, Ilinca and I have already been on Malaysia for four days as part of our trip to Singapore. In these days we visited the island of Langkawi, a beautiful tropical paradise located at the west cost of Malaysia. I was really fascinated by the nature there, so I always wanted to come back to Malaysia. Also, Kuala Lumpur was always on the list of cities I wanted to visit once in my lifetime.

Borneo

I have never been to Borneo before, but from what I have seen in documentaries on TV, this is the place to go to experience the full beauty of tropical rainforests and get an idea of how the indigenous peoples adapt to the environment in order to survive. Borneo is split between Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei. The largest part of the island belongs to Indonesia, but at the same time this is also the least developed part and probably the most difficult to travel. If we go to Borneo, we will most likely visit the Malaysian side and Brunei.

Bali

Having visited Bali already in 2014, we both knew that we will come back there one day, as we only stayed there for one week and we could not explore the full beauty of this island. Also, Bali is conveniently located between Borneo and Australia.

Australia

I always wanted to visit Australia. I always postponed it however because I thought I can also do that when I am sixty. Well, since we have enough time now, we most likely will spend several weeks there to explore this huge country.

New Zealand

At the latest after having seen The Lord of the Rings with its beautiful sceneries, I knew that I want to see New Zealand with my own eyes one day. Why not on this trip?

Thailand

I love Thai food, I have heard wonderful stories and seen beautiful images of this rather touristic country from friends, so I definitely want to visit this country on this trip.

Cambodia

I honestly don’t know much about Cambodia yet, except the famous Angkor Wat temple complex.

Laos

A country which I only know from friend’s recommendations.

Vietnam

Another country that I only know from friend’s recommendations.

Travel Style

Having traveled as a nomad on bicycle for three months, I know what it means to carry everything you need to survive always with you and to be responsible for any kind of transport. While this was very exciting for me, I think when travelling with Ilinca, a bit more comfort is appreciated. Instead of sleeping in a tent in the desert, we prefer staying at homestays, Airbnb, Couchsurfing, or sometimes also hotels if necessary and enjoy the local cuisine instead of cooking cup noodles in a storm along the road. Nevertheless, we will travel with our backpacks and are looking forward to staying at rather simple accommodations and to meeting local people.