…said the cockroach, but more about him later.
I was on my way, a couple of weeks ago, to the Maldives (yes, I know my life is tough), when I found myself on an extremely long lay-over in Malaysia. Around twelve hours, actually, so I thought I should stay in the hotel at Kuala Lumpur airport.
I had slept little when I arrived at around 4am, and dawdled to the hotel.
$172 for 12 hours.
I hadn't booked a hotel room in hours, before.
Creepy twins did not appear, and ask me to play, but I thought they may have.
At the end of the hall was my room. It had no windows – there is something decidedly claustrophobic and depressing about a hotel room with no window. (In KLIA hotel, in the room with no windows, no-one can hear you scream…perhaps).
I made do. I was really tired, and I had the ceiling sticker to guide me if all else failed…
(I love the Kiblat stickers that point to Mecca. It means, if I'm lucky, I will also hear the call to prayer which, like a favourite fragrance, conjures up memories of everything that is enchanting and exotic for me)
Things did fail.
The shower was only luke-warm and I couldn't sleep. I was too cold after the shower, and couldn't warm under my meagre blanket. The lack of window really bugged me, too.
I decided to go and explore, and throw a bit of Bahasa around as it's the only language I can speak (not too fluently, mind you, and it's the Indonesian version I am au fait with) without people laughing at my accent.
I Bahasa'ed here and there, and discovered that I could catch the 'KLIA Ekspres' train to 'KL Sentral' (is it any wonder I can speak the language?) with my credit card, so there was no need to change money which suited me, as I wasn't there for long, and just wanted to have a little hunt around. I hadn't been to Kuala Lumpur before.
When I was on the train, watching the palm trees rush past my window, I remembered how much I loved South East Asia, and I realised with a shock that it had been 14 years since I had last travelled there. Way too long!
As it turns out, KL Sentral is a bit of a misnomer. It is neither sentral on the main map, nor sentral to things I might want to see like the Petronas towers,
or a shop.
There is a museum, and a large botanic garden. I didn't want to change money for a train further, so I opted for a steamy walk in the park.
I had to negotiate a couple of freeways first…
The park itself was very nice
It had water, and trees,
and deer.
But my modest aeroplane attire soon got the better of me in the heat, so I slowly made my way back to the airport and hopefully a little nap.
When I got back to the window-less room, I called the kids, and went to the bathroom to prepare for my rest. While busy in there, I realised that I was not alone.
A cockroach the size of a nightmare (I kid you not, it was four inches long) was in the small cubicle with me. To know me is to know my fear of exoskeletons, and the king of all fear-inducing exoskeletons is a cockroach! I held my breath and kept my eyes fixed on the beast as I finished quickly as possible, grabbed my bags, and left the room.
At the reception a vaguely bemused woman gave me keys to another room.
With a window. So much nicer!
I had a cool view of the airport,
and I hope my window was tinted, because otherwise the pilot had a cool view of me getting changed (I didn't see them in there, at first!).
I slept for a few moments there, freshened up, and went to the lounge for some food.
Nothing like the fun I had on my forced stopover in Japan, but good to know you can have a sleep and a shower if you have to be in KL for a long time.
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