30 Aug - 05 Sep 2010 Kuala Lumpur


Downtown
Tune Hotel Downtown KL +60379625888 enquiry@tunehotels.com
Clean and adequate double room for MYR 51.40 or US$ 15.- per night. Shitty wifi.
Friendly and professional young staff.


Click below for an interactive road map of the Tune Hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur, which we would recommend, and for directions:









Rushing from London’s Heathrow Airport to London’s low-cost Stansted Airport (Piccadilly Tube and District Tube for GBP 4.50 per person and National Express airport bus A6 from Victoria Coach Station to Stansted for GBP 10.- per person) and flying uneventfully with Air Asia X (“Now Everyone Can Fly Xtra Long”) +448456053333 in an Airbus A 340-300 back to Kuala Lumpur's KLIA-LCCT for the steal of only GBP 169.- or US$ 277.- per person, one way and all inclusive, and being issued with another 90-day-visit pass for a “social visit” to Malaysia on arrival - free of charge; once again selamat pagi, Malaysia.
"You define a good flight by negatives: you didn’t get hijacked, you didn’t crash, you didn’t throw up, you weren’t late, you weren’t nauseated by the food. So you are grateful."

Acclimatising to Asia again, enjoying big-city life in Cooler Lumpur, still our number-one place in Southeast Asia, and discussing (i) observed similarities (e.g. multi-culturalism with a substantial Chinese contingent, predominant English language, excellent public transport) and (ii) observed differences (e.g. climate, cost of living, absence/presence of sailboat marinas and beaches) between Kuala Lumpur and Toronto, our number-one place in North America.


 

Laundering a 6-kg load of dirty linen for MYR 3.- or US$ 0.95 (only washed) with the convenient DIY washing machine in the Tune Hotel Downtown KL.

Meeting up with our old friends Christina & Liau, Sophie and Herry, and wallowing in the big city’s small pleasures: (i) window shopping in our favourite air-con malls as well as browsing Kuala Lumpur’s excellent air-con book stores, (ii) pigging into cheap and fresh sushi and sashimi at Pavilion’s Sakae Sushi +60321428402 (our preferred Japanese restaurant chain) as well as feasting on cheap and fresh Indian vegetarian food at a diversity of food stalls in Kuala Lumpur's Little India, and (iii) allowing Asia to pamper us from head to toe (Konni: three-hour promotional skin treatment, free of charge, at the Pavilion’s New York Skin Solutions; Matt: one-hour foot reflexology treatment at AKP Foot Massage Healthcare Centre +60321444697 for only MYR 32.-).
"Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”

Flying with Malaysia’s Air Asia (“Now Everyone Can Fly”) in an Airbus A 320-200 from Kuala Lumpur's KLIA-LCCT to Makassar (Ujung Pandang’s brand-new Sultan Hasanuddin International Airport), the capital of the south of Sulawesi, a huge peninsula and home of two flamboyant ethnic groups, the Christianised highland Toraja and the Islamised sea-faring Bugis, for all inclusive MYR 134.- or US$ 39.- per person, one way, thus crossing both the equator and the Wallace Line, which marks the eastern boundary of Asian fauna, and being issued with a non-extendable 30-day visitor visa aka “visa on arrival” for Indonesia (cost: US$ 25.- per person in crisp banknotes, collectable on the spot); taking afterwards the hourly free shuttle bus from the arrival hall (bottom level) to the unmarked bus stop just off the main road (c. 4 km away), then two different pete-pete (aka bemo, the small local minibuses) for together IDR 7,000.- per person from the main road to MTC Karebosi Mall, and thereafter a becak (Indonesian 3-wheeled bicycle rickshaw) for IDR 10,000.- from the mall straight to our hotel.


    
Click below for more blog posts about short pit stops in Cooler Lumpur
27 Jul - 29 Jul 2010 Kuala Lumpur
04 Feb - 05 Feb 2010 Kuala Lumpur
19 Jan - 20 Jan 2010 Kuala Lumpur
18 Dec - 21 Dec 2009 Kuala Lumpur
03 Nov - 07 Nov 2009 Kuala Lumpur

Click below for a summary of this year's travels

Visit the Konni & Matt online albums and order high res travel photos
Konni & Matt Travel Photos


Recommended products - click below for your Amazon order from the United Kingdom:


For Amazon schnaeppchens from Germany, please click here
For Amazon bargains from the United States, please click here
For Amazon bargains from Canada, please click here