Mel, Chris and I had tickets to go see a ballet on ice which was the story of Sleeping Beauty, the night before we left for the trip. We made it from work just in the nick of time and enjoyed the performance. I am still not sure of the difference of a ballet on ice and figure skating, but to me it was just figure skating? Either was it was good. Afterwards we were starving and decided to grab dinner at a place called VIPS - well known for their steak. I had not eaten a steak in over a year by that point, so this was truly an event. We each got a steak and enjoyed the buffet, definitely a great start to our vacation week!
Afterwards Mel and I headed back to my apartment, she slept over as there is an airport bus near my apartment and we had to be up early to catch our flight. I packed that night (naturally) and we grabbed a few hours of sleep.
Tired and on our way to the airport
Our flight was delayed that morning but we eventually go on our way. We flew with Air Asia which was a bit disappointing as they did not provide food, drinks (not even water), blankets or pillows, or entertainment. They didn't provide anything, cheap flight, but still! I froze the whole way there as I only brought a light cardigan with me. Hours later we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, bought a bus ticket to KL Sentral to then take the subway the rest of the way to our hostel. The bus situation was a bit disorganized. We were assigned seat numbers, the same ones that other people were assigned. So it ended up just being first come first serve and when the bus filled up we left. When we got to KL Sentral we found the subway line we needed without any issues, instead of a ticket or card you are given a blue token!
We stayed in a place called Reggae Mansion which is a well known party hostel - it was super nice! After checking in we were given directions to our room but we are a bit special and could not find it at all. A few people tried to give us directions but we still had to go back to the front desk and get them to take us there. I should mention that Reggae Mansion is several floors and has columns/sections if that makes sense?? We stayed in a 24 bed dorm.
We asked the people who were already in our room for a recommendation on a place to eat, they suggested a place called President... something? We walked into the place and all of the food was sitting out in the open and that among other things, we were turned off and left. We begun our search of the Petronas Towers. We could see them, so walked in that direction. We walked, and walked and decided we weren't going the right way so headed back, and grabbed some McDonalds of all things! Funny story though, we sat down and began eating only to realize that no one else was eating around us. Everyone had food in front of them but no one was eating. We found it to be so strange. Finally, when the clock turned to 7pm, everyone started eating. It took us a moment but we realized it was Ramadan - duh! We felt a bit silly and a bit awkward for eating.
With some food in our stomachs we continued our search for the Petronas Towers and finally made it to them! We took a ton of photos! Honestly, I didn't care so much to see them but they were beyond impressive and demanded your attention. Incredible.
When we got back to Reggae Mansion we headed up to the rooftop bar with some people we met in our room for a drink then headed to bed as we had a flight to Borneo the next morning.
Random observations from the first day:
1) As soon as we were in the city walking around, I really felt like Malaysia is a place where I could live for a while and enjoy.
2) Crosswalks don't seem to work or matter. We often waited for a crosswalk light to change and they never did. Look both ways and run!
3) It was a bit refreshing to see the English alphabet everywhere despite not being able to read anything.
Sunday
The next day we got up and enjoyed a complimentary breakfast of pancakes and watermelon at Reggae before heading to the airport. I think it was due to the lack of sleep but I really had a hard time understanding anything anybody said to me that morning. Also for some reason we had to pay $10 ringgit to get our boarding passes. We had some time to spare at the airport and found a British shop (which Mel was ecstatic about) so we spent some time in there and then had tea at Starbucks. We didn't get to sit beside on that flight, but the man across the aisle from me moved so Mel came up and sat there. There was also a ridiculous child sitting two rows in front of me that kept screaming, throwing things and SPITTING on the people sitting in the row behind (which was the row in front of me). I felt really sorry for that lady and astonished that the parents weren't doing anything.
We arrived in Tawau, unsure of how we had planned to get to Semporna. When I went through immigration, the officer knew we were going diving at Mabul (which was really strange) and thought Mel and I were sisters ... despite our passports being from different countries. He also asked Mel if we were travelling alone and seemed to think we should have had men with us?! I was pretty sure that Mel had arranged some sort of transportation but she didn't think she had, so we decided to first see if there was a guy outside with our names on a paper (which Mel didn't think would happen) otherwise we would take a taxi. We step outside and there was a guy waiting for us! Apparently Scuba Junkie arranged someone to pick us up to take us to Semporna. So we jumped into this stranger's unmarked car, hoped for the best and both fell immediately asleep despite our efforts to stay awake to be aware of where we were going. Amazingly the 2 hour drive was only $15!!
He dropped us off at the Scuba Junkie dive centre, we registered then got set up across the street at the dive lodge where we would be spending the night before heading to Mabul Island the next day. We had planned to go for a walk, but grabbed food at the connected bar/restaurant and never left. We sat there at the same table for 5 hours ordering food, shakes, tea, fruit and 4 x 1500ml bottles of water. One of the guys kept laughing at us for how much water we kept drinking and ordering but clearly we were dehydrated. It was a good relaxing night of food and playing cards. The fruit was so cheap compared to Korea! Some people who had dived that day arrived later and we got a bit more information from them as to what to expect but really we had no idea what to expect at all.
Our room in Semporna
The next two days we would spend on Mabul Island doing the two practical days of our open water course - stay tuned!
<3
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