On to KL – Kuala Lumpur. I’d have to say, going from a nice relaxed beach town to a bustling, inland city in a different country was quite the change – not so much one I was prepared for anyways. I stayed in a hostel centrally located, but wasn’t up for much more than seeing the twin towers KL is famous for, so I walked around that park for a bit on the first night:
The towers made me think of the movie Entrapment, where they are swinging from hanging lights between the two towers while escaping a heist on New Years.
The city is quite commercial, and has so much advertising, with McDonalds/KFC being having the most presence on the banners/billboards. Many high-rise buildings and lots of businesses, as you’d expect. The public transit system is pretty well developed, and as I was riding the metro I was chatting with someone who was here for the Moto GP (worldwide motorcycle track racing), which I had no idea was happening in Malaysia that weekend.
My hostel was right below that parrot billboard
The local food is interesting, because there is a mix of Muslim food, Indian food, and Malaysian food. For some reason, most all of it contains seafood, with most dishes coming with either an entire small fish or some type of curry with a fish head in it. Not the most appetizing – but an interesting change.
After seeing the towers, and walking around a large part of the city, I decided I didn’t have much interest in seeing anything else, so I booked a flight for 2 days from then to a Malaysian Island (Langkawi) and, thinking of Tim Pile, decided to go to the Moto GP for my remaining two days. Sure wish Tim were there with me, as he was really into watching Moto GP and we’d watch it in the living room while he explained to me what the hell was going on. Regardless, it was an experience! I quickly realized earplugs were a necessity – these bikes are fast & loud! I got seats on the south end of main grandstand of the Sepang track, which had a good view of one of the turns, where a couple falls happened:
Guy doing a wheelie on the straightaway – crowd pleaser obviously
The first day (Saturday) had all qualifying runs, so was more of an exploring day. Got my picture on my next Kawasaki bike, as well as a pic with one of their many Asian models:
My next bike!
Made it down to one of the sharper turns in-between the two main straightaways where you could go up a tower and view the turn:
After the GP qualifying races, there was an Asian race that I managed to sneak into the main (north) grandstand for to view the start/finish line and watch the start of the race, and see a bit of the pit:
They all get lined up, do one warm-up lap at the buzzer and then lineup again for the actual start of the race.
Day 2 – Sunday was much busier, since this was race day, and much more exciting because the racers were all close together and much easier to follow once I knew who was who. Marc Marquez and Daniel Pedrosa on the Honda team were the front-runners, but Pedrosa ended up crashing twice and had to quit. Valentino Rossi was for one reason or another, the most popular rider for all the Malaysian fans there, with most of the crowd wearing his yellow color and he did pretty well too, coming in 2nd, followed by Jorge Lorenzo in 3rd – Marquez took it home 1st, as usual.
Here is the beginning of the race, coming by the straightaway for the first time:
It was suspenseful, and more enjoyable in person than I thought it would be.
Not much more on KL other than that, except to mention that the international airport is huge – so big they actually have two airports next to each other – one called KLIA and one called KLIA2, each with their own runways and control towers and everything. The Sepang track is right next to the airport, but they are both about an hour from KL city. Actually missed my flight because of stupid check-in timing restrictions, but only paid 13 dollars for the flight anyways, so hopped on the next one for 60ish dollars.
As we were taking off there were thunderstorms all around the airport, so it was fun to watch the lightening bolts as we rose above it 🙂
All the pics here
