kuala.lumpur.to.siem.reap

As i write this, i'm sitting in the computer room at my siem reap home. I arrived about an hour ago (it's 10:40am right now) and thought i'd check in before heading out for the day. Since i haven't really written much from kuala lumpur, here's a quick summary of what i did:

I got to kl late monday afternoon, found my guesthouse in the rain, dropped off my stuff, and headed out again. I stayed on the border of chinatown near the central market since i needed to get to kl sentral (the main transport hub) early this morning. So, i walked through chinatown and all their street stalls (where i seriously considered buying a "real" tiffany's necklace just for fun, but didn't), then went poking around in central market which is inside (and air conditioned!). They have a bunch of batik fabrics, artsy stuff, and some food places. I also ate dinner there- a bowl of thai curry noddle soup. Tasty. Tuesday morning i got up early and took the "T" four stops to KLCC where i stood in line for tickets to the petronas towers skybridge. I got one for the 3:15 time slot, so had six hours to "kill" until then. I had briefly considered finding my own way around, but after talking to an australian woman while in line, decided to pay the 38RM (about $11) for the "hop on, hop off" bus. Six of these buses follow a 2 hour loop through all the major tourist attractions and other hotel areas and you can hop on and off as you please. There are also headsets that allow you to get info about the area you're in. This was the perfect solution for me as it allowed me to see many areas that i wouldn't have otherwise made it to (lake/orchid gardens, butterfly/bird parks, national palace, etc.) I also went up the kl tower- though it was hazy because of the heat and humidity. On my way back to the petronas towers, i started talking with another woman waiting for the bus. Turns out she's a photographer and has been traveling all over the place since october. She happened to have her journal with her and was able to give me names of places to visit, eat at, and stay in for the rest of my trip! Fantastic! The trip up to the skybridge was great (and free!) and showed a 3D movie first that explained the history of the towers. While up there, it started to thunder and i could clearly see bolts of lightening shoot down to buildings. Crazy! After some more putzing around (and dinner), i went to bed early since my flight was at 7am, with a 1 hour bus trip to the airport- which meant i needed to leave the guesthouse by 3:30am. Ya.

So that's it so far. You'll all have to wait for pictures since i don't want to upload them from random computers. Now i'm off to walk around town a bit. Bye!