Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the mrlukeniktravels blog from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I arrived from Singapore yesterday so I am adjusting to a new country. Malaysia is the seventh country I’ve travelled in since leaving the UK last year. Travelling north this time watch adjustment wasn’t necessary as I have stayed in the same timezone! As I write this blog, fans whirl above me and a muezzin’s call floats through an open window. The mid-afternoon sun beats down outside. Without further ado, here is a report of my recent adventures…
Yesterday morning I left my hostel in Singapore and headed to the cross-border bus station. After a waiting for a late bus I was on my way. The bus had massage seats which were a nice feature, particularly compared to my 22 hour bus journey in Canada. Arriving at the Singapore border, the queues for the bus stops were long. At that time the air-conditioning came into its own. Once off the bus I went through customs to leave Singapore, before re-boarding to head to Malaysia. Again, the bus sat in a long queue before reaching the border. I entered Malaysia without a hitch- no drugs showing up on the scanner…phew. Once I had changed to a Malaysia-registered bus, the rest of the of journey went by pretty quickly. After eight hours on a bus I had completed my first land border crossing of this trip! I was glad to finish getting on and off bus too.
Whilst changing buses I had a few minutes of confusion trying to find the right bus to Kuala Lumpur. At these times it would be nice to have a tour rep to tell me where to go and what to do. That, perhaps, is one of trade-offs for having ultimate travel freedom and flexibility. I did manage to find the right one after a lap of the bus park. Having spent some time on the road I have become used to this. It is quite nerve-wrecking but usually works out alright in the end. A little nervous anticipation is especially a bad thing. One thing I have learnt on this trip is that I often over plan and that causes unnecessary stress. Being more spontaneous is out of my comfort zone, just not in a way I had anticipated!
Having arrived in Malaysia I am planning to spend around a month here before heading north into Thailand. I hope to soon be out of the city landscape as this has been my backdrop for the last few weeks. I aim to spend some time in the mountains- my happy place. For the time-frame I have, East Malaysia (Borneo) is out of the question for now. There is plenty to see and do here on the mainland. I am currently working on a plan for the rest of my month here to try to maximise my experience. Planning whilst travelling is an important, but not necessarily exciting, reality. For the amount of time time I have now been away it would be impossible to plan before I left home. For example, when I left the UK I had no plans to travel in Japan during my trip. Perhaps I am blessed with being able to travel almost anywhere, but also the responsibility of making the most of it and did I miss something somewhere else?!
That is almost it for this week from Kuala Lumpur, I shall be spending the next few days exploring the city. Next week I shall be somewhere else in Malaysia, I haven’t quite set everything up yet! From now until next time, as always, you can find me on Twitter with the handle @mrlukeniktravel. My Instagram is @mrlukeniktravels for some photos of my surroundings. Finally stay safe and travel on!