Justin-Klein.com – Life of a Traveling Programmer – Page 24

KL Walking Tour: Chinatown

Jul 262011

Although I’ve been growing increasingly eager to move on from KL, I didn’t actually start any tourism until nearly 6pm – of my sixth day there. The combination of bedbugs, heat, and noise from outside has meant I’ve been sleeping pretty poorly, translating in turn to later and later starts.

Walking Tour Stop #2: Originally a wet market for the miners of old Kuala Lumpur, Central Market now houses a colorful collection of touristy handicraft shops and stalls.

…Not to mention the guesthouse WiFi is unusably slow, so getting anything done seems to take an eternity. But late or not I didn’t want to delay any further, so I decided to just do my best at an early-evening tour.
Continue reading »

Justin’s First Bedbugs

Malaysia, Public 7 Responses »

Jul 252011

When the doorlock on the room next to mine got jammed, the receptionist had to crawl out my 3rd floor window, shimmy across, and break in from outside. Classy.

Alright, enough is enough – I’ve about had it with this place 😛

As mentioned already, I haven’t exactly been getting the best vibe from KL. Nightlife seems pretty tame, budget lodgings are terrible, and to be honest, it’s felt like one of the most polluted cities so far (walking around for too long has on numerous occasions resulted in a sore, raspy throat).

And as if that wasn’t enough, a new discovery has just sealed the deal: This guesthouse has bedbugs!

The smallish beetle-like things I’d been noticing on the walls these past few nights perfectly match images returned by Google. Ew. And although I’ve yet to feel even one single bite, the psychological effect of their presence has been crippling: I can barely sleep, constantly feeling like they’re crawling all over me. I find myself regularly jumping up to smash the 2 or 3 that’ve invariably appeared on the wall (while praying that none have worked their way into my luggage).
Continue reading »

Cocky Club Zouk

Malaysia, Public 8 Responses »

Jul 242011

As soon as I wrote the words “slow down and move leisurely,” I thought of this guy: a lazy tuktuk driver in Ao Nang. Every day he’d park in front of my favorite little restaurant and pass out in his hammock.

Now that I’d made it to Thaipusam, I had no scheduling constraints left whatsoever. At long last, after nearly two months on the road, I could slow down and move as leisurely as I wanted.
Continue reading »

More Masochistic Mayhem

Malaysia, Public 10 Responses »

Jun 152011

Warning

This post contains a couple fairly graphic images. If human blood makes you uneasy, you may want to skip it.

It’s a continuation of the post “Thaipusam: Masochistic Mayhem,” which I suggest reading first if you haven’t done so already.

The Thaipusam festival lasts several days and nights, taking place at the Batu Caves about 13km from Kuala Lumpur. I first arrived around 11pm, by which time the crowds were already out in full force.