From Georgetown, we took the bus to Kuala Lumpur. We arrived over a holiday weekend (international labor day/may day), so it was a hassle to find accomodation. From our research, it seemed like there's not really much to do in KL. We only planned to stay for a couple days, long enough to apply for our Chinese visas. Unfortunately the Chinese embassy was closed for three days for labor day. So, we ended up staying in town for nearly a week.

From reading other travellers' accounts on the internet or in guesthouse information books, you would think that KL is a dirty, smelly, rat-and-cockroach-infested cesspool. I think these people must have just been staying on the wrong side of the tracks, in some of the cheapest Chinatown hotels. We stayed off of Jalan Bukit Bintang in the "Golden Triangle" (i.e., the central business district) where there's a cluster of clean-looking guesthouses and mid-range hotels.

Our impression of KL was that it was the cleanest, most modern city we've been to so far in Asia. The public transit system is fairly extensive. There are 4 or 5 light-rail, subway, and monorail lines around the city. The only problem is that they're all privately operated, and not integrated. So changing between two lines often involves walking around the corner to the other company's station and buying a new ticket.

There is clearly a lot of money in Malaysia, and a lot has been spent on infrastructure. The only thing that puzzles me is why they can't be bothered to cover the storm drains??? Not even in Laos or Burma, two of the poorest countries in the world, do the cities have open storm drains. Surely KL can afford to cover up their open sewers? Even when the storm drains are covered, there are random bottomless pits in the sidewalk every few meters that drop into the sewer. It's very important to watch where you're walking in KL!

KL is the hottest place we've been to so far. We summoned up enough energy to go on a walk around Chinatown, but other than that, we weren't very active. There were about a dozen gigantic malls with frigid air-conditioning less than five minutes from our hotel, so we spent a lot of time at the malls! Though I wouldn't recommend KL as a destination if you're on a short vacation, if you're on a long trip, it's a good place to relax and enjoy western-style comforts for a few days! There are a couple of excellent English-language bookstores in KL, including a Borders! In the KLCC, the mall attached to the Petronas Twin Towers there were a California Pizza Kitchen and a even a Chili's! Since we probably go to CPK at least 2-3 times a month at home, we just had to try it out in another country. It was a little bit off, but we almost felt like we were back at home at the Emeryville CPK! There are also plenty of coffee shops in the malls (the density of Starbucks is even greater than in San Francisco) for relaxing in a/c comfort.

Getting our Chinese visa was quite an experience. The only other two times I've had to go to an embassy or consulate were straightforward and painless -- neither the Indian consulate in San Francisco or the Burmese embassy in New Delhi got too much business. But I should have realized that the Chinese embassy in Malaysia (where nearly half the population is ethnic Chinese) might be a little bit busier! We waited in line for about three hours to drop off our applications. About a quarter of the people in the embassy were travel agents dropping of duffel bags full of their clients' passports.

We applied for a 60-day visa, and so were a little displeased the next day when our visa said it was valid for only 30 days! The Chinese visa website says that single-entry tourist visas can be valid for up to 90 days, you just need to specify how many days you want it for. Apparently the embassy in Malaysia likes to be difficult, though, as the lady there said they only grant 30 day visas. I guess it's inconceivable that anybody could want to spend more than a month in a country as huge as China . . . But supposedly we can get an extension in China at any local "public security bureau" -- "no problem" she assured us. We'll see.

Chinese visas in hand, we bought bus tickets to go off to the Cameron Highlands and get out of the heat . . .