After years of traveling with friends and loved ones, I headed out on my very first solo adventure. I thought what could go wrong? Traveling is definitely different when you are a female alone. In general traveling is just not as much fun alone. I had no one to speak to or enjoy my time with. It was really lonely and sad honestly. I also noticed that local men in KL were very aware that I was alone. Constantly pretending to bump into me so that they could try and touch me “accidently”. To be honest without even had experienced being assaulted in KL, I’ll mention the details later, I was completely unimpressed with the city. Nothing stood out or made me think wow I highly recommend this city. I stayed right on Petaling Street at a hotel called Dragon Inn Premium Hotel. I actually highly recommend staying here if you do visit. The staff were very kind and helpful.
My itinerary:
Day 1: Central Market, Petaling Street (Chinatown), and the Merdeka Square.
Day 2: Islamic Art Museum, Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, Petronas Towers, Bukit Bintang.
Day 3: Batu Caves
My first day I wandered around Petaling Street. It is a normal outdoor market with people just haggling you for their junk. I spent two months wandering around South East Asia and I think once you have experienced this in the other S. East countries these markets tend to just get a bit redundant. Nothing that impressive. I decided to take a walk over to the Central Market that wasn’t too far away. When I arrived there it looked like it would be a cultural experience due to the history of the market. However although the outside is still preserved to look like its original old market from 1888, the inside has been renovated into an exact replicated of a 2017 fancy souk from Dubai. All overpriced ordinary things that I could buy anywhere.
I decided to just get lost and walk for a bit after the first two disappointing endeavors. I found Merdeka Square. This was a very beautiful open area. You can just take a seat on the grassy area and relax for a day here.
I was quite tired and spent the rest of the day wandering around a bit. Testing street foods and then fell asleep at an early hour to get a head start on my next day.
I personally love walking. I am from New York City and that is just what we do there, we walk. So when I come to these cities I really enjoy walks even if it ends up being 20-30 km a day. I setted out on foot early on Day 2 to the Bird Park. The bird park was really nice or maybe I was just really bored. The birds are not free they are enclosed in a large netted park in which you pay to experience. It was a nice change from the city area. The birds are friendly and they will walk right up beside you.
From the bird park I took a walk over to the National Mosque and the Islamic Arts Museum. I highly recommend the Islamic Arts Museum, and I typically don’t enjoy museums.
After the first day I thought wow this is going to be a terrible trip. But the second day turned out to be quite amazing until…… That is when it happened. I headed back to the hotel to change my clothes. I had been walking all morning and sweating profusely, Malaysia is quite hot but not as hot as Dubai so I could handle it. After a quick shower and change of clothes I headed out to see the infamous Petronas Towers. My hotel told me that there are free buses that make their rounds all over the city for tourists. However it was only around 2 pm and I had nothing else scheduled for the day, so I decided to walk to Petronas Towers. It is a very far walk from Petaling Street. On my walk I was attacked by a motorcyclist. He drove up right next to me on the sidewalk and grabbed my bag off my shoulder. Now I am quite a tough girl. My mom is a bodybuilder and I grew up lifting weights in the gym. I did not let go of that bag. I went flying in the air landing smack on the concrete. The motorcyclist lost his balance and drove straight into a bush. Everyone just gawked watching like it was a movie, whats next? Except one man. One man went after the guy beating him up. Threw him to the ground and grabbed his belongings from him. The motorcyclist wiggled himself out of the mans grip and ran away disoriented. The man helped me up and later I found out that he was a native New Yorker as well. He has been living in Malaysia with his wife for years now. He explained that KL is just not safe, and the crimes in the city are just getting worse. I wasn’t surprised that he was a New Yorker. New York is actually very safe, opposed to what most outsiders think. I believe it is because we live by the motto “If you see something, say something”. We don’t just sit around when something happens, we help each other. No one else stopped to help. Even in Laos when I ran into trouble, no one helped. Thank god that man was there that day.
We opened the attackers belongings. His phone was unlocked with clear pictures of him and his house. We also found a crack pipe. Nice. We called the police and after a while they came. We wrote a report showed them the pictures and they seemed a bit unimpressed, as if it happens everyday. They told me they would take care of it and basically sent me on my way. Pretty mundane for them I guess? I was hurt badly but what was I supposed to do? Fly home? End my solo trip defeated because of this attack? I wasn’t enjoying KL that much prior to the incident, but I did have a second part planned, Penang. I decided to finish up the day see the towers, walk around the time square area “Bukit Bintang” and hope that it will only get better from here.
Day 3: The Batu Caves
No Comments