Spending the night at the airport

After three days at Siargao Island I traveled to El Nido. First I flew from Siargao to Cebu by plane. I then flew from Cebu to Puerto Princesa. I got to Puerto Princesa at 11 pm in the evening.
Since the first bus to El Nido was supposed to leave at 5 am the next morning. I decided to save money for the one night in the hostel in Puerto Princesa and the taxi to the hostel and just wait at the airport.

It saved me money, but it wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had. Since the airport closed overnight, I had to wait outside. In addition, there wasn’t even a café or a shop that was still open, which is why I didn’t even have anything to eat.
The night was pretty boring at times, which is why I was glad when it was finally five o’clock in the morning.

Stucking in a typhoon

The ride to El Nido wasn’t the best ride either. I tried to sleep but the road was so winding and the driver was driving so fast it was almost impossible to sleep let alone not to throw up.

When I finally got to El Nido I had to take a tricycle which brought me to the hostel. There I already met a few people with whom I went to the beach. It was already quite cloudy at this point, but at some point it started to rain heavily while we were sitting on the beach.

Unfortunately, it didn’t get any better in the coming days, which is why I spent most of my time in El Nido in the hostel or in the gym. Tours, ferries and flights have been canceled due to the typhoon that swept across the Philippines.

Since the weather forecast for the coming days didn’t really show anything positive either, I decided to leave the Philippines early and come back another time. I then applied for my visa for Vietnam. But since the processing time for the visa takes a few days, one evening after I didn’t feel like sitting in the rain anymore, I decided to fly to Kuala Lumpur for a stopover.

Escaping the bad weather

I spontaneously booked the flight for the next day at 11 pm. Since the plane left Puerto Princesa at 2 pm the next morning and I had to travel 5 hours by bus to get there, I had to get up at 4 am the next morning.

At five o’clock the bus drove from El Nido to Puerto Princesa. From Puerto Princesa I took a flight to Manila and from Manila I flew to Kuala Lumpur just after midnight. At four o’clock in the morning I finally arrived in Kuala Lumpur, after the flight in Manila was over an hour late.

The ride with the Grab Taxi to the hostel took another hour, since the airport in Kuala Lumpur is very far outside of the city. At 6 o’clock in the morning I finally arrived at the hostel.
The hostel I had booked was in a huge apartment complex consisting of numerous luxurious rooms. On the 37th floor there was an infinity pool with a view of the whole city. I only paid $15 AUD for my hostel room there. Especially the pool was the reason me and all the other backpackers booked this hostel.

Finding your way around this huge apartment complex was of course a challenge at first. The security staff wasn’t really helpful either. Of course, it’s particularly annoying when you’ve been on the road for more than 24 hours. At some point I finally found my room and immediately went to sleep.

Lost in Kuala Lumpur

At 9 o’clock I woke up again. I didn’t get much sleep that night but it was still better than waiting at the airport all night. I met a German girl in the kitchen and we decided to do something together that day.

But first I went to the supermarket and bought something to eat. The supermarket was not more than 5 minutes walking away from the hostel, but as both Kuala Lumpur and the apartment complex are quite confusing, I got lost a few times.

At first, of course, it was a challenge to even get out of the courtyard of the complex. After I had to ask several times and got three different directions, I finally found the exit. From there someone helped me to get to the shopping mall. Of course, the mall was so big that it was a challenge to find the supermarket at all. After almost an hour I was finally back in the hostel.

Exploring Kuala Lumpur

Together with the German girl from my hostel, I drove to the Masjid Wilayah Persekutuan mosque with the grab taxi, which we then visited. I didn’t know until then that most Malaysians are Muslim.

After we visited the mosque, we drove on to the Thean Hou Temple Temple. The temple was relatively small but super nice and interesting with all the many details. So I liked the temple more than the mosque.

In the afternoon we drove from the temple to the famous Petronas Twin Towers. There we looked at the KLCC Park, which is directly behind the towers. The two towers were really impressive and I also really liked the mosque and the temple. But on the whole, Kuala Lumpur doesn’t have that much to offer in terms of tourism. Since the city is also quite western, you might think you are in Sydney or Frankfurt.

From KLCC Park we drove back to the hostel in the late afternoon. First we took the train. But when we had to change trains, we had already missed our connecting train and the next one was supposed to come much later. Instead of waiting we took a Grab Taxi back to the hostel. After all, taxis in Asia are very cheap, especially if you can split the cost.

In the evening we watched the sunset on the terrace by the pool. At that time the pool was completely overcrowded.

Visiting the famous Batu Caves

The first thing I wanted to do when I got up the next morning was to go to the pool. But just when I got there it was closed for cleaning. So I went back to the hostel, got ready and then had breakfast.
At breakfast I met an Australian. Since we had the same plans for the day, we made our way to the Batu Caves together.

Of course, these were only overcrowded with tourists. In addition to the tourists, there were also monkeys running around trying to steal people’s food and snacks.
But although the Batu Caves were quite crowded, I really liked them. Especially the big statue and the colorful stairs up to the entrance.

What I think is a pity is that a lot is designed for tourists. Everywhere you can find shops selling souvenirs or snacks. I think something like that robs a place of its unique magic.

Strolling around Kuala Lumpur

From the Batu Caves we finally made our way to another temple. First we wanted to take the bus. When it finally came after we had already missed the first one, I wanted to buy a ticket. However, I could pay neither with cash nor with a card. After I only got a shake of the head when I asked the driver how I can pay and where I would get a ticket from, I gave up and got off the bus again.

During my time in Kuala Lumpur, I noticed again and again that some Malaysians do not speak English and some are very cold and unfriendly. Of course, this does not apply to everyone, I have also met very friendly people.

We then made our way to the train station and took the train to the temple. When we got there we were a bit disappointed. The temple was a single construction site and therefore not accessible. We then walked around the area a little, looked at China Town and the Kasturi Walk, but we didn’t find anything really exciting about it. Then we made our way back to the hostel.

Waiting for the visa

There I was in the gym in the afternoon and I was waiting for my visa for Vietnam.
All day long I kept checking to see if the visa had finally been approved. Since I had applied for the visa for June 5th and we already had June 5th, I got a little worried. Since my visa would be valid for 30 days from this day and there is no way to extend it, my time in Vietnam started on June 5th. Of course, the longer I had to wait, the less time I would have in Vietnam.

The next day my visa was still not approved. My day consisted mostly of checking to see if the visa was finally approved.
I also got a bit bored because I had already done everything in Kuala Lumpur what you can do in the city. I already started making plans in case I didn’t get the visa the next day either. After all, I didn’t want to wait any longer because I wanted to have enough time in Vietnam. But my alternative plans didn’t appeal to me as much as Vietnam. In addition, I would probably have had to fly a lot and higher costs.

In the evening at 5 pm., when I had already assumed that I would spend the next day waiting in the hostel again, my visa was approved. I then started to pack my things super happily and of course also booked the flight to Hanoi for the next day.

If you want to know what I experienced during my time in Vietnam, please have a look at my next posts.