Thailand to Malaysia - July 3, 2008

This morning the 5 of us girls had to be ready to leave Samui Beach Apartments at 6am. We took an airport transfer van to the small airport on the island so we could fly from Koh Samui to Phuket. The airport was so fancy! I really like the fact that it was all open air, even the waiting areas at our gate. It was under this bohemian-like pavilion with fluffy pillows and no walls. It makes me wish MI had nicer weather year-round. Our flight left at 8:15am. We flew on a little puddle jumper plane from the eastern islands to the western island. It was only about an hour flight. When we arrived in Phuket we had to get our bags and go through customs (much quicker here than in the US) as we were flying to Malaysia from here. The layover was just over an hour because our plane was delayed about 25 minutes. Again the flight was fairly short, only about 2 1/2 hours. We landed in Kuala Lumpur a little before 3pm. Once here we went through all the typical airport stuff: customs, new stamp in the passport (!), baggage claim, and money exchange. To get to our hostel in KL, we had to take an express train from the terminal to a monorail station downtown. The monorail goes all over the city and is REALLY convenient. We finally arrived at Hostel Cosmopolitan around 4:30pm.
After checking in and dropping our bags, everyone except for Kellie headed out the huge mall we saw on the way in. And by huge, I mean 10 stories with an IMAX and an amusement park inside. This place was enormous and slightly overwhelming. But I did manage to pick up a new pair of shoes! We spent a few hours here, walking around and checking out the thousands of stores. I kept thinking how much Mallory would love this place!

(View from 8th floor down)

We took the monorail back to Chow Kit, our station, and relaxed for a few hours. We ventured out for a cheap bite to eat around 8:30pm and found the road in front of our hostel had been transformed into a night market. It was so busy with locals, vendors, and food stalls. I really enjoy the fact these are daily occurrences. I also really love that the city comes alive in the evenings. Dinner was cheap, thanks to the market. I had grilled corn with a butter and garlic sauce made right in front of me, and chicken on a kabob stick with a spicy sauce on top. Less than 5 dollars (about 15 ringgit) for it all! For dessert: fresh fruit and local sweets bought off the street.
The rest of the evening was spent relaxing in the common room of the hostel watching movies and using the Internet. Not too bad for my 1st day in Kuala Lumpur!