Kuala Lumpur -- Day 2 -- Selamat Ingal!

I skipped the rich breakfast spread at the hotel, because Perng decided instead to take me to a local Indian eatery. I checked out of the hotel too, since I was leaving for India later that evening. Anyway, the breakfast at the Indian eatery was great. I had murtabak (stuffed naan unique to Malaysia), rava dosa, excellent kopi (coffee), while Perng had kottu paratha (chopped paratha with meat toppings), idly (strangely with veggies and chicken).

He drove me through Petaling Jaya neighborhood, formerly a middle class neighborhood with factories, through parts of KL and Chinatown. The architecture of KL has changed since the 80's with the rising fortunes of Malaysia and the subsequent introduction of neo-Islamic buildings by the erstwhile Prime Minister, Mohatir Mohammad. Many newly constructed official buildings have signs in Arabic, where previously there was no known influence. We had coffee, chatted about Malaysian and Chinese history, and finally Perng dropped me off at KLIA Central Stesen (sic). I dropped off my luggage at KLIA (15 MYR) and took a metered cab (8 MYR) to the orchid garden (admission 12 MYR) and also visited the excellent KL Bird Park (admission 35 MYR for tourists, 15 MYR for Malaysians). I enjoyed a good couple of hours there, returned to KLIA Central and proceeded to Pudu Raya bus station to board my bus to Singapore.

Bus ride to Singapore: The bus was scheduled to leave at 5.30 pm and I had arrived an hour early. I had two chicken burgers (6 MYR) and a soda at a stand. Enjoyed it. It was murderously hot, sweaty, dirty and replete with exhaust fumes from the buses. There was huge throng of wailing kids, women in conservative Muslim garbs, teenagers, old people, beggars and what not. I waited patiently for the bus -- 5.15 pm, 5.25 pm, 5.45 pm, 6.00 pm and still no bus. I was nervous about missing my flight from Singapore. A co-passenger, Sam from Singapore, was sympathetic and assured me that I was in the right place -- after all, at that point, time was paramount. The bus finally arrived and departed at 6.20 pm; that meant arrival in Singapore at approximately 11.30 pm. The bus was fortunately comfortable, but we were stuck in heavy rush hour traffic of KL with traffic approaching speeds of 10 kmph (~ 6 mph)! After an hour or so of stop and go traffic, we were finally on the highway. The bus driver played some action-thriller on the DVD player and I paid little or no attention to it. Around 9.00 pm we stopped for an "unscheduled" break at a roadside eatery. I had some noodle soup to stave off hunger. The bus was delayed by almost an hour-and-a-half when we reached the border town of Johar Bahru. We went through Malaysian emigration and a few hundred meters of walking through Singapore immigration.

Things were looking pretty bleak. To top it all, I had no Singapore currency. I traded just enough Malaysian ringgits with some passengers for cab fare. I probably paid too much. Sam, the afore-mentioned gentleman, helped me through Singapore customs by taking me through the channel for Singapore residents. A big thank you to Sam and Singapore customs!! Without them there might not have been a visit to India at all. I got off at the very first stop (Woodlands), ran 200-300 meters with my baggage and all, and jumped into a cab for a 30 minute ride to Changyi airport. I made it in time (12.43 am) before the gates closed for my flight at 1.25 am! Whew, that was close! I settled into my seat for the JetStar Asia flight to Bangalore. I'm nervous as I write this episode. Home at last!