Kuala Lumpur
We knew we’d enjoy Kuala Lumpur, we don’t know too many who have been but I haven’t heard a bad word spoken about it and the pictures you see tell it all – a vibrant and modern city in typical Asian surroundings.
As I said in the first KL blog, we arrived in the afternoon and after a nap we set upon finding the Petronas Towers. Not a particularly difficult job since they are the ninth tallest building in the world (depending on 
what website you read). KL has been going through a period of modernisation for many years now and the flagship of this are the towers; the site itself is huge with an arena, park and huge shopping centre all in the site known as Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC). You can only imagine how many buildings had to be demolished to accommodate this area. That being said I think you’d be hard pushed to find a local who was against their construction. They are beautiful and iconic and are designed according to the five pillars of Islam. We spent ages here just knobbing about and taking loads of pictures.
Naturally, we wanted to go up them. The Petronas allow 1,400 people a day up to the 170m high Skybridge and in an extraordinary (and highly unusual) show of not ripping tourists off they give these tickets away for free. We were told to be there before 9:00am to have any chance of getting one of the tickets. We therefore got an early night so we could have some rest before ascending the towers the next day.
We arrived at KLCC at 8:40am and to our amazement, all the 1,400 tickets for the day had gone in the first ten minutes. Not to be deterred we set upon KL’s other tower – the Menara Tower or (KL Tower). We weren’t too upset at this as the view from the observation deck is actually higher than the Petronas Skybridge (at 276m) and, best of all, you get to see the Petronas from this tower! My top tip for KL would be to go up this tower, even if you do manage to scab one of the free Petronas tickets.
The view was unfortunately a bit hazy but all the sights were visible and with the ‘David Schwimmer’ style commentary on offer we learnt loads about KL and we eager to explore the rest of the city. Out of sheer laziness we opted for the Hop On – Hop Off tour bus that takes us to all these sights and we were able to get off and explore sights such as the Grand Palace and Independence Square (Dataran Merdeka).
On Wednesday we visited the highly recommended Batu Caves. They are a short trip out of the city but are highly visible from the KL Tower observation deck, even on a hazy day. The caves are made up from a huge natural limestone formation and are accessed by climbing 272 gruelling steps. This would usually be a daunting and unpleasant task, especially in this heat, but thankfully entertainment isn’t too far away with scores of monkeys scavenging around the steps looking for food. The caves themselves are a highly spiritual Hindu place but me being me, I preferred the monkeys. Once inside the caves you are blown away once more with the work of nature, the huge cavernous openings make for an ideal setting for several Hindu shrines.
We certainly didn’t go hungry in KL. Our preferred venue to scoff was Chinatown, just a few minutes from our hostel. There are loads of restaurants and hawkers preparing fabulous Chinese grub amidst the mayhem of the markets. Once we’d eaten Pezza wanted to have a gander at the markets, she is a self-confessed terrible negotiator so we agreed if she saw something she liked she was to let me know and I’d do business with the trader. The trader opened at RM28, I stared and she immediately dropped to RM20 without me saying a word. It was now that Pezza forgot our arrangement and stormed in with “SEVENTEEN!” The lady was only too keen to take my money. Pezza is now banned from markets.
Our final night in KL and we decided to splurge a bit and visited the Skybar at the Traders Hotel. A really nice bar with one of the best views you can get.
For all my photos from this trip, click here. It will show the latest album but just scroll down for links to the rest.
Andy
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