After 3 long years the day finally arrived – were finally off overseas again!! We arrived in Kuala Lumpur via Singapore late in the evening. After we worked out how to catch the airport express train, we made it to our hotel centrally located in the shopping district of Bukit Bintang. The next day we ventured on foot to the Petronas Towers to take photos and to pay for tickets that I had booked online. Kuala Lumpur reminds me of any Asian capital city – but I couldnt help it to Bangkok. A slightly condensed Bangkok with less traffic but equally as cosmopolitan. We explored the grounds of the Petronas and took photos, and later walked around the Pavilion shopping mall that is near our hotel and treated ourselves to pints of European beer. That evening Bill found a local restaurant nearby that had good reviews so we had a Nasi Ambeng for dinner – a platter of rice, curry, eggs and other condiments and pickled delicacies and of course sambal!
The next day we went to the famous Batu caves just 30 odd minutes train journey north of KL. Home to Hindu shrines, the Batu caves are
formed on a limestone hill. The shrine is dedicated to Lord Murgugan – the statue is 42.7m tall and covered in 300 million litres of gold paint and greets visitors at the base of the giant staircase. We started our visit in the main and then climbed the 272 stairs to the main cave. Steep but worth every step ( and good preparation for our Mt Kinabalu climb!) Along the way monkeys were hopping and climbing past, very much used to tourists. We walked around the 400 million year old caves in wonderment, taking photos and soaking up the atmosphere. Its fortunate (selfish tourist for a sec) that there werent many tourists there as I can imagine it would have been 3 or 4 times as many people! As we descended the stairs we saw many more monkeys, and what was cute but quite sad at the same time were monkeys eating thoughtless peoples rubbish eg. Plastic bags and bottles. After the caves, we went back to the hotel and I had a swim to cool off and that evening we took a long walk to the restaurant De Wan 1958 by celebrity Malaysian Chef Wan. I
discovered this restaurant on an Uncle Roger video. Uncle Roger is a fictional funny character ‘typical middle aged Asian uncle by Nigel Ng and by far one of our favourite You Tubers.
The next day we proceeded to discover Chinatown. We walked around Petaling walking street and went to the Guan Di Chinese temple and lighted some incense. We tried to go to the Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu temple but unfortunately it was closed for prayers. We then tried to walk to the Masjid Negara (National Mosque) but unfortunately it started to rain and we were due to go to the Petronas Towers. We hurried back, had a quick rest stop at the hotel and power walked to the Petronas Towers. Built by a the Towers are tallest twin Towers in the world. First stop was the sky bridge that links to two Towers on the 41st floor, and then the piece de la resistance the observation deck on the 86th floor. As its all indoors the views are a bit obscured but nonetheless impressive. After the Petronas we had a leisurely stroll back to the hotel and stopped for a drink along the way.
Then I had a wonderful full body Balinese massage at the hotel. We then had a late dinner at the Pavillion shopping centre.
The next day, and our last day in KL, we departed VERY early at 5am to our Sky Mirror tour. We got picked up and whisked to Kuala Selangor which is about a 45 minute drive outside KL to the coast. It was still dark when we arrived! The Sky Mirror is a sandbar that appears in the middle of the Straits of Malacca and the photographer tour operators use neat camera trickery to capture a mirror effect with the water.
