Kuala Lumpur

May 14th - 17th, 2016

Having already been to Bornean Malaysia I was anticipating more of the same just on a bigger scale, but Kuala Lumpur is nothing like that in the slightest and despite myself I found I rather liked this city after all. For a start, it has a great public transport system, with several options for reaching the city from the airport, then there is the myriad of train and bus lines throughout the city which make getting around simple and very affordable. Then there was the difference in cleanliness, ok, the street vendors tended to end up surrounded by litter but at the end of the day everything was swept up so if you walked the streets early morning (as we did to go and get some laundry done) then they were almost spotless. This is possibly aided by the torrential downpours that occur on a daily basis...sometime twice a day, we got caught out a couple of times.... which wash any other dirt and rubbish away quite effectively.

We spent our first full day sightseeing, covering the Central Market, a great place for souvenirs, the Masjid Jamek Mosque, inspired by Moghul architecture and easily confused with the train station from a distance, currently undergoing a huge restoration so we were unable to go inside, Merdeka Square, what looks like a huge cricket pitch in the middle of the Colonial District and the Lake Gardens, an extensive stretch of green dotted with lakes and different themed areas and home to the world's largest free flight bird enclosure which was rather too pricey for our modest budget! A sojourn in the shelter of a small kiosk opposite the Masjid Negara, the National Mosque with a 70m high minaret, due to the heaven's opening above us was followed by a delicious lunch of Beef noodle soup at a local food court and a shower and change at the hotel.

That evening we headed to the nations most famous landmark, the Petronus Towers, the tallest twin structure in the world (once the tallest structure until 2004) at 452m high and shining like two multi faceted diamonds in the inky black sky. They are simply spectacular to behold and are a nightly scene for gatherings of people who come to admire them, take their many 'selfies' (guilty!!) and enjoy the spectacle of the coloured water fountains both in front and behind the buildings. The lakeside fountains are also host to a music, light and water show each evening at 8 o'clock, weather permitting and we were lucky enough to chance upon this in time to enjoy it before once again getting stranded at a shelter in the unexpected rain!

Buying ourselves a couple of cheap umbrellas so as not to get caught out yet again (I managed to do a bit of haggling as we were purchasing 2) we made our way, on the recommendation of a friend, to Jalan Alor, a garrulous street lined with Chinese restaurants, where she had told us to EAT EVERYTHING!! I would have loved to, but the sheer enormity of stalls and foods was overwhelming and in the end we settled for some rather unusually coloured dim sums which were quite delicious, before making our way to a salsa club we had found out about for some much needed dancing.

Next day we took the Komuter Line train to a place called Batu Caves which apart from being impressive, beautiful caves in their own right, are also home to one of the biggest Hindu shrines outside of India. Thronging with people, the site consists of several shrines and temples and a gigantic statue of Muruga, the God of War who almost reaches to the top of the 272 steep steps that lead into the main Subramaniam Swamy Temple. The whole place is swarming with bold Macaques who nonchalantly peer down at you from the top as you labour up the stairs to the temple, or scamper between your feet grabbing anything loose that takes their fancy....water bottles seem to be a favourite! We spent a couple of hours being awed by the beauty of the caves and the enormity of the site before heading back to the train station where we were glad to board the air conditioned coaches back towards our hotel.

The afternoon was spent in a different kind of enjoyment...we had a fab dance lesson and an hour's training on our choreo before going back to the hotel to enjoy the leftovers from our lunch (an incredibly large naan bread with chicken and curry sauces) and relax watching a movie.