Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur

We arrived mid afternoon at the Sunway Resort Kuala Lumpa which was an amazing 800-acre "Resort-within-a-City" landmark which also features the Balinese-inspired Mandara Spa, a fitness centre, a theme park with the largest manmade surf beach, extreme sports and wildlife interactive zoo, an upscale mega shopping and entertainment mall with over 700 specialty stores, a medical centre, educational facilities and a multitude of distinctive business and leisure facilities.

First stop was the Mall............shopping.................. The shopping mall (called The Pyramid) is really nice and it has many shops, food courts, restaurants, an ice rink and cineplex cinema. The exterior of the shopping mall is really amazing because a whole pyramid and a sphinx were built in front of it. Outside, along the arcade, there are small trendy restaurants and bars to cater to the evening crowds.

Back to the hotel for dinner and some entertainment, belly dancing Malaysian style.

Kuala Lumpur 22nd July

Today we booked a city tour with a private guide. First stop was the Batu Caves. The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to Lord Murugan. It is the focal point of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia. The limestone forming Batu Caves is said to be around 400 million years old. Located outside the caves standing at 42.7 m high, the world's tallest statue of Murugan, a Hindu deity. The statue, which cost approximately 24 million rupees, is made of 1550 cubic metres of concrete, 250 tonnes of steel bars and 300 litres of gold paint brought in from Thailand. The area is well known for its numerous macaque monkeys, which visitors feed — sometimes involuntarily and they are quick. There are 272 concrete steps up to the caves. From here we visited Royal Selangor Pewter and then onto a viewing point of the Petronas Twin-Towers. We then did some shopping and made our way back to the hotel.

Kuala Lumpur 23rd July

Up early for another private tour. Our first official tour stop was Deerland hidden away in the countryside near Kuala Gandah. Here we were able to hand feed deer, monkeys, ostriches and mouse deer. We were privileged to meet Hitam (black) the baby sun bear and to be able to hand feed and pat him. His large father Muda, enjoyed the milk and nuts we were given to hand feed him and while he was engrossed in the consumption of food and milk we were able to rub his big bear belly. Then we went to the Kuala Gandah Elephant Sanctuary which was established in 1985 by the Department of Wildlife and National Parks and manned by the personnel of the department's Elephant Capture and Translocation Unit. The centre is geared towards the plight of the endangered and fully protected Malaysian elephants. It acts as a permanent base for the elephant capture unit, after introducing its most effective, and costly, control method for the elephant capture and translocation program in 1974. The centre also takes in orphaned and abandoned elephants and as such is also referred to as the Elephant Orphanage Sanctuary. Here we watched the elephants being groomed, fed and bathed in the river. Back to the hotel and I had the most amazing massage at the Mandara Spa.

Kuala Lumpur 24th July

Up early and ventured into the Theme Park. We walked across the suspension bridge, visited the animals at Sunway Wildlife and had some rides in the Theme Park. It was a great way to end our tour. After tea we headed for the airport to make our way back to Oz.