Day 58 Kuala Lumpur

Today we docked in Port Klang, which is an hour's drive from the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, aka KL. Our P & O Cruise guide suggested the taxi would be around US$130 return trip but in reality it was just US$80 and the driver stayed with us all day and gave us a history of ..... our own country! He knew all about the royal family going way back to Henry VII and then he told us about Nelson and why a royal naval ship has to be saluted! I told him that HMS Victory (Nelson's ship) was docked very close to us at home and he was very impressed! His name was Mohammed and spoke excellent English. We went to the Petronas Towers, once the tallest towers in the world, two shopping malls one of which had an amazing water park in the grounds and the Royal Palace. Now for a history lesson of my own! KL was first discovered by the Portuguese in the early 1500s, the Dutch overthrew them in 1641, then the British became the dominant power in the early 19th century with bases in Singapore and Penang (our next stop). KL was captured by the Japanese in 1942 (as was Singapore) and became independent from Britain in 1957. Malaysia is the world's leading producer of rubber, tin and palm oil. In 2004 more than 15.7million tourists visited Malaysia, most Europeans who visit are British. There's a cricket club (as there is in Singapore) and the shopping malls are amazing.