Our next stop in Malaysia was the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. It is a very big but ultra-modern city with a really good "vibe" to it. Even here we have really noticed how incredibly friendly and polite the Malaysian people are. On our first afternoon we took the monorail downtown and checked out a huge electronics market (mall). Lack of money, great deals, or any real need helped in our decision to not purchase anything. Then we walked to the park that surrounds the Petronas twin towers. As far as modern buildings go, they are one of the most "beautiful" and amazing I have ever seen. As the tallest twin towers in the world, with a mind boggling 88 floors and a double decker skybridge on the 41st floor connecting the two towers, they are also pretty spectacular from an engineering standpoint. We wandered around and took some pictures and checked out the mall while we waited for it to get dark, as once it does, they light them up and you get to see a whole different, if not more interesting, view of them.
The next morning we got up early and caught the LRT back to the towers to get in line to buy our tickets to go up. We waited in line for about an hour and a half and managed to get tickets (they only sell 1700 per day) to go to the skybridge and observation deck (on the 86 floor). We had some breakfast and then went to the KL Merana tower and went to the top of it. This is a communication tower (similar to but smaller than the CN tower) with a 360 degree view of the city and a rotating restaurant. Surrounding the tower is a huge area with the world's only urban rainforest, which was pretty cool. We walked to the Independence Square to see the world's tallest flagpole (100m), went to the central market and then headed back to the hotel to relax for a bit. That evening we headed back to the towers. The skybridge had some great views, but the 86th floor (370m above the ground) was awesome! It was raining while we were up there so we got some really interesting pictures. After that we walked back through the mall and found a little piece of home, so we went for supper there; Chilli's. It was a little pricier than we have gotten used to, but still cheaper than home and was a nice change.
The next day we caught a bus to the newly recognized UNESCO world heritage city of Melaka. It is a cute little costal city with Dutch, Portuguese, and British influences. We went to the maritime museum that looks at the history of the city as a major shipping port for the spice trade. That evening we went out for a really good Melakan Portuguese meal. We got up early the following morning to try and beat the heat and do the heritage walk. We saw some churches, the old fort, and a museum, by which point we were all cultured out...so we went to the mall, ate A&W, and watched 2 movies (The Mechanic & No Strings Attached). I think after nearly 7 weeks in SE Asia, we are ready for a change. We now have almost 2 days in Singapore before jetting to Abu Dhabi to spend a week visiting with Erin! Yay...looking forward to it.