After my water-logged morning, I rushed home, grabbed Ryan and the suitcases and we hopped in a cab for the airport. We were taking a discount airline, which meant if we missed our flight we were SOL. But we quickly learned this no-bull airline is the way to go. Check-in was closed 45 mins before take-off, and the gates closed 10 mins before, so there were no excuses – if you missed it you paid to get on the next one.
Our adventure began with a weekend in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We had a mini-panic at the airport after the travel assistant booth informed us our hotel didn’t exist! But we soon realized this was a lost-in-translation episode, and she knew the vicinity it was in, but not the exact location. Our cab was able to find our hotel and it was smooth sailing from there.
One never knows what to expect when booking hotels online. Pictures can often be deceiving, and perhaps only the positive reviews make it onto the web. Nonetheless we really lucked out with all of our hotels. Our KL home was the Best Western Premier Seri Pacific. We figured it would be your average Best Western – clean, but nothing to write home about – however we were greatly mistaken. This hotel was beautiful!
The lobby was gorgeous, our breakfast buffets (included) were delicious, our room had an enourmous bathroom with a separate room for the tub and toilet, another room that was just a shower, and then the main room that had the sink and vanity. We had a nice view overlooking the city with rainforest covered mountains in the distance. We got a great deal on our room, and found out this was due to the construction they were doing on the floor beneath us. The concierge was quick to tell us the different lounges, pool, spa, etc, where we could escape the noise, but we weren’t planning on staying in the room much anyway. Even when we were there, we had to laugh – I heard this soft knocking noise and discovered it must be the construction he was talking about – it was nothing compared to the normal noises in our apartment in Bangkok!
We woke up early to get a full breakfast before beginning our trek through the city. We were given a tourist map and we knew where the sky train was, so we made a list of sights we wanted to see, crossed our fingers and went on our way.
We were pleased at the ease of getting around KL. Besides taxis and buses, we had a crash course on the KL monorail, Light Train Transit (two lines) and Komuter Train (subway). The trains were easy to figure out and took us to pretty much anywhere in the city.
Our first stop was the Petronas Twin Towers.
We were told to get there nice and early, because while it is free, they only allow a certain number of people up to the skybridge each day. We arrived at the doors by 9:30, but were already too late to go up.
Oh well, conveniently there was a mall next door and I needed a new pair of sunglasses having left mine . . . somewhere.
We hopped back on the train and headed for some more cultural hot spots. Our next spot was Masjid Jamek – the city’s oldest surviving mosque and the birthplace of KL.
We weren’t allowed in as it was prayer time, but we didn’t go back because I would have to borrow a headpiece in order to go in, and would not be allowed on the same floor as Ryan – separate prayer rooms for men and women.
We continued on past the mosque to find Market Square or Central Market. They had some great deals on clothes, watches, souvenirs, art, etc., but we had to be careful about our purchases – the bad thing about discount airfare is they only allow 15 kg/person and we were already pushing our limit! I did manage to buy (cheap!) a gorgeous pashmina, and it is real cashmere! I had to get something to keep me warm – they crank the air up so much everywhere. Ryan says I am the only one who can come to a country of 40 degrees and be cold!
After more wandering around, and consulting our map, we also spotted Dataran Merdeka (Merdeka Square) where the Union Jack was lowered in 1957 and a 100-metre-high flagpole flies the Malaysian flag (supposedly the tallest in the world).
Next door is the Royal Selangor Club which is now the local cricket club. We crossed the field and hopped in a cab, spotting Sultan Abdul Samad Building – the largest building of its day (1897), now housing the Supreme and High Courts, on our way to KL Tower.
KL Tower is the 4th tallest in the world (we proudly took a picture next to the plaque showing the CN Tower), and we headed up since we missed out on the view from the Patronas.
The view was pretty great, there’s nothing like looking out over a city being shadowed by gorgeous mountains. We both agreed that the view is probably better from this tower as the skybridge is not very high on the Patronas, but since we don’t know for sure we will leave that one open for debate.
Surrounding KL Tower is the “Forest in the City,” the nearby Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve. There are 10.5 hectares and a number of trails wandering through it. Ryan and I were very excited about our first rainforest adventure and forgot we had no bugspray, but it wasn’t too bad and we made it out with only a few bites!
The noise in this place was incredible. A mixture of birds, bugs, and animals all bunched together . . . we took a video so that you could hear for yourself, and if you look very closely you might see the crazy monkey that was following me . . .
Our KL tour still not complete, we hopped on the Monorail headed for Titiwangsa Lake Gardens, a large green area with a man-made lake. We found the Monorail quite humourous . . .
I’m not sure if you can read it, but the sign says “Please do not disturb driver”, no, your eyes are not fooling you, there is no driver!
We rode the Monorail to the end of the line and then made the critical error of deciding to walk, instead of hailing a cab to the park. It was stinking hot out and we had gravely miscalculated how far the walk was. Oh well, after a quick stop to refuel with some water, and a few failed attempts to hail a cab, we picked a side street that looked like it was in the right direction and lucked out.
We went up the giant ferris wheel, I believe it is called the Eye of Malaysia or something like that. Anyway, it was air conditioned and the top offered some gorgeous views of the city and the mountains (which we were much closer to now).
After our ride, we wandered through the park and noticed these massive billboards showing pictures of what was not allowed at the park. There were your standards: no fishing, no littering, etc, but then it also showed a picture of a man’s face and woman’s face that looked like they were about to rub noses. We decided this one meant “no canoodling” and later discovered that we were probably right after hearing some commercials on TV! KL has a very conservative Muslim population.
With all of the major attractions checked off the list, and both of us in need of a break and a cool drink, we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and head out again for dinner. We wandered around a bit trying to find a restaurant that wasn’t attached to a hotel, and found a Jazz Bar/Restaurant that looked pretty interesting. The décor was a little . . . art deco? But they had good food and the band kept us entertained. Unfortunately for us, they weren’t serving dinner upstairs (where the band was), but we could hear all the commotion, people were really enjoying themselves.
After dessert (a very disappointing apple pie, KL does not know how to do dessert!) we wandered up the stairs to see what all the noise was about. Sadly, we only got to hear two more songs before the band finished up for the night (it was only 8ish so we weren’t sure what that was about!) We did get to hear some ‘great’ covers of Western music from the 80s though! After a quick stop in the men/ladies room, yes it was a unisex public bathroom, we wandered around some shops and markets before calling it a night.
Day 2 would prove to be a whirlwind adventure on the outskirts of KL, but also some of our most memorable moments of our holiday. We booked a cabbie for the day, Aziz, who was very knowledgeable and told us about the buildings and landmarks as we drove by. First we headed out to the rainforest for a canopy walk 30m above the ground. Of course to get to the canopy we had to hike half an hour up a mountain, but it was totally worth it.
The rainforest is incredible. The leaves are giant and everything is so green. We could hear birds, insects, and the odd animal, but never got to see anything more than a few butterflies and a very odd grasshopper-like bug (it was massive!) The canopy was really neat, neither of us had done anything like this before, and it was basically a ladder covered with plywood and surrounded by netting, held up by wires.
I think if you were afraid of heights you would be a little weary, especially when you got right out there, it was pretty jumpy and shaky, but we were all right. I even had to help fix it at one point in time!
One of the pieces of plywood had come loose, and then some guy tried to jump the hole and made it 10 times worse. The lady in front of me looked kinda nervous, so I walked out and daringly made the necessary adjustments!
After we finished the walk we continued down the path past the waterfall and the fork in the road. We consulted our map and decided that right was definitely the way to go (we wanted to hurry up as we had our cabbie by the hour and wanted to make it to our next stop with plenty of time). We hurried on our way, but then discovered we had taken a wrong turn! We turned around and found our way back to the waterfall and crossroads and took the other one to find our way out.
After a brisk jog (had to squeeze our workout in!) we came across a woman holding a monkey. She looked a bit concerned and asked us what that noise was. We listened and could hear a strange noise coming from the tops of the trees. The woman asked us if we thought that was monkeys, apparently wild monkeys don’t get along with pet ones, and the little guy was looking a wee bit skiddish. We both figured since she was the one holding a monkey that perhaps she would be more in the know than us about monkey noises, but we politely replied we weren’t sure and asked to take a picture. To our surprise she let us pet the monkey and take its picture for free! Both of us were sure she would ask us for at least 500Baht, that’s what would happen in Bangkok! We followed the trail the rest of the way and found our driver chatting with the other drivers waiting for our return. Off we went down the road for our next adventure.
We were pretty amazed when we pulled up to the Batu Caves, it is pretty mind-blowing to see how big this thing really is:
The caves are a limestone formation is the home to an ancient Hindu temple, the gold statue is a massive Hindu goddess, but I don’t remember which one.
The staircase was pretty steep, and we (of course) decided to run up all 272 steps with only a few short stops to take some quick picks of the monkeys playing along the sides. Our cabbie later told us he watched us run up, but next time we have to do it with no stops!
The top of the steps is an enourmous entrance to a massive structure housing various paintings and figures in the nooks and crannies of the cave walls. Directly across from the entrance is more steps which bring you out to an area covered with monkeys!
It was pretty neat to be that close to that many monkeys, but we were smart enough to keep a respectful distance. One tourist tried to get close to one to get a super-close-up pic, but the monkey didn’t like that very much and jumped at him. (Apparently someone needs to learn about the zoom feature!) The tourist, of course didn’t plan his escape route very well, and was trapped on the staircase, almost falling backwards! Luckily the monkey didn’t attack any further because the man would have been at a big disadvantage. Back down the steps we went and headed for the hotel. We couldn’t believe that we saw all that we did that day and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet!
We found out later that the Amazing Race All Stars made the same trip we did (through KL and to the caves), so if you were watching, we were there - I think they must be following us!!
Back at the hotel Ryan ordered a traditional Malay dish called Hinnan Chicken, I wanted to save the traditional food for dinner and ordered a Club Sandwich. We got our meals and discovered we had enough food for 4 people! This was the largest club sandwich I had ever seen (and also the yummiest)! Ryan’s chicken was quite tasty and he helped me polish off my sandwich, so feeling a bit replenished we headed up for some much needed relaxation by the pool.
After a rest we needed to waste some time before dinner so we headed across the street to The Mall. This is literally what it was called! There were a number of shops selling fairly cheap goods. Ryan picked up a new shirt, and I was looking for some new pants for school. I was happy to discover I could actually fit in the pants here (if you are not a size 0 it is very difficult to buy pants over here!) but they were uber-low cut (western bodies and eastern bodies are just not made the same), so they were not the sitting kind of pants and definitely not appropriate for school! I put them back on the rack and we headed back to the Hotel for dinner.
We decided on more traditional fare for dinner, Ryan ordering this Oxtail stew-like dish, it was tasty, but spicy. I ordered what I thought was a beef dish, but it turned out to be a plate featuring beef, chicken and fish, along with rice and veggies. It was tasty, but next time I’ll stick with the Club!
It was our last night in KL, and we decided to enjoy it listening to the merry renditions of Western classics in our lobby bar (we had discovered that not only was the wine good here, but it was also reasonably priced, I was so excited!!) Of course in the morning we discovered that it was not the best idea to partake in the long-lost entrances of red wine when one has an early flight the next morning, but we survived just fine!
KL was definitely one of my favourite trips. The city is beautiful, there are so many interesting buildings and landmarks there. Everything seemed so clean and orderly, of course it helped that there were not 11 million people living there! The only downside to KL is that I did not matter. While the people were generally nice and friendly, they would much rather deal with Ryan than myself. At our hotel it was usually ok, but outside people generally ignored me and would only speak to Ryan. Even our cab driver asked Ryan his name, but didn’t ask me! There were other times too, that I would inquire about something and someone would begin to answer, but as soon as Ryan interjected I was ignored for the rest of the conversation. It is very interesting to witness first hand how other cultures and religions live, but it didn’t put me off Malaysia. I definitely want to go back and see more of that beautiful country.
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