Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

November 22^nd – November 27^th 2011

We got up early and proceeded to the office where we would be getting our coach to take us from the Cameron Highlands to Kuala Lumpur. Once on the coach we were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was. We settled in for the journey,  once we got to the bus station in Kuala Lumpur we realised we didn’t have a clue where we were in relation to the city or where our hostel was that we had booked online.We approached some taxi drivers but the amounts they were quoting seemed far too much so we walked around for a bit before finding a more reasonably priced taxi. I jumped in the back and Craig jumped in front. I quickly noticed that there were cockroaches in the taxi, climbing on to my rucksack and walking on the chairs and ceiling. I spent the entire journey watching and waiting for one to fall in my hair but luckily none did. Once at our hostel which even the taxi driver had trouble finding I jumped out and dusted myself down, paranoid that they were all over me!

 Once we settled in to our hostel we went out in search of food. We got lost in the market next door which had aisle upon aisle of fruit, vegetables, meat and fish as well as the usual clothes and ‘tat’.  The market was buzzing and busy with locals but I couldn’t help but feel like we were being stared at.

Colourful fruit stall

 It was our first full day in Kuala Lumpur, a brand new city to explore. After breakfast we caught the bus to the famous Petronus Towers.  We stood and admired the towers which were a true sight to behold. The building shimmered in the light and the towers spiralled high into the sky where the mist concealed the tips. After the obligatory photo stop we went inside and had a look in windows of Gucci, Versace and Tiffany. It’s safe to say that these shops are well out of our price range! Instead of shopping we decided to go to Petrosains Science Museum which is housed of one of the towers floors. After an interesting ride to get into the museum we made our way through each exhibit which were all well laid out and factual. Of course we had a go at pretty much all the interactive aspects of the museum which was good fun. 

Petronus Towers

We finished the museum just in time for a showing of Tin Tin at the cinema so we quickly bought tickets and lots of snacks and sat down to enjoy the film. Afterwards we made our way back to Hostel Cosmopolitan and had dinner at the Indian next door. For under £11 we went to a good museum, went to the cinema and had various snacks as well as popcorn and drinks and paid for dinner and our public transport around the city. It’s really satisfying having a fun and busy day and still come in under budget. 

We woke up early the next day and ventured on the monorail to the KL Central train station, one annoyance with Kuala Lumpur is that the different public transport systems don’t link up very well so we caught the monorail then got lost walking to the train station as signage is also terrible! Eventually we managed to book our train ticket to Singapore. After another battle with public transport we got to the Islamic Arts Museum which was very informative and housed a beautiful collection of Islamic artefacts. The Islamic writings with gold embellishments were exquisite and very inspirational too. The museum was also housing a temporary exhibition about the Indian people that went to Australia and helped set up the modern country as we know it today and their work with the camels. It was great learning about the stories of individual people that helped build Australia but are unfortunately forgotten about today. After the museum we walked to the Botanical Gardens and found some deer in an enclosure. We watched them until the sun became too hot so we walked into the shade of the gardens. We wandered around aimlessly enjoying the flowers and the warmth of the sun and cooled down with an ice lolly before the heavens decided to shower us with rain. It only lasted a few minutes but we started to head back anyway. 

Sign on our walk to the gardens

We decided to go to Batu Caves today under the recommendation of the hostel’s receptionist. We caught the bus there and Craig had sense to ask where the bus would pick up from and it was lucky he did as it wasn’t signposted and we never would have found it ourselves. We walked to the base of the steps and looked up; there were lots to climb in order to get to the caves! We started making our ascent and paused to watch the dozens of monkeys frolicking about pouncing on people’s shoulders if there was any sign of food.  Eventually we made it to the top and were rewarded with stunning views over the city and surrounding suburbs. We ventured into the vast cave and found a few shrines decorated with flower garlands. Unfortunately the monkeys seemed to have developed a taste for the flowers and began stealing them to eat whenever a garland was laid down. We took some photographs of the naughty monkeys, one of which was eating an ice lolly! We also noticed a snake which was climbing up the steep cave wall. Once we had seen all there was to be seen in the cave we ventured back down the steps and bought a coconut to try the coconut water, it wasn’t what we imagined as it was warm and tasted a bit off so we drank what we could and threw the rest away. 

Monkey in Batu Caves

Monkey enjoying an ice lolly

We waved goodbye to the giant golden statue that stands at the foot of the steps and caught the bus back into the city. We went to the Menara Tower and paid to go to the top observation deck. The views were absolutely breathtaking. We could see for absolute miles and could even see the golden statue outside the Batu Caves by telescope. Included in the price was admission to the animal zone. We went in but weren’t impressed with the enclosures that the animals were given which were small and cramped. There was an albino monkey, rabbits, snakes and spiders as well as a two headed turtle. 

Views from the top of the Menara Tower

On our last day in KL we took it easy and went souvenir shopping at Central Market. I managed to get some presents for my cousins Lily and Chase and sent them home in a parcel straight away. As we walked back to our hostel under a moody sky we could smell the distinct scent of durians wafting through the air from a market stall. 

Petronus Towers glowing at night