Kuala Lumpur - Mall-Asia

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26th November 2010

Our first full day in Kuala Lumpur, so we got up and headed, as I’m sure many tourists do, for the Petronas twin towers. Having been the night before and the “we are full” sign not being displayed but tucked behind another sign we had decided we wouldn’t rush but instead go when we got up. We also had to post yet more stuff home (it seems a never ending task - yet we don’t seem to have anything less?). We got to the mall under the towers and located the post office, which wasn’t hard. The friendly guard armed with a pump action shotgun pointed us to the counter for parcels, we queued and when we were seen we were told that they don’t have packaging materials. (Surely fairly fundamental for a post office?) We asked where to get some and were given directions to a card shop, so off we headed. We arrived and asked, but the only boxes they sold were flimsy, glitzy numbers to put presents in. So we moved on, trying yet again to find somewhere that might sell us a small box. Nobody would even give one away from old packaging from their merchandise! We had to ask at the information desk for somewhere that may sell a box - they pointed us to another shop, and off we headed. This place didn’t sell anything that we wanted either - I was getting a bit annoyed by now, so we settled on a very large jiffy style bag, and went to get some brunch while we packed up our items (maybe being hungry was the reason for my dissatisfaction with the whole situation?)

A quick brunch in the obligatory mall food court (which unlike the UK has some decent food!) and we went back too the PO to sort the parcel.

This (supposedly) simple task achieved we went to get tickets to the towers’ sky bridge. Except that by now the limited number of tickets for the day had sold out. “Oh well we’ll come early tomorrow” was the comment, and so we decided to get in the LRT (read underground) and go to Chinatown.

We got off the LRT and headed into Chinatown armed with the free map from the hostel, which had a walking tour on it for the area. We started, as you do, at the end and were going to work our way back to the start, but after about a street we both decided that the buildings and general area weren’t doing anything for either of us, and abandoned the idea as a bad one.

Instead we headed across the river which was at this point only a street away and into “little India”, another walking tour on the map. From before we even crossed the bridge the sights in the distance were significantly more impressive. We entered the area and crossed to Merdeka Square, and I have to say standing under the huge free standing flagpole (one of the biggest in the world) in every direction the view was impressive. The government offices, the Royal Selangor Club and the textile museum are all beautiful buildings.

From here we decided to head onwards to the Lake Gardens, the third of the “big three” walks in KL. So we headed in the direction our map told us, under a flyover and up a road that was becoming more lined by green with every step. After a short distance I spotted something on the opposite side of the road that intrigued me - what looked like a giant bouncy castle! Acting the child that clearly lives inside me at times, I nagged Lou until we could cross over and see what it was all about.

When she finally gave in, we were to be greated with a very strange sight - what we later discovered was the Paintball World Cup Asia 2010! Teams of paintballers from all over the globe competing in small football sized pitches, filled with blow up obstacles, to (I presume) hit all the other team before they got hit themselves. We stopped and watched a game/bout/match with interest, but complete bafflement as to what was going on, who was winning what the rules actually were or anything else!

We moved on fairly swiftly in what we thought was the right direction, but by now Lou was tiring and not being overly impressed with the paintball tournament wasn’t happy to be heading towards the enclave where all the people with the body armour were.

We made an about turn and continued in the direction of the Lake Gardens although we had by now realised that our “map” had a somewhat interpretive style when it came to distances. On arrival at the gardesn we needed to sit and chill for a bit as we had been on our feet for a while now, so strolled to the lake and sat on a bench for a while watching the world go by. The gardens are beautiful but unless our “map” was so bad that loads of stuff was on there that no longer existed we missed nearly all of the “attractions” that they are meant to contain. We did however enjoy the tranquillity of the place and both agreed that such a big green space so close to everything else in the city was lovely.

We continued our walk and headed in the direction of KL Sentral station (yes that is how it is spelt - a lot of Malaysian seems to be English but spelt phonetically) This was easier said than done as despite being right by a big attraction like the park there was no easy way to get there. Thus we ended up walking along a 15cm wide siding on a road that was part of a very complicated junction populated by cars speeding past at a fair pace! Not fun, but these things happen and we weren’t alone in doing this trip either, and we are still in one piece, no harm done.

On arrival at the station we decided we still had enough gas in the tank to go and visit another mall - the Midvally Megamall. Described in the guidebook, as far as I remembered, as being the biggest of the lot! We got on the Kommuter train (that is the line’s name) and travelled the solitary stop to reach our destination. We alighted from the train and followed the signs - immediately thinking that this wasn’t going to impress in the way we had expected.

As we walked into the mall in was apparent that it was a good few years older than those in the city centre. We took a breif tour and had a drink but it isn’t worth writing much more about -if you are visiting KL stick with those in town they are far better.

Back in the train to return home, and after the one stop we got out to connect to the monorail. Again what you would think would be simple doesn’t seem to be as the directions were non-existent and the stations are not even connected. A 5 minute walk following other people in what was the rough direction got us where we needed to be and then we boarded and returned almost to our front door.

We relaxed in our room for a short while before heading out to a restaurant just round the corner to have dinner, a pleasant but not excellent affair which consisted of a meze selection of middle eastern/morrocan dishes.

After dinner Lou headed back to the room whilst I headed in the opposite direction to the Pavilion Mall to look for something, and I only mention this because as I walked into the mall the Christmas scene in the lobby area was not only lit up but was complete with snow. When I got back and reported this to Lou she was most disappointed that she had missed it, as well as the snow in the UK. I dunno you can’t please some can you 😉

27th November 2010

Having missed ou on the towers yesterday we awoke early and after a quick shower set out to get ot the ticket office before it’s 8:30 am opening time. We managed this with 15 minutes to spare and when we descended the escalator to the ticket booth area, we realised so had many many others.

So many others in fact that despite the ticket office not yet being open the queue was sufficiently long that the “we have sold all our tickets for the day” sign was up and they were preventing others joining the queue.

We walked back through the park that adjoins the towers, through the early morning joggers running around the track. A proper orange track that was slightly spongy, not just the hard path that we would be forced to make do with. A very pleasant space, complete with a small lake and some sculpture, again we commented on the quality layout to this city.

We returned to the hostel for breakfast and Lou got stuck into her book. So after a while I headed out to have a look at a couple of items in the malls ( recurring theme you may have noticed) and in the process bought a new pair of flip flops as the ones I purchased in Saigon have no tred left and are a touch dangerous in the rain. I returned to plague Lou into coming out for some lunch, and so we returned to the food court of the mall whence I had just come. Lunched and then returned to the shop whence I had come as Lou also wanted a new pair of flip flops/shoes. I might add there is nothing wrong with hers but she is a girl and I bought something so she had to (I think that is how it works????)

After this we then headed to the cinema as we had nothing really planned for the rest of the day. We watched a film called “ The Social Network” about the founder of Facebook, which I enjoyed despite being on the front row and having to look up at the screen. Lou didn’t enjoy it as much as me, but despite the fact the tickets were double the price they were in Penang, they were still very cheap compared to home.

Back to the hostel and a rare beer, whilst reading, listening to some music, and writing followed by an early night, in preparation for our onward travels tomorrow.

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