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Published: March 2nd 2012
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KUALA LUMPUR, PETRONAS AND KL TOWERS & CHINA TOWN - KUALA LUMPUR, WILAYAH PERSEKUTUAN, MALAYSIA. Tuesday 28 February 2010.
We drove back down the Route 59 back through the rainforest to the motorway and on to KL. On the way we stopped at the Lata Iskander Falls for a closer look. (We simply drove through on the way up). It was really nice as there was nobody else there and we had the whole place to ourselves. We took some pictures and strolled around in the sunshine before continuing on our way. On the way we passed many more Malaysian Mountain Hounds strollling around in the road. M would have brought them all home if she could.
We arrived at Kuala Lumpur at 3.00 pm and followed the directions taken from Booking.com to our hotel. This was difficult enough with the rubbish map but when we parked on the dot according to our instructions the hotel was nowhere to be seen. We made a call and were told we were 15 minutes walk away. Having found a parking spot we were reluctant to rejoin the KL traffic chaos until we knew exactly where we were going. So D left
M in the car and went to find the hotel on foot. When he returned we were able to drive straight there.
We were very short of time to see the sights of KL, having only what was left of today and an hour or so at most tomorrow morning. We decided to go and visit the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower. We went to the nearest tube stop and got a token to take us to the Petronas Twin Towers. They have quite a clever system here where you buy a token (different colours represent different zones) and then rub it face down on an electronic pad to gain access to the platform. When you alight at your stop and exit the station you 'post' your used token in a slot in order to operate the gates. The tokens can now be collected and used again - very green - no paper at all.
We arrived at the Petronas Towers and found that the only time we could go up to the Skybridge (the bridge that joins the two towers) was at 5.00 pm tomorrow afternoon. Unfortunately, all being well, we should be on a train
to Singapore by then! We contented ourselves with strolling around the outside and taking a few photographs. The Petronas Towers are the tallest twin tower structures in the world (taller even than the former World Trade Centre in NY) , and until recently were the tallest structure in the world; only being supassed in 2004 by the Taipei 101 Tower in Taiwan. The Petronas towers are 452 metres tall. There are 88 floors and the outside facade is designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic architecture. The Skybridge is at the 41st and 42 level. This bridge is currently the highest 2-storey bridge in the world.
After taking our photos of the twin towers we decided we would check out the Kuala Lumpur Tower. On the way we found an Italian eatery doing special offers, on Tuesdays only, of a third off a bottle of wine. We hadn't had any wine (apart from a small glass at the Smokehouse Inn) since we left the UK so settled down to take advantage of this special offer. It only cost £20! We made use of the facilities there and encountered a rather strange sign in the WC. 'No Squatting on Toilet
Seat' with a graphic picture- who would ever use a toilet like that?
Feeling fairly refreshed we continued on foot to the bottom of the Kuala Lumpur Tower where we caught the shuttle bus up the hill. The Kuala Lumpur tower (KL Tower for short) was started in 1991 and completed in 1995. It is primarily a communication tower and the roof of the pod is 335 metres (1099 ft) high. There is an antenna on top which brings the height up to 421 metres (1381 ft). It is possible to go up higher in the KL Tower than it is to the Skybridge in the Petromas Towers, so we had better views. We had timed it perfectly. We arrived in the daylight, paid for our tickets, took the lift and collected our audio guides. The audio guides took you through 12 'Gates' and gave detailed descriptions of what you could see plus plenty of interesting background information. We had timed it perfectly because we were there for dusk when KL starts to light up for the evening. We were, therefore, able to take some good shots of KL at night. M purchased the mandatory T-shirt from one of
the stalls on the tower viewing platform.
After the KL Tower we walked into China Town and the market. It was very vibrant and colourful. We then went to eat. We decided to go for Indian this time as we have eaten a lot of Chinese food since we have been here. We found a place in China Town. There were plenty of people in there so we gave it a go. M had a chicken curry with Naan Bread and D a Lamb with the same. D's was revolting and inedible. M's was OK though. When D complained the waiter came over clutching a pair of huge scisssors (of dubious cleanliness) and chopped D's meat into even smaller pieces of inedibleness. So they shared M's. We settled up (about £3.00 each for dinner). We then watched some dancing in the streets before returning to the hotel for a well earned rest and a nightcap consisting of the last two bottles of our emergency supply of beer that we had taken to the Cameron Highlands.
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Captian Crunch
non-member comment
Squatting
Some fellas are so used to squatting that they swat on seat toilets. You gotta see sit to believe bit, but how? That's the million ringgit question. :)