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Published: March 2nd 2012
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KUALA LUMPUR COLONIAL QUARTER & TRAIN TO SINGAPORE. Wednesday 29 February, 2012.
D awoke early and went to fill the car up with petrol before the Europecar guy came to collect it at 10.30 am. We then showered and went down to the restaurant for breakfast. The first breakfast we have had included in the price - we have been having Tesco Value Butter Cookies for breakfast up until then. D ate like a horse. M had her FIRST cup of tea since leaving England last Tuesday! The Europecar guy arrived on the nose at 10.30. All was well except that D got landed with a £20 extra charge for AGE INSURANCE because he is over 65. Cheek - you normally get things cheaper if you are old!!
We now had just 1 hour and a quarter to do the rest of KL - and we gave it a good stab. First we walked down to the river. Kuala Lumpur means "Muddy Confluence" in Bahasa. We took a picture of the confluence of the Rivers Klang and Gambok, since this is how KL got its name.
Next we went to take a look at the Masjid Jamek (The
Jamek Mosque) which was the first brick mosque built in the city. It was constructed on the first Malay Burial Ground in KL. We then walked on to the clock tower - which was nothing to write home about (a bit pathetic really) - makes the clock tower that houses Big Ben look spectacular!
Then we walked on to Merdeka Square (Dataran Merdeka in Bahasa). This is the place where Malaya's Independence was proclaimed on 31 August 1957. The country is now known as Malaysia. Around Merdeka Square there are various buildings including the KL City Library, The Malaysian Institure of Architects, The City Theatre, The National Textile Museum and The Magistrates Court, amongst others.
Of more interest is the Flag Pole, which at 100 metres tall is one of the tallest in the world. The Malayan Flag was hoisted on this pole in August 1957. The other buildings of interest are: the Royal Selangor Club and Cricket Ground, the Cathedral of St Mary, which was the first brick church in the Federated Malay States, and the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, which now houses the Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture. This is the first example of Moghul
architecture in Malaysia and features elegant symmetrical brick architecture, a 41 metre high clock tower (much better than the official one), and arched colonades and cooper domes. Even the lamp posts around Merdeka Square were elaborately decorated with cast iron floral designs.
We then walked back to the hotel to prepare for our departure at noon. We both took another shower, packed and checked out of the hotel. As our train was not until 2.14 we waited in the cool of the lobby before calling a teksi (yes spelled correctly) to take us to the Sentral Station (spelled correctly again!). This was a nightmare. We already had our tickets but there was no information at all on where to catch the tren (again correct spelling), which pletform (correct again) or anything. After much stress and moving up and down on different levels (the station has 4 floors) we eventully found where we needed to be. We were not the only ones who were struggling - in fact we were asked by several other white faces whether we were waiting fo the train to Singapore and was this the right place. All we could say was "we hope so"!
Eventually the train arrived and we took our pre-booked seats in 1st Class. This was like taking a trip back in time. The carriage must have been at least 20 years old. It was very smelly and cold (AC on too high). Harry Potter was playing on a TV at one end of the carriage - you needed a telescope to see it from our seats (good job we didn't want to watch it). After we had been travelling for some 20 minutes D remarked on how often people were coming down our carriage (the last one of the train) to go to the very end. It was a constant stream and driving us mad with the slide slide of the doors. The toilet was at the back of the carriage, and, given the number of users (one bloke went 4 times in the first hour!) we decided we would try to hold on until Singapore! Turns out all these people were going to the 1st class loo to have a fag and not to squat on the toilet seat after all!
The train rattled on through the secondary jungle and several towns. We cleared Malaysian immigration without too
much of a problem (except we had no white landing cards which caused the immigration guy to huff and puff a bit - he eventually scribbled something in red pen in our passsports and continued on his way). We then proceeded to Singapore acrosss the causeway that joins the two countries. We cleared immigration on the other side very easily and were given some white landing cards this time (even though we hadn't landed from anywhere!).
Outside there were no cashpoints for us to get hold of any local currency. We were miles away from anywhere. Luckily an American guy, who had been one of the white faces who wanted to check we were in the right place in KL, offered us a lift in his cab to the station that serves the airport. This was fantastic as here we got some local lolly and were able to get a tube to our hotel. We checked in and then went and ate in a restaurant next to the river. We had spare rib sandwiches in Chinese Bread and a Tiger of course!
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