Kuala Lumpur

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July 17th 2007

Published: August 9th 2007

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Daniel and Lucy

Petronas Towers

oooohh. ahhhhh. whooooo. And other gasps of awe!

Hi all. Just a quick word here from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

We left Koh Phangan early Sunday morning, hoping to arrive here the following morning on an overnight bus. However, we experienced our first transport disaster when we missed our connecting bus (Dont ask!) from the Thai border. As there were no other buses leaving that day, we had to spend a night at the nondescript Border town of HatYai. Next morning we woke bright and early and caught the Bus to Kuala Lumpur; arrived at around 8pm.

After grabbing some dinner, we spent the first night around the famous Petronas Twin Towers. Apparently, these were the worlds highest skyscrapers until about 3 years ago (Think Tapei took the mantle) and they are massive. At night both towers are illuminated by thousands of lights, making for a great photo opportunity. We were pretty tired so headed to bed early(ish).

Next day we had the task of fitting 2 days worth of sights into 1 day. Grabbed a Taxi in the morning and the driver turned out to be really great, so we decided to use him as our guide for the entire day. He took us to several

Merdeka Square

Looked like an English cricket field. Except with sunshine!!

temples, mosques and most of the well known tourist spots.

I suppose the comedy highlight was at the National Mosque, where we had to don robes, and Lucy a headscarf, to get in!! Lucy looked like some kind of Russian washer woman and I looked like an extra from "One flew over the Cuckoo's nest"!

The "wow factor" highlight was the Batu Caves. These are huge natural caverns that eat into the mountains just outside the city. To walk to the caves you have to negotiate 272 steps and dozens of little monkeys. I started feeding the monkies with my crisps, which predictably ended badly!! While I was giving a Japanese girl some crisps to feed them, one of the little buggers nicked the whole packet and ran off up the stairs. The poor Japanese girl was so upset and apologetic; her boyfriend, however, was busy taking 1 million photos of the incident!! The Caves themselves are really impressive and worth the annoying walk.

Spent this evening exploring Chinatown and taking in the phenomenal view from the scarily high Kuala Lumpur communications tower (421 metres). Wanted to have dinner at the revolving restaurant at the top, but

Thean Hou Temple

Gotta hadn it to the chinese, they sure know their temples.

we weren't considered "important" enough to have a table!! So decided to eat at a roadside restaurant in Chinatown; was really good so didn't mind missing the tower meal.

Kuala Lumpur is modern, crisp and clean with an "old-world" twist thrown in. In just a couple of days, I think we've experienced a sample of almost every religion and culture you can think of. This makes for a unique and facinating culture all of its own! There's loads more of Kuala Lumpur we didn't get to see, but what we encountered was a really great city. Would have loved to stay longer, but we have a pressing engagement with the Orangutans of Borneo!! An uncontrollably excited Lucy will be updating you on those little chappies in the next installment.

So, till then, goodbye
Dan and Lucy

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