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Published: March 3rd 2017
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We've been to KL a few times before so a couple of nights stop over on our way to Brunei left us looking for something a little bit different to do. It began with a busy arrivals hall at KLIA2, the second terminal at the International Airport which is dominated by the operations of Air Asia. Of course the terminal had been in the news very recently after the assassination of the half-brother of the leader of North Korea. We hadn't even considered the possibility of any lingering nerve agent and so we passed happily through. It was nearly two weeks later that the authorities conformed the terminal was toxin free!
KLIA Express is a high speed train connecting the airport to the city centre in just 28 minutes. Add on 5 minutes for terminal 2 and it's still an impressive and very comfortable 160kph ride. The train ends is journey at KL Sentral and we stayed nearby at the Sentral Hotel. It was excellent value but not quite as easy to find as we had expected. Having another hotel called De Sentral didn't help at all! There were some cheaper options around but we really thought it was worth
paying the extra, and the price difference was almost nothing. The hotel is located in the Brickfields area of the city. Nearby are a lot of cheap restaurants. We chose from one of several Indians and were not disappointed.
The next day we walked along the riverside path the the Central Market. The pathway seemed to be along a rather "edgy" route and we came across a character or two that made us quicken our pace and wonder if we should have taken public transport instead! That was probably an overreaction but we were pleased to cross over the river to the market in the end. The whole area seems to have been given a face-lift since our last visit. The market seems to be over sanitised with lots of high end souvenirs on offer. Nearby Chinatown no doubt has more character nowadays.
From there we eventually found our way to the KL Eco Park. The entrance we arrived at was closed but the pedestrian gate was open sp we went in anyway! It was a steep uphill climb to begin with and soon we were immersed in a forest in the middle of the city. Only the
sounds of the nearby constriction work gave the game away, otherwise we could have been in the middle of the jungle. The key attraction of the Eco Park is the canopy walkway. A series of elevated paths allow you to walk around the tree tops. It's not difficult and you rarely feel that you are at any height. The best thing? It's totally free! We didn't see much in the way of birds though, despite the cacophony in the trees.
At the top of the park stands the impressive KL Tower. We'd have loved to have gone to the viewing platform near the top but it would have cost about £20 each so we gave it a miss. Instead we made our way to the Bukit Bintang monorail station. On the way we walked through "Arabic Town" with lots of fantastic looking restaurants. What a shame we weren't hungry! We also called in to a Japanese department store, Isetan. If Japanese modern culture and design is your thing, don't miss out on this visual feast of consumerism! The monorail then deposited us back at Sentral.
The next morning we caught the express train back to the airport and
were on our way to Brunei. When we returned for our flight back to Europe, we stayed with friends just outside the city. That gave us the chance to have a look at the IOI shopping mall, the biggest in South East Asia. Shopping isn't really our thing and we were a little overwhelmed by the size of this retail behemoth! A trip to the cinema for £2.50 and an almost private viewing of a film (there were two others!) was a welcome bonus.
We love KL and there's no doubt that we'll be back in the city again in the future.
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Kate
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Jungle
We loved that jungle around the KL tower. Interesting to see it now has a canopy walkway. Did you see monkeys?