Kuala Lumpur in a day!

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This was to be our last full day in Asia and this was the first day we had no plans! We didn't have a guide book for Kuala Lumpur but had heard about the Batu caves so we decided that we might like to go and have a look at these.
At breakfast we chatted to a few people who gave us some other ideas of things we might like to do. Darren, one of those people, let us borrow his Lonely Planet and suggested that the Lake Gardens and Bird Park might be a better idea than the Batu Caves. After chatting to Darren, we decided to take his advice, we said our goodbyes and went back to our room to get ready for the day ahead. Just as we were about to leave the B&B the receptionist told us that Darren wanted to see us. We waited for him and he had chatted with his travelling companion, Diane, and they wanted to show us the park in KL. That was a lovely suggestion and we took up their offer, especially since Darren had a guide book and had been to KL many times.
First stop was to get a picnic consisting of a drink and a nasi lemak (rice, dried fish, egg, cucumber, nuts and chilli sauce all wrapped in a banana leaf). This was the food of the locals, bought at a hawker stall around the corner from our B & B and at a cost of 20p, a bargain! We then took the train to Masjid Jamek LRT station, visible from the station was the Jamek Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Kuala Lumpur.
From the station we took a short walk to Merdeka Square also known as Independence Square. It was here the Union Flag was lowered and the Malaysian flag hoisted for the first time at midnight on August 31, 1957. Independence Square, was formerly known as the Selangor Club Padang or simply the "Padang" and was originally the cricket green of the Selangor Club. The Royal Selangor Club's Tudor-style building, originally built in 1890, remains a place to watch a game of cricket on a Sunday afternoon. Surrounding the square are many buildings of historical interest including the Royal Selangor Club Complex, the moghul-styled Sultan Abdul Samad Building, the National History Museum (formerly the Chartered Bank Building) and the Memorial Library, a building dating back to 1909, St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral, a Gothic style building which is more than a hundred years old, the original Kuala Lumpur Railway Station (next to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building), the 102-year old Sanitary Board fountain and the impressive modern Dayabumi Complex. This building is in stark contrast to the Moghul-styled Sultan Abdul Samad Building across the square. After taking many photo's of this area it was time to move on towards The Perdana Lake Gardens.
The weather was extremely hot today and we were all loooking forward to getting to the park and under some trees to shelter from the blazing sun. The Perdana Lake Gardens, a 230-acre manicured garden near the Malaysian Parliament building, was once home to a British colonial official. The park includes a Butterfly Park, Deer Park, Orchid Garden, Hibiscus Garden and the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. In the park is the National Monument, a sculpture that commemorates those who died in Malaysia's struggle for freedom, principally against the Japanese occupation during World War II. We ate our picnic, in a treehouse, near the lake and then decided to make our way up many stairs to the Bird Park.
Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, the biggest free-flight aviary in the world, opened in 1991. It houses more than 5000 birds, from more than 200 species. The entrance fee to the park was quite steep, especially compared to the rest of the places we had visited on this trip, but well worth the money. The whole park is covered by a gigantic net so the birds won't fly away, but other than that most are free to roam around as they like. This means you are up close to most of the birds and "personal" in the case of the over friendly parakeets (as long as you have some seeds). We decided to watch the bird show during which the heavens opened! The bird show consisted of a few parrots doing some tricks and then watching some birds of prey flying. I can't honestly say that the show was of much interset to us, but we sat it out. At the end of the show, due to the weather, we decided to make our way to the exit, luckily we had walked around most of the park prior to the show and rain. We made our way to the taxi rank at the bottom of the hill on which the bird park was situated. Unfortunately whilst walking down the hill Diana slipped on the wet tiled pathway. Luckily at the end of the road was a guarded building, the guard saw Diana slip over and came to help, offering his seat (what a gentleman) whilst she regained her composure. The guard also called a taxi to take us back to our B&B for which we were very grateful. The kindness and hospitality shown whilst we have been on this trip has been immense.
It was a fifteen minute taxi ride back to our B&B. It had been a long day in intense heat (even whilst it was raining) and we were glad to be back for a rest, although it wasnt long until we were out again. We arranged to meet Darren and Diana (as long as she was feeling better) for dinner. Darren recommened the Indian over the road from our B&B. The food was lovely but the drinks (non-alcholic!) were even better. We all tried different flavoured Lassi's, a yogurt based Indian drink. We offered to pay the bill for the meal as we had had the pleasure of our private tour guides. Luckily for us we were in Asia were the cost of food and drinks was minimal!! After dinner, Diana still not feeling 100% went back to the B&B whilst Darren offered to take us to the Petronas towers, a short walk from the restaurant. The Petronas Towers (also known as the Petronas Twin Towers or KLCC) are skyscrapers and twin towers. They were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004 until surpassed by Taipei 101, but remain the tallest twin buildings in the world. The building is the landmark of Kuala Lumpur with nearby Kuala Lumpur Tower. Below the building is the KLCC park with jogging and walking paths, a fountain with incorporated light show, wading pools, and a children's playground. Suria KLCC is one of the largest shopping malls in Malaysia beneath the twin towers. At 9:50pm Darren decided to leave us and head back to the B&B so that we could have some time to oursleves around the towers, a nice thought especially since we had been with him since 9am! Unfortunately, unknown to us, the park in which the towers were located closed at 10pm and we found ourselves being ushered out by security guards! After a long day we decided to walk back to our B&B, a 10 minute walk which became 50 minutes (thanks Ange) due to a wrong turn out of the park! The sight of our B&B was a welcome relief, were we went straight up the stairs and to sleep! Another long, hot, humid, enjoyable day over, now all we had left was half a day before our flight home. For the first time on this trip we weren't looking forward to the next day!

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