Hoping Malaysia will proceed as Capital as KL, 20-25 march

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We have just arrived in Melaka after a two hours free bus ride. It appears to be a nice little city that we easily can enjoy for a couple of days. After six full days in KL we have decided that it is among the best cities we've been to on this trip. Lots of shopping opportunities and quite a lot of interesting things to see.

Thursday we slept late and then headed out to buy Erik's camera and mobile phone. Everything went smoothly and Erik was happy about the price he had haggled to. After that we went and tried to find some books. Unfortunately the bookstores we visited didn't have the assortment we sought. Thirsty for some refreshments we walked to Sixty Nine Bistro, a highly recommended cafe from our guide book. Quite a disappointment! Not only were our shakes expensive, they were poorly flavoured too.
That evening we visited the central market where they sold lots of souveniers, crafts and clothes. Erik found some daggers he liked, but lacking any pre-knowledge of the price he didn't dare to make a deal.

The following day we woke early to try to get tickets for the Petronas Towers' Skybridge. When we arrived at the ticket office, half an hour before opening, the queue was about a hundred metres long, and more people came by the minute. While Erik queued Hannes set out to buy some breakfast. He managed to find some very good freshly baked sausage/pizza sandwiches which were devoured by the waterfall in the Petronas Towers' park. It was quite a beautiful sight, until we were driven off by a whistle-loving parknazis. We were sitting too close to their "working" area, and had to move five metres further up.
After breakfast we took a bus toward Lake Titiwanga. At arrival at the bus station we were very disoriented and couldn't really get reliable directions but we set out anyway. We headed for the Eye of Kuala Lumpur, a big ferriswheel, hoping it was near the lake. We took a ride in their air-conditioned gondolas, which wasn't at all remarkable. We looked at the little manmade lake, weren't impressed and started the long walk back. Why did we decide to walk back in the worst heat of the day? We also wonder why sometimes.
After relaxing in the park (not lying down of course, which wasn't allowed by the parknazis) we went up the Petronas Towers. It was a lovely view, though it is a shame you can't go all of the 450,9 metres instead of only 176 metres.
Tired from the days activities, we went home.

This busy Saturday we started out early for the Batu Caves, a large cave with a small, and famous, Hindu shrine. Outside the cave was a huge golden statue of Lord Meruga, to whom the temple is dedicated. The experience of the tempel and cave was diminished by the many shops, located just inside the cave entrance. Also there were quite a few monks who handed out lucky charms in exchange for a donation.
Next on our schedule was a visit to the Lake Gardens. We visited the Hibiscus (which is their national flower) park which was directly connected to the lovely Orchid park. We probably would have appreciated them more if not for the heat. Asking around a bit we finally found the Deer park, where we saw the unusual Mousedeer. As the name implies it had mouse-like features in the face and scampered around like a mouse though the rest of the body was that of a very small deer.
After some needed refreshment and relaxation in the park we set out for the Theon Hou Temple. In our usual manner we walked on the side of the highway in the worst heat. We were understandably relieved when the clouds came but we soon got to experience the worst monsoon we had so far come across. Erik walked along in childish happiness but Hannes wasn't really that glad about the drenched, wet feeling of not having one dry spot on the entire body. After walking a lot further than the Lonely Planet said we arrived at a cemetary where we met a kind man who told us we had gone up the wrong hill and drew a map on Erik's hand.
As soaked as humanely possible we finally arrived at the temple. It was impressive on the outside but we've seen better interiors. It was nice but maybe not worth the walk there. Needless to say we took the bus back to the hostel and dropped dead on the beds.

Easter Sunday began late. We decided to go for a Lonely Planet walking tour of the Colonial and Little India districts. We saw the world's longest flagpole which was built upon the Merdeka Square where independence from Britain was declared. We also saw a couple of fountains and mosques. We finally ended up in a Chinese restaurant sharing a table with a Chinese couple and their little daughter. They told us it was a famous restaurant, despite the shabby look, mostly because of the Chinese-Western fusion food. We soon deduced that they were a very Christian couple and they asked us a lot about how we celebrate Easter in Sweden. The lunch ended with them inviting us to their church where they had a special speaker, who had been to Iraq, invited from the UK. They were really nice and took our bill as well!
After lunch we split up. Erik desperately wanted to get a good picture of the Petronas Towers with the Duck. He also decided to visit the Kampung Baru district and as usual strolled the highway in the worst heat looking for a bridge to cross the river. This district was very different from all other parts of KL since there were a lot of degenerated houses, although cosey-looking and with very nice gardens. He went past the local mosque in his search for a Sikh temple. Well in the temple they were very friendly and told him how to behave (washing his feet and putting on a borrowed turban). He went down to a very large hall with only a very small altar and a very special feeling about the sole, empty place.
Hannes hurried along to the very busy Puduraya bus station to try to book tickets to Melaka. They were not very forthcoming there so he instead went to Jalan Petaling, the big shopping street for fake goods. Getting some much needed T-shirts he went back to the hostel and waited for Erik who unfortunately had the key.
At 6.30 we took a bus to the church, arriving just on time. We were a bit surprised that it was a gospel church and of course the service started with some gospels. We were also forced to stand up and accept the first-timers applause. The invited guest speaker wasn't very good. He talked about his hard life, many mistakes and how he found God who spoke to him twice. The first time being shot at in Iraq and the second while falling helplessly through the air without his parachute opening. We both sat there thinking: "How did we end up here?"
Afterwards we got some very good food and talked to the church memebers. They were all very pleasant people and the Chinese couple took us out for some more traditional Chinese food along with one of their friends. They didn't let us pay anything this time either. After dinner their friend showed us around town and took us for a nightly drive. He showed us the National monument, the Palace (which we had completely missed), a beautiful mosque and even drove twenty kilometres from town just to let us see their IKEA! It was a very entertaining ride and we had a very good Easter Sunday.

Yesterday we, as planned several days before, went to Sunway Lagoon, the big theme park outside the city. We started off in the Waterworld, going a few slides and getting wet. It was a shame that they had such a bad queue system. We got changed to dry clothes and had some lunch. We didn't know that we would get almost as wet as before lunch in the amusement park. We went the Grand Canyon River Rapids together with some jovial Iranian middle-aged guys who really hadn't expected to get wet. Erik liked the Tomahawk ride where you sat in a cage and spun like a tomahawk. Hannes found that almost all the rides were very similar to Gold Reef City in South Africa, almost identical in some cases.
After trying all the rides except for two carousels we felt satisfied and went into the great mall just outside the park. We went to the top floor where all the cinemas are located in all malls in Malaysia and saw 10,000 BC. Hannes thought it was very good and Erik was almost as impressed.
We have found it very surprising that Kuala Lumpur in particular, and Malaysia in general, has an extreme amount of malls considering their scarce population. Usually when we walk in the malls we rarely see any costumers in the shops, which leads us to wonder how they can sustain themselves.

Today we had a calm morning, packed our bags and laid eyes on our cosey hippie-hostel for the last time. Two hours later we found ourselves in Melaka and has so far found the city to be a calm nice place. Our hostel here seems almost like a twin to the one in KL though with the exeption of a blind cat.

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Photos

Kuala Lumpur
The mighty Petronas Towers

Kuala Lumpur
Look how small it is!

Kuala Lumpur
From the Skybridge, 176 metres from the ground.

Kuala Lumpur
The stairs to the Batu Cave

Kuala Lumpur
An ugly old git?

Kuala Lumpur
The Orchid park

Kuala Lumpur
The very special mousedeer

Kuala Lumpur
The Theon Hou Temple. Very very wet at arrival

Kuala Lumpur
The famous flagpole on Merdaka square where they lowered the Union Jack just over 50 years ago at the declaration of independance.