Kuala Lumpur - On the way over...

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Of course, nothing, and I mean nothing happens in Asia before 11am. So with no shops or attractions to visit we grab our togs and head for the hotel's pool for a swim for a couple of hours to pass the time. Fortunately The Park Royal has quite a pleasant pool area and it was lovely to just sit and enjoy the beautiful warm weather.

After that, it was all shopping, shopping, shopping. Sengei Wang first, which was similar to MBK in Bangkok and bargaining was the way to go. It was great fun and the girls didn't take long to get into the swing of things. Best buys of the day were the ipod covers and some first aid supplies from Watsons. After a few hours the kids faded and just wanted to hang out at the hotel. Steve and I tackled the traffic at the adjacent intersection and checked out Berjaya Times Square. Holy Moly! The shops just went on and on and on. Floor upon floor of mid range clothing stores, shoes, bags, nic nacs and optomitrists on at least 10 floors. We didn't get far past the optomitrists as we decided that it would be a great time to update the specs (even tho' it probably did cost more than Spec Savers back home). We ended up paying $400 each for really nice designer glasses such was the great salesman. Later that afternoon with aim of finding somewhere to have dinner, we wandered up the street towards Bukit Bintang and via more shops we found ourselves at the fantastic Pavillion shopping mall.... hundreds of shops, this time at the higher end of the designer spectrum. We had a delicious dinner at Madam Kwan's in the food hall at Pavillion (which is just unbelievably huge!) before heading to bed exhausted.

The next morning, we headed downstairs to the Park Royal Hotel breakfast - and WOW, what a breakfast!!! I have never, ever seen such a spread! There were dozens and dozens of choices from all four corners of the world. Everything that is, except BACON. Oh and apple juice? The clientel was also as varied as the food - including a new one for us - women wearing burqua's. Man they have a hard time eating...

Then it was time to hit the streets and check out the city. We caught the monorail from just up the street to KL Sentral (the main transportation hub in KL), then paid all of $1.50 to get the train out to the Batu Caves. We missed the first train by half a second which was very frustrating, but enjoyed looking around the few stalls for half and hour whilst we waited for the next one. The train was a great way to travel to avoid all the traffic, but it certainly wasn't super quick. Batu caves was the last stop and it was only a short walk to the stairs. I don't know exactly how many there are, but thank goodness for all the Mount workouts I'd done! It was a little daunting with all those damned monkeys jumping out and giving me a heck of a fright, but the climb was well worth the effort. The caves are quite spectacular.

Then after some tricky negotiation with the notorious taxi drivers, we grabbed a cab back into the city to the famed Petronas Towers. They are now the 4th tallest building in the world and are simply jaw droppingly beautiful. The space around them is even well planned and very pleasant. We took lots of photos then headed inside to check out the mall - not that we could afford anything from most of the shops in here - very top end. Gucci, Versace, Prada, Marc Jacobs etc etc etc. Plus of course, The New Zealand Ice Cream Company...

Later in the afternoon it was time to make our way to the KL Menara Tower (similar to the Auckland Skytower only bigger) for our afternoon tea at the revolving restaurant 300 metres up. Fantastic views of KL despite it being a little hazy. The afternoon tea wasn't much but the awesome views and photo opportunity made up for it.

Despite really sore feet by this stage, we made our way thru the streets again, this time to the Traders Hotel. I'd read that the view of the Petronas Towers at sunset from their roof top bar shouldn't be missed - and they weren't wrong. We'd reserved a booth and spent a relaxing few hours sitting beside the pool (annoyed that we didn't take our swimsuits) in our booth drinking cocktails (mocktails). It was definately the best view in town.

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