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Published: August 19th 2007
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Petronas towers
Jase's very arty pic of the towers!! We can see the tower! (not Pye Green) After a gruelling 14 hour flight from Cape Town with a stop off in Johannesburg we made it to Kuala Lumpur. Fortunately we had arrived at Cape Town airport early and were the first in the queue, so Jase managed to secure the exit seats. We probably wouldn't have survived otherwise! The first thing we noticed about Kuala Lumpur was how clean and sparkly it was. The airport was huge and all the surfaces shimmered - a bit different to Africa! Immigration was a breeze but Rach suffered from a moment of bad karma. Laughing at all the travellers getting stressed and impatient at the luggage carousel, the grin soon disappeared when all the luggage had been delivered and Rach's rucksack was nowhere to be seen. Maybe it had been left at Joburg? Trying not to panic about the possibility of wearing the same smelly t-shirt for another night, the lost luggage guy eventually found the bag and with much relief we jumped into our Mercedes, which chauffered us to the city centre.
Driving through the drizzly and steamy morning, we hit KL's rush hour in various tunnels and fly overs. Then
Petronas towers
view from the traders lobby we spotted the landmark Petronas Towers and knew we were close. We pulled up at Traders Hotel feeling very tired and checked into our top class hotel in the heart of KLCC. The room was heaven after such a long flight and as we opened the curtains, the view of the Petronas Towers filled our window. We also experienced the best Malaysian toilet ever: it had a little lever that shot a jet of cool water up your jacksie, which was a unique sensation! We later discovered this was quite a posh version, because most hotels had a mini shower hose to rinse your bits and the really primitive public loos just a simple bucket and tub of water.
After a kip, we shook off our jet lag with a dip in the freezing cold rooftop pool, with its excellent view of the city. Then we explored Suria shopping centre, at the base of the Petronas Towers. The mall was the size of four Merry Hells and would have been retail heaven for Deanna, Alison and Jayne, as it was packed with designer stores. We tasted our first Malaysian cuisine in the food court and then wandered back across
Petronas towers at night
From our bedroom window at night! Looking awesome the park, by the fountains, to Traders.
How much? We decided to venture out that evening to Bukit Bintang, the Golden Triangle, which is full of shops, restaurants and bars. Being British our first stop was the Irish bar and paid nearly 10 quid for a pint of Kilkenny and Tiger. Bit more expensive than Africa, so we just had the one! Our livers should get a rest in Malaysia. Dodging all the massage and reflexology touts, we stopped to refresh ourselves at Lecka Lecka, a sheesha bar. We didn't have any of the sweet hubble bubble ourselves and Rach had an expensive cocktail and Jase a smoothie as it was so humid he was dehydrating fast. Even at night, the heat was unbearable. We trundled back to Traders and glimpsed through the curtains at the Petronas Tower, the tower lights winking in the night sky.
Colonial KL and Little India We got up early and queued up to get a couple of the limited free tickets to visit the Skybridge later that afternoon. We caught the LRT (Subway) to Merdeka Square. This was the old colonial cricket ground and where Malaysian independence was declared 50 years ago
fountain
On our way to merdeka square on the 31st August. Hence Malaysia is preparing to celebrate it's anniversary in style. Here the Union Jack was lowered and replaced with the Malaysian flag, flying on the world's highest free-standing flagpole (wow you learn something every day). We walked around the Natural History Museum following a crazy French guy filming everything - talk about the world's most boring home video! We walked past the incongrous mock Tudor club and sheltered from the sun under the commerative arches, where some guy claimed he could read Jase's fortune from his forehead. Hmm...how much could he see through all the sweat? We scarpered to a small cathedral and sat down to cool off for a few minutes. We walked through Little India, which was much noiser and smellier than sophisicated shiny KLCC. We had lunch at the Coloseum Cafe with dirty tablecloths - apparently some British governor bloke used to drink at the establishment years back. After much trekking in the heat and dashing across intersections, we found the entrance to the elusive KL Menara Tower. This is slightly smaller than the Petronas Towers, but the viewing platform open to the public is a lot higher than the Skybridge. The views
merdeka square
The fake tudor buildings across the city were stupendous and worth the walk. We hailed a taxi back to Traders to recover before visiting the Petronas Towers.
We arrived at the Petronas Towers for our much hyped Skybridge visit, that links the twin towers together. It was all rather Disney as we were ushered into a cinema for a 3D presentation about how wonderful Petronas is (a petroleum company amongst other things). We then piled into a lift and shot to the 42nd floor (out of 88) at ear-popping speed. We had 10 minutes to oohhh and ahhhh over the bridge and marvel at its Islamic influenced design.
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