Kuala Lumpur, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya and the Batu Caves

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KL was bad for our holiday budgets...we spent the large majority of 3 days there shopping! We arrived in KL on the train back from Singapore reasonably early in the morning and caught the monorail to Bukit Bintang Station in the Golden Triangle area. We had been told by Mira and Khalid (from the Perhentians) that this was the area we should stay in as its pretty central and has good food, accommodation and heaps of shopping - turns out thats true. Just down the road from our hotel were BB Plaze, Sungei Wang Plaza, Imbi Plaza, Plaza Low Yat and Lot 10. Conveniently, all the shopping centers were having their 'end of season' sale...which neither of us really understood considering the weather is basically the same all year around.

The first night we had dinner at one of the streets off Jln Hicks which sprouts hawker type stalls each night. We had our first Malaysian satay, which was long overdue considering we had been in the country almost a month already. Following dinner we set off towards the Petrona's Towers. The towers are lit up by gigantic spotlights each night and can be seen towering over the city from pretty much anywhere in KL. We ended up taking the scenic route as we dint plan which way we would walk...it probably took about double the time it should have! The towers are impressive, and I (Bianca) was particularly interested as I'm studying civil engineering. We ended up sitting at the base of the towers in front of the water fountains (what a novelty - don't see them much in Australia anymore!) for an hour or so and then walked back to our hotel.

Our second day was also spent shopping. The shopping was broken up with a walk back to the Petrona's towers to preserve Scotts sanity. That night we met up with Khalid and Mira who had promised to show us around. They took us to China Town, which looked pretty much the same as every other China town. We picked up the obligatory DVD's and then set off for Cyberjaya for dinner. While we were at the Perhentian's with them, Khalid constantly talked about his favourite restaurant which is run by a Saudi guy and is packed every night. The food lived up to all of Khalid's hype and more! It was amazingly good quality, absolutely delicious and excellent value...next time we're in KL we'll make a point of going back! After dinner they took us to Putrajaya. Putrajaya is basically the Canberra of Malaysia, but not so lame hehe. Its the administrative district of the region and basically has all the government offices all packed into one area. The government has however, attempted to make it a bit of a tourist destination. All of the buildings are designed are quite different, but are all in the Islamic style. Apparently Osama Bin Laden's brother in law (not sure which of the 50 or so) was actually involved in the design and planning of one or two.

The following morning we decided to sleep in as we had got back from Putrajaya quite late. We had a reasonably lazy morning (aside from a bit more shopping) and eventually met up with Khalid and Mira again at about 2pm and set off to the Batu Caves. The caves, which are a Hindu shrine, are 13km outside of the city. A flight of 272 steps leads up to the main temple area which, much to my disgust, is home to a lot of monkeys. My monkey phobia seemed to have grown quite substantially following the attack in Sandakan and i spent the whole time at the caves standing close enough to Scott so that he could scare away all the horrible little critters. Strangely enough, Malaysia's tourism board was filming at the caves - i think they are beginning to follow us.

After the caves we headed back to KL and were dropped off at the Petrona's towers by Khalid and Mira. We said our farewells and then headed into the KLCC shopping center at the base of the towers. Mira had mentioned that Isetan supermarket discounts all their sushi each night by about 75%. Given the supermarket is Japanese owned its all excellent quality and absolutely delicious and a bargain! We ate our sushi in the garden outside the towers and then headed back to the guesthouse.

The following morning we got up bright and early and set off to the towers to join the queue for tickets to the skybridge which connects the two towers. They release 1500 free tickets each morning which are given out on a first come first served basis. We arrived at about 7:45 and the queue was already quite long however we were given our tickets when the office opened at 9am. The let groups of about 40 people in at a time. The first part of the session is a 3D propaganda video about how Petronas (Malaysia's oil company) is a globally aware and environmentally conscious company. Following the video we caught the lift up to the 42nd floor and stepped out onto the skybridge. From the bridge you have an excellent view across the city and of the cool roller bearings which the bridge is supported by hehe. You have about 15mins at the top to take photos, admire the view and think about how much you love Petrona's and think they are an awesome company..hmm.

After the skybridge we had a few hours to fill in before we caught the train out to the airport. GIven we had some leftover RM we decided to venture into the shopping centers one last time! Scott ended up getting one of the remote controlled helicopters he'd been admiring since we arrived in KL and i got a dress from a Malaysia designer for 100RM - not a bad note to end our time in Malaysia on.

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Photos

Up close!
How cool! The whole billboard was actually made of F&N can's!

Comments

[Mazhar Ismail]

Malaysia Pakistan
I love Malaysia and people living there very much.