Our Busy Day in Kuala Lumpur

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Once again this morning I was up at the crack of dawn. I think that for me would mean any possible time before 8am, just to give you a broad reference. A lot of other people had the same idea this morning, so the breakfast was basically take away only, so happily took breakfast back to the room to eat. Apparently I was supposed to bring back some for my husband as well, but there are only so many hands, and clearly I didn’t have enough for that.

Was to be an interesting day, and I was still so worried about the mystery people from the ice skating show hoping it didn’t end up as an all out brawl. I went down to the Sports Bar by the Red Car early just in case anyone was expecting me there. Honestly I should have slept in. No one was in a hurry to arrive. Felt quite different sitting there, feeling the ship was completely empty, and being the solo person in the bar. Thankfully they had the best 100 dunk shots or something like that playing on the TV, so got to re-live a whole pile of Michael Jordan action.

Eventually everyone made it, and we discovered that the mystery couple were actually on my list, but the name I had down wasn’t what they always go by. There was a total of 8 couples to keep in check for the day, but I was fairly relaxed over it all. We had so many amazing tours leading up to this one, so I just assumed this one wouldn’t prove any different, so had this calm of faith over the day. It worked out beautifully actually.

We tried to go in a group to get off the boat. Just before leaving however, you always get one person who decides they want to use the toilet, and I told my husband he could wait for that one, and we would at least make a move for the exit. As it was the line was very stagnant, and it took forever for us to realize we actually didn’t need to be in that line anyway, I think that was for one of the ships tours, and just went straight to the front and within five had made our way through the checks and off the boat.

The Jetty for Port Kelang, was huge! It was a long walk to the terminal. Off to one side I noticed there was a snake swimming out to our boat. Have to love wild life, and just prayed we didn’t bump into any more of that particular wild life today. Hopefully they were water dwelling snakes, and I wasn’t looking to swim at all today.

As we made our way into the terminal we were all handed a bag of goodies as a welcome gift to Malaysia. I think everyone was equally impressed. We received the biggest gawkiest luggage tags, a fridge magnet, a Malaysia pin, and possibly something else that has slipped my mind. So if this was a welcome to Malaysia, I’m hoping that for tomorrow being the first ship to use the new Terminal in Singapore there was a complete matching luggage set for each of us! The bar has been raise people, hope they were going to telegraph it down the line!

Overall the Terminal was actually a lovely one. The first real professional one I had seen, so I tried to absorb it all as we rushed on through. On going down a set of escalators, there was a sign with my name on it, so we easily identified our drivers. The guides counting all 16 of us wasn’t so easy, but somehow we all managed to get to the right vans and the seats were filled at least. Our Guide or at least one of them was to be Zac. I discovered him on Viator. http://tourguides.viator.com/sightseeing-tours-malaysia-kuala-lumpur-2353.aspx I guess booking so far in advance really paid off for us, as when we booked they had the price of US$220 per van, which was stunning. I had noticed post our booking the prices had risen however our price was secured.

It is kind of funny the whole politics and interactions with all strangers going for group tours. There was a complete mix of people so it made it interesting. A lot of funny little bits and pieces passed back to me during the day. Now straight off, I had been aware that the Port was a long way from Kuala Lumpur. I had heard maybe an hour/hour and a half. I had told the drivers that we needed to be back at the boat by 3:45pm, and left everything in their capable hands. We all needed to be onboard by 4:30pm so thought it would give a bit of moving space should something bad go wrong. I wasn’t particularly too worried, as I said to a few people, Singapore didn’t look that far from here, so if we missed the boat, I’m sure we could walk, and catch up with it in the morning.

I really couldn’t help but smirk at some of the comments that were made as we made our way into the main city. There were some complaints that the road was bumpy and that there was a bit of a traffic jam. I don’t know if you could really complain about those things though. I mean that’s part of exploring, and the joy of travelling I would have thought. The road near my home in a city in Australia has shocking roads, so couldn’t see what the issue with a few pot holes was. Definitely wasn’t my cars suspension being trashed.

Before long we gained our first glimpse at the Petronas Towers. I actually found it really interesting just watching out the window looking at the range of housing and other mundane every day life details. I loved the fact that they had these special roads just for the motorbikes off the side of the main road, so they could easily miss the traffic. Thought that was a very clever idea. The housing, was interesting in that they seemed to find one design and like it, then build fifty or so homes all in a clump exactly the same. There just wasn’t any individuality to it, it seemed. I’m sure inside people could modify things, it just really stood out to me I guess.

Our first stop was the National Palace. It was explained to us that the King was swapped over every four years and different people took it in turns to be king. It was later while driving to the next stop, that our driver further explained that it was always males that were King (who would have thought that!), what he was trying to explain was they didn’t allow a female to be the head of state. The reason behind this and I quote was that “females get periods and too emotional”. Well didn’t our car just erupt into both horror and agreeance! All the men were laughing agreeing that yes, that was a wise decision and well done to their system. I think on my part I was shocked but too busy laughing at how straight forward it all seemed to our guide. He stated that it was especially important as the King had something to do with some of the punishments that get lashed out at the people that if the woman was in a bad mood she might not think rationally and punish the people too much because she was moody. It was pricelessly funny!

Actually I guess I should state that the National Palace wasn’t the most exciting stop I guess. The gardens were beautiful and I loved the picture of the King and Queen, I just found it more entertaining listening to the guide though. In relation to the punishments, Capital Punishment was still in place. I thought it was quite interesting that they choose to use the method of Hanging so that they don’t “harm the body”. Um I’m pretty sure killing a person is harming the body you know! The other amusing detail was that lashing apparently is a form of punishment and instead of doing it on a person’s back, as this might damage a person and leave scarring they lash across the person’s backside, as this doesn’t get seen. Quite considerate when you think about it …. Thank goodness I live in Australia, and luckily I don’t think I would break the law anyway!

As we were driving to our next stop we were taken past the KL Bird Park. This holds the world’s largest free flight walk in aviary. It looked amazing. 21 acres of birds. Honestly if you stay in KL for any time, this would definitely be a place you would want to go and visit. It’s made my to do list if I ever get the chance to go back. Just past this park we stopped for a toilet break. Not exactly sure why, but I guess they thought we were in the van long enough, and it did come in handy for some of the people.

We were then driven to Merdeka Square. It was a historical stop. This was the spot that independence from the British had been declared in 1957. There was also the world’s tallest flagpole. It was just a quick photo stop, but I imagine during celebrations it would be an amazing place to be. Just around the corner we then stopped for a quick photo of the Periuk Kera Fountain. It might be better known as the pitcher tree, either way, I hadn’t heard of it before arriving, but apparently others had so they were excited to be able to get photos of it.

Our next stop was the one I was most excited over. I guess I’m quite simple, I had in mind that I wanted to see the Batu Caves and the twin towers. This was accomplished through the day, so everything else was icing on the cake. It was hilarious hearing on the boat later that people refused to see the caves because they were frightened of bats …. Um, just cos it has Bat in its name doesn’t mean there would be any! It was actually surprising how close to the city this place was, and it was definitely impressive driving up to it. It is very much a tourist spot, and traffic in the area showed this. We were again warned about the monkeys in the area, and to be very careful if we were to be taking bags as if we touched our bags the monkeys might think we were getting food out and attack us.

Now straight out, I was a touch disappointed, I don’t think anyone was attacked while we were there. Not that I was hoping to see blood or anything, but you get all these warnings and then nothing happened. I think next time the ideal outfit would include a string of donuts around a person’s neck, to get close to the action ….We were given about 45 minutes I think, to have a look around. This included plenty of time to make our way up the 272 steps. It was amusing hearing people complain when they got up the top that there wasn’t anything interesting up there. Shame on whoever made this natural cave for not thinking of the tourists! I mean seriously, what was mother nature thinking? Personally I thought it was fascinating, and there was a small Hindu shrine up the top, but it wasn’t over the top and you could really appreciate (or at least some people could) the natural beauty of the place.

There were monkeys there. Not hoards of them, but enough to be entertaining as they scuttled over the side of the I guess cliff faces. Coconut halves were put out and the monkeys ate these, so I guess this was to prevent the attacking of tourists. When we initially arrived there were pigeons everywhere at the base of the steps, but these had cleared by the time we got back down. There were also some really nice shops in that area and I had a look through a couple, before trying to track people down to let them know where our bus was to continue on our excursion.

The next stop ended up being the Royal Selangor factory. It was cute that we all received another sticker. I guess they couldn’t tell us apart from locals. I mean its not like everyone doesn’t carry around backpacks with four cameras hanging off themselves normally or anything. Now initially this was a tour that a few people had stated they could probably do without if it would save time. As it was I think the majority of people really enjoyed this stop which was a pleasant surprise. It was really interesting, and the workmanship was amazing. We were guided through a little history section, and shown some of their works, before coming up to a table and given a drink. By this time I think everyone needed a drink, so it was perfect. We were then given a demonstration on how to make the little indents into the mugs. People were given the opportunity to try it themselves. Apparently its not nearly as easy as the girl was making out. It was also at this time that good old Roberta, Ed and Jeff wandered passed. We seem to cross their path where ever we went. I had to laugh when I heard Jeff made it all the way up to the caves …. Oh that I would have loved to have seen, that being said they were bored of the Pewter place and going to head straight out. We were given an opportunity to do some pewter shopping.

I was told that our next stop was to be lunch, and being starving, I tried to hurry everyone along. We then headed over to the Petrona towers for lunch. We had a quick stop off the side of the road so that we could get photographs. We were then driven over to the base of the towers where they have an amazing shopping mall. Apparently the fourth floor was the place to go for lunch, we didn’t need to be told twice and headed straight there. I don’t even know the name of the place we had lunch (wish I had taken a photo), however I ordered my Thai Chicken, to which the lady then started screaming a whole pile of things out, Kevin got a slightly rougher time ordering, and I just killed myself laughing. I don’t remember how much my meal cost, but it was extremely cheap and by far the best food I had eaten the entire trip. I think it cost about $3 or $4 Australian dollars. My mouth was in heaven with all the flavors exploding inside it. I had to laugh at my husband he came back with a dish that he didn’t know what it was called. The lady apparently screamed at him “Do you want spicy”, to which he said, yes, so I guess that was the name of his meal! Honestly if you do stay in KL, definitely this is the place to eat. I can’t re-iterate this enough!

After lunch we did a small amount of shopping. I was able to pick up several key rings to take home as souvenirs. We then headed back out to the front of the building to await our van. Now surprisingly everyone actually arrived back in time. We then waited about five minutes for the vans. A couple of people were starting to get a bit anxious about heading back to the boat, but I was sure our drivers knew what they were doing. Just around the corner we were taken to a Batik shop, and I have to admit, compared to what I saw in Georgetown a day earlier, this was definitely a more skilled shopped and the work was just beautiful. Trying to herd people out of the store in the end was a task. I did laugh though, I overhead one of the guys tell a driver that he had run tours in the other ports and when he decided it was time to get back to the ship, he made the driver turn the vehicle around and take them straight back. I couldn’t help but pipe in that it was lucky then that today we had some Aussies in charge because we are definitely a lot more laid back and would be certain that everything would work out just fine.

We did make it back to the port in time. Ok, I admit, it was maybe five or ten minutes later than the time I had stated we wanted to be back by, but we had just over half an hour to get back on board, so didn’t see the issue. I’m fairly certain that everyone had a ball, and with the price we paid, we had just experienced an amazing city tour. As we headed back inside the terminal there were people everywhere. There was a free wifi spot that had a huge amount of the ships occupants sitting inside madly trying to connect. I did attempt a couple of times, but I think with the number of people it just couldn’t take a further connection. As a promotion they were giving out free beers to everyone to get them to buy their duty free liquor. Robert missed out on this as he raced ahead and didn’t see it. I unfortunately saw it, but don’t drink beer so was a bit of a shame. The queue to get back onto the ship was huge! I guess if you did arrive earlier it might have been quicker, but with the amount of people that ended up lining behind me even if you did arrive back late you weren’t going to miss the boat. Its always good to see the ships tour buses arrive back after you do. Means you had plenty of time.

Now there was a kind of funny, conversation that I had in one of the newly reopened shops. A random couple came up and asked how our tour went. I said it went really well, and a few people were a bit nervous about getting back to the ship on time but honestly they didn’t need to worry. Little did I know that apparently they were friends with those people and I then found out that they were really really worried about going on the tour with us, because I had never cruised before so wouldn’t have any idea about how to organize a tour. Um, ok this had me somewhat surprised. Just because I hadn’t been on a cruise before didn’t mean I couldn’t organize anything! What a weird bunch of people these cruising mob are!

It was bitter sweet packing up our bags to have them outside our door by whatever the required time was. I really loved my room and seemed horrible to have to leave both the ship and the room for others to use. That being said I was also really missing my children, so if only there was a way of getting them over to us, and all just living on the boat. Now that would be fun! We ended up having tea with Kevin and Julie again, then shared a last drink before going off to see the 3D movie they had on offer tonight. Now I hadn’t realized they would put the best show on the last night. I walked into the main theatre and the farewell production show was going overtime. It was good in a way as I was able to see some proper theatre. Just wish I had have had the chance to have seen it all. Will have to remember that for my next cruise.

When everyone had left the theatre with glasses on we were entertained by the Dreamworks movie Megamind. Now I hadn’t seen this one before. Apparently my husband had already borrowed it from our library for the kids so had seen part of it. I loved the movie and was a great way to finish the cruise. Only thing left to do now was jump into bed, and await our arrival into Singapore, our final destination.

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Photos

Current King & Queen
All Kings must have a Queen, because it doesn't look good them not having an handbag accessory wife