Kuala Lumpur/Roof Top Pool with a View!

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Our bus to KL had air con and took about 4 hours. There were a lot of twisty turny mountain roads, which made Fred feel a bit travel sick. KL is an ultra modern city. There are lots of tall tower blocks. Our airbnb is in one of these condominiums. It is a flat on 32nd floor....very nice. We took a taxi from the bus station, which dropped us in the lobby, where there are uniformed guards and fountains! The condominium is luxury itself, (and we are wallowing in it!).....with an infinity swimming pool on the roof, complete with a view over the Petronas Towers and KL Tower. The skyline looks especially pretty when lit up at night, but the pool is lovely at any time.

KL has a lot of big busy motorways running through it, and the pedestrian walkways are often seperate bridges over them. These walkways have roofs which give shade and rain cover. The MRT is really clean and efficient to get about and fares average about 20p. There are special coaches for 'Ladies Only'. Unlike Thailand, nowhere we have been in Malaysia has had food vendors all along the sides of the streets; but they have food courts where you can get a nice cheap meal. These have tables and chairs, and reusable cheap plastic plates and cups. Most Malaysians eat with their hands and then wash them, but they provide cutlery for those who use it.

We loved visiting KLCC park beside the Petronas towers in the evening. The fountains are choreographed and lit up with coloured lights. This makes a fantastic display, and there are crowds of people sitting and watching. We went to the observation deck on the 86th floor of the towers and tried to pick out which block was our accomodation, but couldn't get a good photo of it.

We went to the Batu Caves, only a short MRT ride to the edge of the city, to visit some Hindu shrines built inside a massive cave. A very atmospheric place. The caves are reached by walking up a long staircase up the hillside. All the way up there are monkeys running about and pestering people for food. If anyone is carrying a plastic bag with a snack they will grab it and run away.

One morning we got up early to take a taxi to the Lake Gardens park, where we had read in the guide book they do Tai Chi at 7am. We saw the sun rise, and joined a group of mainly elderly chinese, who were very welcoming. The master and another lady were 81 years old, but put us to shame with their flexibility and stength. He rightly predicted that we would be aching the following day. After breakfast we went for a stroll through the park and orchid garden before it got too hot. Then we were glad to go home for a swim and a lie down.

Final evening we went to the old KL station to eat and to check the exact location to board our bus to Singapore next day. Just as well that we did this, since we were wandering about for about an hour before we finally found the right place. We would surely have got in a panc and missed the bus if we left finding it until the last minute in the morning.

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