Kuala Lumpur

When we left our hotel to get dinner we realised we had landed in India. There were Indian restaurants, shops, beauty salons, and any number of other enterprises all around us. The sounds of Bollywood were leaking out of shops and mingling with the smells of exotic spices and burning incense. We had Indian for dinner; there didn’t seem to be any other option.

We enjoyed a late start to Tuesday. Once we did leave the hotel, we started by walking towards the Petronas Towers, once the world’s tallest buildings. The weather was good; sunny and cloudy, warm but not hot, and not too humid. This was a pleasant surprise and change from what we had tried and failed, to get accustomed to.

The towers are quite an impressive sight. We walked through the mall in the towers (all the big overpriced brands present) and out the other side. We found ourselves in a nice large park with ponds, fountains, a large children’s paddling pool, and playground. It also offered some nice views of the towers.

From there we walked to the nearest MRT station and got the train to Masjid Jamek, a large mosque. We walked past the mosque on our way to the central market, where we thought we would get some lunch.

The market is a large indoor collection of souvenir stalls. There were a couple of places selling food, the one we chose offered various set menus. Three of the options, including the one we wanted, were unavailable for some reason. We finally found food down the road at a US of American chicken franchise (not KFC) where the food was ok and the toilets appalling.

Having eaten our not very good lunch, we walked across the street to Pentaling Street market. This is a well-known landmark in China Town, but we found it disappointing. Most of the stallholders were selling knock-off sport team uniforms (including All Black shirts), shoes, bags, and other fashion accessories. However, we did find a passageway that took us to where the real market is. There we saw the chickens being cut up, the fish displayed on ice, fruit and veges, and a large rat that crossed our path.

Then we wandered back to the mosque. We had a look at it from outside the perimeter before going in to have a closer look. Kraut hadn’t dressed appropriately but to preserve her modesty they happily lent her a purple hooded robe to wear. She looked a bit like a young Obi-Wan Kenobi in drag.

We didn’t stay long as Kraut was getting a bit hot in her robe before crossing the river to get a closer look at the impressive Sultan Abdul Samad Building. We wandered around the outside (the building is in use so is closed to the public) and had a break in the gardens. Then we went back to our hotel, which wasn’t far away. Dinner was Indian again, but this time at a different restaurant.

Wednesday was “visit Batu Caves” day. We got the MRT (more MT than MRT, not much rapid about the train) to Batu Caves. These caves were first “discovered” in a limestone hill in 1878. A couple of years later some local Indian gentleman decided they were a good place to have a temple.

The caves are very popular; there were seemingly thousands of people there. Since Kiwi was there in 2005 a giant statue of Murugan has been installed, the 272 stairs to the caves have been painted, the commuter train line has arrived, and visitor numbers have gone through the roof. We had a look at some of Kiwi’s photos from 2005 and there are very few people to be seen in them.

The resident monkeys were up to no good. It is obvious that people feed them, as shown by their often aggressive behaviour around those who have food. That doesn’t stop people taking food. The monkeys are one of the main attractions, judging by the number of photos being taken of them.

There are several temples in the caves. We felt for Hindus who come to worship and have to try to ignore all the tourists taking selfies and making a lot of noise.

Once we had had enough of the crowds we left. Back in town, we had lunch before walking to the botanical gardens. These were nice; we spent a bit of time walking through enjoying them. With thunder echoing around the city we headed back to the hotel.

The storm never arrived, which was a pity as our hotel had a nice rooftop terrace where we could have watched it from while eating our take-away dinner.

On Thursday, we visited an art gallery type of thing dedicated to Kuala Lumpur. There was a model of the whole city, complete with a sound and light show to accompany it. In addition, there were large models of the skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, including the new one, which will be the tallest once it is completed. We enjoyed the old photos of the city too. Most of the rest of the displays were opportunities for people to take selfies, opportunities taken up by most visitors with great enthusiasm; “yay, another photo of me”.

We had lunch at the Central Market, then wandered more or less aimlessly for the rest of the afternoon. That was our last day in Kuala Lumpur. We saw some nice sights, some old and new architecture, the weather was good. and we quite enjoyed it.