Kuala Lumpur - Day 4

After eating our full at breakfast, we wandered back to the National Gallery. We purchased our tickets and along with them we were given two, 5 Ringit vouchers for the gift shop! There were some photos of what Kuala Lumpur used to look like in the first gallery. We didn't stay long, as there was a huge tour group all trying to take photos in front of EVERYTHING, and we couldn't see anything anyway. We followed the arrows and were lead upstairs. There was a screening of something going on and there were people waiting, so we joined them. We were lead inside a room that had a diorama of the whole of Kuala Lumpur, including buildings that are currently being built, or that are in the pipeline to be built. The whole room went dark and a presentation/movie began playing. It told us all sorts of interesting facts about KL and it told us about the future infrastructure of the city. Certain parts of the city were lit up with multi-coloured lights as they were being spoken about. It was such a great presentation and we would definitely recommend that anyone who goes to KL goes to the gallery first!

The presentation was the last stop in the gallery. After that, we made our way to the gift shop. Most of the souvenirs were rather expensive (even with our discount!) and we had spent most of our Ringits already. Luckily we spied some donuts and we were able to get a donut and a water with each of our vouchers.

We went back to our hotel to make sure that we had packed everything and we checked out. We caught the ever faithful train to the Sentral Station before boarding the train to the airport. As you can see from the pictures below, Mel was rather sad to be leaving the beautiful and oh-so-clean Kulala Lumpur.

After we had checked our bags in, we decided that we simply had to have Nando's! Seeing it around the city and not having a chance to eat it, had made us very sad. Luckily there was one at the airport and it was so great! It even prompted us to ask for some Nando's sauce to be sent over with our goodies from SA (thanks Lyndall!).

We arrived back to a flooded and dirty HCMC. It was great to get back to our apartment, but Malaysia - we will definitely be back! If the rest of the country is anything like KL, then we know we'll love it!

Travellers hint: 
The train is super easy to use, if you aren't sure how to buy your token then ask someone at the information desk. Most people speak English in Malaysia so it's easy to ask. The quicker you get acquainted with the train the better. It's fast and cheap!

There are two terminals at KL airport. Find out which one you are flying from so that you don't get off the train too soon! The furtherest terminal is for low-cost airlines (like AirAsia).

We stayed in a hotel called "The Sandpiper". The room was small but very comfortable and it was nice and centrally located.
http://sandpiperhotels.com.my/

Book tickets for the Petronas towers online to save time and to ensure that you get the timeslot that you want.

Kuala Lumpur - Day 3

We decided to visit the Batu Caves on Saturday. We had read such mixed reviews about the caves, so we went with open minds. The general consensus from the reviews which we had read was that we should get there as early as possible to miss the crowds, the heat and most of all, the pesky monkeys and the pungent smell of urine which accompanies them. The trusty train service (which we were now quite comfortable using) took us right to the caves. As we walked out of the train station, we were met by an enormous statue of a Hindu god.

There was a temple at the top of some stairs, and inside was a crowd of people listening to a sermon, and there were some drums and burning incense scattered around the temple. We then made our way to what we assumed were the Batu Caves. There was a small fee to enter and, before we even reached the entrance to the cave, we were greeted by a bunch of statues. There was a team of builders on site, as the statues and other man made decorations around the entrance weren't finished yet.

We ventured a little further in, and observed even more statues which clearly told a story. There was a huge statue of a man lying on his side, with a bunch of other, smaller people on and around him. The lighting really made the scene come to life.

Further into the cave, things opened up. There were a number of scenes similar to those which we had seen in the earlier stages of the cave. There were also a number of stairs which elevated you above the cave floor, up towards a small waterfall which ran down the back wall of the cave.

At this point our thoughts were "Is this it??" While the cave was pretty (mainly because of all of the man made changes made to it), it wasn't anything spectacular. We decided that there must be more, and we started off, further away from the train station. In no time, it was apparent that we were on the right track. Lining the pathway were stalls selling a variety of dried fruits, spiced fruits, cooking spices and sweet meats. There was also an ever growing crowd of people shuffling along the path.

By now, there were bigger buildings, souvenir shops and even a convenience store. We approached what looked like the start of a large entrance. There were rows of metal railings to separate people into smaller lines. As we got closer, we saw an enormous, gold statue at the base of the mountain. There was a staircase which led halfway up the mountain, into the cave. We were now in the right place.

Before we could start the ascent, Mel had to wrap her scarf around her waist, as it is disrespectful for a lady to show her knees in the caves. Then we were off.

Please climb the million stairs up to the cave, but you BETTER not exercise while doing it!

At the top it was... OK. There were a few more statues and some small temples - and a chicken! There was a resident troop of monkeys but, (while they were a little mischievous) their presence wasn't as imposing as the reviews had suggested. The pungent smell of their urine was! We wandered around for a little while up top before we decided to head back down. The timing was great, because we were then able to observe the most exciting part of the experience: An older man got the fright of his life when a pigeon flew very close to him (almost hitting him). This, however wasn't the amusing part. He proceeded to shout at his wife, because the bird had almost given him a heart attack. As if it was her fault!!

Once back down on the ground floor, we waited for the train so we could go back into the city. Mel wanted to remember the trains, because they are so clean and efficient, so she snapped some photos for our reference. We thought that we would share them for interest sake.

Information panel showing all of the stations on the line, and where the train is along the line.

Inside is very clean - no eating or drinking (not even water).

We had quite a few more landmarks to visit, and luckily many of them were fairly close together. So we got back onto the pavements of KL, map in hand, and headed towards the Saint Mary Cathedral. In the same area, there is the Royal Selangor Club (which is and old sports ground from the colonial times); Independence Square (with a massive flag and a cricket pitch in the middle); and the Sultan Abdul Samad Building (a building designed by a British architect, with influences from Africa and Muslim mosques in India)

An interesting water feature that we came across during our walk.

The huge flag at Independence Square.

Inside the Saint Mary Cathedral.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building over-looking Independence Square.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

They are busy trying to rejuvenate some of the less aesthetically appealing parts of the city. This meant that we had to take a long walk around to get to the train station instead of following the river. We were happy that this was the case as the new route lead us to walk through The Market Square where we saw the clock tower AND we got to see a gold building!

Cold milo!!! They LOVE milo in KL which suits us just fine.

We went back to our hotel and changed shoes before we headed to our new favourite restaurant to meet up with The Goldstone's friend, Rudi. We were in contact with Rudi before we moved to Vietnam as he was living here at that time. He moved to Malaysia shortly before we arrived in Vietnam so we didn't get to meet him. Luckily he was coming through to Kuala Lumpur on the weekend that we were there so we managed to make a plan to meet up! It was so great to finally meet him and his lovely wife Lien!

A mango frozen juice.

Rudi, Ross and Lien.

The Towers 'view' from our hotel room.

After our visit with Rudi and Lien, we headed back to the KL city gallery as we ran out of time to see it earlier in the day. Unfortunately it was closed but because of that, it meant that there weren't too many people around and we got to have some pictures with the I love KL sculpture! We were also lucky that there was a solo Spanish tourist who was trying to take a selfie but couldn't quite get herself and the sculpture in. We took a photo of her, and in exchange, we got to have a photo together!

Our next stop was to visit KL's very own Times Square. Unfortunately there was a lot of construction around so we did not get to experience the full effect. It was extremely busy and there were just lights everywhere. We can only imagine how overwhelming the real Times Square in New York must be!

We decided to use old faithful trip advisor to decide where to go for dinner. One of the top rated (but reasonably priced) restaurants was a place called Arabesque. The Turkish restaurant was situated in Chinatown which was super close to our hotel. We wandered through the stalls (and Mel bought a few goodies!) and then headed to dinner. We ended up getting there a bit too late to sample some of their signature dishes as all of their lamb was finished! We ordered some falaffels and some other interesting sounding dishes and we weren't disappointed, the food was delicious (a bit garlicy but really good). Of course, as we decided to leave it started to rain. We hadn't had any rain our entire trip and the heavens just opened and the rain poured down on us! We knew that if we tried to dash through the rain we would be soaked in a minute so the only thing to do was to wait it out. When it quietened down, we managed to shuffle back to our hotel very slowly as Mel's slops decided that they didn't like the slippery pavements. We made it back without Mel falling on her bum and turned in for a well deserved rest.

Kuala Lumpur - Day 2

We loved our first day in KL and couldn't wait to see what the city had in store for us on day 2! We decided that this would be the day to try and figure out the public transport system. We wanted to go to the Patronas Towers and when we enquired at our hotel reception, we were told that the train is the best way to get there. Luckily there was a very kind man who was heading to the train station and he offered to show us where it was. We then had to try and purchase some tickets! We asked at information and they showed us where to buy our tokens for our trip. We then had to try and find the correct platform which took asking a few people but luckily we managed to get on the train and go in the right direction!

We left the train station and our next mission was to find the towers. Luckily we looked up, because there they were - just down the road! We didn't really know what to expect, since we didn't do too much research before heading to Kuala Lumpur, and we were super impressed by the absolute beauty of the buildings. For modern, metal structures they are incredibly intricate and so awesome to look at! We made our way to the booking office and booked some tickets to go up the towers. Ross had a great idea of going at sunset, so we reserved tickets for the evening and then we had our day free. We had a bit of a photo shoot in front of the buildings, trying to fit ourselves and the length of the towers into one shot, which is no mean feat!

Since moving to Vietnam, we've become coffee addicts! We only have one cup a day, but it's a good cup. So finding a cup of coffee was the next order of business. There is a huge mall at the base of the towers and, since we were right there, that's where we went. We tried out San Fransico Coffee which was pretty good, probably made better by the friendly staff who served us! While wondering around the mall, we saw Nando's and thought that we absolutely had to take a photo with the sign.

After doing some research, we decided that our next stop would be the Central Park. It turns out that it was right behind the mall we were sitting in, so we just had to stroll outside. We were greeted by an awesome lake with water fountains and an even better view of the towers! The park was beautiful, with lots of green grass, water features and a pool for kiddies to swim in! They also have water fountains with fresh, filtered water for people to drink (is that first world or what??). After wondering through the park we made our way to the ICC, as this is where the aquarium is situated. It was quite pricey so we thought we'd give it a skip since we went to the awesome Cape Town aquarium last January.

We wondered around a bit before deciding that it was most definitely lunch time! We wanted to try out some local cuisine, but we were situated in quite a 'larny' area so there was no street food to be found. Instead, we eventually settled on Subway since they had a really good lunch time deal.

An awesome whale  sculpture in the lake.

Fresh water drinking fountain.

After eating our full, we decided to take a walk to the KL tower. This is a very tall tower situated on top of a hill, and it gives you magnificent views of the Petronas Towers. The tower also hosts an aquarium and a revolving restaurant. It was really expensive to go up to the top and, since we were going up the twin towers later, we decided to rather get a smoothie and wait out the impending rain. There was a British chap enjoying a beer and he decided to join us. He proceeded to talk at us for the next hour which helped to speed up time a bit, but left us rather irritated since he was super opinionated (about EVERYTHING) and we just wanted to enjoy our smoothies.

The very steep and windy road up to the tower.

We walked back to the Towers and it was finally time to go up! It's a very slick operation with loads of personnel around telling you what to do. Everyone who has booked a tour for the same time is given a coloured lanyard. This helps to identify the groups so that people don't stay up in the observation decks for longer than allowed. We caught a very big elevator up to the Skybridge which is on the 41st and 42nd floors. This connects the two buildings together and adds support for the structures. The bridge has two levels, the lower storey is the observation deck and the upper part is used for people who work in the buildings - to move between them. It had been raining, so we couldn't get too many nice snaps as the windows were all misted up.

The park where we spent most of our day.

Next, we were lead to another elevator which took us all the way to the top of the tower, to the Observation Deck (360 meters above the ground!). Here we were met with a magnificent view of the city and an absolutely beautiful sunset. We were also able to see the spire of the other tower up close. Here, the raindrops helped us to get some beautiful photos.

The towers look absolutely magical at night. It's hard to believe that they're real. They have a magical glow about them, and are mesmerizing to look at.

For dinner, we went to Bukit Bintang which is a street market featuring local foods. Loads of people online recommended it, and it had a great atmosphere with lanterns above the street and loads of local singers milling around. We had a variety of skewers as well as some grilled pork. However, overall we were very underwhelmed by the food that we ate and the options that we saw on the menus. Maybe it was because we've had similar food in Vietnam that was amazing or maybe we just chose the wrong options. It was also very expensive for what we got. So, we made our way back to our hotel and stopped off at our favourite restaurant for some chicken and the most amazing naan bread we have ever had! This meal was certainly value for money and absolutely delicious.

Frog for dinner anyone?

An assortment of skewers.

Grilled pork

Awesome chicken and the most amazing naan!

If you ever go to KL, this restaurant is a must!