Malaysia Part dua (2)
Day 3 of Malaysia
fun-times and I was up at 5am to meet Emma who had just got the
overnight bus down to Kuala Lumpur from Dungun. So we tried to watch
the sunrise, but there were buildings in the way, so we got coffee
and croissants and sat/swam up on the roof for a few hours.
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| Sunrise, happening just behind the big building. |
Later on we regrouped
and headed off towards Dataran Merdeka to check out some of KL's
sites, museums and visit the Petronas Towers.
We took a whistle-stop
walking tour of KL, starting at the oldest Mosque in the city, Misjid
Jamek (Jamek Mosque), unfortunately it was closed to visitors due to
maintenance work, but looked beautiful from the outside so is
definitely on my list of places to go next time. Then from the bridge
heading towards the Dataran Merdeka (independence square) we got a
brilliant view of the two rivers that give Kuala Lumpur its name.
Ready for the fun fact?
Kuala Lumpur means “Muddy Confluence”. The confluence in question
is of the meeting of rivers Klang and Gombak.
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Misjid Jamek
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| The river confluence. Putting the K in KL |
A little walk later and
we found ourselves at the Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square) and
the KL City Gallery. In the Gallery there is a wonderful display
about the History of KL and Malaysia, from colonial times to when
they received their independence on 1957 and the development of
the city. Make sure you go upstairs to the model city presentation,
it is incredible and keep in mind that this cost us just 5MRY (so
about £1) it is totally worth that just for the model city lightshow
presentation thing.
Once we had bought out postcards and fridge
magnets from the gift shop we continued with our walking tour around
Dataran Merdeka, and after a wonder found ourselves in at the Central
Market and then Chinatown. It was hot sweaty and full of cheap/fake
perfumes and designer handbags, but I did manage to find some pretty
funky trousers and a fan (the best 12MRY I spent al holiday
-seriously it's hot so get a fan!). You do have to haggle, which I
found daunting but also really fun, and you should try some of the
street food. We grabbed some Putu Bamboo (a cake like thing made from
rice flour, sugar, pandan leaf and coconut) and Rambutans (a small
fruit).
While that was great
fun, the real treat of the day was heading up to the Petronas Twin Towers. Fun fact number two... Until 2004 they were to tallest
buildings in the world and remain the tallest twin towers!
Once we (finally)
found the entrance to head up to the towers, via a mall (hint hint
KL.. so more signage would be super handy) we were soon up on the
bridge, which is a mere 41 floors up, with some incredible views.
Then we jumped back in the lift and headed up to the 86th
Floor for some evne better views and the beginning of sunset. This is
when my camera began to run out of power and my spare batteries were
in my bag, which you have to leave downstairs (boo), but its just
another excuse to go back to KL again – more photos, haha!
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| 41 Floors Up |
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| 86th Floor Sunset |
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| Petronas Towers by night |
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| Little India again. |
Day 4 and our last day
in KL (Big Sad face)
There was only three of
us as Jo had to head back to Hanoi early morning, so we began the
day, like proper grown ups, with cheesecake for breakfast before
heading to The National Park. Our major challenge of the day was
crossing 4 lanes of traffic to get to the park (as someone who hate
crossing roads anyway, this was utterly terrifying, but we made it
and we didn't die, whoop!)
We headed for the bird
park but on route found an observatory.
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| Observing |
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| Mini Stonehenge |
The bird park was great
and it was really awesome to get up close to the birds and not have
them all in cages, it was less fun being pooed on by a bird! (yes
that happened and yes it was gross, but you've got to get your good
luck somehow right?) It was also a lot bigger than anticipated and
took up most of our day! We saw Hornbills, Flamingos, Parrots,
Pigeons with great feather styles, Storks and so pretty angry Milky
Storks being fed, and plenty of others I don't know the names of. We
also headed to the deer park, which in comparison was a total
disappointment, all the deer we saw were in cages, with the only
animal free to roam was a monkey.
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| This may or may not have been the bird that pooed on us! |
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| Pigeon |
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| Hornbill |
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| Angry Stork |
With that we headed back, popped to
the shops, a quick dip in the pool, ate a lot of Sushi and then took
Emma back to the bus station for her overnight bus back to Dungun, I'm
pretty sure you can guess where Jenny and I ended our last day in
Kuala Lumpur.....
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