Because Easter and ANZAC Day fell in the same week this year, we were able to take 3 days off work and have 10 days of vacation! Immediately following our trip to Bali we headed to Kuala Lumpur to spend the ANZAC long weekend. This trip was definitely the tale of extremes! Bali was so rural, beautiful and so contently impoverished; KL, on the other hand, was a dirty, gritty city with the pinnacle of retail. The mall at the based of the Petronis Towers contained shopping like you’d find on Madison Avenue in NYC.
Also, this was our first time in the northern hemisphere since Christmas – it was kind of nice.
The first day, we arrived late in the afternoon and headed straight for the hotel to check-in and get cleaned up. As we exited the elevator, I stopped to look out the window across the hall from our room door. The view was exactly what I had hoped for!
After a couple of happy hour 2-for-1s in the hotel bar, we decided to head toward the Petronas Twin Towers to find dinner and do some night-time viewing. Along the way, we discovered an H&M across the street from a massively impressive shopping center, which we would later take advantage of, with a brightly colored dancing fountain in the courtyard.
The next morning, I woke up to a wonderful view of KL’s residential neighborhoods out my hotel window.
The hotel concierge had given us two options to get tickets to visit the top of the Petronas Twin Towers:
- Get in line before 8:00 AM. Tickets go on sale at 8:30 and there is a line. If you want to visit at a specific time, arrive early.
- Pay the concierge to wait in line for you. It only costs double the ticket price.
We chose option 1 and were in line for tickets before 8:00 AM because we wanted to go up at sunset. After waiting in line for quite a long time, they asked that only 2 (of 5) of us stay in line and the remaining wait elsewhere. It felt like forever, but after getting our tickets and meeting up with the rest of the group, it was really only about 9:15 am. From here, we embarked on a walking tour of Kuala Lumpur.
As we were walking along, we had an excellent view of the Menara Tower.
First stop on our Walking Tour of Kuala Lumpur was the Taman Botani Perdana, but along the way we discovered street lights shaped like hibiscus and beautiful buildings.
Once we saw the hibiscus street lamps, I took a close look at the map and realized there was supposed to be a hibiscus garden along our path. Given that hibiscus are my favorite flower, I decided to keep my eyes peeled.
First up in the Taman Botani Perdana, however, was some art.
Next stop, the National Monument of Malaysia, where it started to down pour on us. We stopped quickly to purchase a couple of umbrellas so that we wouldn’t have to try to share.
From the National Monument, we headed around the back of the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park toward the Hibiscus Garden. As we walked along lightening struck and thunder rumbled in the sky. Naturally, I sang out, “Thunder bolts and lightening VERY VERY FRIGHTENING!” My darlings Jessica and Carrie finished the song with me at the top of our lungs. The locals may have thought we were crazy, but we made the best of the rain.
Just after we finished our song, we spied a monkey hanging out in a tree above the bird park. Do you see him, just in the angle between the net and the tree in the center?
As we searched for the Hibiscus Garden, this sign kept popping up along the side of the road. If they sold them, I may have taken one home with me.
After a while, I stopped to review my map under my umbrella in the pouring down rain and realized that we had somehow walked right past my Hibiscus Garden. We were, however, right on top of an orchid garden, Taman Orkid Kuala Lumpur, so we stopped in for a quick tour. After all, its free on weekdays!
While I love orchids, I think the bright pink plumeria may have been my favorite flower in all of Kuala Lumpur. The smell is tropical, you know?
From the Taman Orkid, we continued winding through the Taman Botani toward the National Mosque of Malaysia: Masjid Negara. We had hoped to go in, but when we arrived they were closed for several hours for afternoon prayers. It was, however, beautiful from the outside.
From the National Mosque, we decided to head for the Central Market for a little shopping. The architecture along the way was beautiful, but there were also some seriously creepy spots. At one point we crossed the river under a bridge near some seriously strung out homeless people torturing cats. I will admit, I was scared. I was also uncomfortable walking along the bus and train station against the flow of human traffic. For the most part though, I was perfectly comfortable.
Finally, after hours of walking in the rain with umbrellas that were so saturated with water that they were beginning to drip through, we arrived at the Central Market. Here we shopped and shopped, purchasing everything from wooden vases to postcards to beautiful bags. We also found a place for lunch and to relax for a while. We found a place to be dry for a while.
As we were preparing to begin the hike back to the hotel, we also began discussing our poor footwear choices. I, for example, was wearing gladiator sandals. My bare feet were soggy, despite spending several hours in the market. I cannot remember who, but one of us proposed a taxi back to the hotel, followed by a nap and then 2-for-1s at happy hour in the hotel bar before heading to the top of the Petronas Towers for sunset. This sounded like an amazing plan to all.
Please note that you may NOT negotiate with the Taxi Drivers (however, they do not use their meters and instead you make a deal before getting into the taxi).
This was our approximate path for our walking tour of KL. While it was only just over 9 km of walking, I would recommend wearing comfortable and supportive shoes!
After resting and a drink, we headed toward the Petronas Twin Towers for our trip to the top. Before we could go up, we watched a hologram give us safety instructions and a brief history.
First stop on the tour, the skybridge at the 41rst floor, which gives a great view of the city! The skybridge is suspended 170 meters in the air by 51 meter legs attached to the 29th floor of each building.
After spending our allotted amount of time in the skybridge, we were herded into an elevator and sent up to the observation deck on the 86th floor, which provided a 360 view of Kuala Lumpur from 360 meters above the ground. Its like going to the top of the Rock or the Empire State Building, but KL’s skyline pales in comparison to NYC. It was, however, AWESOME!
My only complaint about visiting the top of the Petronas Twin Towers would be that the entire experience was quite regimented. As we checked in for our tour, we were given lanyards of a specific color to wear; after approximately 20 minutes on the skybridge, they called for all of the blues to get back into the elevator to head to the observation deck. The same thing happened after 20 minutes on the observation deck – we were again rounded up and made to head back down. I would’ve liked a few more minutes to try to get a complete group shot of us up there. We did, however, get a couple of great photo bombs in the elevator on the way back down.
The next morning, Carrie and Aaron headed for Singapore. Ben, Jess and I stayed in Kuala Lumpur for another day and headed out to the Batu Caves via the train. Riding the train in KL was an interesting experience – there were ladies only waiting areas and cars, but they weren’t really separated from the other areas. As we waited for the train, we sat with Ben on a bench facing the Ladies Only Waiting Area approximately 2 meters away. As we boarded the train, we began reading the rules: No Chewing Gum, No Drinking Beverages of Any Kind and No Making Out.
Taking the train to the Batu Caves is actually quite easy, as it is only 1 train from Kuala Lumpur City Center all the way out to the Caves and the stop that we disembarked at was labeled “Batu Caves.” All information is first communicated in Malaysian and then in English. I would actually say that all of KL is quite English-friendly. I think they get a lot of Australian tourists.
I was pretty excited about the Batu Caves because my tour guide book described the caves as sacred to the Hindu people, which is why they built their temple inside of the caves. I must admit that I was a bit disappointed that there were also souvenir shops in the caves. The whole place is a tourist trap, but if your expectations are set accordingly it’s also pretty cool.
As we arrived from the train, we were first greeted by a giant statue of the green monkey god.
As we moved with the crowd toward the entrance, I stopped to change into my hiking shoes before we climbed the 272 stairs into the caves. As I stood there with only 1 foot in a shoe, someone started feeding the birds; about 100 of them flew past my head!
As we climbed the stairs, we admired the 43 meter tall statue of Murugan and kept an eye on the cheeky monkeys.
Once we arrived in the caves, we understood why this was a sacred place to the Hindu people.
As we exited the Batu Caves, we realized that we’d been missing the view of the city on our way up.
We also stopped by the Dark Caves, but did not take the tour because I am terrified of bats and it smelled very strongly of bat poo!
As we turned away from Dark Cave, we saw this little guy trying for all he was worth to get the cap off of his bottle. Jess tried to demonstrate it for him with her water bottle, but he didn’t get it.
At the bottom of our descend from the Batu Caves, we met this momma and her adorable baby.
After we finished our tour of the Batu Caves, we hopped the train back into the city and got off at the shopping center attached to the Petronas Twin Towers for lunch. After lunch, Ben headed back to the hotel for a nap and Jess and I went a little crazy at that H&M. We had an early flight on Saturday morning, so we decided to lay low with 2-for-1s in the hotel bar. Lucky for us, there was a band!
Kuala Lumpur said goodbye to us with a beautiful sunrise!
While we will likely never visit again, because there are far too many other places in the world to see, Kuala Lumpur was a lovely place to visit.
