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Hi
After our last journal entry and on arrival in Kuala Lumpur, we checked into our hotel and headed out into Chinatown to explore - it was certinaly a culture shock. We thought we'd become quite used to the asian way of lie but this was something else. The streets were packed with market stalls selling clothes, bags, shoes etc but also food that we've never seen before and quite honestly never want to see agin. It was so busy and frantic. The books and websites that we'd looked on before hand say that Chinatown gives you a taste of how malaysians used to live and in some parts still do, so it was good to experience, for the rest of that evening we sat in our bar in amonsgst all the action and sat stunned trying to take it all in.
The next morning we were quite keen to see KL Centre to see the other side of Malaysia and so we headed straight to the train station to KLCC - Kuala Lumpur City Centre. As soon as you step off the train you enter a big shopping mall called Suri. Its five floors of shops which seems to go on forever. I've never seen so many shops in all of my life. For those of you that have been to Lakeside & Bluewater times that by five or six!!
After looking around the shops and the rest of the complex which also includes restaurnats, a science centre, aquarium, concert hall and several cinemas, we went to find two of KL's tallest landmarks. The first we came to was The Petronas Twin Towers which is situated alongside the shopping mall. You can take a lift up to the 42nd floor where there is a sky bridge which is open to the public and they give out 1,000 tickets daily, unfortunately by the time we got there the tickets were all gone (they go within 2 hours!), however we wree told hat the KL Sky Tower gives much better views and so we headed up there.
Menaras Sky Tower rises to 421m and is the citys communications tower. The lift takes 55 seconds to get to the observatory and has fantastic views of the city. The tower is the 4th tallest in the world after Candas, Russias and Chinas towers.
The rest of the day was spent walking around KL Park and cooling off in the paddling pool!
The next day we were keen to get out of the city and so we went to Batu Caves which is a 45 minute bus ride out of the city. Batu Caves are set in limestone cliffs in amongst the forst. The caves used to be a hideout for anti-japenese communists but today its been transformed into a hindu shrine. To get to the entrance of the caves we had to climb the 272 steps which was quite an effort in the humidity. We did of course have to stop a few times to admire the monkeys running up and down the stops (or was it to catch our breath back!) Once at the top we spent an hour exploring the caves, dodging the bats and trying to keep away from the man trying to put snakes round our necks! We were told that during the months of January and February 500,000 Hindus visit the caves to ask for forgiveness for their sins and punish themselves by piercing various parts of their bodies with skewers and hooks! I wouldn't fancy walking up those steps in amongst 500,000 people!
Once we'd reached the bottom of the steps, which was much quicker than reaching the top, we decided to find somewhere to eat, the choices were curry, curry or curry, so we went for the curry option! We were a little dubious walking into the restaurantas we weren't sure about the food, but we were pleasantly surprised and would say its once of the nicest meals we've had since leaving the UK.
When we got back to Chinatown that evening, we'd better try a typical malaysian meal before we left; fried rice with shrimp and peas, chicken satay, pineapple and cucumber - interesting. It was edible put it that way!!
Today (Saturday) we're taking the train down to Singapore which takes somewhere on the region of 8 hrs.
Although we didn't see much of Malaysia we'll be glad to move on now - its not a patch on Thailand where the people are so friendly and can't do enough for you!
Hope everyone is ok and looking forward to Christmas. We'd love to see some Christmas pics if anyone has chance to take any during the festivities!
Off to catch the train now. Take care
Claire & Andy xxxxxxx
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