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Kuala Lumpur (Friday27th Feb - Monday 2nd March)
Arrived in KL Friday afternoon after a 7 hour train journey from Singapore. We travelled first class on Malaysian Railways. I hate to think what conditions were like in the other classes. We stayed in the Swiss Garden hotel in the Golden Triangle ! area of the city.
We did our usual Sightseeing tour round the city - not one of the better ones as the audio guides did not seem to work too well, we missed some of the sights and the air conditioning was crap. We stopped off at the Petronas Twin Towers which used to be the tallest building in the world until 5 years ago. Strangely you are only allowed to go to the 43rd floor which is only half way up. Also odd is that the tickets are free but are given away on a first come first served basis so if you are not there by 9.30 am you have missed your chance. Fortunately a few bus stops further on you come to the KL Tower which is not so high but gives great views of the city.
On our second day we took a half day tour of the Lake Gardens area which includes a Butterfly park (boring), an Orchid Garden (not in same class as one in Singapore) and an Aviary where 160 species of mainly Asian birds fly freely under an enormous canopy. That was a bit more interesting especially the Love Bird that kept sitting on my head. On our final day we did a short walking tour of the Colonial district recommended by our bible the Lonely Planet. The walk was going well until the accident. I was engrossed in my map and didn't see the old couple on the scooter who had stopped at a junction. I walked right into them and knocked them to the ground. They seemed more surprised than angry and fortunately were not injured. However if Gwen had been a little more quick thinking (instead of trying to stifle her laughter) a photo of the couple lying on the ground next to their scooter would have been good for the blog.
As far as eating out is concerned we have not been very adventurous this week (pizza, steak and fish and chips !) however on our last evening we did go to an excellent local restaurant (Bijan) and had some typical Malaysian dishes such as Rendang Daging (beef curry) and Keruptan Daging ( beef stew) - too much detail !? and very good value for money(100 ringgits or £20 in real money)
To me KL seems like a poor man's Singapore. It is similar in many ways - the same mix of Malay, Indian and Chinese cultures, lots of high rise flats, shopping malls and skyscrapers but it is not as clean and organised or as wealthy as its neighbour to the south. Another similarity that did make me feel a little uncomfortable was that although they are both democracies, criticism of the government is not welcomed and there seems to be an ongoing debate about what you can and cannot say in the various media. One big difference is that Singapore has no royal family whereas Malaysia have 9 !! They take it in turn to "rule" the country changing every 5 years.
Finally although I find it hard to believe, according to the people that run this travel site, our blog has received so far over 30,000 hits !! I had assumed that this blog would be read by a few family and friends like yourself but unless you are all looking at the blog 100 times a week or there has been some kind of computing error (quite possible) then there must be an awful lot of people I don't know out there reading this rubbish. If there are please identify yourself and leave a message
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