Update 6 - Kuala Lumpur

KL began life as a swampy staging post for Chinese tin miners in 1857 – Kuala Lumpur means, "muddy estuary" in Malay – and blossomed under the competitive rule of pioneering merchants. But as fights over tin concessions erupted across the country, the British used gunboat diplomacy to settle the Selangor Civil War and the British Resident, Frank Swettenham, took command of KL, making it the capital of the state and, in 1896, the capital of the Federated Malay States. Swettenham imported British architects from India to design suitably grand buildings, and thousands of Tamil labourers poured in to build them; development continued steadily through the first quarter of the twentieth century. The Japanese invaded in December 1941, but although they bombed the city, they missed their main targets. Following the Japanese surrender in September 1945, the British were once more in charge in the capital, but Nationalist demands had replaced the Malays' former acceptance of the colonizers, and Malaysian independence – Merdeka – finally came in 1957.

Now KL has a population of approx 2M. Malaysia’s population is made up of Indian, Chinese and Malay.

We arrived in KL on Saturday 5^th December night and went for an exploratory walk. Couldn’t wait to see the Petronas Twin Towers at night! KL was buzzing and we walked up Jalan Alor (‘jalan’ means street although some of the Jalans should be classed as mortorways!), well known for its outdoor hawkers food stalls. 

Saturday Night KL top of Jalon Alor looking at monorail

The majestic Petronas Twin Towers avec sky bridge

Whoops fell over..

The following day we were up early to visit the Menara KL (‘menara’ means tower) it is another radio/tv tower – many of these across Asia and we won’t waste any time getting up as many as possible! Menara KL was built in 1995 and reaches 421 metres and is currently the 5^th tallest in the world. 2^nd tallest in Asia after the Oriental Pearl in Shanghai (done it!) giving fantastic views over KL…

Menara KL from the Orchid Gardens

View from Menara KL looking down on skyscrapers

KL landscape with palm laden hills in the distance

Traditional Malay dancers at Menara KL

 

Stef and I did the 'Flying Fox' cable run at Menara KL

Silly hats were obligatory for the Flying Fox

Our tickets to ascend the tower also gave us access to an F1 simulated drive around the KL motor circuit and access to the small zoo. The 2 laps around KL motor circuit were excellent and I’m sure I won my race! The small zoo was a shock to say the least, especially for someone who is afraid of all creatures great and small!

Stef -  'The Monkey woman' 

Nit picking

Little nibble on the ear

 

One BIG python - and there were plenty more..

 

So what does Stef do?

Half of the animals were out of their cages and those that weren’t looked extremely dangerous. I was glad to get out of there alive. Unlike Stef the snake and monkey woman!

You lookin' at me? 

 

Tired after eating a small crocodile

In the afternoon (from 2-8pm) we did an organised tour of KL by mini bus seeing The Palace of Malay Rajas, Dataran Merdeka Square (once a focal point and cricket pitch replicating Tudor England) it was at this square that the Union Jack was lowered in 1957 and the Malaysian flag hoisted signifying their independence as a nation – the 95M flag pole is one of the tallest in the world. We also saw the National mosque, Batu limestone caves and many other tourist spots. Our guide was David Marshal ‘a font of Malaysian history’ (he seemed to blame me for the British handing Malaysia back in 1957...) – none the less a very good guide!

Palace of Malay Rajas - now the Kings' residence

  Men in skirts

The old Railway Station

Merdeka Square complete with Cricket pitch and mock Tudor buildings

Merdeka Square with large flagpole

 

We visited the pewter factory - Royal Selangor

We visited the Hindu shrines at Jalan Batu Caves

There are 272 steps to the caves/shrines

 

Impressive gallery non?

Stef takes a coconut break

Night draws in on Batu Caves 

This guy asked to have his picture taken with me.. I don't even look famous!

I know we say this in every blog, but the people were incredibly friendly. People would just stop you in the street and their first question would always be 'Where are you from?' - the correct answer of course is London. This made them happier and in awe. Street vendors would shout hello at you (or at least I think that's what they said). We saw very few westerners on the streets, which obviously made us even more exotic.  

Day 2 we went on another organised tour, this time to Malacca (100 miles away on the coast), again with David Marshall. I’ve created a separate blog update 7 for this.

Day 3 was my birthday and after a hectic couple of days we struggled to get up to be at the Petronas towers for 08:00 to pickup one of the free 1,200 tickets for the sky bridge that day. So when we arrived at 11am to the ticket desk where people were being continually turned away, I decided on a different tactic... 'It's my birthday' and then became a nuisance! It worked! The ticket lady shook my hand and said wait in the other room. After 5 minutes of this I continually showed my face in front of her until she said ok you can go on the 11:30 visit!  Some quick facts: Petronas towers are 88 storeys, 452M tall has 29 double-decker high speed lifts and the footprint for the towers is based on simple Islamic geometric forms of 2 interlocking squares to create the shape of 8-pointed stars. They were officially opened in Aug, 1999.

25 people allowed on each visit to the sky bridge - I was 1st!

Proof! 

Featured in the film 'Entrapment'

Taken from the 33rd Floor of Traders Hotel

Afterwards we had lunch on 33rd floor of Traders hotel overlooking Petronas towers/park. Then we took the monorail to the Orchid gardens and Museum of Malaysia. We saw plenty of monkeys beside the road!

A Gharry from 1910 Melacca at Museum of Malaysia

Monkeys eating bananas just down from Orchid Garden

Day 4 we just had the morning before getting a death defying taxi to the airport. So we walked to the soon to be demolished Jalan Hang Tuah prison and took too many pictures to publish here - I had to 1st get permission from the site foreman who only wanted to know where i was from - the password was of course London! Then we walked down to China town, Little India and Central Market area only for Stef to pull one final stunt..

Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque

Guess where?

China Town

Stef's final stunt!

A famous central mosque

And that was it. Our flight with Malaysian airways was delayed an hour due to technical difficulties hmm.. We eventually boarded the plane and waited a further 50 minutes. Once we finally got on our way, after 20 minutes the pilot announced a problem with the navigation equipment and could everyone ensure all phones, laptops and electrical equipment was switched off. A further 40 minutes later and he came on again and urged 'for the safety of all passengers on the flight please switch off any electrical equipment as the navigation was still playing up'. We arrived 2 ++ hours later with our stomachs in our mouths, landing at Chep Lap Kok, HK (nowhere else!) - home safe!

See blog update 7 for our day in Malacca