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Other entries in Kuala Lumpur

KL-MONKIES, I HATE EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The trip from the Cameron Highlands was easy, it was a big Super VIP bus which dropped me off at the main bus station in KL. I headed to a guest house just around the corner. It wasn't the best place in the world, in fact, there wasn't alot going for it. The only good thing was the roof top garden. It had an amazing view of the city, with he KL tower in the back ground, best of all it had a ready supply of fresh air, open til late and had a TV showing films. A great place to cool down after a day in the city. The bottom of the tower block where it was situated smelt like an ash tray, mainly, because it was, there was a layer of cigarettes on the floor. On the floors higher up, it looked like accomodation for illegal workers, 6 to a room that was big enough for 3.

Kuala Lumpur houses the 4th tallest tower (or the fifth depending on which web site you look at) in the world and the tallest twin towers in the world. To get up the KL Tower was easy, you got a free air con mini bus to the top of the little hill that it was built on and then paid your money, boarded the lift and arrived at the top. Next you had to fight your way through the crowds of school kids and other tourists. Then you were givern an MP4 player and guided around the observation tower and told about the history of KL, the sights to be seen and visited and how the building was built. The tower is 421m high.

To visit the Petronus Towers was abit more of a challenge. You had to cue up to get a ticket. The doors opened at 8.30 in the morning, I made it by 9.30, that being pretty early for me being in traveller mode, and stood in a cue of 200 people. The cue went quickly and half an hour later I was at the front, I choose the last time slot to go and visit the towers, so hopefully all of the city lights would be on. I made it back to the towers for 6.30 that evening and was shown into a cinema theater for a 3-D movie, this was in NO WAY an advertisment for the company, yeah right. Next we had to pass through metal detectors and x-ray machines. The lift whiscked us half way up the 88 storey towers to the bridge that spanned the gap between the two, 54m wide. It was for emergancy evacuation and accsessing the two towers more easily. The views weren't as great as the KL Tower, and after only 5mins we were on our way back down again, but it was free, so you can't really complain. The bridge was situated at 170m and the height if the 2 towers was 452m. At the bottom of the twin towers is a huge shopping mall linking the tow towers together. It contains a Cinema and the Phylamonic Orchestra of Kuala Lumpur, as well as the usual shops and resturants. There was a huge landscaped garden, with a kilometer long running track, play ground, paddling pool and lake with a huge water display in that came to life at night. The Twin Towers came into their own at night. Lit in briliant white with the black sky behind, it was dazziling.

The next day walking around the gardens of the towers I started talking to two Malay women, they said their daughter was going to England to be a nurse, and wondered if I would talk to her about England. As the song from 'The Beach' goes, 'never turn down an invitation and never over stay your welcome.' I jumped in a taxi with them and went back to their house. I met the Dad of the house and some other people. He started talking about poker, he worked as a dealer in the local casinos, the conversation moved on to how the bank, he, could cheat the other players out of money by being in league with one of the other players. He took me upstairs to a room where there was a table set up with cards already laid out. The room had the curtains drawn and bars across the window, that made me slightly worried. Next he started to teach me how to cheat in Poker. I am hopless at cards, and I think I could almost see the look of despiration on his face, when his daughter came into the room, he changed track imideatly, he said that there was a 'Trans sexual stupid Chinese Singaporean' coming to his house to play poker, and all I had to do was pretend to be the daughters fiance, it was pretty clear that they were going to rip him off, or more probably I would end up losing a lot of money. My travellers sixth sense kicked in then and told me, this is getting dodgy, time to leave. Its come into play alot this year, and will be gald when I get home, as his hair has gone grey and falling out. I made my excuses and said that I had to leave, they weren't very happy, but things didn't feel right, they offered me tea, something to eat and the like. They dropped me off at a train staion and I made my way back to the city centre. I guess they thought that having a European in the house might make it look less likely like a rip off was about to start. They obvioulsy haven't watcthed Oceans 11...12.... or 13. The next day in the guest house a Japanese tourist walked in and said the same thing had happened to him, except that he had lots $200. He was walking on the street when some people pulled over in a car and invited him back to their house, he went with them. He ended up playing poker with a girl and 6 blokes, he couldn't leave, and they only let him go when they had releaved him of all of that money. If you are approached in KL, beware, you have been warned.

Merdaka Square is a huge green, just on the edge of the city centre, its surrounded by British built Islamic style buildings, which now house government offices. On the other side of the rectangular green, were black and white buildings, at either end housed the national museum and some gardens. On the morning I went there before heading to Melaka, it must have been the hottest day this year since Luang Prabang in Laos. It must have been in the high 40s, or at least felt like it, and the humidity level was high as well.

The KL Bird Park, the biggest covered aveiry in the world. And it was big. It was a long walk from the guest house but worth it, I had lunch in the Horn Bill resturant whilst watching the caged Horn Bills flying around outside the windows. I headed off for a walk around the aveiry, seeing Pelicans, Flamingos, Ostritch, Emu, Peacocks with the tails out in full display, the first time I have seen that, and Kasawaries. The funny blue headed birds from Aus, looks abit like an Emu, but more stupid. When I was in Aus, the bus drivers said that no end of them were killed by running into the side of buses and lorries. You really must be stupid to run in the side of a bus or lorry, and not infront of it. They aren't excatly small, the sides of buses or lorries.

There are some caves 13km north east of KL central, called 'Batu Caves.' In the huge flat river valley there is a rock out crop where the caves are found. In the tallest of the caves, at 100m high, a Hindu temple can be found. The outside area to the caves is a huge flat car park area, to probably cope with the 1million pilgrimmes that go there during January and Feburary for a festival every year. As well as resturants, souvenir shops and cafes. To get to the caves you have to go up 272 steps to the entrance. At the base of the caves there stands a huge golden statue of a Hindu god. When you reach the top of the steps, the cave opens out in front of you, revealing, a building site for most of the edges of the cave, a huge flat conrete area in the centre, and dotted along the walls, religious figures and temples. That was about it to the cave, there wasn't any smaller caves to go and look around, unless you hired a guide and got permision. So it was time to start heading down. The steps on the way up were covered in more monkies. Aggresive little things that were chasing people that got to close. They were sat on the hand rails up the steps so it was imposssible to avoid them. They were chasing people down the steps, and that meant that they were making the little irritants follow me down the steps as well. Now it wouldn't be so bad if I knew the socials impolitenesses of booting a monkey down the steps with a hefty kick, but seeing as one of the hindu gods, is a monkey, that might get me thrown in jail, with lots of mokies for company. Again some of them would let you take their pictures, and then once in a while they would bare teeth and dive at you.

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