WARNING: Longest (best) entry yet - last day in KL - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Where I stayed
Hotel 1915, Masjib Jamek, Kuala Lumpur
What I did
Batu Caves Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur Bird Park
Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower
Petronas Twin Towers Kuala Lumpur
Atmosphere360 Revolving Restaurant @ Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower
So, the time had arrived and it was my very last full day in Asia. Emma and I had a very busy day planned, hence a whole new blog entry just for today! 4 main things occurred:
1. Visit to Batu Caves
2. Visit to KL Bird Park
3. Dinner at Atmosphere 360 Revolving Restaurant in the KL Tower
4. Night out with a friend of a friend in some of the most surreal bars and clubs I have ever been to!!!
The Batu Caves were as fantastic as the hype suggested. Well worth the visit, made so much easier by the metro line that extends north of the KLCC to stop right outside the caves themselves. A 42.7-metre high gold statue of Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war and victory, towers above the steps beneath the entrance to the Batu Caves. It is the world's tallest statue of Murugan, which took 3 years to construct and is fantastic to behold. Painting the concrete and steel statue gold required 300 litres of paint brought in from Thailand. Thank you very much, Wikipedia :)
The 272 concrete steps up to the cave entrance are split into three sections - we were warned that the middle is best because it suffers least from macaque attacks! The cheeky little monkeys steal food, water bottles, anything hanging loose that you can't hang on to. I have a pretty amazing photo of one of them clutching and drinking from a full bottle of water - cheeky bugger. Or not so full as it had drunk the contents by biting a hole in the top! Will make sure I post it up on here. We managed to make it up the steps unscathed by the primates and thankfully with all our possessions intact!
The caves themselves are spectacular. Huge caverns in the limestone, such as the largest named Temple Cave, reach tens of metres high at their tallest. There is a temple right inside the main cave, where Hindus could be seen worshipping. The site is the most popular Hindu pilgrimage site outside of India. I felt privileged to have been able to visit. After purchasing the obligatory religious string bracelet (didn't get it blessed by the guru because I had already had one blessed by the Buddhist priest at Angkor Wat - don't want to double the luck and turn it into bad luck!) we made it past the monkeys again and headed towards destination no.2 via the henna stand! I got a beautiful peacock piped onto my hand and wrist in henna just outside the Batu Caves. Last day, why the hell not!
The Bird Park was a little more difficult to find.. After navigating a dual carriageway, the KL National Museum and the National Planetarium we finally found our destination! This was also fantastic. The Bird Park consisted of the largest free-flight walk-in aviary! It was like a huge birds cage that we were allowed into, as there were birds flying all around us! Some special/larger/more dangerous breeds such as the ostrich and emu were in enclosures but most were free flying - it was quite strange! There were pelicans, flamingos, peacocks, many many storks flapping around, wonderful hornbills, parrots, macaws, ibis', parrots, owls... everything! There was even a bird photo booth, where you could choose up to two birds to have them sit on your arms, legs or shoulders to have a photo! Very funny.. Saw an Indian family with about 8 random birds sitting all over them!! Hilarious. Photo to follow. Unfortunately we didn't do this but we have photos of others! Having a wander round was great, but we stopped at 3.30 for the Bird Show. Very funny again, lovely Malaysian girl was hosting with macaws slipping down slides and playing memory games. We had a laugh at it with our Turkish friend, whom we had picked up on our way round. He was loving our chat ;)
Swift taxi back to the hotel allowed us maximum getting-ready time for our extravagant 400-metre-high dinner date! Our slot was 6.30-8.30pm - perfect to catch the sunset as well as the wonderful city lights at night. Arriving at Menara KL Tower and being whizzed up to the "second floor" at 400+ metres up was amazing. The central cylinder stayed static as well as the outer rim, but the strip in between with the tables and chairs was rotating at quite a rate! We managed to get two views of the Twin Towers during our 2 hour slot - one in daylight, one at twilight! The way the restaurant was laid out meant that the buffet in the central cylinder stayed still, so we got used to getting our food when the display was closest to our table! And finding our table if we'd gone to the toilet or took a photo.. because it was always moving away! The buffet was divine. Fresh seafood, curries, roasted meat, fish, pasta, soup, dessert.. it had everything! Free tea and coffee was a huge bonus too! I would highly highly (please excuse my wonderful pun) recommend this restaurant! The views are unparalleled.Looking down into swimming pools atop skyscrapers is something quite extraordinary! And the excellent view of the Twin Towers blew me away. I think they must be one of my favourite pieces of architecture. At about 9pm we made our way down to earth (not literally.. as you're about to read)... to meet our friend (of a friend) Ken. He lives in KL and was willing to "show us around". Amazing. Nothing like chilling with a local.
Picking us up in his slick BMW was Ken and his pal, Eng. We had no idea what to expect from this friend-of-a-friend-who-we-had-met-for-t he-first-time-only-3-days-ago.. where was the night going to take us?! Driving somewhere and parking at what looked like some dodgey hotel, we had arrived at our first destination: the Heli Lounge Bar. HELL YES! This was on something like the 40th floor and was a bar with a helipad. A HELIPAD?!?! Omg. So we ordered drinks and took the next few flights of stairs up to the top. I will never forget walking out onto the helipad, feeling on top of the world, and seeing the KL Tower on one side of usand the Petronas Twin Towers on the other. I was absolutely blown away. So so surreal. We would never have known this place existed if it wasn't for Ken, who we met by pure chance when I bumped into a friend from school in the street! How strange the world works sometimes.
Stop 2 was Marini's on 57. Marini's is located on the 57th floor of the 3rd Petronas Tower - this really was the playground for the rich and famous. The view of the Twin Towers was amazing - as we were half way up them ourselves! We shared a "Flaming Lambo" - what I can only describe as a glorified purple rain, for anyone reading who knows of the disgusting snort-the-gas-after-burning-the-alcohol drink served at one of Aberdeen's least classy establishments, Priory. I don't even know how much it cost in Marini's... Thank you Ken and Eng! As we went for one drink in each place, our next stop was the Skybar at Trader's Hotel. This was seriously impressive! A full size swimming pool in this +30th floor bar!!! Wtf?! One drink in here was enough because by this time it was club time....
Zouk happened! After a dodgey drive (taxi TAXI next time) we parked up in another hotel parking lot (complete with valeting service..again) and headed to one of KL's best nightclubs! After sneaking a cheeky RM50 to the bouncer, apparently we were in! Literally hanging out with Malaysian royalty.. big love to Eng. By this point we were quite merry.. dancing happened and shots happened. The rest does not need explaining.
A genuine roadblock halted our progress towards Malaysian 4am night out food. At 12 that night (technically morning of 8th August) the Muslim community (about 40% of KL) was celebrating Hari Raya - i.e. the end of the month of Ramadan! It was completely bizarre - whole families were out shopping at the street markets as if it was midday! I couldn't believe it. We made it through and got dropped off finally at our hotel. 4.30am - phew! Flight at 10am, no biggie. So I finished packing, checked in online, and by which time it was 5.15am. Any chance of a 6.15am wake-up call concierge? Laughed in my face. But still.. one hour of sleep was quite necessary!
Probably one of wildest nights of my life. And certainly the most random and surreal. I've noticed this a couple of times whilst travelling - things like this, that seem so crazy and unlikely, do sometimes happen! You will probably but into someone you know, no matter where you are! The six degrees of separation has never been more appropriate.. Quite depressing in some ways, but we got an absolutely AMAZING night out of it this time so I'm happy!
Made my flight from KLIA, whilst Emma went to LCCC (Low cost carrier terminal) for her domestic-to-Indochina flight to Bangkok. Going our separate ways at KL Sentral metro station was a sad sad time.
Plane back was fairly uneventful, the most eventful part was the fact that I actually made it!! A young mother and her crying baby sitting down next to me, however, did initially shatter my hopes of a peaceful plane ride. A 13-hour flight on one hour's sleep was daunting enough on its own... Thankfully the Dad gave me his seat across the aisle and I was left in peace to fester the flight away.
Emotional reunion with Helen at Heathrow duely occurred - was happy to be home! Would have loved to have gone on for a couple of weeks longer but a. I had completely run out of money (so so inevitable, although I do not regret any of my fantastical Asian purchases), and b. I have a new flat to move into and some rocks to collect! Hello reality!
Last post from me regarding actual travel folks! Next one includes musings and random thoughts collected during my trip :) Enjoy!
Alice
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