Getting In
The coach to Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is known by most here) was not as exciting as that to Melaka. As I said, Melaka coach station is a little further out of the city than it should be, and so a separate bus journey is needed (and Melaka is small) to a charmless shopping mall style station.
Once I got to KL, I got the train from the integrated (at last!) bus/train station but it was very unclear which way to go and you could not just buy a ticket and board. Anyway, got to the monorail[1] from KL Sentral to the station for my hotel. In all honesty, I got a little lost and had a break to get some lunch. A good lunch of curry in what appeared to be another type of Little India.
Once I dropped my bags off, I had only one place that I knew - the Petronas Twin Towers. It was hot, it was humid but luckily there was a covered walkway with air conditioning pretty much all the way there. It felt a little insulated but it did the job. And there was at least quite a lot of humanity joining me.
It was too late to go up the tower but at least I knew what to do the next day - come back here pretty early to get tickets. rz2[2] had told me a bit about KL and mentioned a great bookshop - which I assumed was Kinokuniya [link] (from business trips, though I'd imagine she is a heavier reader than me, definitely seemed that way). I was right and so I checked it out - it was quite nice to see such a large bookshop and on top of that, it reminded me of large Japanese bookshops. There was not a great deal for me to do so, after a quick walk around the area of the hotel and a bite to eat, I returned to my hotel knowing that I would need to get out fairly early the next morning to get the Petronas Tower booked.
The second day with sightseeing included
The next morning, I was out fairly early to get a ticket for a 6pm ish viewing so that I could get the sunset. Now I had to decide where to go before that...
Batu Caves was a little out of town and, in its feel for the journey only, reminded me of Ueltiberg [link]. It should give better views than that though purely because of the weather. Batu Caves is a limestone hill that contains series of caves and Hindu temples within the complex. The most obvious feature is the huge gold statue next to the long flight of stairs. As you approach from the train station, it towers above you (side-on) but my eyes caught the monkeys, monkeying around, more than anything else.
The temples are within the limestone caves and so it is fairly dark and damp in there. As a result, the caves are quite cool inside and not that busy (though this may have been timing). There were more monkeys inside and it was pretty spectacular in the caves, though a fair bit of rubbish left around on the ground did take away from it a bit. I didn't stick around for ages and got the train back. Interestingly, my fare back was twice the price as it is subsidised on the way to the caves (it was still cheap either way).
Once back into the centre, I had some time to kill before my plans with the tower so I wondered what to do as I wandered. I found myself at KL tower - the not quite as impressive as it once was old centre point. I went and had a look around but not up.
Rather fortuitously, I went into the shopping centre near my hotel and found a mini model mecha exhibition. That was a nice surprise. I think some elements of Japanese culture have travelled successfully in Asia and anime exports fairly easily. I hear it is even popular in the west in certain circles.
I made my way to the twin towers along the same walkway as before (third time now) and decided to have a look around in the daytime and the night time after.
The weather wasn't great but the view was still exceptional. I'd timed it pretty well so saw the sun setting and the city lighting up. That was always one of my (rare) pleasures in Tokyo from TMGB.
After that, I was ready to return so I did to go out for some dinner with TC[3] who had now arrived from Melaka. As she had been to, and through, KL a few times before, we went somewhere she had been before for a spot of dinner and some "atmosphere". A good dinner and a fitting end.
The coach to Kuala Lumpur (or KL as it is known by most here) was not as exciting as that to Melaka. As I said, Melaka coach station is a little further out of the city than it should be, and so a separate bus journey is needed (and Melaka is small) to a charmless shopping mall style station.
Once I got to KL, I got the train from the integrated (at last!) bus/train station but it was very unclear which way to go and you could not just buy a ticket and board. Anyway, got to the monorail[1] from KL Sentral to the station for my hotel. In all honesty, I got a little lost and had a break to get some lunch. A good lunch of curry in what appeared to be another type of Little India.
It was too late to go up the tower but at least I knew what to do the next day - come back here pretty early to get tickets. rz2[2] had told me a bit about KL and mentioned a great bookshop - which I assumed was Kinokuniya [link] (from business trips, though I'd imagine she is a heavier reader than me, definitely seemed that way). I was right and so I checked it out - it was quite nice to see such a large bookshop and on top of that, it reminded me of large Japanese bookshops. There was not a great deal for me to do so, after a quick walk around the area of the hotel and a bite to eat, I returned to my hotel knowing that I would need to get out fairly early the next morning to get the Petronas Tower booked.
The second day with sightseeing included
The next morning, I was out fairly early to get a ticket for a 6pm ish viewing so that I could get the sunset. Now I had to decide where to go before that...
Batu Caves was a little out of town and, in its feel for the journey only, reminded me of Ueltiberg [link]. It should give better views than that though purely because of the weather. Batu Caves is a limestone hill that contains series of caves and Hindu temples within the complex. The most obvious feature is the huge gold statue next to the long flight of stairs. As you approach from the train station, it towers above you (side-on) but my eyes caught the monkeys, monkeying around, more than anything else.
Once back into the centre, I had some time to kill before my plans with the tower so I wondered what to do as I wandered. I found myself at KL tower - the not quite as impressive as it once was old centre point. I went and had a look around but not up.
Rather fortuitously, I went into the shopping centre near my hotel and found a mini model mecha exhibition. That was a nice surprise. I think some elements of Japanese culture have travelled successfully in Asia and anime exports fairly easily. I hear it is even popular in the west in certain circles.
The weather wasn't great but the view was still exceptional. I'd timed it pretty well so saw the sun setting and the city lighting up. That was always one of my (rare) pleasures in Tokyo from TMGB.
After that, I was ready to return so I did to go out for some dinner with TC[3] who had now arrived from Melaka. As she had been to, and through, KL a few times before, we went somewhere she had been before for a spot of dinner and some "atmosphere". A good dinner and a fitting end.
The next day, I was out pretty early to get the KLIA Ekspres train from Sentral again. It was a good service as there was a city air terminal so I could check in and not worry about my bags from the city centre onwards.
The airport, near Sepang, is much like any other modern city airport and shows the direction that Malaysia has set itself. Modern, developed and a bit like the other modern, vertical cities. And that is a debating point in itself...
The airport, near Sepang, is much like any other modern city airport and shows the direction that Malaysia has set itself. Modern, developed and a bit like the other modern, vertical cities. And that is a debating point in itself...
The last leg was in Dubai - was it a holiday destination or just a resting point on the way home?
 |
| Kuala Lumpur - click for photo album |
1. The monorail, interestingly, was heavily sponsored and branded. The line map showed each station with the sponsor's name first and in the graphic part of the map (in my case "Sharp") and when you saw each station, the advertising was massive and quite intrusive. One of the stations was KFC branded and the whole station had KFC adverts inside it - not sure I'd want that in the morning.↩
2. rendezvous 2, met in Singapore↩
3. Travelling Companion↩
2 comments:
Hey Saif,
Interesting blog mate - We're heading to Singers and Malaysia next year so have been noting these entries. One Q - why bus from Sing up to KL and beyond - I've been looking at the train as it's cheap and seems fairly comfortable.
Mike Tayls
How exciting, I've never been BTL!
I didn't get a bus from Singapore, I flew from Singapore to Indonesia. The bus here is the one from Melaka->KL. "on the way to Singapore" in the title refers to the direction of travel for the city of KL - modernity (and I think to be like Singapore is the aim).
I would normally travel by train where possible but in these cases, the train terminal for Penang is on the mainland (not so convenient as a hotel pickup...) and Melaka is not on the train line.
Check out seat61, but there is a train from Singapore (Woodlands)to KL which would probably be quite fun.
Once I have done the Dubai post, I have got a review/evaluation/musings post as these are basically technocratic photo album posts. Well, as technocratic as I can do....
Post a Comment