KL - Blogabond

We left our rainforest retreat and headed on a bus, then a coach to KL. After 7 hours on the bus/coach we arrived!
The taxi driver told us we arrived at the right time as they were having the last night celebrations for the Chinese new year with party and free food!

The Hotel we checked into was meant to have views of the Petronas towers, I guess it would have if there wasn't another building in the way!!
We headed out to the town - there was a really long table with food on, so we had a try! I think the forst mouthful was shredded ginger and really hot, so didn't go much on it!!
Walked around a bit more and saw a dragon dance!
We went into an Irish bar to have a drink and try the Guinness out - big mistake! It tasted like it was from a tin and cost about 4.50 pounds!!! So wont be having another one of them.

Managed to see the Petronas towers in the nighttime, but we left the camera in the hotel!

March 4
Up for the free breakfast at the hotel and checked out by midday into a guest house about 100m down the road! Spent time uploading photos and catching up with internet stuff - whilst we waited for the rain as James not wanting to go outside in the sun because its poisonous!!

When the rain came we went outside with our umbrellas!We bought a new SIM card for the phone as the one we've got doesn't seem to be working! This seemed to take ages cos the woman we bought it off didn't speak english and we needed to register it with her so had to wait with her whilst this happened!
We could then phone people and book stuff! We booked an elephant sanctuary tour and 3 days diving on a tiny Island that isn't even on the map in the lonely planet book!!

We finished the day off going into town and having a couple of pizzas.

March 5
Had our free breakfast - only toast and tea this morning.
Our plan for today was meant to be going up the Petronas Towers, but we found out from the guy at the guesthouse that it isn't open on Mondays! So instead we still walked to the towers, and kept on going to find the perfect spot for a picture without other skyscrapers blocking the view - there are so many of them here. And boy we walked for ages in the sweltering heat.

Petronas Towers

This was made slightly better by going into the a/c pub and refreshing ourselves with a drink (beer for James and only soft drink for Trace cos they didn't have any Malibu for her cocktail!) She was soon consoled when she bought some new sandals.
The pavements are huge here too - a giant step for me (Trace!) and James keeps slipping off the edge of them - hysterical moments I can tell you!!!

Searching for somewhere to upload photos in this city is also a bit of a nightmare, but we finally found somewhere after the 3rd place of asking.
Trace (me) had hair cut at a place for RM12, plus got a free comb - the woman didn't speak any english but kinda got the gist - although I now think her vision was a bit off as the right side is slightly longer than the left, oh well what do you expect for 2 quid!
After the thunderstorm which went on whilst we were in internet cafe we decided to go for something to eat -then realised it was midnight - no wonder we were hungry! But it didn't matter all the restaurants are still serving food and busy. We had Shark fin and crab soup for starter - a local delicacy and delicious!

March 6
We were met early by our guide for today - Winston. He took us by a/c van to a set of caves with a temple in - Batu caves. Took lots of photos of monkeys as they were all over the place. Trace had a coconut to drink.

Winston took us to a little village for a chinese lunch, where we had pigs trotters, wild boar, steamed egg all served with rice and chinese tea.
Next stop was the elephant sanctuary. We had to watch a video for half an hour about them saving elephants, before we could actually meet the real ones! All the ones we saw were orphans and we met 6 of them, plus 3 babies. They had a shower as they were all dusty. We then got to feed them melon, papaya and banana all with skins on - either by giving it to their trunk or placing it into their mouth - which was really slimy!

We then had a very short ride on one of the larger elephants (she is 69 years old - apparently they only live to 70!!) They skin was wrinkly and hairy.
The elephants then went for a bathe in the river. We got to ride the elephant again and get thrown off into the water - excellent! We then had a bit of fun with the baby elephants (6 months old), playing and splashing them in the river - ahhh!

Elephant dunking us in the river

March 7
It was an early start (for us) leaving the guesthouse at 7.30am and walking to Petronas Towers to get tickets for the sky bridge. When we got there a few more people had the same idea. We had to queue for about 1 hour, then wait around until we were called to watch a video and go up to the 41st floor (took 40 seconds in the lift!). We were then allowed on the sky bridge for 10 minutes - good job we didn't pay, cos after all that waiting we only had 10 minutes!! But we still managed to take a few more piccies.
We spent the rest of the day - afternoon and early evening travelling by bus once again from the west coast of Malaysia to the east coast - Kuala Dungun.

written by

James & Tracey on March 3, 2007 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

from the travel blog: James & Tracey World Tour

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Sounds really cool!!

Back at work now, so depressed and wanting to get back to the travelling - lucky buggers!

Have fun!

Megan

written by Megan Hunt on March 7, 2007

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