Umpa Lumpur

Our timely arrival into Kuala Lumpur’s Purdaya bus station was a pleasant surprise – we can’t remember the last time we were actually on time! A short walk from the bus station took us to our first experience of KL’s varied public transport network – the awesomely futuristic-looking monorail! One stop later and we arrived at Chow Kit, a pretty gritty neighbourhood of mostly Malays and Indians, focussed around a sprawling, lively and atmospheric market. Arriving in the early evening, we were greeted by the smells of sizzling samosas, barbecued corn and the odd stinky drain to bring you back to reality! Our hostel was bizarrely situated on the 4th floor of a run-down office block above a snooker hall – not quite the wow-factor we were hoping for but it’s what’s inside that counts! Sadly it transpired that what lay inside was paper-thin walls, no windows and some less than considerate fellow hostellers – darn! We survived the week at Hostel Cosmopolitan but I’d say it’s understatement of the century to say we’re looking forward to finally staying somewhere clean and quiet where we can maybe sleep 4 or more hours in a row – ahh bliss! Anyway, back in the here and now, we unpacked our trusty rucksacks, grabbed some tasty Malay food and then fought a losing battle with the sleep fairy.

Anorexic Geoff Capes lookalike and Fran prepare to tackle the monorail

First glimpse of the whopping Petronas Towers

Kuala Lumpur has been renowned for a number of years for its excellent shopping and we (especially Fran) were not disappointed – there are huge malls all over the city centre! Most of these are centred around the ‘Golden Triangle’ – a zone packed with malls, restaurants and the odd bar thrown in for good measure (though as Malaysia is predominantly Muslim nation there aren’t many – drinking was forbidden in our hostel). Fran had been looking forward to throwing off the shackles of her limited backpack wardrobe by doing some serious shopping after a taster in Penang (in the sales obviously) and was extremely happy to come across a Topshop in the Pavilion mall – result!

Another equation for you… Fran + Topshop + Sale = Very happy Fran

Some of the malls like the Suria KLCC mall underneath the Petronas Towers are packed with the likes of Gucci, Prada and Armani; even if I’d been inclined to step foot in any of these establishments I’m sure with my current hobo-like appearance security would have been there in moments to evict me from the premises! Loads of street stalls sell pretty convincing rip-offs of most of these labels anyway elsewhere in the city so the majority of people go for the cheaper option! Another of KL’s malls (Low Yat) is dedicated to all things IT – a computer geek’s utopia! I literally have never seen so much computer stuff in one place – 7 jam-packed floors of laptops and gadgets you don’t really need. The not quite kosher computer software stalls from the 1990’s (my dad definitely didn’t use to bring any of this home when he flew trips to KL…) have been replaced with mobile stores selling Chinese copy iPhones, Nokias and my personal favourite – the Blueberry (a Blackberry clone)!

Bright lights (and golden arches) of Bukit Bintang – part of the Golden Triangle

The very snazzy Pavilion shopping centre

After a day of shopping indulgence (I even managed to release some of the moths from my wallet to buy a new pair of running trainers), we got to work on the sightseeing front. No doubt the most memorable structure on KL’s skyline, the awesome Petronas Twin Towers soar into the sunny blue sky like rockets ready for lift-off! Between these two mammoth chrome-clad towers (the tallest twin towers in the world) lies the ‘Skybridge’ – a two-tier bridge connecting the two towers supported by two huge piston-like arms (to allow the bridge to sway freely in the event of high winds or earthquakes). When the towers were completed in 1998, the public weren’t allowed to access any floor of the towers, however 1000 tickets are now released each day to take you to the 41st floor – the lower level of the Skybridge. Our first attempt at getting two tickets proved unsuccessful – we got to the basement ticket office at 8:45am on our third day to find a snaking queue of 500 tired-looking people waiting their turn and a sign saying ‘no more tickets for today’! We returned with a vengeance the following morning at 6:30am and joined the already substantial queue to wait for the ticket office to open at 8:30 – some people had been there since 5am! Having secured our tickets for later in the day we made the most of the morning with the guilty pleasure of a McBreakfast and then headed for KL’s other mammoth structure – the KL Tower. This communications tower actually appears taller than the Petronas Towers as it’s built on a hill and has a commanding view over the whole of Kuala Lumpur and onwards into the hills inland. Though it was completed in 1990, its slightly retro concrete-heavy looks make it appear much older. The lift whisked us to the observation desk in about a minute and as soon as we emerged an audio-guide was thrust at us before we could even catch our breath. The slightly cheesy audio-guide was actually surprisingly informative, if a little laden with tourist board-speak! We probably spent a good 45 minutes mesmerised with the views before heading back home for a well deserved siesta (we were up at 5:45am after all)!

The slightly retro KL Tower from below…

…and the view from the top over the Petronas Towers

View over the ‘Golden Triangle’, including the twin reddy-brown towers of Times Square shopping centre to the right of the picture

Casting a sizeable shadow over the nature reserve below

Our Skybridge booking was for the 6:15pm slot – we got there a bit early and had a look round the tower exhibition. This unfortunately wasn’t all that impressive and took all of 5 minutes so we milled around until our time was called. The first port of call was the movie theatre; red velvet seats and all. The air of excitement in the room was palpable, however once the curtain went up we had to sit through what was effectively Petronas’ corporate PowerPoint presentation from the 90’s – fairly cringeworthy but great fun admiring the 90’s haircuts (I have no place to comment I admit)! Once this was over and we had been relieved of our bags, we entered the big steel box of a lift (no jazz or Haddaway lift music sadly) and 40 of us were shot to the 41st floor in an ear-popping 20 seconds! Once onto the bridge you are only given about 10 minutes to soak up the view but it was pretty impressive nonetheless, especially as the sun was beginning to set and the neon lights were starting to flicker on around the city – magical!

Towers of power

 

Eating virtual popcorn in the movie theatre

View over the KLCC park (where we did a fair few laps of marathon training!)

High smiles!

High handstands!

Sun setting over a hazy day in KL

Whist in KL we also checked out the older areas like Chinatown and Little India (yes, there are Chinatowns and Little Indias pretty much everywhere in Malaysia!). Chinatown is pretty lively, especially around Petaling Street where there is a bustling market selling anything and everything, and mostly cheap and fake! The buildings are predominantly low-rise shop-houses like in the rest of Malaysia, with a fair few Chinese Buddhist temples thrown into the mix to compete for customers with the nearby churches and mosques! Chinatown sits adjacent to the sizeable sky blue and white Art Deco Central Market, built in the late 19th century. The building is now home to a vast number of different craft stores selling not-quite-so-cheap (but probably still fake!) goods for you to fill your suitcase (but definitely not backpack) with!

A snippet of the Dutch style near Chinatown

Heaving Petaling Street

Unfortunately-named jewellers

 

Retro buildings!

Fran by the Central Market

A little bit of Little India

Across the river from Chinatown lies the old colonial core of Kuala Lumpur. Sitting around what is now Merdaka Square (merdaka means ‘independence’ – the Union Jack was poignantly lowered here on 31st August 1957) lie numerous grand old buildings built in a fusion of the Islamic and ‘British Raj’ architectural styles. The mock-Tudor style Royal Selangor Club on one side of the square was founded by the British in the 1880’s – games of cricket used to be played by KL’s well-to-do on what is now Merdaka Square (at Pimm’s o’clock no doubt)! Opposite lies the Sultan Abdul Samad building, formerly home to the High Court now the ‘Ministry of Information, Communications and Culture’. This is built in a completely different style influenced by Islamic culture complete with twirling minarets and soaring stone archways. Towering in the distance is the 80’s Dayabumi complex – an imposing monolithic concrete skyscraper built with an Islamic theme – you’ll know what I mean when you see the photos!

 

The ornate Sultan Abdul Samad building

Huge Malaysian flag proudly flying over Merdaka Square

Mock Tudor wooden beams of the Royal Selangor Club

 

Real fusion of styles – early 20th century colonial style meets the imposing 80’s Islamic style of the Dayabumi complex!

KL’s architecture through the years…

South of the main colonial core is the old train station – a stunning and substantial building from 1910. It is a real mix of Eastern and Western architectural styles and with its countless minarets looks like it should be more of a temple than a railway station! It has now been succeeded as KL’s primary transport hub by the new KL Sentral station but is still used as a minor station, as well as a mini bus station and still makes a valuable contribution to KL’s varied and impressive architecture!

We definitely need more well-tended gardens between railway lines in the UK!

On our last day in KL we checked out the Lake Gardens to the West of the city centre. Though a little tired-looking and a bit grubby, the Lake Gardens still offered a tranquil respite from the dense traffic and somewhat lacking pavements of Kuala Lumpur’s busy streets. The Gardens are pretty large and hilly so our exploration in the midday sun was warm to say the least! We ended up in the Orchid Garden at the park’s highest point to admire an impressive selection of orchids before heading home to pack our things for the next leg to Melaka.

If I were a bee this would definitely be appealing!

More crazy looking plants

Peeping through the orchids

We spent a whole week in Kuala Lumpur in the end and enjoyed every day exploring this fascinating and vibrant city. Most people simply transit through KL en route to somewhere prettier but we’d definitely recommend a few days there if you can!

Bidding farewell to KL

Our next destination was to be Melaka – a small town jam-packed with history and, more importantly, delicious tucker! Francesca will be your blog guide to Melaka so until then, hope all’s good with everyone and see you soon! Rich & Fran x

 

p.s. Sorry this post took so long in posting – our trusty netbook got frazzled by the baggage scanners at Singapore customs and is now on the IT support operating table waiting for some spare bits – poor little chap!