Kuala Lumpur – City of Contrasts

At KLIA I was hoping E would not cough too much and we would get into the country; they seemed quite serious about the swine flu in that part of the world (face masks, gloves, temperature checks, filling out affidavits, etc).

We arrived at our hotel exhausted and irritable. E decided to forfeit his nap so we went for a walk along the KL’s famous drag and home to many of Kl's best hotels, restaurants, smart cafes, and shopping malls, Bukit Bintang, "Star Hill."















E passed out in the stroller... of course! Eric and I sought refuge from the heat and humidity at... Outback!

In the late afternoon, we took advantage of the hotel pool and got a bit refreshed, washing off KL’s heat, humidity and smog.







The following day (and the one after that) Eric was teaching his class on “Data Security.” E and I first visited the KLCC (Convention Centre),







and an amazing playground behind it (I have never seen a bigger playground before!).















We then ventured into one of KL’s best shopping malls, Suria KLCC,





and we admired the famous and "not-to-be-missed," standing 452 high Petronas Towers... from the ground. The construction of the tower cost US$2 billion!











After our morning sojourn, we headed back to the hotel to take a well-deserved and desperately needed nap.

The nap was done and over with after two hours and we went out again. This time we went to visit the KL’s Aquarium. I need to admit that the place seemed much more interesting (especially for kids) than Auckland’s Kelly Tarlton’s (save the penguin enclosure of course).









And this is what your husband comes back home with after you had sent him out to capture some food (well, it's this and some amazing Iraninan cusine dish):



The following day, our schedule was as busy. In the morning we took a cab to the Bird Park located in the Lake Gardens. The park bills itself as the world's largest covered bird park.



























Afterwards, we went to the Butterfly Park to enjoy its extensive collection of butterflies.













E enjoyed both parks... so did I actually. The cherry on top were the monkeys hanging out in the parking lot.





After our three-hour nap that day, we headed for yet another mall to visit the Malaysia’s biggest indoor amusement park: The Cosmo’s World. Even though we skipped the roller-coaster, E had lots of fun.











On the third day in KL, Eric accompanied E and me to a few other attractions: Menara KL, Chinatown, Central Market, and national Mosque. We explored the way we like best: on foot and taking our own routes.







Menara KL is communications tower 421 meters tall. Apparently it offers the best lookout in the city. The visibility was not very good the day unfortunately.







We enjoyed a couple other attractions after we left the KL Menara.













After lunch and on the way back to our hotel it rained... well, actually, it was a deluge! We all got completely soaked through. E thought it was hilarious... and so did the people we passed on our way through the hotel.

E decided to skip the nap (never a good thing in his case)...



Thus we had an earlier start on our visit to Chinatown. We managed to not spend any RMs even though the knock-offs were abundant at Jalan Petaling: fake watches, walets, handbags, sunglasses, shoes, pirated DVDs.















The Art Deco Central Market was built in 1920 - originally as the city's wet market. These days, the Market features Malay crafts and souvenirs.





While at the Market, I had a 10-minute session at a Fish Spa. The weirdest sensation! I had to curb my imagination in order to keep my feet in the water.



On our way to the National Mosque, we passed by the old Kuala Lumpur train station. It is one of the city's best known colonial buildings, built in 1911.



We ended our walk that day with a visit to the National Mosque. It was opened in 1965. Unfortunately, as “Non-Muslim tourists,” we were not allowed inside.







E had a meltdown right on the steps to the mosque at the time when a bus of Asian tourists arrived. While we were trying to deal with E, a whole bunch of people closed down on us either looking curiously at us, pointing fingers at us and, of all things, taking pics of E. I was hot, uncomfortable and FURIOUS!



We left KL the following morning flying back to Singapore to catch our ferry to Bintan Island.

My impressions of KL: it’s a city of contrasts: glamorous shopping malls (seriously I had never been to any that would be equally splendid in their design, cleanliness and the variety of world’s top brands and designers) right next to obscure, holes-in-the-wall shops and eateries with questionable level of hygiene; amazing skyscrapers and business complexes right next to falling-apart buildings, dirty streets featuring random dumpsters and odours of sewage; seemingly nice people (smiling on the streets, taking pics of strangers’ children and kissing them) and, at the same time, men with little consideration for a mother with a child dragging a stroller up a flight of stairs or trying to get on the elevator or onto a tram;

KL is probably the least disabled-friendly place I have visited in my life. The traffic lights are not for the benefit of pedestrians either. It took us a day to figure out that in order to cross a street one needs to be really good at dodging vehicles (I was thankful for my Polish ways and instincts that kicked in soon enough).

We have obviously not seen all there is to see in KL (not even close!).