Kuala Lumpur Adventures

Downwards from the Petronas Towers Bridge
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We are off again, more adventures we hope, another early start, leaving home at 4am and heading for the Gold Coast to catch our flight to Kuala Lumpur and two weeks of holiday. This trip is far more laid back than last year, with nothing much planned apart from where we are staying. After leaving our car at the parking depot we check-in at the Gold Coast International Terminal, have breakfast and go through Immigration and Customs to catch our flight. We are flying AirAsiaX this time and have "shelled" out for the preferred seats in economy and have maximum legroom and space. Well worth it and almost as good as travelling up front, it also means we are first off. After an eight and a half hour flight we arrive at the LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) in Malaysia which is pretty basic and not the fastest place to get through. A word of advice, don't try getting a connecting flight from the main terminal (which requires catching the shuttle bus) with only 2 or 3 hours between arrival and departure, many things can happen and its very hit and miss, everybody has to wait their turn!

Carol on the Bridge
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Anyway having got our baggage we have to make a decision as to how to get to Kuala Lumpur because we have not organised a pickup. There are basically three options, taxi from about 50Rm, shuttle bus 9Rm or express train which requires catching the transit bus to the main terminal. We take one look at the taxi queue and decide to take the shuttle bus to KL Sentral which is the main railway station, from there it is only one monorail station to our hotel. Dumb idea! After an hour in the bus we crawl the last few kilometres, peak hour traffic in KL of course which is an absolute nightmare. Finally we reach the railway station grab our bags and head for the monorail. Dumber idea!! Arriving there we find a horrendous queue banked back through the entry counters and jam packed on the platform. Everybody is going home from work. We decide to catch a taxi. Dumbest idea!!! To catch a taxi from the station you have to buy a voucher for the area you want to go to and then queue. The problem is that the majority of taxis won't take vouchers, so you have taxis pulling up at the taxi rank, dropping off their passengers and then leaving empty, about 1 in every 10 taxis will pick up passengers and because of the small numbers picking up, fares get doubled up. After an hour spent inching forward in the queue we finally get one, shared of course and reach our hotel right in the centre of ChinaTown. Its taken over 3 hours to get from the LCCT to our Hotel. The best way is definitely to que for a taxi!

We decide to catch a taxi. Dumbest idea!!!

A "cold beer" on Petaling Street!
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We check in with no problems and head for our room on the fourth floor. The hotel is quite bizarre being two buildings with floors at different levels, to get to our room we catch the lift to the second floor, go down some steps, through a "security" door, requiring your door key, up some steps, along a corridor and then catch another lift to the fourth floor, quite a performance. The ridiculous thing is that going the opposite way the security door can be opened by anybody entering from the street in the building we are in. The room is fine and we freshen up and head out for a meal its been a long time since breakfast, we passed on the plane food. WE pick on almost the closest decent looking restaurant almost next to the Hotel and enjoy a few cold Tiger beers and some good chinese style food, then its off to bed, its been a long day.

What should I buy my grandson?
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The next day dawns and we have breakfast at the hotel and mull over what to do. We decide to catch the monorail to the Petronas towers which we last visited in 2000 when they had just been finished but were not open to the public. Pasir Seni station is only a 5 minute walk from our hotel and its just 4 stations to KLCC, Malaysia is big on initials for places, and costs just 1.6Rm. The trip is quick and soon we are walking around the Towers which are just as impressive as our last visit. We deide to do the trip up to the Aie Bridge on the 41st floor. Its free entry but first come first served and you get a ticket for a time slot, ours is about an hour later and as we are deciding what to do we are invited to go in the next visit! I suspect they keep numbers low and fill them up at the last minute so its worth hanging around for a little while to see if you can go earlier. After a security session, bag check and Petronas "propoganda" film its off in the lift to the bridge. The view is quite spectacular and the bridge is much bigger than it looks fom the ground, you only get about 10 minutes on the bridge and then out and back down to ground level. Carol is disappointed we can't go to the top!

Next is a wander around the adjacent shopping mall which is not much different from when we were last there apart from no Christmas decorations. We have lunch then decide to head off back to our hotel, monorail of course. As we get off we spot the old Central Market building and go over to have a poke around. It appears to have been refurbished and is now a centre for selling local arts and crafts and is no where near as commercial as most places. The "sell" is more subdued than on the streets. Our hotel fronts on to Petaling Street which is the central market street for ChinaTown and as such is full of stalls, which double in number at night when the whole of the street pavement is taken over with stalls. During the day they only operate on the sides and although the street is a pedestrian thoroughfare there are still occasional cars and motorbikes. Bags, belts, clothes, DVDs and of course watches, real fakes I'm told! abound and everybody is trying to sell you something. There are also lots of spruikers for massages which seems to be a development from when we were here last. A few years ago I admit but new to us.

Afternoon tea is an Anker beer on the Hotel Terrace watching and photographing the activities on Petaling Street as the hawkers try to prise that almighty dollar from passing tourists. Surprisingly in the area we are watching a lady selling battery operated cars and planes does far better sale wise than anybody else, I reckon she made three sales for every one made by another stall. Of course she attracts the kids who then harass their parents, good selling technique I reckon. We have tea at another local Chinese stall near the hotel, good food once again then head for bed. Tomorrow we head for Vietnam.

Day three of our trip already and after breakfast we check out, take our own advice and organise a taxi for the airport (LCCT again) then leave our bags with the hotel and head for Little India, one stop further along on the monorail. As its reasonably early, KL wise, things are only just getting underway when we get there, there are no other tourists about and we basically have the place to ourselves with little or no hard sell. Its nice to be able to just take in the sights and smells of the spices and food being cooked and not have to say no every couple of minutes. The markets are quite different with much more traditional style clothing, cloth for sale and lots of gold shops. There is a central area where large quantities of artificila flowers are for sale, they are quite a spectacular blaze of colour and form. I have coffee and Carol has Chai while we taste some great Indian delicacies in a very nice Vegetarian restaurant just off the main street and also watch the locals come in for their breakfast, usually a dosra and a cup of chai. After avoiding the usual downpour we head back towards the monorail, on the way we spot a Malay restaurant and decide to have lunch, Carol decides to practice her Bahasa and has the staff in stiches, they soom pick that she speaks Bahasa Indonesia and there is more merriment. Our lunch is great and makes a good change from the Chinese style meals we have had. Back to the hotel to catch our taxi for the airport.