What a Relief!

Petronas Towers lit up at night - beautiful
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The airport is about an hours journey from KL and we paid RM8 (NZ$1=RM2.4) for non-stop bus to KL Sentral.  A beautful sunset welcomed us to this new country.  On descending from the bus, after a smooth ride, taxi drivers asked us if we needed a taxi and we were shocked when they left us alone after we answered "no"!  We had our first meal on Malaysian shores - Indian, roti canai.   It was good and so cheap!

We jumped grabbed a taxi to Chinatown where we found a room at Backpackers Inn for RM28 - much more expensive than Indonesia.  Though, it was a good location because Chinatown is a lively place at night.  We wandered the streets marvelling at the array of products for sale, tasting ice tea and sampling a few different foods.

Entrance to the Batu Caves
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We were up early on Sunday to join the queue (at 8:30am) for the free tickets to the Skybridge between the Petronas Towers.  Standing below them was pretty amazing, the first well-known landmark we'd seen to date on our trip.  We waited in the queue for about an hour and got tickets to return at 12:45pm.

We thought the daily pass for the MRT sounded like a good idea because for RM7 we got unlimited travel on buses as well.  Basically we wiled away our time until we were required to go back to the Petronas Towers, organising some much-needed laundry to be done and buying a SIM card.  We grabbed a DigiPlus SIM card and could call NZ for 20sen per minute - cheaper than a local call!  It was really cool being on the Skybridge after seeing the Discovery Channel docos and we gave Dad Parkes a text to make him jealous!

Looking up the 272 steps at the Batu Caves
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We thought we'd be clever after having lunch near the Central Market, and use our MRT pass for the bus out to Batu Caves, about an hour away.  The caves are a Hindu shrine and the site of the Hindu festivel of Thaipsam attracting one million pilgrims from all over Malaysia in January.  It's free to enter, but to see the "crystal columns" that glow in the dark in Gua Gelap, you have to pay RM30 for a piddly 30 minutes.

As it turns out, we couldn't use the pass on the bus and kind of meant that the pass wasn't quite worth it.  But it was worth paying the extra anyway because Batu Caves is pretty amazing.  At the foot of the caves is an enormous (42.7m) gold-coloured statue of Lord Murugan and at the top of 272 steps (it was incredibly hot when we climbed up, we were literally dripping with sweat!) are a couple of caves.  The largest, Gua Kecil, has a roof 100m high.  Hindu statues have been carved on the wall around the place and monkeys clamber down the walls to liberate any food that tourists might have.

Ceremony inside the Batu Caves
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While at these caves we realised we were being followed!  A Swedish couple that were also visiting the caves were in front of us in the queue for Skybridge tickets that morning, in our group on the Skybridge and happened to walk into the same place we were having lunch at.  We saw them again that night roaming around Chinatown.  Dodgy Swedes!  ;-D

On Monday we decided to do our sightseeing on foot.  We checked out the nearby Puda Raya bus station for the timetable and cost of buses to Melaka (we paid RM9.40 pp to go at 5:30 that evening).  Then we walked to the Old Railway Station to see the turrets and spires on top.  Not too far away was the National Mosque where we covered our unseemly clothing with gowns and Adrienne covered her hair with a scarf in order to enter.  It is a relatively modern mosque, but it was interesting to finally have a look inside of one.

Yay! The Petronas Towers!
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A place we wished we had spent more time at was the Museum of Islamic Arts (RM12 pp).  Our problem was we went in around lunchtime and were too hungry to see everything.  A mental note was made to eat before entering future museums, or to take food with us.  An exhibit on spice was open and we found it really interesting.  In the upper levels the exhibits displayed artefacts of Islam in different cultures including Chinba, India, Arabia and Malaysia.  We pretty much ran through this one as there was a lot to see.

Inside the National Mosque
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We had a late lunch served in Little India, which was served on banana leaves.  It was yummy, but cost a bit more than we were expecting because they're so friendly and keep offering more things for you to try.  Of course it all has it's cost involved.  In Chinatown we tried Ma Chi, a gelatenous sweet coated in crushed peanuts before jumping on the very comfortable bus to Melaka.