KL - discovering a metropolis anew

13.01.2019

After eventful weeks in the south of Indonesia, we land at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)*. We walk through endlessly long corridors, passport control, picking up luggage... the airport resembles a shopping mall. There is nothing you can't find here. After 1.5 hours, we are sitting in a shuttle bus to the city center... Another hour of driving 🚌. We check into a guesthouse on a quiet side street in the Golden Triangle.

Not far from our guesthouse is the nearest McDonald's. After weeks of deprivation, Paul finally gets something "real" to eat 🍟😆. The adults, on the other hand, prefer street food 🍢🍜.

Despite having been in KL several times before, we always discover the city anew. It seems somehow "quiet", cleaner, and not as hectic as other big cities and as we remember KL.

The city and its surroundings offer a wonderful mixture of different nations and cultures as well as remnants of its British past. We approach our days in KL in a relaxed manner... No power sightseeing... we want to enjoy the city.

Kuala Lumpur is known for its countless shopping malls and the Petronas Twin Towers.

Of course, we also want to visit the latter. Just like five years ago... Paul just doesn't remember 😉.

A lot can be explored on foot, especially when we are fresh and well-rested in the early morning. The first destination is the Twin Towers to get tickets for the next day. Hopefully, it doesn't rain. In any case, Paul is already very impressed by the height of the towers (476 meters).

The weather is good. After some shopping and a little tour of the market in Chinatown... here you can find "real" watches and sunglasses at a low price 😉 and a lot of other trinkets and/or souvenirs... we take the subway to the twins.

After a short animated introduction, dos and don'ts, we finally take the elevator to the 46th floor... The towers are connected by a bridge here. The view from here is already magnificent... the skyline of this big city... The cars look like matchboxes... We continue almost to the very top on the 86th floor. There, Paul realizes that he forgot his bunny 🐰 (it's in the bag we had to hand in). He is very sad 😢. Despite this little episode, it's once again an experience for us 👍.

Culinary-wise, KL makes our hearts beat faster. We especially love the Indian cuisine. On many markets and entire streets, all kinds of delicacies are offered, especially in the evening.

We stay one more day and take the train about 15 kilometers outside of Kuala Lumpur to the Batu Caves, the central place of worship for Malaysian Hindus. A beautiful Hindu temple 120 meters high... after 272 steps in extreme heat, we find ourselves in a gigantic cave... Very impressive.

So, now we have had enough of city air for the moment. We move on to the Cameron Highlands. But we will come back at the end of our trip (for shopping 😉).

*According to Wikipedia, the construction of this airport was completed in 1998 after only four years and six months, and it was inaugurated.