Kuala Lumpur (GMT +8)

November 23, 2010
Tuesday

At ~1500 buttoned up a good day at the office, early, and headed back to PJ with Pradeep to head over to Kuala Lumpur for the rest of the afternoon, targeting an evening return.

Back at the hotel by 1530. While Pradeep went to park his car, I ran up to my room to change, headed back down to the lobby, which is located on the 3rd of 4 floors in this Shangri-la, and jumped in our pre-arranged taxi to KL. Regardless of whether you're going north to KL or south to KLIA, it's about 35km.
Did some planning with Pradeep on the ride, we came up with a plan to maximize our short time in the city. We'd start at the Kuala Lumpur Tower, currently the 2nd tallest free standing tower in the world at 421m (1,381'), head over to the Petronas Towers afterwards, catch some veggie Indian dinner somewhere within the twin towers mall area, followed by more touring at the base of the tower, then a stroll over to the Hard Rock Cafe for pins and finally, back to the Shangri-la Hotel to negotiate a ride back to the PJ Shangri-la.

Only downer of the afternoon was rain, obscuring the view to the Petronas Towers on the drive in. The rain would eventually clear but, made for a less than inspiring teksi ride into KL city center. Cost of ride - 85rgs. I bit much for just 35km but, not bad.

We got dropped off at the base of KL Tower - wasn't that crowded. They don't take credit cards at the tower and since I had a low cash light, got some cash out of the local ATM machine. Bought tickets for 2 up to the observation deck for 76rgs and queued up waiting for any 1 of the 4 'vators up to the deck. The public observation deck is 276m above the ground.

The elevators take 12 adults at a shot, quickly. Right as you get off of the 'vator, a staffer asks you what language you speak and hands over a self-guided tour device. The volume on mine didn't work well so, I didn't use it. Pradeep had visited before so he acted as my unofficial 'view' guide. Was not crowded at all.  Everyone makes a right handed loop around the deck. Just as you almost complete the loop, the Petronas Towers come into view.

Impressive! I felt like I was in KL at that moment.  The twin towers are not aligned specifically to the KL tower so you don't get a view between the 2 towers - no problem there... we'll get to that later - but, you can definitely see both towers. They're very shiny due to the amount of stainless steel applied to the entire structure.  We made 2 loops and I took a ton of photos of all the view angles - hope I get a couple of good shots, diminishing rain notwithstanding.

Bought a couple of pins and a shot glass before heading back down to the entrance. The KL Tower is actually built on a hill in KL. They've constructed a winding road and walkway up to the Tower and had it been a dry day, would have gladly hiked down.  Instead jumped in a teksi for the less than 2km drive to the Petronas.

The towers are HUGE standing 452m (1,483' to tip of spire) and there's 2 of them! You feel really small at the base looking up. Took a lot of shots trying to frame as much of the towers into my Canon. Pradeep took quite a few shots of me with the towers in the background.  From there Pradeep led me inside to the open public viewing room where there's a continuous rolling film on how the Petronas Towers were conceived, architected and built. Very interesting... I love this kind of stuff!  No trip to the Petronas Towers in KL would be complete without hitting the souvenir shop! :-) Bought a t-shirt.

Right around 1800 Pradeep chose a fair place within the twin towers mall to have dinner and we ordered a couple of garlic Naan plates. I've had better but, wasn't bad for Indian fast food.

After chow we walked out to what I thought was the back of the twin towers but, we were actually at the front of the twins. There's a large geyser pool fronting the towers with a small tropical island built into the pond.  There's more to the park all around and it's all surrounded by other large 'scrapers

At 1900 we started walking to the Hard Rock Cafe - very close to the Shangri-la Hotel in KL - and got there after about 15mins walk. Went in with the intent to sit at a table (it wasn't at all crowded), have a cold beverage, buy some pins and depart but, the staff wouldn't let us sit at a table unless we were going to eat and I didn't want to sit outside batting away a myriad of insects on this warm, muggy night so, went right to the gift shop, bought my pins and a t-shirt and we left.

A five minute walk to Shangri-la. We could have waited 2+ hours for the complementary shuttle back to the Shangri-la in PJ but (I didn't want to wait that long with another early up day coming), jumped in the teksi line and 20mins later had negotiated a 60rg ride back to PJ. Uneventful drive... I don't count the massive traffic congestion in the city center just trying to get out of the city - supposedly normal, and we got dropped off back in PJ at ~2045.

I did Kuala Lumpur

Will pick back up in Penang.