Caves and Capitals

Another day of travelling and as we arrived in the capital of Malaysia, it was clear this was a very large city. We had a small walk from the bus station to the hotel. We had a bit of free time so we went to explore Kuala Lumpar (KL), we found a huge shopping centre called Times Square, it was that big that it had its own theme park including a rollercoaster inside it. That evening we headed over to china town and the markets with Kit. After having a lovely Chinese meal, we went shopping in the markets, those of you who know TJ well know she likes a bargain and to barter, she was in her element, again!. After lots of bargains we were tired so went back to the hotel. Kit had told us that if we wanted to go up the Petronas Towers (the 2nd tallest building in the world) then we had to get there early to get tickets. So Anna, Jenni, TJ and I arrived at the towers for 7am and stood in a queue for an hour.



The doors eventually opened and we went up a lift to the 41st floor in 41 seconds. Once we reached the sky bridge that links the two towers we got to have a wander across and looked at the fantastic views of Kuala Lumpur. We had told the others in the group to meet us at KL tower, the 5th tallest communication tower in the world. We caught the underground train and thought that we had a short walk to the tower. The short walk turned out to be a trek through a rainforest reservation. We finally managed to meet up with the others in the tower and had another fantastic view of KL.
After the towers we headed off to Little India which was quite disappointing. We had been told it would be like a mini bollywood with lots of fantastic asian shops and music playing in the streets but unfortunately it was just an area with a few market stalls and Indian eateries. We didn’t stay there long!



We were told to visit the Batu Caves which is where the hindus go to pray and have their festival. We were waiting on 2 taxis which would have cost us 30 ringgits for each taxi but luckily whilst we were waiting a bus stopped in front of us with a board displaying Batu Caves. So we caught the local bus and it only cost us 2 ringgits each. When we eventually arrived the first thing we noticed was all the steps leading up to the entrance of the caves – 272 of them to be precise, which on a very hot day did not look very enticing. However we made our way up and Jenni even managed to run up the first 100. Whilst walking up we were met by some monkeys and this time we all ensured we did not have any plastic carrier bags. The caves were incredible, it was amazing to see how large they were inside and how parts of the cave had been turned into temples and shrines. After an hour at the caves we then caught the bus back half way to KL and then got onto the monorail as it stopped nearer to our hotel. That night we all wanted some “English” food and so persuaded Kit to take us to a place that served steak etc. The food was delicious and the themed naval restaurant made it enjoyable. After our meal we went back to Paul’s room where all 10 of us squeezed in and started to drink various alcoholic mixtures. The night was young and so after an hour everyone bar Kit agreed to go to a local nightclub, so Kit sorted out our taxis and off we went. As soon as we arrived we all noticed the “ladies of the night” sitting near the entrance to the club with not very much on. The music was brilliant and we all had a boogie on the small dancefloor but then suddenly a ladyboy tried to make his/her advances towards Paul, which Paul was not too happy about. We all left the club about 3am and made our way back to the hotel.