A Weekend in Kuala Lumpur - Day Two

Backdated: 11th July 2010

Me in front of the Petronas Towers

So day number two.. 
We decided to get up early to head over to the Petronas Towers, in the hope of getting onto the Skybridge. I had read online that they only allow entrance to 1200 people a day, so you have to go in the morning to have a chance. It opened at 9am so we figured if we left around 8.45am we'd have plenty of time to get there. So we got the monorail to the nearest station and walked the rest of the way, took some stereotypical tourist pics in front of the towers (admittedly more of me than Stephen..) then headed inside to go up onto the bridge. At 9.15am they had already let in their 1200 for the day and were letting no one else up! So pictures is all we managed to get =/ and we've learnt a valuable lesson for next time round.. GET UP EARLY. When something like that is free, there are bound to be an abundance of poor student backpackers all queueing at 6am to get in! 

After this we had a walk around the surrounding area, having a little nosey in the tourist centre etc and sat down to at the Petronas Towers have a drink in a nearby cafe to ponder over a map where we should head to next. After some differences of opinion, we settled on Central Market and walked to the road to lazily wait for a cab. Our taxi driver we extremely friendly and offered to take us to see Batek being made for no higher cost than the fare we'd already agreed on. The display was a little lacking, but very interesting all the same. The driver came in with us to explain the process of making Batek, and kept stressing that Batek belonged to Malaysia and the British stole it! So after this he took us and dropped us at Central Market, explaining that we could buy Batek there the same way we could at the display he took us to (which i stupidly didn't look at the sign for) but it wouldn't be on real silk and the colour would wash out.. What he seemed to not realise was we are students who didn't care about quality and more about cost! As we got out the cab he asked us if we were from the UK, which we thought was a little odd, as we had spoken about London and Biscester already, then told us in an annoyed tone that people from the UK usually tip and drove off rather quickly.. again, we're students! 

Central Market

(Writer's note: I later realised this a commission based deal - taxi drivers bring tourists and get commission on what they buy - so if you experience something similar don't feel pressured into buying, unless of course you want to!)

Central Market was very nice but we had to be careful on the prices as the same products would be sold in several stalls at various prices so look around for the lowest (then try to haggle some more of course). Very nice though, bought some new chopsticks to take away to uni with me. 

Our last outing of the day was to the much anticipated Batu Caves. We headed over to Bangkok bank where the buses go to Batu Caves, and started looking for the right one. Hearing the accents of an Australian netball team, we headed towards the bus they were getting on and asked the man if it was to the caves. 'Batu yes yes' so we followed them on. On the journey we were talking to one of the teachers with the netball team and found out that the driver had tried to charge them 50sens more than he should have, presumably as they were obviously tourists, however the teacher takes the team to KL every year and knew better. She also told us to get the number 11 home as this was going a very long way around getting to the caves.. She was loud, but seemed to know exactly what she was on about.. which was particularly useful as the driver started driving straight past the caves, with no intention of going near.. After yelling down the bus that he had to stop to let us off, the bus stopped on the middle of a busy roundabout with no pedestrian areas whatsoever and opened the doors and dumped us there. Me and Stephen were extremely lucky to have been on the bus with her, as neither him nor I would have had the guts to shout and would have just got off at the next stop. However, we safely made it across the busy traffic and made our way over to the huge staircase leading up to the caves. 

Me at the Batu Caves

It is beautiful there, more because of the cave than the temple, though there were a few Hindus there for religious ceremony i would presume with babies with painted heads and men with white stripes over their bodies making their way up, who helped give the temple a bit more impression. What no one tells you about the caves is that once you have made your way up the initial set of stairs, you then have to go down a smaller set and back up another small set too! It's a workout that's for sure. But definitely worth it. As soon as you get into the caves you can hear the squeaking bats high above you as they flutter about the place. There are various Hindu depictions, presumably from the religions stories, around the walls which are lovely. On the way back down we stopped in several of the souvenir shops (two of which are actually in the caves.. not sure about that) and a grabbed a couple of postcards and a mini statue of the huge gold deity. The stall keeper gave me a bindi on our way out which completely made my day! 

Nice weekend overall - just long enough to see everything we wanted to.