Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 36 Big towers & Temples

We woke up this morning in Kuala Lumpur, so, after much deliberation, we hopped in a taxi and headed to the city centre which was about a 45 minute drive. The things that first hits you about the city is the amount of tower blocks and sky scrapers, aren’t just a few of them, they are as far as the eye can see. I’ve never seen so many tall buildings in one place that sprawl out for as far as the eye can see. First stop were the Petronas Twin Towers - a pair of 88 storey, interlinked 452m tall buildings. From 1996-2004 they were the tallest buildings in the world, until they were surpassed by the Taipei 101 building, but they remain the tallest twin towers in the world. For such an iconic landmark, there were few tourists around which made visiting them very pleasant!

Next stop, the Kuala Lumpur Tower, which stands at 421m tall. We bought tickets to have a trip up this tower so zipped up in the lift (again, it was very quiet and no queues) and took in the views from the open sky deck on level I don’t know what, but it was very high up! The views from the sky deck were spectacular across the city. There were security guards dotted all round the outer perimeter of this floor, because they get base jumpers throwing themselves off the roof for sport! There was a mural painted on the wall of the base jumpers and also people running up the stair case, so I asked the security guard about these paintings. There is an annual competition each year to run to the top of the tower - a mere 2,058 steps and in temps of around 30 degrees. There is also an annual base jumping event which allows professional base jumpers to throw themselves off the top of the building in the name of sport! I could think of nothing worse.

Next stop was a wonder through china town where we saw all sorts of stalls selling everything you can imagine. We saw numerous temples and places of worship before stumbling across the most spectacular temple which we had to go and look in. Shoes were left outside and ladies legs had to be covered to I was given a sari to wrap around my waist. The temple was beautiful, with colourful carvings and paintings of elephants and various gods adorning the floor, walls, pillars and roof. Everything in Malaysia is so vibrant!

Last stop was for a cooling drink then we headed back to the ship. Driving along a motorway here is very different as they are lined with tropical trees everywhere - it’s a bit different from the concrete of the M25!

Once back at the ship we had a mozzy around, dinner and some games of crib in the commodore club bar ….I lost as usual!

Next stop tomorrow….Georgetown, Penang.