We flew out of Dubai at 6 pm and arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 6 am. The airport is located outside of the city so we took a 45 minute taxi ride to our hotel. It gave us lots of time to enjoy the scenery.
Kuala Lumpur is probably most famous for the Petronas Towers - which, at 452 meters tall, used to be the highest building in the world until they were dwarfed by the Burj Khalifa here in Dubai. We were impressed with the architecture of the towers. They are actually very beautiful. The highlight of our trip to the Petronas Towers was the activity area in behind called Lake Gardens. Directly behind the towers there is a large pond. A little beyond that there is a water park and the biggest playground we have ever seen. It seemed to go on forever and I think Zoe and Chase tried each piece of equipment!
After several hours playing, we decided it was time to return to the hotel because the daily rain was approaching. Since it was evening rush hour, we waited in vain for our hop-on-hop-off bus. After waiting for an hour, we negotiated a fare with a taxi and headed back to the hotel. It took us 1 hour and 45 minutes to make the 1.6 kilometer trip. If we would have known it was so close (and the direction) we definitely could have walked. But, then again, there was a torrential downpour so we were content to be cool and dry in the taxi.
Our hotel was in the Bukit Bintang area and we were surrounded by shopping malls. Most were pretty standard, with several floors of the typical shops. The Time Square mall had a 3 story amusement park. The Sungei Wang mall goes on forever (we kept getting lost each time we went in) and is several floors of market stalls where you can bargain with the shop keepers. The other 2 malls we visited were the Pavilion and Lot 10. The highlight of these malls are the food courts. They had the most amazing selection of food. The first night we ate at a Japanese restaurant where they cooked the food in front of us. The experience was a fun as the food was tasty.
We ventured away from our hotel area to go to the Batu Caves. We climbed up the 272 steps (yes, Zoe counted to make sure)to see the limestone caves (thought to be 400 million years old) and the Hindu shrine. Along the way, we encountered our first monkeys of the trip. The kids both held the iguana.
That evening we went over to Chinatown to take in the Night Market. Zoe purchased 10pairs of earrings for less than $5.00 and we added several movies to our collection. We also had a scrumptious dinner at one of the many restaurants.
We met a fabulous Australian family at our hotel. The 3 three kids were similar in age to Zoe and Chase and they made fast friends. We decided to go to Sunway Lagoon together one day. Sunway Lagoon is a waterpark/amusement park/mini zoo located a short distance away from Kuala Lumpur. The day was much too short to take in all of the exciting rides and attractions and off course we had a great time.
Here is the link to our web album for Kuala Lumpur.
http://picasaweb.google.com/rdzcadventure/KualaLumpurJuly2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCJyasajW0fuL8QE&feat=directlink
Next stop - Borneo.
