Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
The ship stopped in Port Kelang, about an hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. I'll spare you any details about Port Kelang, since it was completely unremarkable. However, Kuala Lumpur was very cool. There is lots to do, and yet still lots of green space available. I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed Kuala Lumpur more than my beloved city of Bangkok. It was generally cleaner here, and things didn't have a run down look to them. The people were friendly, and English was widely spoken.
As soon as we got off the bus, someone had a plan to walk to the KL Tower to take some pictures. I have to admit I was not all for this plan (it was really hot), but it worked out alright.
The KL Tower...
An otherwise uninteresting building with a camel and Happy New Year written on it. We were in Kuala Lumpur about a week before Chinese New Year.
My good friends, Jennifer and Becky fill the crucial role of tourists. They certainly have the look right.
Views from the top, etc.
View of the Petronas Towers...
There's my Camel Building again...
But the cool part was that at the bottom of the tower is a small forest reserve where we saw some monkeys and their babies. We ran into a tour guide who made a big deal of the fact that we actually got to see the baby monkeys. These monkeys were far more shy than the ones I encountered at Cha-am, Thailand, and none of our party was attacked.
Sometimes, the monkeys seem more human than the humans...
Alongside the highway, there was a separate "road" for motorcycles. It looked more like a sidewalk to me, but it was out in the middle of nowhere, and it had it's own street signs. It also connected to the real road at regular intervals.
I don't usually splurge on fancy hotels, but I had saved quite a bit of money this trip, so I decided to stay at the Hilton. The hotel was only a few years old, and was definitely the best hotel I ever stayed in.
This is the pool at the Hilton. The service at the pool was a bit slow, but I was in no hurry to leave. The problem with a hotel like this is that you stop thinking about ever leaving, and so you might not end p doing as much sightseeing as you wanted to.
The Batu Caves are about a 30 minute drive from K.L. This large statue greets you as you arrive.
Same...
There is a Hindu temple at the foot of the stairs, with numerous Ganeesh(?) decorating the top. Our tour guide explained the significance, and the story of.... well I forget most of it..
There are actually two caves. This is the larger of the two, and it also has a Hindu shrine at the lighted area at the back. The cavern was quite large, and there were some very bold monkeys nearby. The other cave is smaller and completely dark. It has quite a few bats inside, as well as a dog, a cat, and we even saw a snake in there.
At the end of the cave, the ground opens up and sunlight comes inside. There are many monkeys here, and it was pretty fun to watch them chase little kids around.
The second Hindu temple located inside the cave...
This was the view from the hotel.