Kuala Lumpur

Welcome to Kuala Lumpur

 

We arrived to Kuala Lumpur on the 28^th September, the plane wasn’t delayed but it took us ages to get into the centre of Kuala Lumpur because the roads were very crowded due to rush hour. It took us at least an hour longer than it should have taken. I had two lessons booked and I had to teach in the uber as I couldn’t cancel the lesson last minute, at least we bought 4G internet at the airport so that wasn’t a problem. The lesson I have learnt is that I should not put myself down for lessons when we are flying somewhere as you never know how long the delays could be. The apartment we booked was only a private room, but it was right in the centre of the city which meant we had easy access to everything especially food.

 

Places we went to:

 

Petronas Towers and KLCC Park

The towers are the iconic buildings in the city, they are located in the KLCC park which had a lovely fountain and park area. The formula one facing was happening at the same time so this meant there were lots of promotional tents and competitions going on around the park.

 

Sky Bar

We decided not to pay an entry price for the twin towers but go to Traders hotel with a sky bar on the 33rd floor, this has a free entry but you are expected to buy a drink. It was about lunch time and this bar was completely empty and the view was incredible, we could see loads of people walking through the twin tower viewpoint. So if you want to see an awesome view with less people and for less money, choose the Sky bar instead plus you get to see the Petronas towers. You can go there at night as well, however it gets a lot busier then and you need to book a table. The only downside is that you are behind glass windows, there are some opened areas but they are quite high up and not ideal for taking photos.

Drinks at sky bar: it cost us around 50RM (£9) for 2 juices.

Street Markets

The first thing we noticed was the variety of food that we could choose from just 5 minutes from our accommodation. This made us so happy after eating the same food every day for the last 3 weeks in Sri Lanka. We have learnt that because of the choice of food in England we are a bit spoilt and variety of food is very important for us. The street BBQ food is amazing, along with dim sum everywhere, lots of new flavours to try for a cheap price. We had noodles, kebabs, variety of deep fried meats, BBQ meats, lots of juice, steamed buns and lots more.

Heli Lounge Bar at night

There are many options if you want to see the city lit up at night. We chose the Heli Lounge Bar which is a helicopter pad in the day and bar at night. We decided to go to the Heli Lounge Bar as it was nearer to us and it has an open view as opposed to the Sky bar where you will be looking through windows. If we knew how many stairs we would still have to climb, we would have chosen the sky bar as my knee was very much in pain after lots of walking around Kuala Lumpur and climbing stairs in Kandy in Sri Lanka.

However, the view was worth it though and it was pretty awesome having the open view all around us as well. You are not allowed to go up to the viewpoint without a drink and every individual must buy a drink, basically this becomes like an entry fee instead of paying a proper fee. They will also take any drinks away from you that you have in your bag before you enter so it’s better not to have liquid in your bag. The drinks were quite expensive for an obvious reason we paid 30RM for a beer and 22rm for a ice tea so more or less £10 entry, but it was a great view the only downside is that everyone else thinks it is a great view and there is hardly any space up there. We had to squeeze our way around the heli pad to see the sights, but it seemed most people only stayed for a short while and left. After 9pm they have a dress code so if you arrive before then you don’t really have to worry about what you are wearing (well at least be wearing something…).

Central market

This was one of the main market areas in the city, it was all inside a building so we could go in and hide away from the heat but still enjoy walking around the markets. Sassi ended up buying a nice dress for a great price. We also ate food inside the food court, we had some noodle soup dish for 5.50RM £1.

 

Perdana botanical gardens

This was more like a big park we went to just to have a little walk around, it seemed like any other city park, so wasn’t overly interesting but was nice to have a wander and eat an ice cream.

 

Batu Caves

The caves are around a 20 minute drive from the centre, I wasn’t feeling up for the challenge of walking up all the stairs, 272 steps… but it was a place that people recommended us to go and see. So Nick got up early and went on his own. The caves were amazing inside but the stairs were tough so many steps and so many people going up and down. This was a Hindu temple modest clothing is required, which is hard in a hot country luckily shorts were ok even though the sign said no shorts. Monkeys seemed to be everywhere and it is still a novelty for us to see them swinging around.

 

HTTB Church on the 1st Oct

I googled what churches we could find near to our accommodation and the choice was between a Baptist church and an HTB church plant (Anglican church) we decided to go to the HTB church plant after seeing their website and Facebook page. The church services take place in a shopping centre at the top, that’s pretty cool. Straight after we stepped into the church room, we felt like we were back in England except that you could mainly see Chinese people around. The church service was awesome and from the very beginning their passion for God shone through. After the service we went into the hall cafe area where they served many snacks and the usual tea and coffee, we sat down with some people and had a chat with them and even went to speak with the leader of the church who was from England and told us to get in touch with them if we decide to go back to Malaysia.

The city is pretty awesome, and Nick decided to go for a walk on the last night to get some night shots of the city. He mainly stayed around the KLCC area and did all the same areas from when we were there during the day, but just wanted to get all the night photos. They have a nice little light and fountain show which was really cool to see. They also have aircon walk ways which connected different parts of the centre.

How we travelled around: We mostly took uber as it was very cheap to use and saved walking too much so I could at least rest my knee although we ended up walking too much anyway.

Grab which is the Asian equivalent of Uber is also available.

Free city centre bus: There is a bus that can take you around the main centre for free, we got on at KLCC park and went to the main shopping centre area Bukt Bintang.

We never tried the metro due to uber being so easy to use.