"Kuala Lumpur - March 2008" a Kuala Lumpur Travel Page by chizz

We took an early afternoon flight from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Kuala Lumpur for a 3 day stopover on our way back to Dubai. On arrival we took a pre-paid budget taxi from the airport for around 70 ringgits which was a very comfortable ride in a 4 seat taxi for just the 2 of us! You could also opt to take the shuttle bus to Sentral Station for around 9 ringgits per person one way, but from there you would need to hail a taxi to your hotel. There is also the third option of taking the train from the airport, but this was 35 ringgits per person one way and would only take us part of the way. We would also need to take an additional train to KLCC (to our hotel, Traders), so decided that it wasn't worth all the hassle of hauling our luggage up flights of stairs in the train station for the same price or slightly more in fact!!
We arrived late afternoon to Traders and found it to be a great hotel! Rooms were great value and very trendy with great bathrooms! We had opted to pay a bit more to have a room with a view of Petronas Towers on the Park side and it was well worth it as it was just getting dark and the towers were starting to be lit up!! Staff were also super friendly in the hotel, especially the concierges!!
We decided to look around the hotel for a short time and headed up to the pool area and Sky Bar which was great for views of the towers! Looked in the gym and found it to be well equipped and modern. The restaurant looked to have a great buffet selection for a reasonable price too!
Our plan for the night was to head to Jalan Alor to eat hawker food, Peking duck in particular with satay sticks thrown in and some of the famous durian!!
So off we headed in a taxi from the hotel which was quite cheap and arrived in Jalan Alor.
The place was heaving with people out for their evening meal and had many small restaurants selling lots of delicious food. Our duck and satay were great and was quite cheap in price; the durian not so good and not so cheap - let's just say, it's an aquired taste!!, but something that you should try on your travels around Asia!
From here we looked around the market in Petaling Street, Chinatown for a short time and headed back to our hotel very tired!!

Day 2 had an early start as we had decided to walk across the park to KLCC Suria Mall to get free passes for the Petronas Skybridge, which is situated on the Concourse level of tower 2. We arrived at around 7.15am and there was already quite a long queue and the ticket booth was not opening until 8.30am!
By the time they opened for business, there were lots of people there and once you got to the front, you were asked at what time you'd like to do the visit. We opted to do the first one at 9am, but you could choose to do it later if you wished. I believe the last time to go up was around 7.30pm.
There is a small area of exhibits in the entrance area which you can look around for a short time telling you about the towers and giving you lots of facts and figures. You then watch a short 3D film, before being taken up in the elevator to the skybridge for 15 minutes or so. The views are good and you can take lots of photos, so it is a must-see while in KL and it's FREE!!
After the towers, we decided to take the train to Terminal Putra station (Gombak), so that we could take a short taxi ride to the Batu Caves from there. The taxi fare was around 6 ringgits from the station.
On arrival at the caves, you are greeted by a giant golden Buddha statue and lots of monkeys. There are then hundreds of steps to climb up to the caves where you can see lots of stalagmites and buddhist shrines where people receive blessings and pay for offerings of fruit and flowers to put on the altars. There is a tour of one of the caves which is chargeable, but we didn't do the tour ourselves. Once down the steps, we paid a small amount to enter "Cave Villa", which was an area of brightly painted caves and buddhist artworks and buddhist scenes. There are also some exotic birds outside and some small gardens to wander around which was ok, but nothing really memorable!! Once we had struggled to get a taxi back to Gombak train station (as most drivers quote silly fares or want to drive you all the way back to the city), we took the train back to KLCC.
Here we decided to visit the "Aquaria" Aquarium, which was nice to wander around for an hour or so and watch the fish being fed! You can see lots of fish on display and watch the sharks and stingrays as they swim over your head in the aquarium tunnel.
For dinner, we decided to go to Outback Steakhouse where we had a nice meal and then we did the Bintang Walk, following our tourist map back to our hotel, stopping by the Suria Mall for a quick look around the shops.

Today we decided to take the KL Hop On/Hop Off bus around the city to see the city sights. We caught it (after quite a long wait) outside KLCC Suria Mall and paid 38 ringgits for a day pass/17 ringiits for kids from 5-12 years. The bus covers most of the city sights such as KL Menara Tower, the Craft Centre, Chinatown, National Palace, National Museum, Merdeka Square, Eye of Malaysia at Titiwangsa, etc, etc. We decided to get off the bus and visit the Butterfly Garden and Orchid Garden which were both quite nice. The bus makes a short stop at Merdeka Square for photos too. We also ate in Chinatown and took some shots of the Eye of Malaysia, before getting off at KL Menara Tower at dusk to take some photos of the city from the tower. An audio commentary is provided at the tower which is quite interesting as it tells you about the major sights of the city and the tower is the best place to get a birdseye view of KL. There is an entrance fee of 20 ringgits per adult, unlike Petronas, but it is well worth it and not expensive for the views.
On the way home we decided to take some photos in the Starhill Gallery near the Ritz Carlton Hotel and look around the mall.
Our trip to KL was at an end as we flew out to Dubai the next morning.