"Selamat Datang to Kuala Lumpur" a Kuala Lumpur Travel Page by Kakapo2

I have wanted to travel to Malaysia for a long time but still have not really made it. The big holiday trips have become a little difficult since I have been living in New Zealand, as most years I fly back to Germany to visit my parents, relatives and friends, and on this occasion visit places in and around Germany. But I keep on planning - or at least dreaming - of my most important trip to Malaysia which would be climbing Mt. Kinabalu in Sabah, on the island of Borneo, saying hello to the orang-utans, and see the world's biggest flower, the rafflesia.

Anyway. To touch ground in Malaysia I once used Malaysia Airlines for my flights between New Zealand and Germany, and spent a day in Kuala Lumpur. And this short stopover became far more interesting than I had expected - because I changed my plans upon arrival at the airport.

I had planned to take the train into the city and then get around by taxi and bus. But in the arrival area taxi drivers were offering rides into the city, and we talked a bit, and soon I found out that I could hire a taxi driver for the whole day without breaking the bank. I think I paid about 60 Euro, including the enormous trips from the airport into the city centre and back, and we went outside the city to the Batu Caves and the grotto temple, and I could feed the monkeys sitting on the staircases.

And, of course, I saw and visited all the major points of interest I had noted beforehand, and many more. This taxi driver became my tour guide, told me of local customs, took me to temples, mansions, museums, sports stadiums, the Petronas Towers, of course, to KL Tower, to mosques and palaces, to shopping places. He translated for me, and took me to a place for lunch where I was the only tourist, and the whole meal for two cost 2 or 3 Euro.

To get to all these places on my own and learn so much about life in Kuala Lumpur it would have taken me two or three days.

I will add pictures and info in the near future, so you can get an impression how much you can see in such limited time. I could even have seen more but in the late afternoon I got overly tired, and went back to the airport to have a snooze. And I was happy I always had my air-conditioned taxi nearby, so I could cool down on an incredibly hot and humid day.