Day 13 -

Alan has to write the blog because apparently Sarah can’t see tonight.  I’m having a little eye problem.  In any event, it was your turn.

After the shambles that was yesterday, today could only get better. We arose early enough but in our usual style we procrastinated and didn’t end up leaving the hotel until about 11am.

We decided we just couldn’t face the hop on hop off bus for a second straight day, so instead we gave the monorail a try. After buying our tickets and figuring out after numerous attempts how to insert them into the automatic gates to the platform, we travelled the journey of one station and got off again. We studied the map and figured out the quickest way to walk to the KL Tower, despite it being about 1000 degrees by this stage. Actually it wasn’t too bad at that stage. Passing by a KFC, we saw a big banner advertising a new product. Fish donuts. Ok then.

We made it to the entry road to the tower and luckily there is a shuttle bus which comes every 15 minutes, otherwise it would be an exhausting steep climb up the hill. The driver smelled bad, but at least we didn’t have to walk. Once there, we purchased our tower tickets which include a visit to the animal exhibit and a drive in the Formula 1 simulator.

The lift took us up 276 metres and we were each given our own headphones for a commentary as we took in the view. The commentary was annoying so we both did away with it fairly quickly. The view was fantastic and there was virtually no haze or smog today so we were very lucky. We found the vicinity of our hotel but it was obscured by other buildings. We also saw Batu Caves off in the distance, where we’ll be visiting on Friday.


Back down again and it was time for me to have my Formula 1 experience. You would think that being a professional driver I would be good at this sort of thing wouldn’t you? You would be wrong. I suck badly. I think I spent more time in the sand traps and on the grass and crashing into walls than I did actually on the track. Oh well! You would think having the tongue out would help the concentration. It didn’t.

The third part of the package was going into the small animal enclosure. There was a cockatoo falling asleep at the entrance. This place was sad and depressing. There were lots of snakes, lizards and spiders which we’re used to seeing in smallish enclosures, but the other animals we’re not used to seeing in this environment. It was very hot in there and obviously some of the poorly treated animals weren’t coping well in the heat. Monkeys, sugar gliders, raccoons and rabbits all in small cages. There were prairie dogs actually physically chewing on the steel bars of their cage trying to get out. Oh and they really shouldn’t feed live mice to the snakes during visitor hours. Poor little guy, he looked terrified. The only good thing about the place was seeing a two headed turtle. The mouse was gone when we went to leave.  I really wish we hadn’t gone into the place.



Anyway, we had seen the Hard Rock Cafe from up in the tower so we decided to head there for lunch. We caught the monorail one stop and luckily the Hard Rock was next door to the station. It was nice and cool in there and we had the lunch time special with lots to drink.

Out into the heat again and back on the monorail to bring us to the station closest our hotel. We walked from the station to the hotel via a big shopping centre which was lovely and cool inside, although very boring as there are a distinct lack of shops in there. Strange! We hung around the room for the remainder of the afternoon, waiting for 7pm to arrive as we had arranged to go out to dinner with Calvin, an old friend of mine from school who lives here in Kuala Lumpur. It was a nice relaxing afternoon.  I was wearing very little, lying on the bed, watching something on my computer with the headphones in so not to disturb Alan. He got up, said something to me that he knew I couldn’t hear because of the headphones and the next thing I know there is a housekeeping woman in the room.  She sure got out of here in a hurry after seeing me.  Alan said she knocked and then came straight in.  I asked if he had locked the door when we got back. No, of course not.

We met in our hotel lobby and Calvin drove us through the very heavy peak hour traffic to a Swiss restaurant. We pulled into the parking lot only to find that the place was closed for renovations. Oh dear! Never mind, there are plenty of other restaurants around here to choose from, so we went to the Petronas Towers and after navigating our way from deep underground in the car park, we found an Italian restaurant on the ground floor with a nice view of the fountain area. It was a truly delicious Italian meal. I’m sure we all enjoyed it greatly. I did, I did. Calvin very generously picked up the bill as our host for the evening. We’ll be more than happy to take him out the next time he visits Sydney.



We took a few photos of the twin towers before returning to the car and driving to the “old English” area of Kuala Lumpur. There’s a building which I can’t remember what it is, but it has a replica of Big Ben atop it and we managed to get some photos of it plus the KL Tower and Petronas Towers all in the one shot. I’m so clever!  Wow, you managed to frame a photo.  Good on you Alan.

 
It was starting to get late by this point so Calvin returned us to our hotel and we sais our goodbyes before coming up to our room. The plan for tomorrow is to catch the train to Sunway Lagoon, which is a rather large theme park sort of area. Let’s hope it’s not too crowded. It has a big beach area and a really large suspension bridge I can’t wait to see.