Today was a bit overcast and
a bit cooler than yesterday, so it was a quite comfortable day.
We drove through Kelang
where we stopped at the Blue Mosque for a photo op. It is the largest mosque in
Southeast Asia with the tallest minarets in the world and can accommodate up to
16,000 worshippers. Very pretty mosque.
We then drove to Kuala
Lumpur where we drove through Little India and various other neighborhoods on
our way to the Presidential Palace. We had our picture taken with a guard and other
photo ops of horses & guards and the palace. Very beautiful!
We visited the Batu Caves. The cave is one of the
most popular Hindu shrines outside India. There were 272 steep steps and long tailed macaque
monkeys to amuse us on the way up! The main temple cave has a ceiling over 100
meters overhead and features ornate Hindu Shrines. There is a huge gold statue
at the base of the steps! It’s the world’s tallest Murugan statue. The cave was
awesome and the shrines were beautiful. Many people were worshiping. The Temple
is used once a year for a huge festival that lasts several days. The monkeys
were a treat. Many with babies that were nursing or playing. There were also
chickens and roosters up there.
After the Cave we drove into
town and saw Bukit Bintang, the town that never sleeps. However, since it was
in the middle of the day not much action was going on. (so, I guess it does
sleep sometime..) It’s definitely a place that comes alive at night.
From there we drove to the Petronas
Twin Towers for a photo op. Reaching
over 1,400 feet into the air, this architectural wonder is the world’s tallest
twin towers. A sky bridge rising 557 feet above street level connects the two
at levels 41 and 42.
Our guide said it would take
too long to wait for tickets for the Twin Towers and suggested we go to Kuala
Lumpur Tower (KL Tower) for the city views instead. It was a good choice as he
got us ahead of the tour groups and right up the elevator to the observation
floor 276 meters above ground level for fantastic views of the city. The tower
is a telecommunications tower and also has a revolving restaurant one floor
above the observation deck.
For lunch we wanted “Hawker
Food” and Stanley took us to a place where there were lots of food booths with
every type of ethnic food available in Malaysia. We all got something
different. Greg had Chicken Rice in a clay pot, I had Pork Meatball Porridge
and we split a huge steamed bun with BBQ Pork in it. Afterwards, we stopped for
some “ice cream”. The center had some great photo ops for food and people.
After lunch we went on a
walking tour of the city. We visited their China Town Street which was the
usual bustling shopping area. Then we went to the Central Market where there
were a lot of Arts & Crafts, trinkets, food, clothing etc. I tried on this
pretty turquoise skirt/pants thing (was kind of wrap around pants and then more
material came around to make like a skirt over the pants..sounds weird, but it
really was pretty). Anyway, one lady was helping me try it on and had it on
backwards, then 2 other ladies came over and all of them were tying me into it.
Finally I got in it and went to look in a mirror and decided it looked better
on the hanger. Plus, I doubted those 3 sales ladies would be around every time
I might want to wear it.
Stanley
fish pedicure
We then walked to Dataran
Merdeka where Malaysia began as a country. We saw the Masjid Jamek Mosque which
is situated at the confluence of the Gombak and Klang Rivers, where the early
settlement of Kuala Lumpur began and is the oldest mosque in Kuala Lumpur.
We walked a little further
and saw Independence Square which originally was the cricket field for the
Royal Selangor Club, but today the site includes the Sultan Abdul Samad
Building, St. Mary’s Anglican Cathedral and the National History Museum. We saw the mosaic pictures
of various Prime Ministers. It was then time for the drive back to the ship.
bathroom stop on the way back
We
were back and on board in plenty of time. We missed dinner in the dining room,
so we grabbed a bite from the buffet/pizza parlor upstairs. The show tonight
didn’t feature any guest entertainers, but the woman that plays every night in
the piano bar, so we skipped that to upload our pictures and get ready for our
tour tomorrow in Penang, Malaysia.
Much like Singapore,
Malaysia has a mix of many different cultures that all seem to live in harmony.
Colorful sikhs’ turbans mingle with black Muslims veils. Kuala Lumpur sounds
“romantic”, but actually means “muddy esturary”. The modern skyscrapers and
high end shopping malls intermingles with old minarets of mosques and ancient
temples. It was a nice day and we enjoyed the tour very much.
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