Breakfast choice was ridiculously huge with Chinese, Malay, Indian and continental choices and good old English fry up ... so David has revised his opinion of the hotel a little this morning. Whilst he went off to order his eggs I put bread into one of those very slow 'conveyor belt' toasters which take an age and then give you slightly coloured crispy bread rather than proper toast. Whilst I was waiting I was checking out the rows of beautifully decorated doughnuts and wondering who on earth would want doughnuts for breakfast .. whereupon an American lady informed me its a popular take out breakfast (with coffee) for workers in USA but always leaves them feeling hungry again half an hour later!
We are staying at Aloft Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. As mentioned in a previous post, the hotel has a covered walkway joining it to a major shopping mall and also to KL Sentral transit station so its very handy for whatever we decide to do.
Today we opted to buy a KL Hop On Hop Off bus ticket which has 45 stops throughout the city split into two circuits, the Garden Route (green line) and the City Route (red line). The plan was to stay on the bus and complete the route and on the second circuit just get off at places that interested us (and didn't involve too much walking in the open as we haven't really acclimatised to the heat and humidity).
The first 24 stops were fine, the bus moved at a reasonable rate and we could work out just how close it stopped to the attractions. After that we got stuck in heavy traffic and took 90 minutes to negotiate the next 6 stops so we decided to abandon ship (or bus), get the overhead transit shuttle back to KL Sentral transit station and get onto another Hop On Hop Off bus and start again - just visiting a few of the attractions on the first part of the circuit.
The bus service was supposed to use open top buses but the first 3 we got on were double deckers with VERY dirty windows so although I took a few photos they aren't very good.
This is a murky view of the Petronas Towers - tallest twin towers in the World:
and the KL Tower. I've booked tickets to go up to the viewing platform at KL Tower - we should have gone this afternoon/evening but were too tired. We'll save that treat for tomorrow.
The next couple of buses were double decker and half/half open top/closed in top with a sliding door separating the two sections. Open top is brilliant for getting pictures but painful when stuck in traffic as there is no protection from the sun.
First stop was the Istana (Royal Palace) .. tourists aren't allowed into the grounds except on special occasions so these are a few pics taken from outside the gates. Just as we got to the gates there was a 'mini' changing of the guards taking place which was fun for a couple of minutes.
Beautiful, isn't it?
Close up of the sign in front of the tree to the left of above photo .... I was curious about the background but a quick Google search hasn't helped except I learned that until about 2011 the gates were guarded by horsemen rather than soldiers on foot. I can only assume there are still horses in situ.
Next stop was Perdana Botanical Garden which is on a huge scale with a bird park, a butterfly park and lots of landscaped gardens. We weren't up to walking around the bird park today but I particularly wanted to revisit a monument in the park that I remember visiting 35 years ago when I was in KL.
As we got off the bus I asked the guide which direction to take for the monument and he indicated 'straight ahead' ... what he didn't say was it was a long walk and a major road to cross but with the help of David's phone and a map App we tracked it down. As with most monuments, it was set on top of a hill and David didn't want to make the trek so he set out to buy some cold water from the park shop and waited in the shade for me to return.
The National Monument
This is the back of the statue/monument I remember but I don't think the water features were there 35 years ago ...
I try not to use public toilets when out, particularly in S.E.Asia as not all toilets have been designed for Westerners and I can't cope with the squat toilets. David reported back that the Gents were exceptionally clean so I chanced a visit to the Ladies. I had to pay 20 sen (about 4 pence) to the two Indian guys 'guarding' the loos but it was worth it. I've never seen toilet facilities quite like this .... especially in a public park/garden.
squatting loos and western loos (helpfully labelled on the doors)
and a small ornamental pond just next to the desk where the guys were collecting the fees. There were little fish in the pond ... or perhaps I should call them wee fish!
Our final stop was Merdeka Square (Colonial District) the place where Malaya declared its independence. The Union Flag was lowered and the Malayan flag was raised for the very first time at the stroke of midnight on 31st August 1957. The flagpole which holds the flag of Malaysia is apparently the highest in the world, towering at a height of 100 meters. Merdeka Square is where Malaya declared its independence.
These mock tudor buildings alongside Merdeka Square used to house the Royal Selangor Club which was founded by the Brits in the 1880s
This stunning building is situated across the road from Merdeka Square and is the Gangunan Sultan Abdul Samad Building. It was originally built for use as British Govt. offices but after independence was used to house courts and Malaysian Govt. offices. The clock tower has a one ton bell which strikes the hours and half hours.
We'd expected to see more historic buildings in the area and really only needed to spend 10 minutes here. The buses run every 20-30 minutes so we had a long hot wait for our ride.
David studying the map as we're stuck in yet more traffic!
The overhead shuttle tracks (or monorails as the Malays seem to call them)
Such tall buildings throughout KL ... most are 40 - 50 storeys high.
Again, we cut off the last part of the tour and took a shuttle (monorail) but we hit rush hour and the aircon struggled to cool our packed compartment ... we only had 6 stops to travel but we wilted!
I tried to photograph the display/map on the door of the transit as the first stop on this route is a place we see lots of references to and its name amuses David ... the camera didn't like the dim lights but hope you can make out the place name.
Schoolboy humour!
We walked into nearby Brickfields area (Little India) for a curry meal tonight and then back to our room as we're shattered. We're planning a fairly easy day tomorrow - just exploring the local streets in the morning and then going to the KL observation tower tomorrow afternoon/evening. So far (touch wood) we've done well with the weather which was wet before we arrived here (in fact we had a storm last night) and will be wet again as we leave ... we're managing to stay just ahead of the wet stuff and long may that last
We are staying at Aloft Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. As mentioned in a previous post, the hotel has a covered walkway joining it to a major shopping mall and also to KL Sentral transit station so its very handy for whatever we decide to do.
Today we opted to buy a KL Hop On Hop Off bus ticket which has 45 stops throughout the city split into two circuits, the Garden Route (green line) and the City Route (red line). The plan was to stay on the bus and complete the route and on the second circuit just get off at places that interested us (and didn't involve too much walking in the open as we haven't really acclimatised to the heat and humidity).
The first 24 stops were fine, the bus moved at a reasonable rate and we could work out just how close it stopped to the attractions. After that we got stuck in heavy traffic and took 90 minutes to negotiate the next 6 stops so we decided to abandon ship (or bus), get the overhead transit shuttle back to KL Sentral transit station and get onto another Hop On Hop Off bus and start again - just visiting a few of the attractions on the first part of the circuit.
The bus service was supposed to use open top buses but the first 3 we got on were double deckers with VERY dirty windows so although I took a few photos they aren't very good.
This is a murky view of the Petronas Towers - tallest twin towers in the World:
and the KL Tower. I've booked tickets to go up to the viewing platform at KL Tower - we should have gone this afternoon/evening but were too tired. We'll save that treat for tomorrow.
The next couple of buses were double decker and half/half open top/closed in top with a sliding door separating the two sections. Open top is brilliant for getting pictures but painful when stuck in traffic as there is no protection from the sun.
First stop was the Istana (Royal Palace) .. tourists aren't allowed into the grounds except on special occasions so these are a few pics taken from outside the gates. Just as we got to the gates there was a 'mini' changing of the guards taking place which was fun for a couple of minutes.
Beautiful, isn't it?
Close up of the sign in front of the tree to the left of above photo .... I was curious about the background but a quick Google search hasn't helped except I learned that until about 2011 the gates were guarded by horsemen rather than soldiers on foot. I can only assume there are still horses in situ.
Next stop was Perdana Botanical Garden which is on a huge scale with a bird park, a butterfly park and lots of landscaped gardens. We weren't up to walking around the bird park today but I particularly wanted to revisit a monument in the park that I remember visiting 35 years ago when I was in KL.
As we got off the bus I asked the guide which direction to take for the monument and he indicated 'straight ahead' ... what he didn't say was it was a long walk and a major road to cross but with the help of David's phone and a map App we tracked it down. As with most monuments, it was set on top of a hill and David didn't want to make the trek so he set out to buy some cold water from the park shop and waited in the shade for me to return.
The National Monument
This is the back of the statue/monument I remember but I don't think the water features were there 35 years ago ...
I try not to use public toilets when out, particularly in S.E.Asia as not all toilets have been designed for Westerners and I can't cope with the squat toilets. David reported back that the Gents were exceptionally clean so I chanced a visit to the Ladies. I had to pay 20 sen (about 4 pence) to the two Indian guys 'guarding' the loos but it was worth it. I've never seen toilet facilities quite like this .... especially in a public park/garden.
squatting loos and western loos (helpfully labelled on the doors)
and a small ornamental pond just next to the desk where the guys were collecting the fees. There were little fish in the pond ... or perhaps I should call them wee fish!
Our final stop was Merdeka Square (Colonial District) the place where Malaya declared its independence. The Union Flag was lowered and the Malayan flag was raised for the very first time at the stroke of midnight on 31st August 1957. The flagpole which holds the flag of Malaysia is apparently the highest in the world, towering at a height of 100 meters. Merdeka Square is where Malaya declared its independence.
These mock tudor buildings alongside Merdeka Square used to house the Royal Selangor Club which was founded by the Brits in the 1880s
This stunning building is situated across the road from Merdeka Square and is the Gangunan Sultan Abdul Samad Building. It was originally built for use as British Govt. offices but after independence was used to house courts and Malaysian Govt. offices. The clock tower has a one ton bell which strikes the hours and half hours.
We'd expected to see more historic buildings in the area and really only needed to spend 10 minutes here. The buses run every 20-30 minutes so we had a long hot wait for our ride.
David studying the map as we're stuck in yet more traffic!
The overhead shuttle tracks (or monorails as the Malays seem to call them)
Such tall buildings throughout KL ... most are 40 - 50 storeys high.
Again, we cut off the last part of the tour and took a shuttle (monorail) but we hit rush hour and the aircon struggled to cool our packed compartment ... we only had 6 stops to travel but we wilted!
I tried to photograph the display/map on the door of the transit as the first stop on this route is a place we see lots of references to and its name amuses David ... the camera didn't like the dim lights but hope you can make out the place name.
Schoolboy humour!
We walked into nearby Brickfields area (Little India) for a curry meal tonight and then back to our room as we're shattered. We're planning a fairly easy day tomorrow - just exploring the local streets in the morning and then going to the KL observation tower tomorrow afternoon/evening. So far (touch wood) we've done well with the weather which was wet before we arrived here (in fact we had a storm last night) and will be wet again as we leave ... we're managing to stay just ahead of the wet stuff and long may that last
