26 FEB TUESDAY - Kuala Lumpur pm - KL Tower

Before we left the UK I pre-booked tickets to the KL Tower which is an observation tower with a viewing deck 276m above ground level (enclosed by glass all round and full of souvenir shops etc.)

BUT I went the whole hog and booked us tickets to the Sky Deck which is 300m above ground level and is glazed to chest height so you can take photos above the barrier with no windows impeding the shot.    The Sky Deck ticket also gives brief access to 2 'Sky Boxes' which are glass bottomed/walled rooms which protrude from the deck.

Up till the last minute I didn't know if I'd be brave enough to walk out onto the glass bottomed boxes but ... I managed it!  I couldn't look down though.      There are photographers at each box.  You are allowed just a few minutes in the box with the photographer taking pictures then just a minute or so to take your own pictures if you wish.

At the first box (with the least interesting backdrop) the photographer was a bit disinterested and when our time was up, that was it.

The second box photographer took photos with his camera, then kindly took more photos with my camera.    Actually he shot himself in the foot really as we then didn't purchase any 'official' photos taken by him.

When you first enter the tower you are photographed against a plain backdrop wall and then your photo is superimposed onto a view from the tower and available to purchase at the end of your visit.
You are able to buy these as single photos (£10 each) so no need to actually travel up to the sky deck.  (the cheats/cheap option)!

The 'official' photos taken in the glass boxes are only available as a set of 3.  Two A4 sized prints and one print in a globe (like the snow globes you get at Xmas time) and they're really tacky.   The set costs nearly £35.   We really liked one photo, could have lived with one other but really couldn't find a 3rd one we liked.   They wouldn't allow us to buy just one or two so we left with none!  I think the photography business is a franchise so they don't care but I think its crazy they'd rather let customers walk away without spending anything rather than selling individual photos so they see some return for their efforts!

Here's some taken by the kind photographer on my own camera:

he was making us pull faces and pretend to scream (and if I'd looked down I probably would have screamed for real)!

and these are some of the views I took  -  The Petronas Twin towers are in the middle.  They are the tallest twin towers in the World

Looking down at the infinity pool on the 51st floor of the Platinum Apartment Hotel

The tower from outside at ground level - the small square box at the top is one of those we braved! 

here it is again (the middle protuberance)

and zoomed in a bit more ... you can just make out somebody standing on the glass floor.

26 FEB TUESDAY: Exploring KL area - Little India/Chinatown

Our lazy day turned out to be a bit less lazy than anticipated.    I thought we'd just wander round Brickfields (little India) which is close to our hotel and take a look at the local shops/stalls then chill for a few hours. 

Whilst we didn't set out to do yet another temple tour I knew there was a Buddhist temple nearby so we headed off in its general direction just to give our walk a bit of purpose.   We found an Indian Temple but it was 'undergoing a refurb'.  We met a devotee outside the temple and learned he was from Tamil Nadhu so had a chat with him about our experiences in India and places we'd visited in his home land and he encouraged us to go upstairs and have a look inside the temple anyway.

It was a little sad as Indian temples are usually beautifully decorated and colourful.  This had been partly coated in white paint in readiness for being repainted so I took a few pictures then we said our goodbyes.

I loved this poster giving the breakdown of costs for the refurb

 
 He pointed us in the right direction to the temple we were looking for


Buddhist Maha Vihara Temple was founded by the Sinhalese Community based in Kuala Lumpur in 1894 to give them a place where they could worship in their Sri Lankan tradition.   Most Sinhalese were traders or artisans and skilled workers brought in from Ceylon by the British Administration to develop the colonial Malayan Civil Service.

Note all the Buddha tiles on the walls.

Buddhist temples always seem so serene ...

 Across from the temple itself is this huge building with a hall that seats 800 people downstairs and other floors providing a Buddhism studies centre, resource centre and library.  There is obviously no shortage of money being spent on the temple, despite us only seeing half a dozen people whilst we were looking around.

 I don't usually photograph people at their devotions, but did just take this one picture as we were walking past the entrance to leave the temple - just a few ladies and the monk at this service.

I like spotting scenes like this ... why is the cat in the bird cage on the wall of this apartment?   One of life's little mysteries I think 

Unintentionally we ended up in Chinatown with scores of market stalls and shops - mostly selling the same old things - cheap bags and T-shirts, cheap shoes and fake watches (they openly marketed them as fakes).    It was very hot and David spotted a restaurant (I use the term loosely) offering cold beer so we parked ourselves at a table, perched on tiny plastic stools and a very nice guy came out with two plastic chairs more fitting to our size and years!   The cold beer went down very well.

Sadly my camera/card had a problem which I didn't know till I tried to upload pictures to the computer.   8 pictures couldn't be read/opened.    David thinks its the card that is faulty so it has now been binned.  I'm just pleased there were only a small number of photos affected.   But now you won't be treated to a picture of the artistically displayed Tiger Beer Bottles and glasses on our plastic table in the middle of Chinatown!

Suitably refreshed we headed for the Transit station to go back to our hotel but got sidetracked by this very ornate building which seemed to be neither temple nor commercial business so decided to have a peek inside.      Its a fascinating place - part family temple and ancestral hall (Chen Clan) and part museum/cultural history hall.      Back in 1897 a wealthy Chinese man bought 7 attached shops and land from the British Colonial Government and constructed the 'Ancestor hall.   Work finished in 1906 and descendants have kept the place going, and the traditions alive since then.     There are plaques commemorating deceased family/Clan members (and lots of blank plaques for further names to be added in the future). Descendants of the founder are pledged to continue good and charitable works for their community wherever they are based in the world.   (Well that's my understanding of it anyway).

there are hundreds of plaques commemorating ancestors behind the glass displays

Looking outside to the highrise buildings of the modern world

Then just before we got to the transit station - yet another temple.    Honestly, today didn't set out to be a temple visiting day (well, just the one in passing) but this is such a multicultural society you can hardly go more than 4 or 5 streets without stumbling across some kind of church or temple.

just a few photos from the outside (I didn't go in) - its a bright, jolly sort of temple 

I loved this character - he could easily have a starring role in a Christmas panto I think

 David had got bored and wandered off ... and look where I found him