Kaula Lampur was another port with an hour bus ride into the city.  These long trips into the cities are on our tab so we have to pay Cunard anywhere from $50 - $80 each depending on the city for the transportation but the 30 minute or less shuttles are taken care of by them.

The highways are modern, clean and wide with three and four lanes going each way at certain times.  Most of the roads are toll roads and motorcycles are not allowed.  They ride on the outside on a small pathway.  They had about 30 toll booths lined up all the way across the freeway.  As we approached the city our escort told us not to carry our bags on the outside shoulder due to people on motorcycles driving by and grabbing your bag off your shoulder and speeding away.  He also warned us about pick-pocketers.  After being in 'safe' Singapore the other day I didn't have my handy money holder in my backpack that goes around my neck so I had to be on heightened alert all day.

Our bus dropped us off at a monorail station and we made quick time to get purchase our tickets over to a subway stop and then buy tickets over to the Petronas Towers at the other end of town.  There is no cost to go up the Petronas Towers but they only hand out 1,700 tickets a day for the bridge visit.  We quickly made our way to the line that starts forming at 6 a.m. everyday with tickets being issued at 8 a.m.  Sad to say that there were only 14 tickets available before the 2:45 p.m. scheduled time to be back on the bus according to their TV monitor so this was a bust.  No way, no how were we going to be able to get up there without a ticket.  Too much security and not enough time.  We knew it was a long shot to get tickets for that day but we had to try.  You're only here once, right?  The only redeeming aspect was we didn't waste any time in line only to find out our time frame tickets were all snatched up.  Tours left every 15 minutes but we understand one person could ask for 60 tickets if they were a tour company hosting 60 visitors and we didn't even get into town until 9:50 a.m. then had to make our way across town.  So we did the second best thing; we took pictures from the outside and they had a Formula One car sponsored by Petronas displayed in the front of the building.   Petronas Towers was built with oil money and they also had a private hospital across town.  Seems we are running a little ahead of the Formula One circuit over here.  April 4th is race day.  We choose to skip the KL Tower located up the hill but did snap a couple of pictures.

There is a huge, modern mall in the basement of the Petronas Towers and we stumbled across another Aunt Annie's.  Time for a little taste of home.  These pretzels only cost the equivalent of .75 in US dollars.  Too bad that's not the price in the states!  After our mid morning snack we took the subway over to the central part of the city to see the world's tallest flagpole in Merdeka Square or Independence Square.  The Union Jack was lowered on August 31, 1957 and the Royal Selangor Club which only allowed the British in sits across the street from the Sultan Abdul Samad building which now houses government offices.

Once again the heat was on and the humidity was high.  By the time we walked down to the National Mosque, the KTM Building and the KL Railway Station built in 1910, we were melting.   The walk was nice with some shade but by the time we got over there I think every Cunard tour bus was there too.  We heard that you couldn't go in the Mosque unless you were a worshipper and that was okay with us.  

We made our way over to the Central Market that has been there since 1888 for some shopping.  On the walk over we were on some side street of the highway and every 25 feet there was a storm grate.  We came across one that was missing its cover and if we had been looking up and not paying attention it would have been a bad accident.  It was about 2.5' square and it would have been about a 15' drop to the bottom.  No safety regulations in this country; no tape, no barricades, no nothing, just a big hole in the middle of the sidewalk.  In the market we did a lot of browsing but only purchased a Coke for a cool down.  Thank God for Coke and its international sales!    

We walked over to Chinatown and strolled down the sales stalls complete with knockoffs of every namebrand you can think of.  They had a couple flower stalls located in here with some pretty flower arrangements but I'd hate to see what they would have looked like by the end of the day and the heat.  We then caught a subway over to the Sentral Station to visit a shopping area and the National Museum.  Seems they knocked down the shopping area and were busy building with a major construction job.  Getting over to the National Museum was quite tricky since we had to cross over some interstate roads but we finally made it over there.  Nice grounds and good air conditioning.  Very nice displays and pieces inside including items from shipwrecks around Malaysia.  They had money made of tin and in the shape of grasshoppers and elephants about four inches long and two inches high.  Too funny to imagine carrying a bunch of that around in the days.  And I thought Australia's money was cumbersome!  The Modern Malaysia gallery had a timeline on how they stamped out the communist movement in their country in the 1950's and some modes of transportation.  We had a very good visit and welcome rest from the heat.  

Finding our way over to the monorail station was a little more difficult than it should have been but that was the system we needed to be on to get back to our bus.  You'd think all you had to do was look up, find it and follow it but it is actually pretty low to the ground and hidden between the buildings.  Once back over in the vicinity of our bus stop we stopped for some more Cokes and spent the last of our Ringgits in a supermarket on Oreo's, a Twix and a can of Pringles.  There were no benches in the mall so we went downstairs where the little food restaurants were located and sat down in one just waiting for someone to come along and tell us we had to leave since we weren't eating their entrees but that never happened.  I had 60 ringgits, a little more than $20 USD, left from Kota Kinabalu and it lasted all day.  Not that we have bought a lot of stuff this entire trip, we are about shopped out.  I look around and think who is going to buy all this merchandise they have on the shelves.  We can't figure out if they just replenish as quick as they sell it or if they are not selling much.  Seems like everyone has the same merchandise to a large extent too.  Chinatown is ironically on Petaling St. but I think it was supposed to be called Peddling St.  I think the spelling was lost in translation.

KL is very cosmopolitan and inexpensive.  On the ride back to the container terminal in the suburbs there were numerous new and large housing condo/apartment complexes about 4 stories high set on large plots of land that were previously undeveloped complete with play grounds and small parks.  They looked very modern and livable out of all the housing we've seen lately.  Very American looking but with an art deco flare.  If you wanted to do some serious shopping here you could do some minor damage on your credit card and get some major purchases.  

Seems like everyone has left their mark on Malaysia's largest city.  The Chinese, the buddhist, the Hindus, the British, Islam; they're all there living in harmony.  Modern high rises, temples, mosques and colonial era buildings.  Malaysia is the only city in the world to have a million-year-old primary forest within the heart of the city.  I would have liked to have gotten out to the Batu Caves which are located 13 kilometers outside the city.  They are made of limestone, 400 meters long and 100 meters high with 272 steps to the top.  I think we could have made it there, up to the caves and back but I don't know how much else we would have been able to see.  Lots of stuff we didn't get to see as usual not enough time.  Wouldn't mind coming back if it crossed my path along the way to another place but probably not on its own.       

Sandy