Day 2 in Kuala Lumpur began again with the excellent breakfast at the hotel. Here are a few shots of the multitude of offerings.

We met cousin Ron and headed off to catch the Ronda Ronda – aka KL Hop-On Hop-Off Bus. The website doesn’t list a senior discount but the nice young man selling the tickets issued us ‘child’ tickets at half the price.

The bus has two routes. We rode the City Route from the KLCC to the interchange point. Sitting on the open upper level of the double decker bus offered a great view although it was very hot and sunny. Hats and sunscreen were definitely necessary!

On the City Route, we were able to view a bustling city, with a plethora of architectural wonders. It seems that no two of the many, many skyscrapers are identical (except of course the twin Petronas towers). Ron, who lived in the city for many years, commented that it gave him a different perspective.

The Menara KL (or KL tower) is one of the five tallest telecommunication towers in the world. Reaching 1380 feet, it was built between 1991 and 1996.

Merdeka 118 rises to a height of 679 meters and is the second tallest building in the world after Burj Khalifa in Dubai (828 meters). Construction of the building took place from 2013 – 2024 and it was officially opened by the King of Malaysia on January 10, 2024. Construction work inside is still ongoing and although the observation deck was expected to open in Q2-Q3 2024, it is still not open to the public.

At the interchange point, we took an air conditioned break at SG Wang Plaza where we enjoyed a very refreshing Boost drink (mango, mango/passion fruit, berry bang).

It was then off on the Garden Route. This route took us past a number of different neighbourhoods as well as a lovely large park and some landmark buildings.

We passed by Chinatown, the Central Market and Little India. We hope to return to these areas later in our trip.

Our bus made a stop at the National Palace (Istana Negara). This is the official residence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (King of Malaysia). The palace complex, opened in 2011 has an area of 97.65 hectares, 22 domes, and is split into three main portions: the Formal Component, Royal Component and Administration Component. The two biggest domes are designed in the form of neatly layered beetle leaves. The public are not admitted to the palace grounds – you can only peer through the gates so we didn’t hop-off. We did see the guards riding to and from a short changing of the guards ceremony.

The Perdana Botanical Garden was created in the late 19th century for the governing British elite. Today it is the city’s largest and most popular park. Home to a bird park, butterfly garden, the Islamic Art Gallery, ASEAN Sculpture Park and the National Planetarium as well as orchid and ginger gardens, you could easily spend a day in the area and we wish it would have fit into our itinerary.

We also passed by the Masjid Negara, Malaysia’s National Mosque. This massive building has room for 15,000 worshippers and is capped by a 240 foot slender minaret. The mosque is set in sprawling gardens, highlighted by pools and fountains.

Merdeka Square or Independence Square is a vast rectangular space and is the venue for most national events. The 311 foot (95 meters) flagpole is one of the tallest in the world.

The eastern side of the square is dominated by the Sultan Abdul Samad Building. This Moorish edifice was built in 1897 as the headquarters of the colonial administration. It most recently housed the Malaysian High Court commercial division but is currently under renovation and restoration.

Alighting from the bus again at the SG Wang Plaza, we ducked in for a snack before walking a bit through the streets. At this point, I must admit that I was finding the heat & humidity a bit overwhelming and it was with relief that we arrived at Ron’s apartment for cold water and beer.

It was a very interesting day which we ended by picking up take-out sandwiches and relaxing in our lovely cool rooms.

On Day 3, we headed out with a Grab (Asia’s version of Uber) to the Batu Caves. This series of caves is set high in a range of rugged limestone cliffs. The caves have long been known to the indigenous people of Malaysia but did not gain notoriety until American naturalist William Hornaday came upon them in 1878. The largest cave was converted into a shrine in the 1890’s and soon became the most important pilgrimage site for Malaysia’s Hindu population.

The square in front of the caves is dominated by a magnificent golden statue of Murugan, the Hindu god of war. In 2018, the 272 steps leading up to the caves were painted in an array of rainbow colours.

Numerous other statues and elaborately decorated structures are placed around the grounds.

The main cave is known as the Temple or Cathedral Cave. With walls lined with statues of gods and a dome painted with scenes from Hindu scriptures, the cave is partially lit by light streaming through gaps in the roof.

A note of caution – beware of the monkeys as you climb the stairs. They can apparently become quite aggressive and help themselves to any belongings that you don’t have a tight grip on.

The Batu Caves were fascinating to visit and we recommend them as a must-see if you visit KL!

From the caves, we traveled (again by Grab) to the Royal Selanger Visitor Centre and factory. Founded in 1885 in colonial Malaysia, Royal Selanger is known as the maker of the world’s finest pewter.

At the centre, there is a great tour of museum exhibits and a live demo on pewter crafting, as well as a look at the actual factory.

We were surprised at how much we enjoyed the tour at Royal Selanger. We also had a great lunch in their cafe.

And this may be the best group photo of the trip!

Returning from these very interesting excursions, we took a few hours to relax at the hotel. We find that in this heat and humidity, we need to pace ourselves (and we aren’t as young as we used to be 😉😳😀). We then had a light dinner and headed to the KLCC to take in the night lights.

The Symphony Lakes musical fountain show occurs nightly in front of the Suria KLCC. Two musical fountains display over 150 unique programmed animations in a great performance of sound and water.

As well as the fountain show, we enjoyed seeing the night lights of many of the area buildings.

We are now off to our next stop. We will return to KL later in our trip and I will finish up with insights into this great city at that time.

Cheers,

Bev & Harvey