Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 4/25/24

 

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 

We were greeted once again as we disembarked our ship and were entertained by some local dancers...

Our day began by finding our tour guide - it was a small tour, only 6 people so we could really pack in the sights without waiting for 50 folks to get on the bus! Also, we were able to change up our tour and added the Batu Caves. Absolutely the right move..e missed another stop, but the switch was so worth it. Batu Cave is on a mogote, which is a type of steep sided hill that is made from limestone. The limestone is around 400 years old. The caves were originally used by the indigenous population as shelter. Around 1860, the Chinese began using the guano (bat poo) for fertilizer in their gardens. Eventually, an Indian trader, K. Thamboosamy Pillai, dedicated a temple to Lord Murugan inside the caves. He is the one that promoted the caves as a place of Hindu worship. In 1920, wooden steps were built up to the Temple Cave which made it much easier for worshipers to access the Temple Cave. The current concrete steps were constructed in 1940. In 2018, the Batu Caves stairs were painted with the many colors we see today, and there are 272 steps to the Temple Cave. We were surprised to find out that the massive 42.7-meter gold statue of Lord Murugan was constructed from 2003 to 2006. It is really stunning and is the first thing your eye is drawn to when entering the grounds.

Photographs of the Temple cave, courtesy of Telah Morrison.

Monkeys again, they were all over ...and climbing the trees and steps...Mama's and their babies all around.  These monkeys will steal anything, glasses, phones, wallets, packages, food so we were warned to hang on to our stuff.

From Batu Caves, we headed to Independence Square and the National Monument which commemorates those who died in Malaysia's struggle for freedom, primarily against the Japanese occupation in WW2.  The views from the square of the city were amazing.  We could see the towers and the famous clock tower. 

The Istana Negara is the official residence of the Monarch of Malaysia.  The golden domes and Islamic architecture are beautiful and predominant in the design.  Would have loved to tour the inside, but no go!  

The first tower we visited was the KL Tower which stands 421 meters tall iand is the world’s seventh tallest tower but not the tallest tower in Kuala Lumpur. Merdeka 118 is the tallest tower in KL at 118 floors and 679 meters tall. Another set of towers, the Petronas Towers, are 452 meters tall and have 88 stories. All of the towers were visible from the KL Tower observation deck that we went up to as well as the majority of downtown Kuala Lumpur. We did not make it to the Merdeka 118 but we did head to the Petronis Tower.

The view from the observation deck, you can see the Petronis Towers, our next stop.  We also caught a view of the monarch's home, the Istana Negara, which we had just visited.

Our next and last stop was the Petronis Towers, which we viewed from the KL Towers.  These breathtaking architectural masterpieces ae in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, standing as the world's tallest pair of twin towers at 88 stories of glass and steel. They literally gleam with all the metal and glass on the exterior of what is called a "tube in tube" design and are interlinked by a bridge. This building is truly magnificent and has an entire shopping mall within it.  Spent about an hour here and had a quick lunch before heading back to our ship.

Some of the sights of Kuala Lumpur, very interesting combination of cultural and modern. Kuala Lumpur is full of amazing sites with absolutely stunning architecture.

Colorful street art...

This little girl was riding on a scooter with her mother and kept catching my eye from the bus.  Had to get a picture...

All in all, another action-packed day.  The city is clean and remarkably cosmopolitan.  Traffic is a nightmare, unlike Singapore.  We head to Penang, Malaysia tomorrow.