Hopping around KL

MONDAY 5TH MARCH

Waiting for the Hop On Hop Off Bus

After a classy breakfast of hotcakes at Macca’s, we set off for a day of sightseeing. We bought passes for the ‘Hop On Hop Off’ bus for about $12-$13 each. This gave us one day of unlimited use of the bus service which runs in a loop around the city, with stops at all of the main attractions.

First stop was the National Palace. Visitors are not allowed inside the Palace grounds, so it was strictly a photo-shoot. The bus stopped here for 10 minutes to allow the tourists to do our thing.

At the gates of the Palace

We then continued on to our next stop which was the National Mosque. We had also intended to visit the Islamic Art Museum, but of course, because I wanted to go there, they are closed on Mondays!  Oh well, there’s always next time.  The Mosque was very impressive and we had a nice chat with an attendant.  The best thing about this was that she was standing in the coolest spot.  Ladies are required to cover up and the mosque provides appropriate robes and head coverings. 

Here’s me in my stylish outfit.  It’s all made of synthetic material and is most unpleasant in a hot humid city.  It was nice to escape!

Our next stop was Merdeka Square – once a cricket field and the site of Malaysia’s proclamation of independence.  The square is surrounding by some very impressive buildings including the Royal Selangor Club and many other examples of beautiful architecture. 

After a bit of people watching and photo taking, we hopped on the next bus and hopped off at the Petronas Towers, a very impressive pair of 88 storey buildings connected by a sky bridge at the 41st and 42nd floors.  To get a ticket to go up to the sky bridge it is advisable to front up to the ticket counter at 8.30am.  We weren’t that keen but were still very impressed by the building. 

We dropped into the shopping mall next door, which was like a big, upmarket version of Marion Shopping Centre, with all the brand-name stores.  We found the food court and had a lovely meal from Sizzles.  Well named!  The meals are all served on sizzling plates.  We had a noodle dish which was very nice.  All around us were locals, including women in head scarves, tucking into their Macca’s and Subways, while we were eating noodles with chopsticks!  They probably thought we were very funny!

Back at the bus stop, we hopped on the next bus and made our way to Chinatown.  Besides seeing a couple of remarkable temples, we were not overly impressed.  It was mainly cheap watches, fake designer handbags and plastic stuff.  We did wander around one of the temples and watched the locals going about their temple business, which seemed to include offerings, blessings by the priest and burning paper things.

So off we went again, this time to Central Market.  This was much more interesting than Chinatown and we stopped to enjoy a cup of tea before setting off on foot to Little India.

Motorcycle gear Malaysian style

We were pretty weary by then, so made our way back to the hotel for a rest and clean up before heading back to the Sentral Station for dinner.  By the time we’d finished eating and using up a bit of free wi-fi at McDonalds it was time to go back to prepare for our flight tomorrow and call it a night.  The weather forecast for Hanoi is 30 degrees.  Sounds good to me!