Monday, June 6, 2011

Day 12 Kuala Lumpur

Today was a good day, we did the Princess Bus into KL, there were maybe
13 of these, each one nearly full. I think we had about 33 people on
ours and we were bus 6, I saw other cruisers with sticker number 12,
and there may have been even higher numbers! One of the young blokes on
the cruise who Katie has been hanging with was on our bus so the 3 of us
sat up the back and Daniel then spent the day with us. Lucky he didn't
mind a spot of shopping!
After an hours bus ride with a guide (and a separate driver) telling us
facts about Malaysia we arrived at the Petronas Towers, which was our
drop off and then meeting point for the trip back after about 5 or so
hours of free time to do what we wanted in KL. We had a quick look at
the shops in the Towers but because it was before 10am nothing was open,
so we hopped in a taxi and went to the Sugei Wang Plaza at Jalan Bukit
Bintang. Luckily for Daniel and I, Katie has studied Indonesian (very
similar language to Malay) and been to KL, so she was our bargainer and
"guide" for the day. Which she did wonderfully as our first taxi was
bargained down in price once Katie spoke back to him in Indo. After our
quick ride to the shops it was still not quite 10am so we went for a go
on the monorail. It doesn't do a loop, just goes from point A to point B
(and back again), we got on about point A 1/2, so went to B and back
again to A 1/2. Had a view of the city as well as a sense of closeness
in the crowded car. By this time the shops were open and Katie and I
found an internet cafe where we spent an amazing 25 mins on Skype
watching Scarlett........while we couldn't hear Meg (only background
noise) , and our end didn't have a camera for her to see us it was still
good. We typed messages to each other and just enjoyed watching her and
Scarlett. It is very hard being here while they are so far away. Daniel
walked around and did some shopping for his family while we were
occupied on Skype! We spent another hour or so looking around ( I bought
a pair of shoes that I actually wore on the spot, the ones I had on had
produced a small blister) before it was lunch time and we had a lovely
Malay meal at a Malay restaurant, where Katie was able to get vegetarian
Mee Goreng after finding a waiter who could speak English as she was
unsure of the word for shrimp in Malay. After this we got another taxi
and went up to KL tower, where we went for a short walk in the park that
surrounds it. My walk was a little shorter than the "kids" as it was
very steep and I knew I'm still not that fit..........and I made the
right choice because the road back up was very steep, and unfortunately
none of us saw any monkeys running around. A quick walk around the
ground floor of the tower and it was time to get a taxi back to the
meeting point. The weather wasn't too hot, it had rained earlier in the
day before we left the ship and I didn't find the humidity that bad, but
it is the dry season, so guess I had a good day to visit.
The hour back to the ship went quickly enough with the guide's stories,
and he asked the passengers who had eaten Malay while in town and only
about 6 others put their hands up........not sure why you wouldn't avail
yourself of the local cuisine???
Once on the ship we watched the departure from our balcony before
doing a load of washing and then venturing up to the Horizon Court for
dinner, our waiters and table mates from the Main Dining Room will be
wondering where we are! But I think after being in a port all day a lot
of people skip the formality of the dining room as they are tired.
Langkawi tomorrow where Katie and I are kayaking..........................

1 comment:

  1. Keep up the good work with your blog. It's great to hear about your adventures and I am really looking forward to hearing about your aquatic adventures on Tuesday.

    ReplyDelete