KL

From the cool Cameron Highlands we descended to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. KL is a very modern, hectic city with greatly varying districts and incredibly thick, sweaty heat. We quickly found a lovely cheap place to get Indian dosa, and ended up eating there for most of our KL meals.

Our first foray into the city took in Chinatown, which is squeezed around a spine of cheap tourist shopping, and generally left us fairly unimpressed, except for the food and the very interesting Hindu temples. One of these is the starting place for the procession of Thaipussam, a festival where people put large hooks in their bodies and drag heavy objects to nearby Batu caves. Unfortunately, we managed to sleep in and miss the early start required to see the festival, where over a million people gather at the caves.



We enjoyed an almost futuristic monorail ride into the very swish business district of the city, which includes the Petronas towers, not long ago the tallest building in the world and backdrop to part of the greatest cinematic feat of the second millenium, Entrapment. Visiting the walkway between the twin towers is free, but requires sitting through a shoddy 3-d glasses ad for the oil company the towers are named after. Once up, the views are very nice and make the experience worth the effort.



Other highlights of KL include the ultra-clean shopping mall district and the strangely pristine cricket ground with surrounding gardens and world's tallest flagpole. Overall, a pleasant city if you can get to air-conditioning and avoid the worst of the bustle.