Kuala Lumpur city tour 1 - 30/10/06

Well, since Dion was now fine, we could at last go on the City tour (3 days into our 4-day stay).

We made sure we were earlier for breakfast but seems like the whole hotel had the same idea so there was even more of a queue. At least it went fast so we had a lovely breakfast and were back in the lobby by 8:40 for our 8:45 pickup.

They were very late – only arrived at 9:00 and they didn’t seem to know about us so good thing I had our receipts because of course, the concierge who we booked with was not working that shift.

We went on the bus to a central point where they split us up depending on what tour we’d bought. Got our yellow stickers and we were on our way at about 9:25.

First stop was the Petronas Towers.

The bus parked in such a position that we could get good pictures of both the Petronas Towers and the KL Tower.

That was quite cool, especially since we weren’t stopping at the KL Tower on this particular tour. We also met a Sri Lankan couple (both of them very good-looking) and he showed us how to take different shots with our digital camera so that we could get interesting shots of the famous towers.

Next we visited an arts and crafts centre. They mainly had batik crafts and pewter in there. We had a demonstration of the batik artists. It was amazing how the guy draws all these flowers and leaves completely freehand. What was even more amazing is how the second guy then colours in the material - not a drop of paint outside the lines. (one of my weird things is I can’t colour inside the lines – don’t know if it’s lack of patience or what – but I just can’t do it).

There are 25 million people in Malaysia and they are mostly farmers – top exports are rubber, palm oil and tin (pewter is an alloy of tin). So at this craft centre, there’s a huge pewter selection of goods and of course, we were encouraged to buy, buy, buy. I’m not one for ornaments though so thanks very much but no!

We then went to the King’s Palace and took pictures with the guards, in front of the very impressive gates. Some years on a particular holiday (I think it’s Diwali) the King opens the palace and you can walk through. The guide said that on those days everybody goes through because it’s for free!