Seeing the sights in KL and then on to Malacca

Because I lost the first day due to Etihad's delayed departure from Dublin I was going to be very rushed in seeing the sights around Kuala Lumpur. I literally had only half a day today before I was heading off to my next destination in Malaysia. Yesterday was really required to get the power Bank and a few items for my cameras which I would need going forward so I didn't really have much time on that day to do any sightseeing. Not to mention the bad weather didn't help.

Thankfully Kuala Lumpur doesn't have too much in the way of tourist sites so the main thing I want to see were the world-famous Petronas Towers and the Batu Caves if I had time. Getting around Kuala Lumpur is really quite cheap so I was able to get over to the Petronas Towers fairly quickly for only about 1 euro. As luck would have it the heavens opened and there was a flash flood just as I arrived at the base of the Petronas Towers. The most of my time there was spent huddled under the entrance-way trying to steer clear of the rainstorm.

I didn't really want to bother going up the lift to the top because the view wouldn't have been good with the cloud and mist anyway but I wanted to get a good look at the Towers from the bottom as they are pretty impressive.

I had to quickly check out of my AirBnB apartment before I made the hasty rush to the Batu Caves so I have to rush around quickly to get back and then pack up and then onwards to find somewhere to drop my bags but thankfully I was able to do this with the restaurant on the ground floor. The must got a lot of people thrown out of the apartments like this because they didn't seem surprised when I asked them could I leave my bags with them (for a fee of course).

The plan had been to head to Malacca around midday but because I was delayed from the first day I'd have to do that this evening instead. I headed to the Batu Caves which again was on the train line and again it was really cheap to get to.

One of the things I didn't know about Kuala Lumpur itself is that it seems to be overgrown with rainforest plants right smack in the middle of the city we're just quite pretty it looks like if it wasn't tended to the forest and jungle would end up taking over pretty quickly. This is also evident when you get to the Batu Caves how quickly you leave the city and enter frontier-land proper.

Let me just say the Batu Caves are one of the most amazing things I've seen and I'm really glad that I actually went to see them. The outside of the caves is impressive size in itself with the stairway leading up to the cave entrance but the main attraction is the cave at the top of stairs which is absolutely huge and cavernous. Statues dedicated to Hinduism dot the area and also the interior of the cave. The interior of the cave must be at least 20 stories high. Light jutting in from the top holes of the cave make for great photographic shots, not to mention the cheeky resident monkeys that have become a firm favourite while also managing to steal any food that you might happen to have in your hand.

I ended up staying here around 3 hours because it was just so cool.

The next destination was Malacca so I have to run back and collect my luggage and then quickly gets the bus. I made it just in time to catch the last bus of the day at 9pm!

On arrival at Malacca at 11.20pm, I booked into a "Hotel Arissa" which had a double room for €22. The transvestite (!) at reception was over the moon to receive a guest at this hour as there didn't seem to be any other guests staying! I was only going to get a few hours kip anyway before having to check out in the morning before exploring Malacca!