Today, we woke to a fine sunny day - no rain after all. Because we are docked so far from KL, we took the ship’s tour which is billed as ‘Kuala Lumpur on your own’. We were to meet at 7.30am but when we got to the Wheelhouse bar, absolute chaos reigned, as the tour desk operators attempted to get people into groups and onto buses - really just confirmed my opinion about avoiding ship’s tours unless absolutely necessary. Finally we were on the bus and under way at 8.15am.
Hint for future cruisers to KL - We found out that it was possible to get a cab from the cruise terminal into KL (about 90 minutes) and arrange a pickup time and place in the city to return for $80 for 4 passengers (the ships tour was $49AUD per person.) There wer a lot of taxis waiting as we were walking to the bus. This would seem to me to be a better option for those contemplating visiting KL by ship in the future.
When we arrived in KL, the bus dropped us at Petronis Towers to be picked up at 2.45pm. We joined forces with Randy and Carol (our friends from California) and looked for bus stop 22 for the Hop on, hop off bus. We found the stop but about 60 other passengers from the ship had beaten us to it. Not to be beaten, we looked at the map, found that the previous stop 21 on the route was only a few hundred metres up the road. We walked up to that stop - waited 5 minutes and a nearly empty bus came along.
We easily found seats, and were pleased with our ingenuity when it came to stop 22 and most of those waiting couldn’t fit onto the bus and had to wait for the next one.... (quiet smugness is so unattractive...)
Our first stop was at the KL Telecom Tower - the fifth tallest in the world. Anyone who knows me well, knows that I have a dread fear of heights - but our tour in Dubai includes tickets for the Burg Kalifa and I really want to overcome my fear and go up - so this was my test. Arnold and Randy waited at the bottom while Carol and I went up - she was great and talked to me all the way up in the lift - so distracted that I didn’t really have time to think about it. When we got up the view was stunning and I took heaps of great photos - and felt comfortable enough that the Burg is next! Yeah!
We got back on the bus and told the guide that we wanted to get Thai massages so he recommended The Tropical Spa and even stopped the bus right at the door for us. We have found everyone to be very friendly and obliging - such fun. We all had great massages $20 for 1 hour and we all blissfully floated out into the sunlight and heat just as the bus was passing on another round. We saw the main sights of Kuala Lumpur before returning to our rendezvous just in time for the bus back to the ship.
We have gained a very good impression of KL - it is a fascinating mix of old and modern and so many different cultures who seem to be coexisting well. It will certainly be on our list of places to return to in the future - maybe next time I will even attempt to walk across the skybridge between the two Petronis Towers. Who knows????
Tomorrow is Langkawi where we have rented a car for the day.
Cheers
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