Be Square, and be there. Part 1 Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur

This prize I remember winning like it was yesterday, it all started on a Friday night with a telephone call, similar to the New Zealand holiday I won as well. I got a call at six in the evening from a promotions company informing me I had won a holiday with Kellogg’s Rice Crispie Squares to anywhere, from their chosen supplier up to the value of £2500. As you can imagine I was over the moon and Trish and I looked at the chosen supplier’s website for somewhere to go, but everywhere was too expensive and would mean losing out on a great experience. The best place we could go was Cuba for seven nights, don’t get me wrong this is still a great prize, but with £2500 you can see a lot of the world. So I contacted them and said I don’t really fancy going to any of their chosen places, is it possible to pick my own holiday and they pay for it? After much deliberation they called me back and said they don’t usually do it, but seeing that it was a large amount of money, and Kellogg’s were fine with it, I could pick it myself.

I immediately began to search the net and found Travelbag, who do mutli-centre holidays to anywhere in the world, and great value, happy days. I found an Asian holiday that had 3 days in Kuala Lumpur, 3 days in Cambodia (Siem Reap) and 9 days in Penang for £1250 each, the magical figure. So I called the promotions company and they kindly arranged payment and Travelbag got in touch to ask us our dates. We wanted to go for my birthday so we said anytime that had October 20^th in, would be ideal. They got back a couple of hours later and gave us the dates and we thought smashing, all done, until they phoned back again and said there was a problem. Here we go, we thought, but it was a good problem because they couldn’t get us on the plane going home at the scheduled time so had to “make us stay an extra night”, they apologised but we weren’t bothered, we now had an extra night on a tropical island, 15 nights instead of 7 nights in Cuba, anyone need a calculator?

We did all the our research on the internet about what to take, and as usual ended up taking too many clothes that we didn’t wear; so now we have decided next time we go to Asia we are only going to take minimal luggage and buy our clothes there. We flew with Etihad and had to stop in Abu Dhabi so this broke up the journey, but it also meant changing some money into dirhams to get a drink and something to eat at the airport. We were told we could leave the airport and go and have a look around the city, but we didn’t fancy visiting somewhere late at night, not being able to see anything because it's dark, just to kill an hour or so. After our drinks it was back onto the plane for the short hop to Kuala Lumpur and the waiting taxi driver, who had a sign with what sort of resembled my name on it and then on to the hotel.

The Hotel Istana Kuala Lumpur was a high rise building, we were on the 14^th floor and like most buildings nearby were overlooked by the “Petronas Towers” but had great views at night. We decided to go back out and have a look around for an hour or so, as soon as we left the lovely air conditioned hotel we were met by a wall of heat that suddenly made beads of sweat run down most parts of your body. We walked down one of the many main roads, always taking note which way the towers where facing as a point of reference in case we got lost. After about 200 metres we saw the night markets starting to arrive and set up, we decided to come back later and see what was on offer.

After returning to the hotel and getting changed we decided to have a better look at this night market and the many other ones dotted around the sprawling capital. The one thing that seemed to be abundant in the market was watches and designer bags, I treated myself to a Tag Heur, longines and Patek Philippe all for the princely sum of £20 and I think I was over charged!!!! Trish got a lovely Cartier and another funky watch that worked for ages after we got home, mine went through more batteries than the bunny the Duracell one takes on in the adverts. After something to eat we had another stroll around the stalls near the hotel, then decided to go back to the hotel and get some rest as we were tired from the flight.

Next day we wanted to go up the towers but you had to queue early in the morning to get tickets and only so many were allocated, so someone in the hotel put us in touch with someone who would do this for us, for a price. We thought it was a great idea, no getting up at 6 and standing around, although it did cost us about £40 and then he was a bit miffed because we didn’t give him a tip on top for the £40 he has just made on “Free tickets”.

While we were waiting to get our free tickets, we decided to go up the other major tower in KL (Kuala Lumpur) “The Menara Kuala Lumpur Tower” which was just around the corner so to speak, from the hotel. You wouldn’t have though it was that near by the time we arrived, it was baking hot and it seemed like we were walking in treacle because it took ages to get there. Once there, it was worth it, the views were spectacular, 360 degrees showing all of KL sprawling out and beyond and best of all you can see the Petronas Towers from another point of view.

Once we had seen everything we wanted to see, we walked to the local air conditioned Mall five minutes away, to have some lunch and get out of the fierce heat. On entering the mall they were giving out free samples of ice cream, I don’t usually like ice cream but seemed a good idea in the heat of the moment, pardon the pun. So I gratefully took the ice cream and took a big lick and immediately spat it out on the floor in front of the ice cream lady, I couldn’t help myself. Trish was laughing while scoffing down her ice cream, when we looked at the sign it was the dreaded Durian fruit, It took ages to get the horrible taste out my mouth, beer seemed the best way to do it over a light lunch, while watching the good people of KL go about their business.

In the evening we went for a stroll, about 100 metres away from the hotel we stumbled across an area that was full of restaurants and packed with people all searching for some wonderful Asian food. We eventually settled on a place to eat and sat down outside, immediately the owner came out smiling and asked us what we wanted, we just pointed at the menu, said 2 beers and in the time it took us to marvel at all the superheroes someone had stuck to the wall, the food arrived piping hot and delicious.

After a couple of more beers we decided to have a stroll round to see what was going on, the market was in full flow selling anything to anyone, the traffic was still as bad as ever and the heat was just about bearable now . We returned to the hotel to get a good night sleep so we could enjoy visiting the Petronas Towers, which were now lit up and visible from ours and every other hotel room in the city.

The next day we went to the Petronas Towers and took in the great views it had of the whole city and walked across the skybridge that links the two towers. After an hour or so we decided to go and explore the city more and take in a few sites, after all the towers were worth a visit but there is only so much you can see and do stuck 450 metres in the air.

We thought it was best to go back to the hotel and freshen up before we went back out, and what could be better than getting the Monorail that stopped right outside the hotel, wrong move. As we were standing on the platform more and more people would arrive till there was no space at all, and everyone jockeying for position to get by the trains doors when it arrived. There was a mad scramble to get on with everyone pushing each other out the way, Trish and I managed to finally get on to the densely packed train. Four stops later, we had to fight to get off it now, with only seconds before the door closes, it was a close thing but we got off and vowed never to use it again.

After the train ordeal and the sweltering heat,we went back and got changed then went out to get something to eat, one thing about KL there is plenty of restaurants to dine at. After having another nice meal we decided to go and look through the market again and face the watch and bag sellers once more, it’s like street theatre the way the try and beckon you in, but it's all good fun.

Next day we decided to visit the butterfly park, which was on the other side of town, so we called for a taxi. The taxi driver was as racist as you can get, he loved everything British but hated all the immigrants that were coming into “his” country. He told us many stories like taxi drivers the world over, but with racist undertones in every sentence.

After pointing out many of the places he didn’t like and the English cricket field which he did, we eventually reached the butterfly park and after being in an air-conditioned car, it was like Dante’s Inferno outside. The park was quite small but worth a look, and it doesn’t take long to go round it, which is a bonus because next to it about 5-10 minutes away is the bird park.

The bird park is the largest free flight walk in aviary in the world and is massive, about 20 acre,s so there is plenty to see. There are other animals there too, monkeys and reptiles and they do shows during the day with the birds, the land on you and you get to have your picture taken. After we had walked around the scorching hot park, (make sure you wear a hat) we went to visit the reptile house, as we were walking up the stairs there was a giant stationary lizard that wasn’t moving for anyone. After stepping over the lizard we went in to see the snakes, some were beautiful and placid, we also saw one that was the most bad tempered creature you are likely to see. We were staring at it through the glass and all the time it was hissing and spitting constantly forcing us to make a sharp exit through the gift shop.

On our way back to the hotel the taxi driver asked us if we would like to go to the Batu Caves to see the large statue of Lord Murugan, the biggest in Malaysia, the temples in the caves and the cheeky monkeys on the many steps you have to climb. The driver dropped us off right outside and didn't need to point us in the right direction, in front of us was a wall of steps that look more than the official 272 and one of the biggest statues you will ever see. Going up the steps is an experience, trying to dodge the monkeys who try and attack you at every opportunity, some of the locals hit them with umbrellas and sticks. Once you finally reach the top, you are greeted by strange music playing, you then walk further in to the magnificent caves where there is a shrine in the middle. Looking up you see how big the place is, it's like a cathedral, once you've seen all this there isn't much else to do. So it's back to the steps and the monkeys once again, only this time it seems a lot trickier coming down, with the monkeys trying to get you and having to dodge people running up and down the steps. Well worth a visit if you have time, but it's tiring and the monkeys can be quite intimidating.