The Touristy KL

Kuala Lumpur may or maybe not be nicely touristy depending on the kind of tourist we're talking about. Let's talk about me - I find it so non-tour-worthy that it actually takes a couple of lost boys from Europe to get me to get to know KL as a tourist. As a tourist, yes. An always getting lost one. My lack of knowledge of the capital city of my country, and almost non-existent sense of direction are simply amazing. I nearly made a few pairs of eyes pop right out of their sockets when I said I don't know where Jalan Alor is, nor how to get there. However, having a for-tourists guidebook on places of interes in KL, the willingness to ask for assistance and a good sense of humour all-throughout, we managed to get to a few places and see a few things.


It would be absolutely unforgivable if I gave the Petronas Twin Towers a miss. I didn't know why I should be so obsessed with taking pictures of these towers, but I was a tourist, so I should. Ah, magnificent, aren't they? So were the sun's rays - superbly scorching.

What's a visit to the famed Twin Towers without getting into (one of) them and getting onto the Skybridge? It is an experience money cannot buy - yes, you can't buy tickets; they're given out free of charge - we just had to brave a terrifying number of eager tourists in a 2.5-hr queue to get ours.


We didn't get to cross over to the other tower - that end of the bridge was closed. So we walked about, looked about, took a few photos, and discussed if it was worth our time spent in the queue.


The Skybridge experience was worth the waiting in the queue - I wouldn't deny that. It was definitely once in a lifetime. As in, once per lifetime is enough. Perhaps it's got something to do with my dislike for crowds and fear of heights. I was light-headed and wobbly up there - either I could actually sense the towers swaying (how absurd) or I was trembling the whole time. I did get to see a part of KL from an angle I'd never before:


What else now? We went to Central Market:


We went to Petaling Street:


We went to The Actors Studio @ Lot 10:


Wait, you say, this is not a standard tourist site! No, it isn't of course, that's why you'd only get to know about and visit it when you have a non-standard, non-pro tour guide. We had drinks at the Lot 10 rooftop restaurant/club, then caught a show: FUSED - Strumming to a Different Tune, by Ian Chow and his guests. The photo I took shows no faces; you can view a photo with faces in it if you click on the links here. The lost boys from Europe, who were probably not really as lost as I was, enjoyed the performances. They only wished it wasn't so terribly cold inside the theatre.

But, I asked, isn't it colder back home? They mentioned it was -5 degrees C when they left.

"We have a lot more clothing on back home."

Right. =P

My friends and I enjoyed KL, mostly. I guess it is a pretty nice city, if you choose not to look too closely at its not-so-nice aspects. Take for instance this young lady at the road-side restaurant we stopped by for dinner on the first day - she graciously lent me her own mobile phone to make a call because my phone's battery ran out. I don't know where to start if I were to tell just how important that call was. The girl's kindness was simply awesome - someting I totally did not expect to get from the streets of KL. I didn't get her name, but this is where she works:


The food they served were good and reasonably priced, too.

On one of the days, we went out of KL - all the way to Kuala Selangor, to take the boatride to see fireflies:


And we did see lots of them:


Well, flash photography was strictly not allowed (anyway, if you think about it, you won't see anything in the photos if you took them with flash).

We indeed had a lovely few days in and around KL. I know I had a great time - great company accounted for most of that, of course. Do come again! The next time, we'll go to... erm, Melaka?