16th March - P & M in KL - Petronas Towers - Labor Day

Sunday 16^th March

More fabulous Islamic calligraphy

Today we leave KL for pastures green.  Literally – the Cameron Highlands beckon!

And some more lovely bowls - these ones,I think, 16th Century

We had dinner in Bukit Bintang (very busy BUSY part of KL) on Friday night.  Or rather, we tried to have dinner…nothing was as easy as it seemed and we ended up sharing a murtobak (sort of pancake savoury thing, very delicious.  But not very big…) 

Can't get enough of the jewellery...

On the way back we stopped for beer (PH) and water (MH) in a backpackers bar, where we met a delightful young diving instructor called Zairulthysham A. Rhaman (aka Botak).  I asked if I could take a photo of his hubble bubble pipe and he was happy to pose.  This photo doesn’t QUITE do him credit but…never mind…

Botak is actually very handsome and charismatic

Well I do love a nifty waterfeature and this one, in Bukit Bintang, was glorious:

Riding along on the trains is a bit of an adventure.  All very hi-tech and the ones on the main railway don’t have a driver… If we are lucky we get right up the front…

Pete loves this more than words can say.

No smog today! So here is the Victorian-era railway station in sunlight!!  Woohoo!

We woke reasonably early and Pete scanned the sky for smog.  None to be seen so – up and at ’em!  We went straight to the Petronas Towers to queue for tickets.  They only sell 800 per day, to go up to the top in the lifts.  I sat on a pouffy thing while he stood, patiently and calmly, in the long long line.  (Standing in queues makes my back ache…)  Eventually he came back with tickets to the 2pm lift.  Time to forage for breakfast in the Petronas complex…and – bliss – we found very delicious eggs benedict.  (I was STARVING by then.)

The centre was buzzing like a hive.  And we had several hours to fill in… Too hot to go traipsing out into the fresh air.  What would be better than going to the movies??

Calligraphy!

There wasn’t much choice, however.  A zombie movie, a hitman/sitcom movie, an action carchase movie, an animation of dubious quality and…Labor Day, starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin.  We were a bit dubious abut our choice but…it was great!  Brilliant acting and…not quite the ghastly Bonnie & Clyde-type ending we had been dreading.  We discussed I afterwards, over a small nonya-style lunch, and agreed that Labor Day was full of passion and emotion with no overt sex scenes.  I said, Well who wants to see a bare bum, anyway?  Pete looked a bit wistful…I think he would have been quite happy to see Kate Winslet’s bare bum…

And oh the trip up the twin towers!  87 stories!  The tallest (remaining) twin towers in the world!

 The Burj in Dubai is twice the height but never mind!  We were mighty impressed.  We had fifteen minutes on the skybridge, and then another fifteen minutes right up on top.

Pete, along with the rest of us, took LOTS of film.

I met two very nice women, from Melbourne.  Elya and Helen are here for five days, on a Travel For Fitness tour.  They are booked in to run a half marathon early this morning…if it is not too smoggy.  But oh deary me it will be HOT, even early in the day!

Elya and Helen

Our Geo Hotel is very nice.  Great location, friendly staff, giant bed with a reasonably good mattress.  But…no fridge!  We like to have a sundowner, even without 2XS, and a arm drink is not desirable.  So Pete (Macguyver!) has contrived a fridge, out of our wastepaper basket… We have bought ice, and he has managed to provide us with a nice refreshing cool drink every evening, around sundown…

He is very pleased with himself…(and I am quite pleased too...)