Kuala Lumpur

On Wednesday morning, 6th March, our taxi arrived at 10am and got us to Kuala Lumpur by 12 noon. As always, it was nice to arrive before the formal check-in time and find that our room was available.

On our first half day, we visited the National Museum (the Muzium Negara) which was very close to our hotel. This has 4 main galleries covering pre-history, the Malay kingdoms, the colonial period and the period since the end of WW2 (the Malay emergency of 1948-1960, independence in 1963 and the system of government since then). There are 13 states, with 9 sultans (a few are sultans of more than one state). The sultans form a council of rulers and each 5 years one of the 9 in turn becomes the king - a constitutional monarchy, very much along the lines of the UK.

Then on to the KL Bird Park, which is the largest free-flight aviary in the world. Some wonderfully colourful and interesting birds and, for some reason, a lot of peacocks. Some photos below.

That evening, we had a very special dinner at Beta in central KL - wonderful food, service and ambience from a young and very talented team.

The next day, Thursday, we had arranged a full-day private tour of the main things to see in KL. The city is quite sprawling and the public transport, whilst cheap and excellent, would have taken a lot of effort to navigate so this was the easiest option in the heat and humidity and given limited time. We covered 11 different sites over the course of a fairly full day - the Royal Palace, the Batu Caves (a Hindu temple), a batik workshop, the National Memorial, the Botanic Gardens, Merdeka Square (with the old British colonial government offices, St Mary’s Cathedral - yes, that’s the little white church in the photo below - and the Royal Selangor Club) Little India, the Thean Hou Chinese temple, the River of Life, the Central Market and the Petronas Towers!! Some highlights below.

We had considered leaving Kuala Lumpur off the itinerary, but in the end included it as it seems weird going to a country and not visiting its capital city. It’s not right up there as capital cities go, but it is a fascinating melange of cultures, religions, old and new, shabby and chic and we enjoyed our stay.