Twins in Kuala Lumpur

I came to Kuala Lumpur or as most people tend to call it; KL, Wednesday morning before the sun had risen. Our couchsurfing host was probably sleeping, so we decided to go to the famous Petronas Twin Towers for a relax as the sunlight began to reflect in the numerous skyscrapers.

Fortunately our host, Naz was an all-time good guy who picked us up at the Twins and took us to dinner and gave us a bed and a roof. Naz is the kinda good thoughtful guy who thinks before he answers any question about his country and his city.

Naz had to work on Thursday, but he was kind enough to drop us off in the city centre with a few of his recommendations on our hands. First stop on our little city tour was Batu Caves; around 40 minutes away from the city centre (13 km north), yet surprisingly easy to reach by train system. Everything seems to go through the KL Sentral station which makes this city an easy one.

At Batu Caves the first thing that hits your eyes is the big green Hindu statue of Hanuman. If you go past it it there's a cave called Ramayana Cave; you'll recognize it by the statue with the many horses outside. It's not Batu Caves. It's a smaller cave with an entrance fee of RM 2.00, Batu Caves is for free. We went there anyway and it was quite nice with beautiful and very special decorations on and beside the cave walls.

As you leave the cave, you'll pass a temple on your left hand (remember to take off your shoes if you want to go inside). Then there's a little walk until you reach Batu Caves. You won't be in doubt whether you've found it or not, because at the foot of the many steps there's a HUGE statue of Lord Murugan, actually the largest statue of him in the world! Built for the neat sum of 2.5 million Malaysian Ringgit.

As you walk up the 272 steps of this popular Hindu shrine, you'll see the view rise, with the back of Lord Murugan in front. Around half way up, you can turn left and buy yourself a guided Dark Cave tour deeper inside the caves.

If you continue upwards the stairs instead there's first of all monkeys everywhere, but also a few praying temples and a beautiful opening in the ceiling towards the skies.

When we felt like we had enough caves and rocks for one day, we took the train back to see the Chinatown part of the city. Take the sky train which rides above the streets to Maharajalela and walk to Chinatown from there. If you're looking for souvenirs and cheap ones, Chinatown is a good place to look. You'll also find some cheap, well-tasting food.

With the quite well working LTR/train system we made a stop at the 412 meter high KL Tower (Menara). From the bottom there's a free shuttle bus to the tower, so don't pay a taxi. The price for entering the tower is a bit spicy as they charge a foreigner price. RM 99.00 to go to the open deck and RM 49.00 to go a little lower at the closed deck. The view from the closed deck was just find and it wasn't hard to spot the Petronas from there.

With the day coming to an end we looked for a go place to snap a photo of the Petronas Twin Towers with the lights on. There's so many tall buildings around the Twins in KL, that its' quite the task to find a good view of the tall linked sisters.

Like true rookies we walked around them in a big circle until we could suddenly see their reflection in the windows of another building. As we turned the corner the most famous mark of KL  was towering up with a clear view from the park. That's when it hit us that of course there would be no buildings in the park and therefore a clear view.

The view was quite stunning and we snapped more photos here, than we did in any other place of KL.

Upcoming is another and different adventure as we travel to Melaka for a few historical sights. Stay tuned!