The second station of our Far East tour was Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur means “Muddy Confluence”. Time is 5 hours ahead of Turkey in Malaysia as in Singapore. We arrived at Kuala Lumpur from Singapore after one hour flight by Tiger Airways. Currency is Malaysian Ringgit (MYR). 1 Malaysian Ringgit was equal to approximately 0.6 Turkish Liras. Traffic works from left side here as in Singapore. Turkish citizens who have regular passports don’t need visa for 90 days in their travels.
After seeing very large and beautiful Doha (DOH) and Singapore Changi (SIN) Airports, KL Airport (KUL) was such as the village. Especially the bus (Aerobus) from the airport to KL Sentral (8 Ringgits) was worse than our village buses.
1. day – 29.06.2012
Firstly we had a tour in KLCC in our first day, we took photos of Petronas Twin Towers from park. 452 m high Petronas Twin Towers were one of the highest skyscrapers in the world.
Then, we went to Batu Caves. It was the last sation of KTM Komuter train line. There were pink wagons written “coach for ladies only” on them.
We went to Petaling Street (Jalan Petaling) in the evening. I had read on the internet that a night market is setting up in Petaling Street and sold a lot of kinds of bags. I bought a pink bag from here, bargain started with 150 Ringgits and concluded with 60 Ringgits. I read on the internet as price was coming down 1/5 of it, but I couldn’t see somewhere they do much bargaining, I frankly a little disappointed.
After having tour on Petaling Street, we went to Central Market (Pesar Seni). It was a nice place that we can get souvenirs here. Also, we tried mangosteen, rambutan and jambu for the first time. Mangosteen was a great fruit. Rambutan is also nice, there was pit inside. Jambu had a red color, and tasted like apple-pear. However my favorite is mangosteen, I will eat more if I have a chance to visit again 🙂
Then, we returned back to the hotel (Traders) and took night photos of twin towers. It was a great pleasure watching twin towers from 13rd floor.
2. day – 30.06.2012
In our second day in Kuala Lumpur, we firstly wanted to try Malaysian cuisine and went to Nasi Kandar Pelita. We tried something like Fried Rice and Fried Rice with Maggy. Maggy one with noodle, and the other one like sauced rice, they were not very different from our foods. We preferred mango juice and mixed fruit juice as drink, of course mixed one was better. Then, we went to National Mosque (Masjid Negara) and took photos.
Then, we visited Islamic Art Museum (12 Ringgits). I liked domes of museum very much. It seemed that there were so many Ottoman monuments, I felt like we were visiting a museum in Turkey.
After then, we went to KL Bird Park (40 Ringgits). It is the largest walk-in free-flight aviary in the world. There were very beautiful and different kinds of birds. We also watched a Bird Show. Some birds have been trained, and they made show. It was pretty fun. I’ve always wondered flamingos, pink birds 🙂 I finally was able to see the birds in this park.
Then, we returned back to the hotel and again took night photos of twin towers. We wanted to try different meals in dinner. We ate chicken (Thai meal) and rice (called like Tam Yam). And, we drank pink dragon fruit juice, it was nice.
3. day – 01.07.2012
We wanted to go up twin towers and watch KL view, but tickets were sold out (80 Ringgits). And, we decided to go to Masjid Jamek, Independence Square (Dataran Merdeka) and Sultan Abdul Samad Mosque.
Then, we went to Time Square and bought Nikon photo camera, and we bought Asus tablet PC from Low Yat Plaza. Now I also have a Nikon, I will take more beautiful photos 🙂 We tried iced star fruit juice and white dragon fruit juice. I wish we didn’t buy iced one, we couldn’t taste fruits because of so ice. White dragon fruit juice was nice again. Then, we departed for our Phuket flight at 20:40. We went to airport from KL Sentral by KLIA Express train (35 Ringgits). But, unfortunately we had to go from KLIA to LCCT and I missed our flight 🙁 We had to bought ticket for the next morning at 07:25 and stayed at airport at night.
There were things we want to do again in Kuala Lumpur and we couldn’t. For example, I would like to go up Petronas Twin Towers or KL Tower (Menara KL), and watch the city from highest points. I also would like to visit the Butterfly Park and Deer Park, but we left them to another time.