kuala lumpur—klang

It was spitting with rain as I checked email from the balcony this morning at 7am. That would have been a useful location as Bronwyn still asleep, even if it wasn't the only place I could do it from. Online existence came to an abrupt end however when the laptop battery went flat, not incidentally because I couldn't have charged it—it turns out they have UK-style power sockets here—but because I didn't get around to plugging it in. Bronwyn continued to sleep. I ruled out even a shower as too noisy, and thus hit upon the idea of a swim in the hotel pool. I knew Bronwyn wouldn't be upset to be missing out, as she'd accidentally left her togs in her main pack, which was in Klang. (We'd thus not swum yesterday.) Down to the pool headed I.

The pool was outdoors on one end of the second floor. All rooms on that side of the hotel looked over the pool from their terraced balconies (which were clearly much smaller than ours!) I swam in the just cooler than body temperature water beneath the impressive spectacle of a Petronus Tower. Having it entirely to myself, I did orbital lengths (circumferences?) around the kidney-shaped pool and splashed around a bit. Eventually I bored, and hit the showers.

When Bronwyn was ready we headed down to a complimentary buffet breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants. It had all the usual suspects, with an additional Asian flavour should one prefer fried rice to Croissants for breakfast. Always keen to extensively examine the dental work of a gifted horse, we dined extensively.

The day's meals potentially out of the way, we checked out of the hotel and headed into town. Tickets to the Petronus Towers skybridge secured for late in the day then freed us up to explore. We elected for a low-key self-guided walking tour through Chinatown, Lonely Planet-powered, and metro'd our way to the start line. The next couple of hours saw a rambling amble through local stalls, streets and markets. Nick and Hayley's recent gift of a iPod ensured Bronwyn could browse unobstructed in the largest market, while I happily sat on an air conditioned staircase and listened to an episode of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We were glad the tour was self-guided, as I think we would have been disappointed had we paid for a guide. However, it was interesting to get more of a feel for this intriguing city.

The tour ended without much ado near a large highway, where we negotiated our way through underpass tunnels that were notably almost entirely free of graffiti. Through the absolutely classic old main railway station, with over-the-top colonial domes and spires, we negotiated our way back to KLCC and the Petronus Towers. There we found that even from the skybridge—only one third of the way up the towers—the view was great. The gardens and squares below were beautiful, and clearly designed with a mind to arial perspective. (There was plenty of smoke-enhanced areal perspective too, but that's another matter...) We determined to visit a previously unnoticed metallic whale sculpture we saw in the gardens below.

Lazy for local, we ate dinner again in the food courts of the seven-story KLCC mall below the towers, eating authentic asian at what we later learned was a substantial premium. (It remained highly reasonable by both UK and even NZ standards—our meal came to c. £2/NZ$5.) We wandered in the gardens and found our whale before we were dislodged back to our hotel by a thunder-inflated sprinkling. Collecting our bags, we took the metro then an overland train some hour down to the town of nearby Klang. Met at the station by Fiona's Dad, we were soon installed in the spacious guest room at the house next door, occupied by Mr & Mrs Ng senior, and Fiona's aunt. Showered, sorted, talked into the night. Crashed at 12:30am, tired but happy to be in Klang.