Saturday morning we checked out of the Marina Bay Sands and caught a cab out to Chiangi Airport. The wait for our 11AM flight was very comfortable… this airport is one of the nicest I’ve ever been in. There’s actually quiet areas where you can lay out on comfortable lounge chairs if you’d like.
After the short 45 minute flight on Air Malaysia, we landed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We took the KLIA Express train into the Kuala Lumpur Sentral station, seen here.
We’re staying at the Hilton, which is right across the street from the Sentral station, so it made it very easy to get in from the airport.
My hotel window looks out over some of the more picturesque views available. It’s amazing to see all the green space still maintained in the midst of such a large city.
This is part of the Perdana Botanical Gardens.
After a bite of lunch in the hotel, we took the LRT from the Sentral station past four stops with very different names, Pasar Seni, Masjit Jamek, Dang Wang and Kampung Baru, til we arrived at KLCC which has one of the largest shopping malls in Malaysia. It’s also the location of the Petronas Twin Towers… remember Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol? We wanted to take the trip up to the cross over between the towers, but all the day’s allotment of tickets had already been sold.
Behind the towers is another area of green space reserved for a quiet park with paths and ponds.
Tim had suggested that we go visit the Central Market area, so we took the LRT back to the Masjit Jamek stop, named for the mosque seen here, and started walking through the neighbourhood to get there.
Many of the older building are brightly coloured and have a very interesting architecture.
The Central Market is the oldest market buildings still standing in KL. Inside is 2 stories of stalls selling local crafts, foods and ‘stuff’. It was interesting to walk through, but nothing I really thought was worth bringing home. There’s Rob standing in front of the main entrance… as you can see, he was empty handed too!
This is an example of the kinds of stalls found in the Central Market.
We did stop at the Old Town Kopitiam for a tea and a lime juice. Kopi is the local coffee beverage.
The Kasturi Walk runs between the Central Market and the shops on the other side of the street. Note the KFC sign about half way down the street!
Again, you can see examples of the old buildings evident above the street level shops.
Once we left the Central Market, we basically followed the streets, keeping close to the river.
On the way, we passed this building which we took to be some religious structure… but it turned out to be the Kuala Lumpur Railway station!
After some interesting quick hops across busy streets, we finally made our way back to the Hilton. We had a beverage and some light food in the poolside restaurant and called it a night.
That’s all for Saturday in Kuala Lumpur!
Cheers!