After breakfast on Friday, December 7th, took a walk with the two German guys from the hostel over to the KL Tower. It's the 4th tallest telecommunications tower in the world, and was about a 20 minute walk from the hostel. We took the elevator up 273m for stunning 360 degree views of the entire city.
After that, we meandered over to the Petronas Towers, formally the world's tallest twin towers (I think those now reside in Taiwan). Didn't go up and waltz across the skywalk connecting the two, as we were told you have to get there at 8:30 to get a ticket for a time not necessarily of your choosing. There was a really nice park outside, and we took a couple (much needed) strolls through the air-conditioned mall. I couldn't afford (or at least ever justify) buying anything from these all high-end botiques.
Today (Saturday) I walked to find the nearest bus station and booked a ticket for tomorrow morning to the Cameron Highlands. It's an area north of KL that mostly stays between 10-21 degrees C (50-70 F for my fellow Americans). Leaving tomorrow morning, but can't book a hostel for a reasonable price; guess I'll just roll the dice...
Then took the subway about 15km north of the city to the Batu Caves. This gave a little insight into some of the city's Indian influence. You pass a 43m golden statue, then walk up 272 stairs (yes, I counted) to get to the main cave. Walked the end of the cave where there was a gaping hole some 100m up letting in natural light. There were lots of pigeons and probably saw about 20 monkeys. One of them took a half-finished, soda-looking red drink, cut it open with its teeth, and drank it off the ground. It picked up the bottle and began scaling the nearly flat walls up, having no problem keeping the beverage in hand. About that time, a loud bell began to ring and I caught about 10 minutes of a hindu religious ceremony. Didn't understand what was happening, but it was interesting.
The meals have been good for the most part, and very cheap. Four out of five have been great, at an average cost of about 3 USD.
I'm off to watch the Man U - Man City football match. There's a guy in my hostel who's a City fan, so I'll be rooting against him for you, Edge.
Be well,
APB
