OK, so this post is a bit late and I've decided that because I'm at home and have plenty of wi-fi, I can provide more photos. So herewith:
Well, we got a bit of a surprise yesterday afternoon. After being told by the Shorex team that they didn't need any escorts, we got the paperwork for the "Glorious Kuala Lumpar" tour, an all day excursion which included a buffet lunch. We had to be on the dock at about 8.15am.
It was an hour long bus ride into Kuala Lumpur, and our guide was brilliant. She told us all sorts of stuff. I particularly liked what she told us about the Long Tailed Macaque feeding habits. Apparently, they feed in the Mangrove Swamps when the tide is out on the shrimps that are left behind in the mud. They also like crabs it seems, which they sort of fish for, by sticking their tails into the crabs mud holes and sort of moving it around until the crab grabs hold. They pull the crab up and then smash it up with a rock. Cool eh? Although I'm not sure it's entirely true.
So our tour today included the war memorial
 |
| Felix de Weldon designed this monument. The face of the topmost soldier was based on a previous president, but the rest of the soldiers don't look very Malaysian. |
 |
| A panoramic view from the monument. I'm not really a fan of cities, but it does look cool like this. |
Then we went to The Bird park...... to visit a butterfly farm.
 |
| The butterflies were plentiful and beautiful |
 |
| And unusual too, this one a perfect imitation of a dead leaf |
 |
| They had an insect display too, with loads of glorious creepy crawlies. This is a giant weevil. And it was giant. |
We were shown the unusual National Mosque and the Old Railway Station before we went on to Independance Square which is basically a big green surrounded by colonial buildings. My favourite is know as the Grand Old Lady.
We were then taken to a restaurant for an absolutely awesome buffet lunch accompanied by a group of Singapore musicians who even played Jingle Bells to us, much to the delight of all the many passengers that had all arrived from the various tours.
After lunch we visited the KL Tower, which, at 421m used to be the tallest building in Kuala Lumpar. Lifts take the public up to a viewing platform where you can see right across the city.
 |
| We could see across to the National Mosque, with it's unusual blue, umbrella shaped roof |
 |
| and into the swimming pools at the top of the high rise hotels and apartment blocks. |
 |
| We also got to see the Petronus Towers. Twin towers which are now the tallest buildings in Kuala Lumpar |
The last stops on the tour were for photo's of the Petronus Towers.
 |
| The towers are a bit of a feat of engineering. Each tower was built by a different company, one Japanese and one South Korean. They raced each other to be the first to place the spire at the top of the building, and the Koreans won. |
 |
| The Skybridge sits on ball bearings and can move up to one and half metres in either direction to accommodate the movement of the buildings. |
The top of the spires reaches 452 metres, and these towers were the tallest building in the world from 1998 until 2004. So that was our tour in Kuala Lumpur. I should mention that there was a bit of commotion amongst the escorts and guides during the day, as one of the passengers on a different tour had gone missing somewhere around the Petronus Towers. Fortunately, he'd got back to the ship before us, having both blacked out and been mugged. he'd managed to get back by taxi.
So we were all back on the ship around 6pm, which was convenient, because we were all supposed to be back by 6.30 so that the ship could sail at 7pm..... Except that at 6.30, a call came over the tannoy system for Mrs X from cabin 4--3 and Mrs Y from 4--2 to make themselves known to reception. This often happens, as sometimes people are a couple of minutes late. About 10 mins later, the call was repeated. "Aye aye," we thought, "someone's going to be embarrased."
10 mins later the announcement came over the system for a third time, and we began to wonder if someone was going to end up being left behind. I looked over the side of the ship, there was one member of the crew stood by the gangway stairs waiting, and no one else on the dock.
At 2 minutes to 7pm, a taxi came hurtling down the quay like something out of the movies. It screeched to an (almost) handbrake turn to stop just in front of the gangway, and two women got out. Oh the drama.
Tomorrow we are in Singapore. I have no idea what to expect, but I'm sure it's gonna be cool.
No comments:
Post a Comment