February 8th - Day 2 - Malacca to Kuala Lumpur

I haven’t really mentioned the weather, apart from the temperature when we arrived. The two days in Singapore were both in the low thirties and partly cloudy with a shower on the evening before the start. Yesterday was again partly cloudy with the temperature reaching 33 degrees. Today was mainly sunny and this afternoon in Kuala Lumpur it reached 37 degrees!

I’m getting ahead of myself. Being a short run up mainly dual carriageway roads it was a late check-out of between 9am and 10am. I decided to take advantage of the hotel spa and have a massage to help overcome a bad back ache I’ve had for the past coupe of weeks. It was very relaxing, but only partly successful in helping my back. Still, it’s no worse!

We set off from Malacca at about 10.30am and drove the 146kms in a couple of hours. We stopped to fill up with diesel. In went 117.5 litres, which cost 200 Ringgits. At an exchange rate of 5.2Rnm/£, that works out at 32.7p/litre! The last time I filled up with diesel in London, I paid £1.00/litre.

As I have mentioned, the drive took about two hours and a few kilometres out of Kuala Lumpur we had our first sight of the Petronas twin towers.


These are 88 stories high, and at over 1,450 feet tall, were until recently the tallest building in the world. Kuala Lumpur is an amazing sight of towering skyscrapers. Our hotel, the Mandarin Oriental is next door to the Petronas Towers, and to stand under them and look up to the bridge between the towers at about 400 feet, and then on up to the masts at the very top of each tower, is truly impressive. Two photos of the towers looking up to the bridge.



The Towers, with The Mandarin Hotel on the right of the photo.

Inside the complex there is the largest shopping mall I have ever seen. Huge atria are surrounded by 6 levels of shops. It is an awesome sight.


With Bob & Thelma, Lynn & Eric Woolley, and three members of the Pritz family, we took an open top bus on a two hour drive around the city. Whilst waiting for the bus I took this photo of Jingers, Kurt and Greg talking with Bob and Thelma.


Our bus ride took us past the Royal Palace with guards on horses at the entrance gates.


Sultan Abdul Samad Building built by the British in the 19th Century as Government buildings.

The National Museum.

A couple of photos of the KL skyline with the Petronas Towers taken whilst on the bus tour. The second shows the KL Tower on the extreme right.


As soon as we got back to the hotel, I went for swim in the hotel pool. A welcome relief from the heat.
This evening we went for an organised meal in the KL Tower, which is about the same height as the Petronas Towers. There is a revolving restaurant at the top which gives the most wonderful view across the city. As the sun went down the city lights came on and thousands of lights lit up the Petronas Towers.


Tomorrow we drive north from Kuala Lumpur to the Cameron Highlands, where the British established tea plantations in the 1920’s.