Our plane in Bangkok had been parked in the remote bay, and it seemed like forever getting to it, our bus weaving between row upon row of mighty jets, some of them hissing threateningly. The flight was pleasant, with Thai food and those oh so charming Thai ladies in their traditional outfit. Before landing in KL, one of the ladies announced this in English and Thai, the Thai version ending with a musical 'kela lemper', something I keep mimicking till this very day!

KL airport was large and quite pleasant it its own right. We had to take a couple of pictures here as we wouldn't be coming here again: we were to depart from KL by train for the next phase of our travels into Singapore.

To get to the main terminal building from disembarking point, we had to take one more of those driverless trains which arrive behind glass. The doors of the train stop exactly in line with the doors on the glass partition, and both open simultaneously. We had ridden a similar train in Hong Kong a couple of days ago. Here we are waiting for the doors to open as the train is just pulling in and about is about to stop.

We took a taxi to our hotel with lofty mountains on either side of the road, thick with vegetation. The jungles of Malaya, I remembered to have read as a child. We had opted for a prepaid taxi, only to be greeted by a rather irritated Tamil taxi driver outside who chided us saying its much cheaper to take a taxi outside.

Our hotel was colored an ugly lemon green, and was on the edge of Chinatown. We had the rest of the day free, and tried to arrange for our tours for the following two days. Disappointment: no tours were quite upto our liking. Our hotel as well as couple of travel shops in the nearby BB Plaza shopping mall offered the same tours, most points were described as 'drive past' and 'photo stop', with a couple of rather uninteresting points covered. Batu Caves had been given a mere 30 minutes, we knew it would take 20 minutes to get to the top! We decided to do KL on our own, using public transport. Three months of intensive research on the internet, plus judging by how close my research was to what we actually saw in HK and Bangkok had given us enough ammo and the encouragement to try this.

So for now, we took a cab to KL Sentral (yes, thats how they spell it) and booked our sleeper berths for Singapore, after a futile search for the ticket counter in the BB Plaza: our hotel had assured us that there is a Malaysian Railways (KTMB) counter there. KL has a spanking new station set on the lines of a modern airport. It was just completed, work was still going on in certain portions of it.

We found a South Indian restaurant at the far end of a large open ground behind the KL Sentral station, and gorged ourselves on a wholesome Indian 'thali' meal. The restaurant manager suggested we take a tour the following day rather than do it on our own. After a series of telephone calls, he arranged one for us for the following day, but the bus never turned up! More on that later. Fortunately, we had not paid for the tour.

Back at KL Sentral, we took a two car PUTRA LRT train to a stop called Presar Seni, where the Maha Mariyamman Hindu temple is located. Here is the Putra LRT train pulling into KL Sentral. The trains are driverless, and run underground part of their way. Despite the absence of a driver, they are pretty well patronised, and get quite packed at times.

Presar Seni is the Indian district in KL. The Mariyamman temple is quite impressive in itself. This is the sanctum sanctorum of the temple.

I had tried to take a sneak shot of the sanctum sanctorum, and eventually shot when the priest's back was turned. This seemed to encourage another Indian gentleman to do the same. It was only later that we discovered that there are no problems with photography at all at most temples all over the Far East. Go ahead, shoot all you want is the general reaction. This includes the sanctum sanctorum as well. No bloodthirsty and greedy temple managements out to relieve you of you cash by soliciting for a 'camera fee' like you see in India.

We later wandered through the street market near the temple, and took a taxi towards our hotel. We wandered for a while near Chinatown, where we could see row upon row of food stalls selling the famed 'dim sum' Chinese noodle meal. Here is a friendly stall owner doing her stuff.

We later also sampled the famed (notorious?) 'durian', a foul smelling thick spiny skinned fruit, the Thai equivalent of the Indian jackfruit. Durian is held in very high esteem by people in the Far East who refer to it as the king of fruits. Once peeled, it smells from a mile away. Most hotel managements a well as public transport ban durian in their premises or vehicles. Well, Durian smells like engine oil and tastes like diesel. We didn't like it one bit. Wife and son pose at a durian stall.

We had some Indian jackfruit to kill the durian taste, but this was so bland and tasteless! We returned to the hotel in a hurry as it had started drizzling quite heavily.

DAY-2: We waited in vain for our tour bus which never turned up! We eventually decided to do the sprawling Templer Park and Batu Caves on our own. We took a cab to the Puduraya bus station looking for bus # 66 to Templer Park. It turned out that the Puduraya bus station was the long distance bus terminal, and it was the starting point for buses to Singapore as well as for other cities within Malaysia. The local bus station was NEAR Puduraya and not actually IN it! We eventually found this bus stop, which was the same place we had taken a taxi from the previous evening. We eventually found a red Cityliner bus # 99: the first point in our travels so far where the internet research was outdated. Bus # 66 has now been replaced with 99, we were told. Anyway, bus # 99 set us down at the gates of a massive forest park.

Templer park is a delightful park set in a patch of primary jungle. A path goes uphill where you come to a seven level waterfall. However, one cannot appreciate the height of the fall as the path of the water is not a straight line. So its not a sheer vertical drop as such.

We had tea and fruit from a stall at the gate. The prospect of return seemed totally hopeless as all transport seemed to be private car and pre-booked taxis. The husband of the tea stall owner seemed all set to fleece us as he asked for 100 Malaysian Ringits to Batu Caves and then to KL, you do not have a choice or you will be here all day, he said. He refused when we asked him to drop us at Batu alone. I knew there was a bus from Batu into KL: thats the advantage of advance research into your destination.

For the moment, we decided to enjoy the park and worry about departure later, when it was actually time to leave. Here are a series of pictures which will show you how beautiful the Templer Park actually is:

Entering the Templer Park:

   Templer Park, another view:

   As we go deeper. My wife and I were thrilled at the experience, what with our trip into the legendary 'jungles of Malaya', with bird sounds and the continuous sound of falling water, from the waterfall. My son though was terrified, as we had told him not to worry, at the most any wildlife we'd see would be birds or snakes! He kept whimpering 'lets get out of here' till the very end.

We finally came to the waterfall. We did not go beyond level 3 as it was quite lonely beyond this point. Only, level 3 meant we had to tolerate a noisy group of bathers (Indians mostly). Thank goodness they did not have loud radio tape recorders with them, a curse in any popular picnic spot in India. We also spotted an Arabic family at this point. Note in this picture that the fall curves off at the top, which is why one cannot fully appreciate the height of the waterfall.

We asked one of the bathing boys there about going from there to the Batu Caves. He advised us to take bus # 207 from the gate, which runs hourly. That was enough for us, we did not want to pay 100 ringits to a crooked taxi driver who was trying to rip us off!

On our way down, we did see some 'wildlife'. This monkey in a pensive mood was sitting on a low branch next to the steps leading to the next level. I managed to catch him with my 110mm zoom lens, complete with his holier than thou expression.

We also saw this delightful cat making herself comfortable amidst the foliage.

A final look at Templer Park before we leave.

After a few more pictures at the base of the hill, near which there is a housing complex coming up, we walked past the tea stall. We saw row upon row of parked cars and prebooked taxis and apprehensively reached the park gate just as bus # 43 pulled up! We rode this bus to a place called Wartha, from where the Batu Caves are 20 minutes by walk! On the way, we passed the limestone formation called 'Bukhit Takhun', which I could not photograph as I was on the other side of the bus. My wife caught it on video though.

It was a hot day as we disembarked at Wartha, but we had to have lunch, so we did the 20 minutes walk, while looking for a restaurant at the same time. Part of the walk was past an open drain. We finally had lunch at the base of the Batu Caves in a pure vegetarian restaurant with a very imaginative menu: fish, chicken and other 'non veg' dishes had been made with 100% veg. items like soya, tied together with noodles etc. Very ingenious, and very tasty.

From the restaurant, we could see the entrance to Batu Caves. Over 200 steps lead you into a delightful temple set in a large limestone cavern. While the climb may be intimidating to the uninitiated, the place gets unbelievable packed during the Hindu 'thai poosam' festival, a barbaric ritual which is now banned in India.

Another view of the steps leading to the Batu Caves.

We also saw a large number of pigeons at the base of the mountain. Reminded me of Gateway of India in Bombay.

At the base of the mountain, if you walk partway around it, (starting off from the orange colored monument you see in one of the previous pictures), you come to another large cavern which houses the 'art gallery'. It is filled to the brim with garishly painted Hindu gods. Many of the scenes depict scenes from the epics, and are quite loud in color. Here is one at the very entrance to the art gallery. You can appreciate the structure of the cavern from here. The gate you see at ventilator level actually leads to the path leading to the main caves, but this is generally kept locked.

Now for the climb to Batu. Now here we have a real taste of wildlife. A monkey calmly walked up to me and snatched the plastic bag of fruit which I was carrying. We had been warned of monkey snatches, but I must admit I was caught a bit off guard! A tug of war ensued between me and the monkey, till the plastic bag eventually tore. The monkey emerged triumphant! The half empty bottle of water fell to the floor. I made the monkey pay for the grab by catching his expression as he feasted upon his ill gotten treasure.

   Note the greedy fellow holding the fruit both in his fore and hind paws.

All this has my wife very amused indeed. Please note, these are not posed pictures. I was just airing my feelings by trying to catch as many good pictures in the deal as I could!

Having climbed the first flight of stairs, we came to midway point. The sheer size of the cavern zapped me! This is a view of mid way point, though taken from the end point. In other words, the entrance you see at the far end is the place where we had actually come in from.

There are two temples cut into the wall at midway point. This is the sanctum sanctorum of one of them.

Well, we still have a few more steps to go till we reach the main temple. Here we are then, almost there.

This is the main temple right on top, at the head of the flight of stairs leading to the Batu Caves.

The temple was closed, and we still had half an hour to go before opening time. The priest arrived early. The kindly soul actually opened the temple for us, especially when my wife appealed to him saying we have come all the way from faraway Dubai etc. Not only that, he also asked me to come quickly and take pictures if I wished, as the opening time is still some way off, he needs to close the temple again etc.

That then was that. Before we began our descent, I just looked around one last time. I realized that we were actually deep inside a valley, and lofty mountains surrounded us all around!

We had loved the experience, I was amused at the monkey snatching my fruit, and my wife, (who is a lot more religious than I), was in a trance at the priest's kindly gesture and our getting to see the idol at such close quarters. My son was in deep tension though. He was scared of the mountains, the dark caves, the monkeys, and one bloke with two iguanas at the foot of the caves who was offering photo opportunities for a price.

Back on terra firma, we took bus # 11D (glad to say, my research was spot on!) and got off at KL's famous Merdeka Square.

Merdeka Square is also known as Independence square. The spot marks the site of Malaysia's independence, and is denoted by one of the world's tallest flagpoles, which is 95 mts. (312 ft.) high. We saw a lot of tour buses at Merdeka, but suprisingly very few tourists.

Merdeka Square also has a museum, and the Islamic-moorish Sultan Abdul Samad Building. It is a commercial centre, and is flaunted as a famous building. However, there is no nameplate, and no tourist is allowed to actually enter the place. At any rate, Merdeka Square is merely a photo stop, so there is no time to explore the building, if at all. The old KL Sentral station is located right next to this building, you can make it out from its clock tower.

Apart from the flagpole, Sultan Abdul Samad Building and the museum, Merdeka Square also has the Royal Selangor club, referred to by most merely as the 'cricket club'.

Please note that all these pictures are taken in heavy drizzle, it was very heavily overcast. Here is another view of Merdeka Square. You can see the telecom tower Menara KL in the background. We later visited this tower, more on that later.

Having finished at Merdeka Square, we walked along the canal to Masjed Jamek station to take the PUTRA LRT to the KLCC station to see the Petrona Towers, a tourist attraction in KL. Now I'm personally not too enamored of skyscrapers, in fact, I hate them. However, wife and son were all for it, so I decided to play along. I was taken aback that the Putra LRT went underground for this stretch of the journey.

Before getting onto the tube train, I noticed a train going overhead. This is the new (2002) monorail system installed for KL. Commercial operation has not started yet, but it is possible to see the trains off and on as they undergo trials and test runs. I managed to catch this picture of the monorail just as she was about to disappear behind a cluster of buildings at Masjed Jamek.

So here we are at the KLCC station, the LRT has just left us. That part of the route is underground. Here is a view of the same train taken at KL Sentral the previous day.

It started raining, and as the Petrona Towers were closed for the day, we took plenty of outside views.

It was dark and gloomy, and heavily overcast. You can see the black clouds approaching near the base of the Petrona Towers. I decided to wait till it is slightly darker, so that I could shoot the Petrona by night as well. But darkness seemed forever in coming, we still needed to go and see the Merana KL, so I settled for this dusk shot instead. Lighting is only partial, so it gives a different sort of effect.

We decided not to pursue the Petrona Towers the following day as originally planned, as we'd taken enough pictures and have had an overdose already.

Next stop, Menara KL. This is the telecom tower, reputed to be the 4th highest in the world. Apart from this, Menara KL boasts of the highest BigMac (McDonald's) restaurant in the world. But no, entry is strictly by advance reservation. We got this view of the Menara from near the Petrona Towers. My wife was delighted to spot the Air India office very close by!

   You can see the Malaysian flag on the face of the building in the foreground.

We took a taxi to Menara KL, and no, there was no chance of getting to the BigMac restaurant on top. No reservation no way, we were told. We took a lift to the observation deck on top, and got some nice night views of KL. We got a terrific audio pack: an MP3 player with commentary which we could listen to through earphones. You are asked to move from one viewing window to another while the commentary explains what you see outside at that point. "Selamet detang" (Malay for hello, welcome) was the opening phrase. Here is a view of the mighty Petrona Towers from the towering Menara KL. We could not make out some of the sights due to the darkness.

   The sheer distance, darkness, plus the need to shoot from behind glass meant that taking a sharp picture was well nigh impossible.

We were treated to a film show afterwards, which outlined the phases in construction of the Menara. We learnt that the tower makes liberal use of Islamic architecture, in keeping with the country's main religion. Here is a view from the bottom of the tower as it reaches into the sky. We could not believe that we were actually up there a few moments ago!

We returned to the hotel by taxi. Prepaid, MR 10. Lot of rip offs by taxis in KL.

DAY-3: A late start: all the hectic touring had got us too pooped to pop. The itinerary for the day was the sprawling Lake Gardens. We tried to get some breakfast in Chinatown: no way, it was all meat and seafood, and we saw some pretty bizzare offerings like frog porridge. At any rate, most of Chinatown operates in the evening, so most of the food stalls were closed. We eventually took a taxi to the Indian quarter. Umpong Pak, they called it. We realized that this is actually the Masjed Jamek area we had seen the previous day. This is India for real. Here is a line of stalls in the Indian area.

My wife picked up some camphor tablets for prayer in one of the Indian shops there. Eateries were on a back street, and hygiene was atrocious if not non existant. We walked all around, no vegetarian offerings. Eventually we decided to get back to a restaurant which looked best among the worst.Horror upon horrors, we landed up at the wrong place, and were totally nauseated at the dirt, nay filth of the oily rag he used to clean up the pan. We moved on to the right place this time and had dosas (lentil pancakes) and coffee. The Malaysians like their coffee sickly sweet, and most of them use sweetened condensed milk instead of fresh milk. We had noted the same thing the previous day at Templer and Batu as well.

Having breakfasted, we took a taxi to the Lake Gardens:a sprawling stretch of green, and one of the 'lungs' of KL. We saw there the 'world's largest covered aviary', so extensive that you tend to forget that there is a net above your head. This picture gives a very correct idea of what it is like inside this aviary. Note the birds roaming about freely, (there are many in cages as well), the net above, and the KL skyline in the background.

We posed with birds in the aviary, and had our pictures taken. The Jurong Bird Park in Singapore does not have a monopoly on this any more!

We also witnessed a bird show. Not as good as the one we'd seen in Hong Kong's Ocean Park a couple of days earlier. Also, some of the birds here were not yet fully trained,and tended to be unpredictable. Like the hornbill who flew right away and perched himself on a tree, throwing the latter half of the show out of gear. The girl conducting the show expertly covered up for the bird's erratic behavior.

Although many birds are in cages, we did see quite a few walking around freely. I managed a lot of bird photos, unfortunately, something always came in the way: the branches of the tree in the background, white line marking the edge of the road, etc. which ruined the full 'wild' look, which is why I do not display too many of them here. Like this picture of a stork. The edge of the man made canal in the background is a dead giveaway, and ruins the 'natural surroundings' look! Pity.

This group of flamingos is very intersting as well, though this cannot qualify as a wildlife picture.

Yes, once or twice, I did get lucky. Dig this pegion sitting amongst all the foliage. Look carefully, he is very much there!

Or this heron in the tree.

The park restaurant is a good place to see birds really close, as they come looking for scraps of food. A few moments earlier, this heron had walked up to us as if asking us 'may I join you for lunch'? Depressions on the tables hold water for the birds.

Having had enough of birds for the moment, we then visited the Planetarium Negara (or National Planetarium) in the Lake Gardens. Apart from a show, and a space exhibition, a lift ride to an observation deck gives some nice views of the area surrounding the Lake Gardens. Here are wife and son sitting on the foot of the steps leading to the Planetarium Negara (Malay for National).

A path leads from here to the National Museum. We went halfway till there, then decided against that as we'd just seen a museum the previous day on Merdeka Square.

We visited the Orchid and Hibiscus Garden instead. A mind boggling variety of orchids can be seen, in various colors: magenta, white/purple, peach, white/violet, plain white etc. Here are some magenta ones.

In the hibiscus garden, we spotted a pro photographer with his blinds, and shades and things, lying on the ground trying various angles and postures as he tried to photograph some flowers up close. We also noticed a bridal party at the small restaurant/party hall almost hidden away right in the middle of the hibiscus garden.

The National Monument was supposed to be close by, and I'd read in an article that you get good views of the National Monument from the Lake Gardens. No way. It was too far. We also had to drop the Butterfly Garden and Dinosaur Park as it was too late. At any rate, we'd seen both these in Hong Kong just a couple of days ago anyway.

Taxi drivers in KL are total bloodsuckers, just like they are in India, so we resisted a lot of rip off attempts (most taxi drivers are Indians anyway!) and finally managed to get a comparatively honest chap to Chinatown.

Whoooops! Chinatown is the worst place you can go to in KL. The place is jam packed to say the least, and there is elbow to elbow, as well as bum to tummy (equivalent of bumper to bumper) pedestrian traffic. There is no space to move. If you MUST see Chinatown, carry a tiny point and shoot camera, keep your hands firmly on your belongings, and stay cool. It will take you 20 minutes to just get from one side of the road to the other! You have to literally squeeze yourself through the sea of milling crowds.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a bargain, this place is it. The place abounds in stalls selling pirated CDs and VCDs. Here is a line of stalls selling CD.

   Most have a similar selection of titles, and all shops have a catalog made up of CD jackets. Some of the CDs are pretty good. I picked up an audio CD of Cliff Richard, and have been listening to it daily ever since I got back.

You can also find shops selling clothes, food, and handicrafts. Here is a colorful shop selling Chinese artefacts. The shop is announcing a closing down sale though.

We were happy go get out when we did: my wife picked up a few VCDs and a shirt for friends of hers. At the border of Chinatown, we could spot pet shops selling dogs, cats, birds and live snakes. Yes, live pythons were on sale in three shops in a row.

We returned to BB Plaza, looking for a momento of KL. We had missed out buying a model of the Petrona Towers at Menara KL the previous day, as we thought it would be overpriced there. We later decided that the price wasn't too bad after all, but the stall had closed by the time the show got over.

We came upon this shop in the BB Plaza selling glass artefacts, and eventually settled for a cube of glass with both the Petrona and the Menara laser engraved inside it with the greatest of precision. In keeping with Islamic traditions, the salesgirl refused to be photographed, and promptly disappeared behind the stall!

We returned to the hotel after an early dinner at Pizza Hut. Service was not upto much, at least not after seeing the Pizza Inns here in Dubai.

Time to move on to Singapore. KL Sentral was pretty closeby, as we'd seen the previous day. The departure time for train #SM11 Ekspres Senandung Melam was 2230, so we left the hotel around 2145. Getting a taxi was one hell of a job, and the Indian driver of the taxi we finally got gave us the shock of our lives when he said 'fat chance of your catching your train today: to get the 2230 train, you should have left at 2100. Its Sunday today, and it will take you at least an hour in this weekend traffic' He later wanted to put us in another taxi as he wanted to pick up someone else. I initially thought he was trying to rip us off. He finally relented as there was no other taxi in sight. He used all sorts of shortcuts and bylanes and eventually reached KL Sentral at 2215, with 15 minutes to spare. Saved at last!

The trains depart from a platform on the lower level. Not like India: you have to show your ticket first before you are even allowed to ride the escalator down to the platform! We did that, and eventually just managed to get on the train with less than ten minutes to spare.

The train had Korea built stainless steel cars with ribbed body. Berths were arranged lengthwise, and the beds were already made up. The fare for the upper berth is higher than for the lower. We had two lowers and one upper. The upper berth has a long window at eye level.

Keeping luggage was a problem: there was absolutely no luggage space. I had hoped to see the Indian built YDM/4 diesels now on the KTMB, no way, we had EMD diesels only. A train arrived on the opposite track, we still around eight minutes, I wanted to see the rest of the train anyway. I apporached the driver of the opposite train and asked him whether I could take a picture. "Ya, Ya, take", he said. This is the engine of the train which had just come it.

Our engine seemed to be running Long Hood Forward. It was some way off, there were less than five minutes to go, so I let better sense prevail and hopped on board.

More on the train journey in the Singapore section. We arrived in Singapore the following morning. Here is a train at Singapore station just leaving for Kuala Lumpur. I wished I could just change trains and get back to KL all over again!

As a city, KL is slightly more rough and ready, and seems to lack the 'tourist friendliness' of Bangkok, Hong Kong or Singapore. At KL, it seemed more of hard work, you see Indian expats all over the place. Still, we had enjoyed ourselves, and the selection of photographs accompanying this article should hopefully be enough proof of that! See you in the Singapore section.

To see my pics from the rest of the world, go here:

http://www.worldisround.com/home/shankie/index.html

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