Day Six: Fish and Monkeys

On the sixth day of our trip we were off to a slow start and it was sushi and fancy drinks for brunch before heading off to the Batu Caves.

The Batu Caves are to the north of Kuala Lumpur and it took us about half an hour to get there by train. Given how hot we had been the previous couple of days, I was quite happy to sit in an air conditioned train for a while.

This is my second trip to the Batu Caves, I first visited here a couple of years ago with our friends Lisa and Aaris (if you have been following my blog long enough you may have even seen the pictures!).

The Batu Caves is actually an amazing Hindu Shrine and it has monkeys - just hanging out, I know they freak some people out. I can kind of see why as on my previously trip a monkey wanted my peanuts and on this trip we bought ice creams and that monkeys wanted those too.

But I love this shrine, its just amazing! Also there were much less people here than there were last time I visited which is always a bonus.

In case you are wondering - yes we did walk up ALL those stairs! Also on the way back down someone asked if they could have a photo with Rich - he's just a handsome guy.

After some time in the sun, we decided we needed to head back into the city to get some shade. We also needed to post some postcards - so first stop when we got back was the post office and we saw this great mural on the way.

Next stop was the central market, which is an older market in a beautiful art deco building. I think this market as it had a lot of local people selling stuff, but the vendors weren't pushy at all. I bought a few things to take home as gifts here. They also had some stalls with stuff you could never get through New Zealand customs, but were still interesting to look at - like the bug stall.

This is the fish part of the post and if you have a fish phobia you might want to skim past it - we went to Dr Fish! Or a fish spa - depending on what you prefer to call it.

If you've never heard of Dr Fish or a fish spa - you basically put your feet (or this place had hand therapy too) in a tank of fish that like to eat the dead skin off your feet. Yes it is as weird as it sounds and I love it. This was my third Dr Fish and the second time I've been in Malaysia.

After shopping and the fish spa, we decided we needed a drink - although I decided to get this shaved ice monstrosity instead. Sometimes you just have to buy the thing you know you can't buy at home.

As you can see - its a completely ridiculous thing to eat.

After this we were at a bit of loss as we had done everything we had set out to do in Kuala Lumpur - we walked around for a bit and ultimately ended up at the Petronas Towers again.

There is actually a pretty nice fountain and garden at the towers and it was nice to walk around the area and wind down a bit.

That's pretty much it for my second trip to Malaysia and my first with Rich. Would I go back again? In a heart beat. I think Malaysia has been one of my favourite places to visit and I really want to go back and visit Ipoh and Langkawi and Penang (and I'm sure there are other places I WANT to visit, but I haven't even heard of them yet). I'm sure this won't be the last time I will be in Malaysia. Next stop on our trip was - Indonesia!

Day Four and Five - Traveling to Kuala Lumpur and it was a million degrees

I am taking a while to get all my travel posts up - but it will happen. I kind of like taking my time writing them though. It's nice to look at all the photos again and remember fun times (and warm weather) in South East Asia.

Unfortunately on day four we had to leave Melaka which was really sad, we did have a wonderful time there.Our next stop was Kuala Lumpur and we decided to get a bus to KL as it was the cheapest and easiest option. So we found a bus service we liked (there were so many) and arrived in KL a few hours later. We navigated the metro system and made it to our hotel and decided we needed some down time so spend much of the afternoon relaxing. We did watch an awesome 1970s movie called Rollercoaster - usually I can't find ANYTHING on TV to watch when traveling, but this was rad.

In the evening we decided to head out and find some food. Near the hotel was a night market - we didn't actually know the market was there. We were just lucky enough to stumble across it.

Lanterns and delicious food - what more do you need for a great night out?

The following day we had one thing in mind and that was the KL Bird Park - one of my friends from work said it was really awesome and I hadn't visited there on my last trip to KL so it sounded like a fun thing to check on.

On our way there we came across the National Mosque, I did visit the National Mosque on my last visit and thought it was great. We stopped off so Rich could have a look as well.

Because this is a mosque I had to cover up, they have gowns and headscarfs to wear. Unfortunately they are all made of polyester - which is a BAD choice on an extremely hot day. Also they aren't flattering at all. Scratch that, they aren't flattering on me! I saw a couple of ladies wearing these and they looked so glamorous, I just looked so ridiculous (oh and HOT).

After we visited the mosque, we continued to the bird park - we decided to walk, as it wasn't far on a map. But the heat made the walk seem so much longer. But it was a chance to see things you never see at home - like this sign.

Here are a few photos of the bird park - I have to admit it wasn't as good as I was hoping for. It was very expensive by local standards and it was a little run down. The park is basically a big aviary, but some of the bigger birds like the eagles were kept in smaller cages and I felt pretty bad for them.

By this time we were insanely hot - I think this was actually the hottest day of our trip. Fortunately I knew where we could find some air conditioning.

We visited the Petronas Towers to cool down, have some lunch and shop at our favourite bookshop Kinokuniya! I did buy a couple of sewing books which I will share with you guys at some point.

Then it was back to the hotel for a well deserved break - we did meet up with this guy whilst we were walking back.

After resting for a few hours we decided to head out again and visit Chinatown and the Jalan Petaling Market.

I'm not going to lie to you guys, whilst I do enjoy the Chinatown market in general - Jalan Petaling is pretty much the stuff of nightmares for me. It's full of people selling knock offs of whatever is cool right now (I have no idea of what is cool at any point) and its stressful! Everyone trying to sell me a handbag or a watch and calling me miss or mrs or lady. I don't know who buys this crap, but it must be a lot of people as there are loads of people selling crap.

However, there are some more establish shops lining the street where the market is located and I did find a fabric store which made me happy. Otherwise the shopping here is horrible. I realised soon as I got there how much I didn't want to be there LAST time I was there! If I ever say I want to go to Jalan Petaling in Kuala Lumpur again stop me from doing it - ok?

Our first day and a bit in KL was pretty fun - despite the heat and Jalan Petaling. The third day was even better though. It involves monkeys!