Oct 24 KUALA LUMPUR

Today was an all day city tour affair. Got up and had an early breakfast and was out of the hotel by 9 am. First stop was the King’s Palace. It used to be someone else’s house but it was liked so much by a past king he bought it and kicked the other guy out. Took pictures with the guards who stand on guard much like the British guards. Next was the Nat’l Museum. Walked around through all the exhibits and got a feel for past and present Malaysia. The country is only 50 years old but has a lot of history. Third stop was the Nat’l Monument built in remembrance of those who fought in WW1 and WW2. The monument was quite impressive and resembles one of our monument statues of a couple people trying to keep the flag flying high. Next stop was the Nat’l Mosque which was interesting because its roof is an open umbrella that has 18 points that close together. It was raining so the roof was closed but would have been pretty cool to witness it open. Stopped for lunch and then after went up into the KL Tower to get a bird’s eye view of the city. It is not as tall as the Twin Towers but still gives a great view of the entire city. The top has a revolving restaurant and an observatory floor you can walk all the way around. After this we split up into 3 different groups because there were a couple apprehensions of the night’s plans. The original plan was to go to this Firefly place and have dinner on a boat of some sort but it was a 2 hr drive away and if it was raining (which is was) there was a good chance that the fireflies couldn’t be seen. So people didn’t want to drive all that way for nothing. So group 1 would go the fireflies, group 2 would continue a tour of the city, group 3 could go back to the hotel and be free for the rest of the day. We chose group 2 because we really wanted to see the cave temples. The first stop on the continuing city tour was of the Tin Factory that made pewter. The tour of the factory was quick because they were closing soon but it was interesting. They showed us how they make, shape, and design all the pewter pieces. They even have the World’s larger pewter mug in their courtyard. Last stop was the Batu Caves that have a Hindu temple inside. There is a giant statue of Krishna (I think) colored in gold outside at the bottom of the cave. There are 275 steps to climb to the top where the cave is. It took about 5-10 minutes to get all the way up with a couple of short breaks. The stairs were so steep my calves hurt so bad. Up at the top it started to sprinkle rain a little but the cave protected us. The cave was exquisite! The roof was so high up and jagged with rock formation. In some spots there were openings that brought light into the cave. There were a couple of Hindu’s there praying but it was mostly tourist walking around taking in the breath taking view. The cave was huge, you could probably fit a couple hundred people in it.  The  way down was a little easier than the way up and we saw a ton of monkeys. They were running everywhere and would get really close to you. Kinda nerve racking because of the stories you hear but I was careful not to grab their curious attention. Finally headed back to the city but with traffic on a Friday night it took forever to get back. Got back at 7:30 pm and headed straight for a Reflexology place for massages with Lauren, Jonah, and Ryan. Got a leg/foot massage first in a big comfy chair that I passed out in. They work on all these pressure point in your foot and it hurts a lot but feels great at the same time. Also got a body massage and it was one of the best 40 min massage I have ever gotten for a total of $20 USD. My body was like goo. Afterwards the group of us grabbed some Thai food. I had never had it before but it was delicious! We were done with dinner at 10:30 pm and headed back to the hotel to get ready to go out. We were out the door and in a cab by 11:45 and headed to a club called Zouk. It was a trendier, younger club but had a cover charge. Saw Devyn (who dyed her hair dark brown) and Ali T and a bunch of the boys. The bar as very disco like with a million disco balls hanging from the ceiling and strobe lights and black lights everywhere. The music was very upbeat but was pretty much the same throughout the night. Stayed until 2:15 am and headed BACK to the reflexology place to have fish eat the head skin off our feet. Felt so weird. My feet tickeld so bad but Jonah was more of a girl than I was. Got back to the hotel and in bed by 4 am with ambitions to get up and go to the Towers at 8 am. We shall see!