We woke up before dawn to catch the ferry from Penang to mainland Malaysia where we would catch the train to Kuala Lampur. I had wanted to take more trains on the continent, but we had either not been able to reserve ticket due to Tet in Vietnam or they had not been cost effective or it just didn’t fit with our travel itinerary, but we finally got to take one to the capital city in KL. We boarded the ferry to the main land and were treated to a beautiful sunrise, another perk of complex travel plans.
We had no trouble catching our train in fact we were an hour and a half early, we reserved seats all together with the Gallamoy’s and had nine seats in a car. It was great fun for the kids to run around and everyone was pretty well behaved. The train had a top speed of around 135 km/hr but we had lots of stops to make so it took the better part of 4 hours. It was very comfortable, and it was great to see the country side although it was mostly palm tree plantations. We arrived Once in KL we took the subway and then walked to our Airbnb and settled into our abode for the next 5 days or so. Our place was located in a high-rise apartment and it was having plumbing issues in one of the rooms with sewer gas, so it was the best stay, but we made do.
We decided that we were going to take the rest of the week off school, for spring break because we were with our friends, at home the break comes a week later so we aren’t that far off schedule. After getting food from a grocery store we ate dinner at home for the first day it what seemed like ages (about three months) and relaxed that night.
Our first full day we went to the KLCC park located at the base of the Patronus towers the 8th largest buildings in the world depending on what criteria you rely on and played in their giant playground before cooling off in the pool/fountain play area. We were going to the science museum, but it was too packed due to the schools having the day off so we just ate lunch and went to the book store. Maddy and I got a date night that night as a birthday present (thanks Seamus and Pam). We had appetizers at an Irish bar then went to the Sky bar which looks out toward the Petronus Towers, we had drinks that were way overpriced. The kids were apparently all down at the fountains and if we had binoculars we probably could have found them. We walked around a bit more then had noodles and then got home before 10pm.
The next day we got back on the school train after a week off, it was painful, but we got some things finished before everyone back at home went on spring break, Julie had tutoring as well. The rest of the day was ipads and swimming. Pam and Maddy had a girls night out and Seamus and I took the kids to this great food truck area, which had great food for the kids and tons of options for us, even good burritos and tacos. Every meal was about 8 ringgit or just over a 1 USD.
On Saturday we scheduled a day of tours; first we were off to Batu caves, which was a huge set of limestone caves one with a hindu temple dedicated to Murugan the god of war and victory. We climbed 272 steps up to the temple, we carried pails off sand up the steps to help with the ongoing construction of the temples, gave us more exercise too. There was also a longer cave that housed lots of bats and was known to be a guano-based ecosystem (the bugs and spiders all subsist on bat poop). Mimi and I didn’t have time to do a tour so we were a bit sad.
We had to stay on schedule and headed out toward the coast to the Kuala Selangor Nature Park where we fed Silver Leaf Monkeys and visited a British fort, where there were great views of the Malacca Straight. The Silver Leaf Monkeys are able to be fed because they have a much less aggressive disposition, although they still like to jump on top of your shoulders.
We had dinner and then a small boat ride where we saw the famous fireflies. They were a bit smaller than the ones we have at home and they were synchronized in their blinking. They were also isolated to particular trees where apparently they eat slugs by injecting digestive acids and then eating the partially digested slugs. Pictures didn’t come out though.
The next day we struggled to get the kids out of the house, we finally made it to the pool and the kids got some of their energy out; had more dinner at the food cart area and just generally relaxed.
Our last day in KL and Malaysia we visited the KL bird park, a fascinating large park with tropical birds walking around, we had a great time and learned about birds. We even rescue a bird when we found a stork that had it’s foot caught, we told the staff and they snipped the plastic off its foot and was free again. Our last night in town we went took the kids out to the fountains, then packed up all our stuff. We had a bit of a tearful goodbye to our new travel besties and we area headed off to Singapore.
The next morning we got up early to board our plane to Singapore we lived one of those AGGGGHHHH moment when we got to the airport and realized that we booked the tickets to Singapore for April instead of March. #%$^#%!!!! Maddy and I realized that we both were partially to blame as we both had our hands on the reservation. We got a new flight, had to eat the other reservation because it was a low price airlines. I would say avoid Scoot, they hung up on me even though I was very polite.
Travel-Trotter 