Kuala Lumpur Rocks

Spending the day at a Tea Plantation and in the car was not exactly what Fearon had in mind as a first choice for a 14^th Birthday day.  We had planned to be in KL in lots of time to take in an amusement park but instead of making circles on a roll a coaster we spent hours in the middle of rush hour traffic making circles within a few blocks of our accommodations.  Although we were very fed up with being so close but so far away, it did allow us lots of opportunity to marvel at the architecture and the urban landscape all around us.  

We circled the Petronas Towers numerous times trying to find our hotel. 

When we finally managed to get to our hotel it was a little late for much exploring but we were happy to discover that we had a fantastic apartment with an incredible view of the very happening city.  KL is an amazingly modern and developed metropolis that certainly rivals or surpasses most large American cities in many ways.  It rocked!

During our time in KL we could not help but marvel at the structures that towered around us and by the well designed and spacious green areas.  KL certainly had all of the offerings that one would expect in a world class city.   We thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

Our first stop was the Menara KL Tower for amazing views of the entire region.  The pictures speak for themselves.

At the KL towers there was also an informative Cultural Village that had models of many types of traditional Malaysian dwellings.   Throughout our travels we had seen a lot of the different types of houses that were on display and it was great to learn more about how they were constructed and why each was built as it was. 

While we were in KL the boys also had a blast at Asia’s largest indoor amusement Park in Berjaya Times Square.  The roll a coaster was awesome.  The Petronas Towers were an amazing architectural site to see and Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) proved to have much to offer.  The Science Centre at KLCC sponsored by the Malaysian Oil conglomerate, Petronas was very informative and was as well done as any of the Science Centers we have seen in North America.  The emphasis was on teaching the visitor about oil and everything from its formulation over millions of years to the discovery of its uses to the process of extraction to its current use was covered in a fairly tasteful but somewhat unbalanced manner.  Visitors could even take a tour of an oil rig.  Of course, there was no mention of the environmental hazards that the extraction and the dependence on this resource pose.  We enjoyed the Science Center but would have enjoyed it more had some attention been paid to the fact that our reliance on and abuse of this resource needs to change before we destroy our planet along with the happily ever after potential of future generations.

We also enjoyed a visit to the KL Bird Park, the largest one in the world.  

OK – having beefed about the oil industry, I have to admit that we are incredibly guilty of making a few bad choices in terms of environmentally responsible travel options.  With Air Asia tickets often being the same price as train travel it has been easy to try to ignore our carbon footprint and choose to spend less than an hour on a plane versus a few days on trains and ferries. 

We were thrilled to meet up with Rob’s brother at the KL airport and fly with him to the Malaysian Island of Langkawi and from there to the Thai Paradise of Koh Lipe.