Step Right Up and Get Your Tickets

It's amazing the impact that feeling comfortable and contented can make you feel.

During a couple of stops on my trip I have felt that way. I felt it in Baguio, but that was partly because of the long journey I'd made to get there, and things were still a bit fresh at the time.
I felt that way in Kuching in the surroundings of the excellent Marco Polo Guesthouse, and with plenty of exciting things to do. The sunny climbs of Bali had me feeling a certain way, and I think also that KL has had a positive impact on my mentality about this trip.

I have to be honest and admit that I have certain amounts of uncertainty and insecurities each day as to whether this trip will work out to be what I hoped it would be. It has definitely been a lot harder then I anticipated,and it's hard to believe that I have only been out in Asia just over a month - I feel like I've spent about a year on this continent already.

I've been trying to do things along the way which have been beneficial to me, making sure that I feel safe in my surroundings, ensuring that I am reasonably well prepared as I move around, and also trying to fill up my days with as many activities as possible to make sure that there aren't too many down days in my trip where I spend the time considering how isolated I often feel. It's hard not to count the days and it's also difficult to trick my brain into concentrating on other things than being far away from home, but I feel like yesterday was a good example of how I can focus my attention elsewhere.

Today I had another busy day planned with a couple of different activities lined up. After going to see the Petronas Towers last night I was pretty excited about getting my new camera back out and snapping away some more throughout the day. All the excitement (and more likely heat) must have taken it out of me last night, as despite putting my alarm on for 9:15am, I slept straight through it and woke up at 11:08am instead. I guess that was a sign from my body that I sometimes need to consider giving it a rest. I was actually mostly annoyed about missing breakfast, rather than having slept in for so long.

I got myself dressed and headed out towards my first destination which was the impressive building of Berjaya Times Square, a huge shopping complex very close to the Low Yat Plaza where I spent so much time yesterday afternoon. With the knowledge of how to get there already I started making my way towards Bukit Bintang and could see the large concrete structure of the Berjaya which loomed large in the distance. As with most things in KL, it was hidden behind another great big building but thankfully there were a number of signs which pointed me in the right direction to reach my intended destination .

Continuing past the Low Yat I came to another mall, before the Berjaya returned into my field of vision. It was a huge building, two actually joined together by a concourse about two or three levels up. I walked across a bridge to get there and was immediately impressed by the size of the mall.
As we all know and I have had to defend myself on several occasions, I am not a massive shopper at all. The reason I had wanted to visit the Berjaya is for the reason that I read that is has a theme park inside it.
I'd say that amusement parks in general are amongst my top five favourite things in the world so was very excited to see what they had managed to do inside what looked to be a very minimal space. I wasn't expecting a Six Flags or anything, but I knew there was a rollercoaster and a few other different rides.

The mall itself was almost TOO big. I like walking around shops within a mall or shopping centre, but in this one I felt like I was missing stuff out because it was so massive. One thing I must mention is a staircase which I got to which was set out like a piano and every step you took made the sound of the key you stepped on. Naturally I ran up and down it a couple of times just to see what would happen. I was going to play a tune, but thought that might be going a little bit too far!

I eventually got to the fifth floor where the theme park was set up, and was quite impressed by what I saw:

The rollercoaster was obviously the most impressive thing contained within the building, but there looked to be a Ferris Wheel in the back somewhere and also some kind of waltzer. I tried to get a video, but it was pretty hard to follow the ride - even though part of the track was right in front of me.
Now I love rides and theme parks and I'm all for doing things by myself, when I don't have any company, but I've yet to go on any rides on my travels as a soloist and I'm pretty sure I'll be keeping it that way, no matter how tempted I get.

Satisfied at having witnessed the glory of an indoor rollercoaster, I headed away from the mall and back in the direction of my hotel. I was just sweeping by however as I was on my way to the KL Tower. This time to visit it, rather than just to admire.
As mentioned yesterday, the KL Tower is a very large communications tower here in the city, but has been rather overshadowed in recent years by the KLCC Towers which dominate the landscape. It's still very impressive in it's own right though, and after about a twenty-five minute walk back I managed to climb to the base of the tower and follow the winding path up to the ticket office.

When I was on the KL Tower's website last night I managed to download a 10% off voucher which gave me access for 45RM. This was a ticket to the observation deck level, but for those inclined you can go to the skydeck level which will set you back about 99RM instead. I was satisfied to see if through glass however as I was pretty sure it was going to be impressive all the same.
The elevator takes 54 seconds to get up to observation deck which is 276m tall. My ears popped on the way up in the lift, but soon enough I was taking in the impressive sights and suddenly forgot all about it:

I've been fortunate enough to get up to some impressive heights, a few memorable ones come across including a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the 63 Building in Seoul and The Top of the Rock in New York, but the view from the top of the KL Tower was equal to any I'd previously seen. The observation deck has a 360 degree view of all the sights around the area, so naturally I started taking as many pictures as possible of the tiny world which lay below. There was a display of the comparison with other large towers in the world, which show that the KL Tower is the 7th tallest, and standing at the top of a hill it gives come incredible views of the city and the surrounding area. It was really fascinating to look out, and see the haze of the city with buildings in the distance not able to be seen very clearly. There were no indications as to what anything was, but there were four sets of binoculars spread around the edge which give you an opportunity to view things a little closer up:

From my viewpoint I picked out the national stadium (the bincolulars were good I could see someone cutting the grass!), the KLCC Towers naturally featured fairly prominently, and I could also see the national monument which I plan to go and see on another day. It was great to look out on everything and get a breathtaking view out over the city. I was very impressed, and happy that I'd come on a relatively clear day when you could see the city sprawl out for miles and miles.

Descending down the tower after about an hour's worth of viewing my next point of call was the KLCC Towers themselves as I needed to purchase a ticket for tomorrow. I'd tried to book them last night online, but my internet connection was playing up so I didn't get the opportunity to do so. It said online that for bookings with within the next 24 hours the best thing to do would be to go to the ticket office in person, and I was getting worried as I know that they tend to sell out quite quickly.

It's ironic that despite the size of the actual towers themselves, it is almost impossible to find the ticket office. The KLCC Towers sit on top of the Suria Mall which is a designer clothes and accessories paradise of about seven floors. There is a concert hall contained within there as well as the offices of Petronas, but underneath it all on the lower ground floor is the entrance to the towers and also the place to buy tickets.

I was quite surprised to see that they still had tickets left for people to go up today, but I had already worked it into tomorrow's activities so decided to buy a ticket for tomorrow and instead spend a little bit of time in the urban park which is next to the towers. It's not a huge place, but mostly has been created around the lake with the amazingly colourful fountains which I has seen moving and swaying in the night before. It is used alot by people running, though there were lots of benches and pavilions which people were using, and there was also a children's play park in the middle.

From the towers it probably took about twenty-five minutes to make my way back to the hotel, and after a little rest and trying to work out what to put on tomorrow's itinerary I decided to go out and get some dinner. As with most of my trips out to get some dinner in Asia, I have a vague idea of where I'm going, but very rarely do I plan specifically in a certain place; unless like in Cebu when it was pretty unsafe to go outside of my hotel at night, and I had no choice other than to eat in my hotel.
I started walking towards a market that I had seen which is on the street which runs parallel to the bus station as I had seen that there were a couple of restaurants there.
I walked for a bit and found only fast food chains like KFC and Burger King so I continued walking, and eventually walked in a loop until I came across the entrance to what looked like an intreguing market area. It had a big sign over is saying Petlang Street which is a place I had read about on the map I carry around with me everywhere that I go.

It seemed to be bustling with people and I figured that in between all the small shops and stalls there would undoubtedly be some food. I began to wade my way through the market, fascinated by everything I was seeing. The street was covered with shops selling everything from sunglasses to handbags to football shirts. Making any sort of direct eye contact with any of the people who own the stalls would bring them to their feet and trying to hawk you something, but I continued on as best I could, stopping at a few of the stands to see how much their items were selling for. Sunglasses are one partcicular thing I had noticed which always seem to be cheap in Asia, most of them are probably extremely fake - such as my £3 'Ray Ban' shades, but it fascinates me how products such as football shirts and t-shirts can be sold so cheaply when they look pretty much legitimate. I know that some of the deal with the Premier League merchandise is that because they are made on this continent, if they are rejected by the factory for anything such as a stitching error or perhaps the bad is put on a fraction of a degree wrong, then it is rejected by the manufacturer and that's how these stalls get hold of them. At the beginning of it's lifecycle Ebay used to be filled with football shirts from Malaysia and Hong Kong, and at £5 compared with the retail price of £40, at the least, in England, it's not a bad purchase if it looks to the eye like there is nothing wrong with it.

I eventually found my way out of the twisting market and made my way out onto another main road where I found a Chinese restaurant that was serving what looked to be some good smelling food so I stopped there, ate my diner and then headed back to my room.

Turned out to be another productive day in KL, managed to pack a few different activities into it which I'm pleased about. I feel like I have really taken to the city quite well, and it is definitely living up to expectations so far. I think as a place that I have always wanted to visit, this might not be the only time I ever visit the Malaysian capital so I hope anything that I miss out in the next couple of days I might be able to accomplish on a return trip sometime in the future.

Love Rollercoaster
Red Hot Chilli Peppers (1996)