Port Klang, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Thursday, March 20

NOTE:
Yesterday March 19th was Bob's 72nd birthday.  When they cleaned our room in the morning our butler and room attendant decorated our stateroom with balloons and banners wishing him happy birthday, along with a chilled bottle of champagne.  After we set sail for Malaysia we had a lovely celebration with some other couples for dinner in the dining room.  I had arranged for lobster to be served with a birthday cake for dessert.  When they brought out the cake many of the waiters gathered to sing happy birthday.  In fact, the entire dining room erupted in song.  Even though we missed our kids being there, it was a fun dinner and I'm glad Bob had a party.

Now, on to Kuala Lumpur -

Today we put on our walking shoes and prepared for an 8 hour tour which was mainly on foot through the various sites of Kuala Lumpur.  First, we had a 1-1/2 hour bus ride into town from the pier.  Our guide filled the time with information about the Malaysian history, beliefs, culture, employment, education, living conditions, etc.  He told us that Malaysia has the oldest rainforest in the world and it is extremely rich in wildlife as well as vegetation.  There are monkeys and orangutans, as well as tigers, bears, 200 varieties of snakes (only five types of poisonous), including the largest in the world (python), one type of rhinoceros, the smallest deer in the world and many other types of wildlife.

By this point in the tour all of us were hot, sweaty messes.  Of course, I was drenched and constantly wiping my face.  Our guide led us to our next stop which was the Central Market.  We were all thinking we would once again be walking through small, extremely warm aisles gasping for air as we elbowed our way through the narrow passageway and masses of people.  We arrived at the market, opened the door and were met with a blast of cold air.  Ahhhh!  Hallelujah!  It's in a heritage building now equipped with air conditioning.  Suddenly, I'm in the mood for shopping :)  We browsed around the market looking for our magnet and other gifts.  We found everything we wanted while staying a nice cool temperature!! Yay!! There were antique clocks, jewelry, wood carvings, batik, pewter and many other great items.  It was quite an enjoyable shopping experience.

From the market we walked to a nearby coffee shop for a cup of 'pull tea' and 'pratta' bread.  Our guide told us it was a specialty of this area.  It was tea with lots of milk and sugar and bread that was like a very thin pancake.  He insisted that we all try it so we did but most of us took one sip and left the remainder of it.  We then continued our walk and headed over to Chinatown.  We visited Sze Yeh, the oldest Chinese Temple in the area, which was small but lovely.  We then walked through the narrow streets filled with vendors selling all sorts of souvenirs.

Our final stop before lunch was to see the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple which was built in 1968 to worship the goddess Mariamman and features a 75 foot high pyramid-shaped tower adorned with 228 Hindu gods and goddesses.

We FINALLY got back on the bus and drove to Atmosphere 360 degrees, which is a revolving restaurant at the top of the KL tower.  The KL tower is an icon of the city's skyline standing 421 meters high, making it the 4th tallest building in the world.  There was an observation deck that gave us a 360 degree view of Kuala Lumpur.  We took the elevator to the top level and had a leisurely buffet lunch while the restaurant slowly resolved, giving us a great view of the city.  It was a lovely experience.

Once we had finished lunch we drove to the Petronas Twin Towers, which is the world's tallest twin towers.  The 88-story structure soars to a height of 1463 feet above the city skyline.  After our photo stop of the towers we had some free time to shop at the Suria KLCC, a modern six-level shopping plaza.  As we have found in so many of the malls we have visited this center could be found in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, or any other major U.S. city.  There was the typical parade of high end stores such as Prada, etc.  We did find a large bookstore so we spent our time browsing through travel books until it was time to leave.

After a very full day of sightseeing we returned to the bus for the 1-1/2 hour trip back to the ship.  Everyone was resting quietly as we drove until someone saw a group of monkeys flying through the trees.  From that moment on our eyes were glued to the sides of the road, hoping to get a glimpse of more wildlife.

When we returned to our stateroom our butler had left us a wonderful snack for "high tea" and had drawn a luxurious bubble bath for me.  What a nice welcome back surprise.  Now we are back at sea headed for Sumatra.  We will be there early tomorrow morning.