Well, this day started off with a bang! Or maybe a loud alarm clock! Oh, no, that would be my cell phone yet again ringing at 3 am with someone trying to get a hold of me! Needless to say Andrew and I were both away for the 4 am alarm to get up and moving to be downstairs in the lobby of the hotel for our 5 am pickup for our day trip to Kuala Lumpur.
I had found this tour on Viator, one of the travel websites and it was highly recommended for people who are visiting Singapore who also want to see the sights around Malaysia including Kuala Lumpur and the Petronas Twin Towers which are there – the twin towers are the tallest in the world. For over 6 months I had corresponded with the day trip organizer who was very proficient and understood my extra needs in the fact that I was traveling with a walker and could not climb a lot of steps. He also helped me get our tickets to the Petronas Twin Towers when I was having some issues as people who use wheelchairs and walkers have to book extra “space” in the elevator (no idea why)!
So Max picked us up at 5 am – it was already about 30 degrees out including humidity so we knew it was going to be a hot day. I was also aware due to the high Muslim population in Singapore and Malaysia, that I needed to cover my shoulders and knees and bring along my sweater (only suitable long sleeved item I had to put on) and my head scarf as we would be going to a mosque too. Max was to drive us over the Malaysian border and then deliver us to our next driver, Allan, who would be a our driver for the rest of the trip, all the way back to our hotel. There is some Singapore “rule” that Malaysian drivers cannot pick up people in Singapore to take back to Malaysia, so thus the driver change. It was 5 am and as soon as I got into the car for the 45 minute drive to the border, I was sleepy! Max though wanted to lecture us on everything Singapore – from government and anti-corruption to how much people are paid and the list goes on. Needless to say, we were in these lovely business class recliner seats in his high end Toyota SUV and I thought it would be rude to fall asleep so I tried my best to stay awake! This is obviously something he does on a routine basis as he had us flying through the exit from Singapore and then into Malaysia in no time and soon we met up with Allan our driver in a less “fitted out” SUV but comfortable just the same!
First it was pitch black out when we were doing this and second, you cannot take any pictures when crossing the border! Singapore is separated from Malaysia by a bridge. The Immigration and Customs all are in buildings that we seemed to be underground going through until we went over the bridge and then back into some buildings, still in the car, to enter Malaysia in a place called Johor, which is also a port city.
Needless to say, once we were in the SUV with Allan, sleep did take over for me for two reasons – one I was tired and two he was driving rather fast – it was like being on the autobahn again! At one point we were being passed while he was doing 140 km/h. Mostly motorcycles and fast cars though. Watching the signs on the highway were interesting – they had LOTS of full service stops for gas and dining/fast food which was great and really promoted getting rest when driving. The other funny signs, which I never accomplished getting a picture of were the picture of a motorcycle and an umbrella – which meant that an overpass was coming up so if it started raining hard, there was refuge really soon. A lot of the motorcycle drivers drove along the shoulder of the road if they were not on a high powered motorcycle that could keep up with or go faster than the cars.
After a couple of hours we arrived a Batu Caves, which is where we also met our tour guide for the day named Mr. Sandran Vellesamy who was Malaysian and is a tour guide by profession. Allan dropped us off and left us in the care of Sandran to tour the caves. The Batu Caves name is derived from the word batu from Malay meaning “rock”. Formed over 400 million years ago, the Batu Caves consist of 20 recognized caves including four large cave systems with multiple inter-connected chambers. The complex is a mogote with a series of limestone caves which have speleothems were formed by the action of water falling on the surface percolating through the surface and interacting with the sub-surface, resulting in the dissolution of limestone rocks, resulting in the formation of stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites jutting from the ceiling and stalagmites rising from the floor form intricate formations of cave curtains, flowstones, cave pearls, and scallops.
The caves were used as shelters by the indigenous Temuan people. In the middle 1800’s, Chinese settlers began excavating bat excrement from the caves, to use as fertilizer. In 1878, the caves were visited by American naturalist William Hornaday and K. Thamboosamy, an Indian Tamil trader, promoted the cave complex as a site of Hindu worship. So, a Hindu temple dedicated to lord Murugan was completed in 1891 with the annual Thaipusam celebrations commencing in 1892. Further development of religious sites has happened ever since in the region. Housing development around the region began in the late 20th century and there are concerns now that the area is becoming over-developed.
As the caves have a HUGE staircase to get up into them and then another one once in there, Andrew and Sandran proceeded to visit the caves while I walked around taking pictures – here is what we both saw –
Now we departed, as Batu Caves are actually about 14 km north of Kuala Lumpur, into Kuala Lumpur city centre for the day. The first place we stopped was their town centre plaza where the National Cricket Oval or Pitch is located. Now the whole area was boarded up and I could not get in due to stairs, however someone I know was able to slide between the boards that were put up (with the permission of our tour guide) and take some pictures for us! While I was on the outside I took the following pictures – to note is the Malaysian Flag on the flagpole for those Engineers out there – this flag does NOT twist – the flag pole was engineered so that the flag goes around a loop or circle at the top and rotates with the wind so that it does not get tangled! Now that is a good use of engineering skills!
A couple of other things about the pictures below – the river looks low however when it rains in really rains and twice a year we were told, primarily when the king tides are also happening, the river backs up to the mountains. When this happens, all the underground tunnels in Kuala Lumpur are actually closed to traffic and are flooded too so the water has somewhere to go! They were designed that way. We actually traveled through one of the tunnels that is flooded about 2-4 times a year. It takes them about 3-5 days after the water recedes to clean the tunnel of debris and mud to allow cars back into it. The other interesting thing we learned was that the post office, which is across from the Mile Zero marker, was how all postage in the “olden” days was calculated. That was the Zero in the number of miles or kilometers that the postal mail had to travel and how it was thus charged.
These are Andrew’s pictures from when he snuck into the park. He was not the only one doing it – a whole tour group went in before him! It was just up stairs as I mentioned and then through a very narrow passageway that I decided not to attempt early in the day!
After visiting the National Square we got back into the van and drove to the Central Market where we are going to have lunch and someone 🙂 might do some shopping! The plan was to take us to a Malay restaurant, however when we got there it was closed for a school group to eat there (school holidays are next week), not a problem though as I had noticed a Thai restaurant as we walked to the Malay restaurant so our tour guide took us there and made sure that they understood my Celiac Restaurant cards (which I had in Thai and Malay) so that I could order safe food and then left us there to eat (and shop).
Now onto the Petronas Twin Towers where we have a 2 pm ticket to go up and visit both the bridge between them and then up to the observation floor! This again is NOT something for my mother who does not like heights! Even for me it was starting to push the limits getting near some of the windows up top!
The Petronas Twin Towers are iconic 88-story skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, known for their postmodern Islamic design and the double-decker Skybridge connecting them, offering stunning city views from the Observation Deck on the 86th floor. Once the world’s tallest buildings (1998-2004), they house the Petronas oil company and other global businesses, serving as a major landmark and tourist attraction. Their height are 451.9 meters (1,483 ft), designed by CĂ©sar Pelli, the two-story bridge (worlds highest) links the towers at the 41st and 42nd floors (engineering note: only 1/2 inch off when they went to connect the buildings together) and the observation deck is located on the 86th floor, providing panoramic city views. Another interesting fact is that the Skybridge between the two buildings is not attached to the main structure, but instead is designed to slide in and out of the towers to prevent it from breaking due to strong winds!
The site planning for the Twin Towers began in January 1992, where excavators began digging down 30 metres below the surface of the site in March 1993. The work required moving over 500 truckloads of earth every night. Following that was the single, largest, and longest concrete pour ever in Malaysian history; approx. 13,200 cubic metres of concrete was continuously poured per tower through a period of 54 hours. This record-breaking slab with 104 piles of concrete layers form the very foundation for the twin towers we see today.
From this floor rose a 21 metre high retaining wall, with a perimeter length of over one kilometre. This concrete shell and the basement area it encloses required two years and up to 40 workers on site all day and night. The construction of the superstructure commenced in April 1994 after passing multiple rigorous tests and simulations of wind and structural loads on the design. Finally in June 1996, the Petronas Twin Towers was completed with its encasing in steel and glass.
Time to go up to see them! First, we were dropped off at the mall connected to the Petronas Twin Towers – which we walked into and saw down a level and all the Christmas displays. Next we were taken outside (we were running early) and the HUGE Christmas tree and what was next to it? A fake ice rink made out of wax sheets so people could skate! Now, to go to the Twin Towers – we got the ticket for me (which was reserved as I had to show up with my walker so they could see that I needed “space”) and as we already had a ticket for Andrew we were ready to go! Unfortunately there was a school group ahead of us which made things a little slow and noisy! We watched a movie (below) and then went into the elevator to proceed to the SkyBridge to check out the view – which was fabulous!
Here is the movie we got to see while waiting for the elevator to take us up to the SkyBridge –
And now we go higher! Up to the top!
At the Petronas Towers we said goodbye to our tour guide, Sandran, and Allan, our driver then drove us to the Putra Mosque, which was the last sight on our list to see prior to returning to Singapore. I was looking forward to this stop due to my association with Maha and the things that I have learned regarding the Muslim religion. Due to that I was also prepared in what I needed to wear! The mosque was HUGE and beautiful! For those women visiting the mosque who were not dressed appropriately then gave out these red jackets with hoods so that the arms and hair are covered when you go into the main building. That is why you see people wearing red things in the pictures below. I passed muster with my sweater and pashima wrap. As in the Muslim religion, you do have to take your shoes off prior to going into the mosque, where other mosques I have been to it is right in front of the door – here it was at the entrance to the facility so we had to walk in bare feet all the way across the terrace to get to the main part of the mosque – I was REALLY GLAD it was not that sunny out! Inside the mosque was amazing and we had unexpectedly shown up at the time for the evening call to prayer, so the prayer was being sung by some members of the male devotees. I find listening, while I do not understand what they are saying, to be absolutely amazing and calming. We were only supposed to be in the mosque for 15 minutes but I think we were there a bit longer than that as one of the volunteers came up and spoke to us and wanted to know where we were from. We also were the only Caucasian people in the mosque! He was very nice and I explained that I was aware that it was the call to prayer going on and how much I enjoyed listening to it. I actually recorded some of it for Maha so she could hear it and then we left to meet Allan for our drive back to Singapore.
Well, needless to say, this was a VERY long day! We got back to the Westin Hotel at about 9pm – so we were on this trip for a total of 16 hours! Time flew by and it was lots of fun however we are both now exhausted!
Tomorrow I think AGAIN we will be sleeping in 🙂 See you later alligators!