When we weren’t eating or shopping, we spent the 5 days in Kuala Lumpur exploring the city! We were there over Thanksgiving (you can check out our itinerary and our stops in Beijing and Phuket on the way to Kuala Lumpur) and as it is generally the case in November, it was hot, humid, and rained at least once a day. We didn’t have too much of a plan other than meandering in the general direction of the main sites. We generally don't plan out every single detail when we travel but like to have time to get lost around the city and really explore the culture and hidden gems.
Stopping by the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, there was a bit of a communication breakdown on what to do with our shoes. As with all temples, you are not supposed to wear your shoes. Not wanting to leave our shoes randomly on the street, we found a tiny shoe deposit where you can leave your shoes and they are being stored safely. The temple is fairly small, but is the oldest Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur with ornate architecture and the beautiful Raja Gopuram tower.
We continued our self-made walking tour to the confluence of the Gombak and Klang Rivers and the Masjid Jamek mosque as well as the Sultan Abdul Samad building, the former offices of the Colonial Secretariat. The architecture was breath-taking and we couldn't get enough of it.
We liked the historical buildings so much we came back at night to see them again!
One of the most popular daytrips from Kuala Lumpur is visiting the Batu Caves. The journey was a pretty reasonable 1 hour by train from our hotel. Unfortunately, it was raining almost the whole day but that didn’t stop us from having fun!
The Batu Caves were formed within the limestone hills 400 millions years ago, but it wasn’t until the 1890’s that it became a place of worship. We walked up the steep and slippery 272 steps to the top, and I can personally verify that there are in fact 272 steps.
The walls of the Batu Caves are partially covered in trees trying to grow towards the light. It was quite the unique sight.
One item we did not plan in advance was heading up to the observation decks on the Petronas Twin Towers. Having seen them at night from the THIRTY8 dining experience, we wanted to see them in daylight also.
You have to reserve times in advance as it is quite a popular destination, however when we were in Kuala Lumpur, the weather was fairly cloudy for most of the trip, and so we didn’t want to book our tickets for the towers on a cloudy day. We ended up booking our tickets the afternoon before our our last day in the city, once we had taken a look at the weather forecast and were pretty confident it would be nice. For once, we picked the right day and were rewarded with amazing views of KL.
When viewed from above you can really get an appreciation for the sheer expansiveness of the city and the incredible ongoing growth with all of the new construction projects and cranes poking through the skyline.
Have you been to Kuala Lumpur? Or would you like to go? Let us know in the comments below!
