Pasig City, Metro Manila Our next stop was Manila. Well, if I’d expected it to be anything at all like Kuala Lumpur, I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s different world! For a start, with a population of something in the region of 10 times that of Kuala Lumpur, there are surprisingly few high rise buildings. The skyscrapers I saw appeared to be concentrated in the downtown area. We were staying in Pasig City, one of the 16 cities that…
Visit to KL Bird Park, Kuala Lumpur The Oldies spent the next few days pottering around in the city centre. It’s quite a concrete jungle, but a pretty one at that, with some stylish modern skyscrapers and funky modern architecture. All dominated by those amazing Petronas Towers, of course. What I hadn’t realised at first was that there is plenty of greenery around the towers, in the shape of a lovely park with plenty of water features. There were even…
Outing to Batu Caves; Little India, Kuala Lumpur The Oldies certainly did their steps today. And these were the most colourful steps I’d ever seen. We were at the Batu Caves, a comfortable half-hour train ride from KL Central. Comfortable, as in air-conditioned. Cool! On arrival, I thought we had stumbled onto a movie set. The first thing I saw was a giant god. This statue of Hanuman, the monkey god, is 15m high. But Hanuman was dwarfed by the statue…
Islamic Arts Museum, Kuala Lumpur I’ve always known that Her Ladyship is a bit of a fruit and nut case, so Malaysia was a treat for her with all its tropical offerings. She baulked, however, at trying durian, famous, or rather infamous, for its pungent smell. This appears to be the ultimate forbidden fruit. Wherever we went, there was signage stating that durian is banned in rental apartments, in rental cars, in elevators, on public transport… It seems that if…
Visit to Butterfly Park and Forest Eco Park, Kuala Lumpur I chalked up yet another totally new experience when the Oldies paid a visit to the Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park. I’ve spotted the occasional red admiral and cabbage white in Europe, but these Malaysian guys are proper fancy pants. And some of them are huge! If it hadn’t been for the fact they were flying around in bright daylight, I might have been convinced that they were bats, not butterflies….