Another day of much walking ahead!
First I go to times square, another megamall, I am a bit early and not much is open, starbucks is though, I have a frappe mocha cino something with about 11 extra things I dont want but seem to get - it costs a fortune, at least $5
Inside Times square they have 3 movie theaters including an IMAX on the 10th floor and an indoor rollercoaster.
I take the monorail to preserve legs for the walking ahead.
Badly lit picture of the indoor rollercoaster, look closely and you can see the carriages at the top of the loop.
I decide the best plan is to walk to china town, which takes about half an hour.
Despite being china town, it is quite clean, lots of fake watches, gucci handbags, dvd's, I buy the latest harry potter for about $2.
It comes without a jewelcase but with a glossy print of the cover ready for you to stick in your own case, all sealed in plastic with a barcode printed on the plastic - so its not just 1 guy with a lite on burner.
The fellow assures me it comes from 'master disc, not cam' and at first I am hopeful as it has a proper menu and the ratings screen and film company logos are sharp...but as soon as the movie starts, its just a cam.
The entrance to the main street in china town.
The central market, selling crappy goods to tourists...german tourists seem to love buying the crap, who really wants a clock with the petronas towers as hands? Germans.
A tower I hope to go up, have to research further.
In the afternoon, I venture out again, this time exploring the monorails full path in both directions.
I end up back at times square for lunch in the food court, which was decent, and explored it some more....since its so huge.
Looking down from the top of times square, the crowd is assembled at the bottom to watch 'miss weight loss asia' a beauty paegent where you lose weight and win cash!
Blurry shot looking down on the rollercoaster pictured from the bottom earlier.
In the evening I decide to venture over to petronas towers again, for some night shots and to find dinner.
The attached mall has some classy restaurants on the top floor, but all are empty.
Near the bottom I find 'Authentic Italian Pizza and Pasta House', now I had pizza yesterday, but I can see a fat old italian guy making the bases by hand in front of a wood oven....sold.
I get seated near the window, but not quite, and soon after an American family sits between me and the window, at first I am a little annoyed as I was enjoying the view.....
Mom immediately produces from her fanny pack, 4 individually sealed medicated hand wipes and shouts at the kids, this is going to be great! I can stare right through them pretending to look at the view out the window and watch the hilarity unfold.
They seem to be quite well off, the children are wearing proper shirts and tailored shorts, with sandals, mom has on a formal looking skirt..adorned with a fanny pack, dad has slacks, a polo shirt and an expensive DSLR camera hanging around his neck..at the table
I order my food (more on that later) and wait for my new friends to decide, the children have allergies to almost everything, and the mother is checking the menu for gluten advice, its getting better by the second!
The children are asked what they would like to drink, and they want 7up. Dad says its ok since they are on holiday to have 7up. Mother does not agree, lets go with M for mom and D for dad
M: You know they cant have anything with food coloring because of their A.D.D.!
D: 7up is clear, it doesnt have any food coloring
M: Of course it does, it has clear coloring! If they didnt add the clear coloring it would be yellow from the lemon!
Kids start crying.
The poor waiter comes over for the order, and is asked a lot of questions by the mother, and the whole family cant understand the fellows good english, which has an asian accent to it, but I can understand him from where I am just fine
Shes asking him specific preservative numbers, eventually she gives up and they decide caesar salad is the best thing, but they have to order 2 of course. The grown ups get a regular chicken caesar, for the children...hold the cheese and cruotons. To drink they have water.
I eat my dinner the slowest I ever have in my life, but even so by this point I am done...and have to leave, a little dissapointed I couldnt watch the rest of the show.
Now to talk about my dinner!
It was probably the greatest pizza I have ever eaten in my life. The base was incredible, I had 'rustica' from the traditional menu, which is like nepolitana but with added capers and pepperoni.
As I was ordering I saw a salad go past and quickly added that as well, it was also brilliant, great sun dried tomatoes and fetta and olives on different lettuces with these really sweet fresh tomatoes like I have never had before, and a thick sweet balsamic dressing.
I want to go there again, do you think they do breakfast?
After dinner I venture out to the forecourt in front of the towers, and take some long exposed night shots.
The fountain in front of the towers.
Looking up at the towers, camera laying almost on its back, using its strap as a wedge.
Different fountain, people walked through the shot giving the ghost effect.
Camera perched on top of electrical transformer cover.
Looking back across the man made lake at the shopping mall with one of the towers in the middle.
The end of my last full day in Kuala Lumpur, tomorrow I will leave for the airport in the afternoon, not sure of the logistics yet, need to check out of the hotel by noon, flight not until 2145.
Last day, some logistics to be considered, check out time of hotel, 12 noon, flight time, 2145, check in for flight is in the city at the train station, where you get boarding pass and check baggage before boarding the train for the 100km journey to the airport.
I decide I will have to leave my bags at the hotel lobby, I am sure they allow it, walk around for a few hours, then come back and get my bags and leave for KL Sentral Station for the check in.
Before then, I discover that unlike every thing else that opens at 10 a.m. the Menara tower opens at 9 a.m. and is only a short walk from here.
The walk was even shorter than I expected as a free shuttle bus takes you from the car park to the lift to the top of the tower.
The lift takes under 1 minute to ascend approximately 300 metres, the tower itself is the 4th highest in the world, quite a bit higher than centrepoint in Sydney, but like all these towers the top 100 metres is an antenna mast.
The three higher are CN tower in Canada, a tower in Shanghai and the one in Moscow
The observation deck isnt open air, which would have been awesome, so let me apologise in advance for some of the pictures if you can see reflection off the glass.
Looking down on Petronas towers.
Kuala Lumpur....
Crap looking part of Kuala Lumpur.
Nicer looking view.
The main part of the city.
Petronas...with zoom.
I walked away from the menara tower a bit to take this shot, then I decided I might as well walk the whole way down.
At about 11:30 I decide its time to check out and have the hotel look after my bags and keep myself entertained for at least 4 hours.
Theres no problem in looking after my bags and I soon get on the monorail to low yat plaza - i.t. plaza
The illegal software is piled up, and I am up for the challenge of photographing the illegality going on, so I disable flash, hold the camera in the palm of my hand and look for the brightest illegal software stores (bright cause im not using a flash so as not to attract attention)
I manage to photograph 2 of the stores.
The three ring binders full of software, 5 discs cost 10 ringgits.
Wall of illegal software - not one thing in these stores is original, and the top 3 floors of low yat are dedicated to these stores, theres at least 40 competing stores.
Still with lots of time to spare, and sore feet, I start just looking for places to sit down and observe, you would think malls would be a good bet to find seats, no, food courts are the only place with seating, and all food courts are overflowing.
I decide to check out a train station instead, dont worry, its full of carts selling illegal software and dvd's, adidas t-shirts, gucci bags and rorex's, but it does have seats and air conditioning to relax for a while.
Once the bloodflow resumes in my legs, I repeat this process with a different mall and a bus station, before too long 5 hours have elapsed and I feel I can start the journey to the airport.
The first part is, pick up my bags from the Shangri La Hotel, and catch a taxi to KL Sentral - the train station in the middle of Kuala Lumpur.
The taxi driver asks where I am from, I tell him, then he tells me how great it is that Australia is fighting the muslims on the beaches and that he wishes he could go there and help...ok
He then tells me when he was 9 he won the all Malaysian Geography contest, and tells me all about Australias Geography, including the highest mountain in each state, and their height in metres! hes a freak.
Next stage is unique to KL I think, I check in for my flight including my baggage, and receive my boarding pass, 100km from the airport, then board the special train which takes me direct to the airport - a great idea!
Arriving at the airport, I am greeted by a magical site.
BSOD!
Only 4 hours until my flight.....I alternate between sitting and walking.
The flight is nearly all Australians, which is surprising, since on the way it was mostly malaysian, japanese and phillipino students.
The food is fantastic, I get like a proper steak, with wedges and gravy, really good.
I am unable to sleep at all on the flight and watch a bad movie starring lil bow wow about rollerskating called 'roll, bounce'.
The flight seemed to go pretty quickly, but I was unable to beat the computer at chess, even on the easy setting.
Arrival at the new Adelaide Airport terminal is a long process, just before getting off the plane everyone on board gets sprayed with 2 different aerosols, and the arrival form is long and poorly worded.
Nearly everyones bags, including mine, are opened and searched, this takes quite some time.
My various purchases from India are satisfactory, but since I put India as my main place of visit, I get questioned about various potential diseases I may be suffering from, but then I am let through.
And...Thats all folks!
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