KL

After very little sleep I headed to breakfast and jumped on the coffee. A friendly fellow named victor started to chat to me whilst we ate and we ended up going to the Batu Caves together. The caves are a little crazy, full if Indians and chickens. The climb up to 'Dark Cave' was very steep and a bit of a bugger in the heat and humidity. After the caves I headed off on my own to Merdeka Square. This is the home of the Royal Selangor Club and the open grass area that takes up most of the square is where the British played cricket in colonial times. The name 'merdeka' comes the Malay for freedom which was chanted when the British flag was loweres for the last time in the square in 1957. I visited the Kuala Lumpur gallery which gave some history of the city and boasts a rather impressive scale model. Afterwards, feeling a little weary from all the walking, I headed over to the national textile museum for some lunch. The exhibits were very well presented and explained the various techniques and methods well. On to the central market (its amazing how well one can restrain oneself when one has to carry ones paraphernalia) followed by some batik painting. I just stumbled across a tiny gallery where you choose a pre-waxed picture and sit down with brushes and ink to create your picture. It was a very relaxing half hour.
In the evening I found Victor again... By the way, in his own words, he is the 'first black dude to swim the english channel'... And we went to a hawker street and sat on the street with the rest of KL to celebrate chinese new year with satay - yum!Read more