Fountains of Kuala Lumpur

We had a lovely evening tonight watching the beautiful light show and fountains in KL.

We started at the Masjid Jamek mosque area and tonight the river was lit up with blue lights and sprays of water. It had fountains that came on once it got dark, although we were a bit too early to hear them dancing to music. 

Then we went back to the KLCC gardens and spent an hour watching the fountains there, along with hundreds of other people. 

Finished the night off with a Magnum on the walk home as it is still really warm, even at 10pm!

Out and about in KL

This morning we walked down to the area where Kuala Lumpur was founded. When we were last here a few years ago it was run down, but there was lots of renovation work being carried out.

Now it is all finished and the area is beautiful. There is a  mosque at the fork of two rivers and a lovely steamy mist covered the water, which to be honest is usually a dirty brown colour. There is a long pond at street level full of goldfish and huge trees and bright flower beds.

On the other side of the river is a fantastic Islamic building with fountains and a rill. 

After that we went to the market and found out that the Chinese year of the dog begins next week. Strangely we saw a sort of scorecard with marks out of five on it for wealth, career, love and health. Unfortunately, people born in the dog year only scored one out of five for health. I am an ox and scored two out of five, while Daz the sheep also scored only one. All slightly worrying. 

This evening we went on a guided tour of the local area, and learned a lot about the food which was mostly quite hot and had some scary ingredients. Part way through there was another massive thunderstorm and we had to hide under cover until it passed.

After the break we found out that we like soursop ice cream, love roasted sweetcorn, like pandam and absolutely hate durian! 

Durians are large spikey fruits above the size of a coconut. The fruit is pale yellow and smells like the inside of a dustbin. Our guide told us to try not to smell it before we ate it. I thought that it tasted similar to boiled leek, but was very moshy and indeed did smell dodgy.

When we have travelled in the past there have been signs saying 'no Durians in hotel bedrooms' and I can now see why.

However the Malaysians love them. 

Putrajaya to Kuala Lumpur

It's Saturday today so we started the day with our own parkrun. It was pretty warm and we ran around the lake past dozens of locals who were settling up picnics and getting ready for a day by the water.

We had a train to catch to KL at lunch time, and we are in a nice hotel on the 16th floor. We are right next to the Menara Tower although it is so high that all we can see is the body of it and the bobble on the top is completely out of sight.

We have just been to the Petronas Towers which I think used to be the tallest building in the world and is only about ten minutes walk away. It currently has a huge red Chinese lantern outside the front door, which they say is the biggest in Malaysia - strange as I didn't know that there was such a thing as a giant lantern competition. 

Unfortunately when we came out with our shopping it was pouring with rain, so it seemed quite a long way to get home. At least it was warm rain. 

Visit to the Mall

My feet are a bit sore after yesterday's epic walk so we are taking it a bit easier today.

This morning we had the hotel pool to ourselves and I even managed a little swim. 

This afternoon we caught the hotel shuttle bus to a gigantic mall where they are getting ready for the Chinese new year celebrations. 

There was a big pink display with cherry blossom and lots of souvenirs. I took a rather alarming selfie inside a big reflecting tunnel and one of Daz in a kaleidoscope.

Lots of the shops have new year themed displays and McDonald's was selling it's special Prosperity Burger. We tried them a few years ago and the flavours are very unusual so gave it a miss this time. 

Arriving in Malaysia

Wow, it's been a really, really long day today! We set off from Kings Cross at 6am to Heathrow Airport for our flight to Kuala Lumpur.

It was a good flight, but other passengers caused a few issues. The lady sitting next to Daz spilt her coke all over his lovely grey trousers and the girl in front of me decided to recline her seat and go to sleep at 11.30am!

I couldn't believe it, we had only been awake for a few hours and yet we were all forced to recline for the following nine hours!

Maybe it was a good thing and I did sleep for a while, and we landed in KL at about 7am local time this morning. We caught a train to Putrajaya and got to our hotel very early, but they have upgraded us to a huge room with a jacuzzi bath in the bedroom! 

This afternoon I thought that we should go for a shortish walk around the nearby lake, but it turned into an almost endless march. 

I found to my surprise that although the city where we are staying, called Putrajaya has lots of paths and cycle tracks, they do not link up. Instead of a nice hour long stroll in my new sandals, we had to walk for over three hours to get back to the hotel. At one point we were less than a kilometre away but the path ended abruptly at a forest. A jogging lady told us not to try to get through it as there was some dangerous snakes around! 

Cue a massive detour of an hour and a half, and some huge blisters. We also wanted to cross a bridge but it had no way on to it, so we had to do another detour around a very wiggly shaped lake. 

Have now downloaded ViewRanger and will check out my plans a bit more carefully next time! Still it's lovely and warm here and at least we should sleep well tonight and looking forward to some new adventures tomorrow. 

Our garden

I have got a bit behind with my blogs, so before I start a new holiday section I am including photos of our garden because I am very pleased with it.

There are a couple of before and after shots. It is still very bare and there is a lot of fence and bare earth, but it is definitely taking shape. Hopefully it will just get on and quietly grow while we are away.