Day 10 - 11 Kuala Lumpur

I never had any formulated opinions or thoughts on Kuala Lumpur, in my mind it was just another huge Asian city, a stop over destination perhaps full of shops & fake watches. I was right about the fake watches however there was so much more depth to the city that I could have ever imagined. Exploring the city at night was fantastic, everything comes to life, the lights, the people, street stalls, clubs, food, and last but not least the buildings. The Petronas towers were spectacular at night, huge & bright, actually quite beautiful towering over the green park beneath them. We were lucky enough to book dusk tickets to go up the towers to view the city from the sky bridge & then the 83rd floor. Mike & I agree thats its the best view of a city that we have ever seen. Other than exploring the city by foot and monorail we ventured out to Batu Caves about 30 minutes out of the city. The Batu caves are a Hindu worship site featuring a 40m gold Hindu statue. The limestone caves are really impressive full of wall paintings, shrines and MONKEYS...so many monkeys. Hearing all the Japanese tourists screaming every time one got too close, or tried to steal their food was frequent. I loved them, I could of sat there all day on the steps and watched them. On our train trip home from the caves we watched a huge storm roll in and cover the city in complete darkness. The thunder was intense and the downpour saturated the city in minutes. Unfortunatley we got completely saturated too but we couldn't complain since we had such a awesome hotel to go back to & dry off. The Istana hotel really did make our stay in KL that much better. We took full advantage of the buffet breakfasts, afternoon high tea, and complimentary cocktail hour with nibbles (the nibbles were more like a feast and substitued for our  dinner most nights) We can never be guaranteed aircon, power, or full tummys so why not make the most of it & a bubble bath or two.