Day 302: Kuala Lumpur

Jan 30 - Start out by finding the bus to KL Forest Echo Park. Here, for 80 ringgit we ascend the jungle canopy walkway.

The park here is a little wedge of wild forest with the solid overstory and sparse groundcover, a bit like where I used to work in Venezuela.

It is a decent set of rope bridges giving a good view of the treetops.

At the top of the hill is the KL Tower, 421 meters high as it says in the Big Letters. It was expensive to go up so we skipped that part. Instead, Odette and I went on a jungle trail and saw a few macaque monkeys.

Down the hill from here we find some (spicy) lunch and tramline to the historic center of the city.

The Jamek Sultan Abdul Samad Mosque. It was originally built of wood in the 1870’s, and relocated to its current position in 1909. It sits at the confluence of two rivers, which was the ‘point zero’ of the original KL settlement. The word ‘kuala’ means river confluence.

A scene along the River of Life walk.

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building. It used to house the British colonial authority offices, and is located on the east side of Independence Square.

A slo-mo of Victoria Fountain, on the south side of Independence Square. It was next to this that the first flag of the newly independent Malaysia rose on August 31, 1957. Originally, Malaysia formed from a federation of Malay, Singapore, Sarawak, and Sabah. In 1963, Singapore was ejected from the federation and formed its own country. As a result, there are some here who consider the 1963 re-federation the correct one to celebrate.

A street scene from near Independence Square.

We take a walk by the base of Warisan Merdeka Tower. The mall complex around the base is still under construction. This is currently the second tallest tower in the world, at 679 meters. I didn’t bother finding out how much it is to go to the top, seeing that I’ve yet to agree to paying this fee on all the towers visited previously.

We are back at the apartment in time for pool hours.

Malaysia I