Kuala Lumpur

Another destination that didn`t start life on our original plan, but when it is only a 50min flight and you get to spend a day at, in my opinion, the best airport ever, it was a must a do. After all the wonderful Patronus Towers are here and the Batu Caves...

We landed at our latest bunny hutch after a 45 minute drive from the airport, and when we could see the Patronus Towers, or admittedly the very tips of them from our wonderful little flats bedroom window, we knew we had landed in the very heart of the city. Our location was just perfect and the flat had everything we needed. With our next flights such much cheaper at the end of the month, we opted for a much longer stay than we had originally planned in order to recoup some of the bunny budget that we managed to blow in style whilst in Singapore. At £35 per night for a city centre location, it was self contained so Mr Bunny could cook to his hearts content, aided by the fact that the best supermarket to date was situated just the shortest of walks away.

Kuala Lumpur with the exception of being the home of the Patronus Towers, was somewhere that we had little knowledge of. Little B did our to do list, and apart from the first day, we opted to spread our wings just a little each day, rather than doing our usual 10k step marathon days. Very much a chilled out layover, we spent a number of days just watching the views from our 13th floor flat and not doing much at all. In fact, on the 14th when everybody was spending a silly amount of money on overpriced flowers and chocolates, we decided to go to the cinema. We had tried several times in other countries to see Paddington in Peru, but finally our chance came. The cutest little cinema ever with bear shaped seats, and family settees, it cost us a whole £8 for 3 bunnies to watch the film. Talking of films, we caught the lift downstairs one morning like we always did and emerged into a scene of cameras, directors, actors, clipboards and microphones! No one spoke any English so unfortunately we couldn`t get any answers as to what the programme was, although it would appear it was a regular occurrence as the security guard with a little broken English shrugged his shoulders and said `filming again, as always`.

We took a tour on the hoho bus, (Hop On Hop Off) to try and get a feel for the city. Not the best tour I must admit. We spent almost 5 hours on the bus, doing both available city circuits back to back. With each route taking nearly 2 hours to complete, with added time due to the many traffic holdups, it made for a very bunny bum numbing few hours. Whilst it did yield places of interest I never felt the wows of Singapore. There are definitely some impressive buildings in the city, but nothing comes close to the magnificence of the Patronus Towers. We wandered around the area of the KL Tower, but it was very expensive to go to the top. With the Patronus on our to do list, we didn`t feel the need to spend time and money on what was essentially just another viewpoint. Another point of interest was the Thean Hou Temple, this was worth the journey. A very beautiful temple high above the city, lots of coloured lanterns and celebratory Chinese New Year decor made for a very pretty place to visit. Inside the Temple, the architecture was quite special, naturally it was of little interest to us in a spiritual way, but we could appreciate its ambience and beauty.

The Patronus Towers. We managed to choose the nicest possible day to visit the twin towers. We were most excited. Tickets sell out quickly for the observation deck, and we managed 3 tickets for 10.30am. Just a twenty minute walk away from our flat, we arrived in plenty of time, to be frisked, x rayed, bag checked and corralled into our small group for the 10.30 lift. Their timings and efficiency were superb. Nobody was allowed more than their fair share of time anywhere. We were whizzed up to the 42nd floor first to walk the sky bridge, whoa, my little bunny legs had a minor wobble, that is quite some height, but after a brief pause there for photos, we were gathered together again for the final flight up to the 86th floor. Now that, my bunny friends, is high! The views are just stunning, but so is the chance to admire the second tower in all its glory. As far as buildings go, the Patronus are beautiful inside and out. Whilst standing looking across with legs of slightly off firm jelly, I was gobsmacked to watch two workman hanging on ropes and pullies cleaning the paintwork just below me. Who am I to be nervous inside, whilst he dangles on a rope outside?

With Kuala Lumpur being the home of shopping due to its very low import taxes, little bunny and I decided to have a day wandering the shopping malls whilst Mr Bunny had a peaceful afternoon watching a green screen somewhere. Lets just say our afternoon was not a success. Without the budget for Gucci, Prada, Tiffany or Louis Vuitton, we tried, and failed to find more western and cheaper shops elsewhere. K.L is not the place for western clothing, everything is very much Asian and tiny. Really, really tiny. Like, do the women actually have bums and boobs here tiny! Never seen so much clothing in very petite, sizes 4 or less. Neither was I particularly amused when in the market I eyed a pair of trousers, tiny of course, to have to woman shout to me, its ok much stretch, very stretchy...sure, stretch to a whole size 10 with a good pull grrrr. Two bunnies went home feeling quite miffed and empty handed. There was one shop in which I really had a fun time, I like cute and fluffy, I admit it, I am a sucker for a teddy bear of any design. One particular shop was aimed at me through and through. We did buy our new Disney (watch this space) t shirts here. Not even a t shirt did we find. Mr Bunny arrived sometime later seemingly having had a much more successful afternoon!

Batu Caves. We had been looking forward to this trip almost as much as we had been looking forward to the Patronus Tour. A short taxi ride and we landed into absolute chaos. So many people, taxis everywhere, buses, stalls, rubbish bags everywhere, litter, food waste, pigeons, monkeys, good grief what on earth had we come to? The Batu Caves are Instagram (curse you Instagram and your stupid filtered artificial photos) worthy, painted steps, a beautiful courtyard, the tall golden Buddha (?) statue. But our reality was hell on earth. Before I mention the Caves, I should admit that we had managed to time our visit just 2 or 3 days after a HUGE religious festival had just finished, to which approx 2 million people had attended. Our timing sucked. Was a shame really, as our taxi driver told us that under normal circumstances the area was normally clean, the food stalls didn`t usually exist with the exception of maybe one or two, and the steps were normally a pleasant experience. With nothing to compare it with, we climbed the mountain of coloured stairs, trying to avoid looking at the abysmal amount of plastic bottles and discarded rubbish, dodging scavenging monkeys and arrived at the biggest cave I have seen in a long time. I could understand why this cave and the shrine within could be deemed special, but an area still cleaning up after an onslaught of a million plus people, all I could feel was the ickiness of dirty monkeys and discarded rubbish. And the smell. Oh dear, the smell. In a nutshell we went, we saw, we left. Such a shame. Little bunny was so disappointed that she even went back a few days later in the hope that normality had been restored. It had not. Instagram really does have a lot to answer for. I personally refuse to look at anything of Insta, but when the younger generation appears to live on it, these disappointments are going to be frequent.

Whilst we very much enjoyed our time in Kuala Lumpur, I cannot say that it would be a destination that I would choose to return to anytime soon. A one off for me I think. Perhaps if the people had made up for our lack of enthusiasm for the city with lots of welcoming smiles, it may have been different. They did not smile. Ever. Is it our western faces or their daily busy lives into which we are intruding that fails to raise a smile, we do not know. But it has struck us how naturally friendly and approachable we are as Brits and how very odd it is to smile naturally at people who all but blank you and offer nothing in the way of a facial gesture in return.

Thank you for your hospitality Malaysia, we bid you farewell.