Clapp Radical Sabbatical

Although Megan was not feeling well, we were able to make the quick flight to Kuala Lumpur. This city is unique in that there is a large mix of ethnicities and religions with the top three ethnicities being Malays, Chinese, and Indian.  We had a nice hotel in the Bukit Bintang district which was right in the heart of the action.  The first thing we did was take Megan to a medical clinic for some medication and back to the hotel for some rest.  Since she was being lame and taking a nap, I decided to go exploring!  The first thing you have to do in “the KL” is go stare at the Petronas twin towers which is exactly what I did!

From the hotel, I walked down the sidewalks, and crossed the busy streets until I reached the Pavilion shopping mall (KL has a lot of malls!). While trying to figure out how to get across the street from the mall to the towers, I stumbled upon something most bustling metropolis’s should have: a raised, air-conditioned walkway. This walkway is so beneficial it is presently in the top 5 of Trip Advisor’s things to do in KL.  It traversed the streets above the city and took me to the convention center.

Still not to the towers, I saw more signs to enter the convention center. Well this was no ordinary convention center. Going down the escalator took me to a food court and aquarium. When I crossed the food court I was on the other side of the convention center and now in the city park.  The park was huge and has walking trails with rubber running lanes, playgrounds, water park, and picnic areas. Best of all it had views of…the towers!  I spent quite a bit of time in the park taking photos of the towers as the sun set and the fountain light/music show came on.  To get inside the towers, you have to go through a different mall and so I wanted to wait to see if Megan would come with me another day.

I retraced my steps back to the hotel through the pedestrian walkway, brought Megan a popsicle dinner, and then made my way to another recommended spot- a busy street market called Jalon Alor. The street is lined with vendors and various asian restaurants which were all very crowded.  The smells of all of the different foods was almost overwhelming, especially with all of the durian (stinky fruit) vendors.  I walked up and down the street and decided on a few selections of dim sum dumplings and a sugar cane/lemon drink as my dinner.

Having seen a lot of the recommended to-do things of KL on the first day, I decided to nurse my ailing wife the next day at the hotel since she still wasn’t up to exploring.  We didn’t feel too badly as we got to catch the finale of Game of Thrones.

As Megan was feeling a little better the next morning, we took a cab to the Batu Caves/Hindu temple. There is a giant statue in front of the hundred plus stairs leading to the cave.  Inside the cave were a bunch of Hindu statues, shrines, and the temple.  At the back end of the cave which is open to the air, about 20 monkeys were all playing on the hillside and man-made structures. We enjoyed the monkeys for a while until Megan reminded me she was sick and we decided to head back.

After the cave Megan still had some energy, so I showed her the towers and market I had seen two days before.  While at the mall we saw a giant group of tiger figurines outside which was the mascot for the SEA games going on in the city.  We also got to have some Mexican food in the mall which we thought for sure would cure Megan : ).

Well it didn’t.  The following day we were supposed to fly to our next destination. I got up early to go on the tower sky bridge and observation deck (which was closed the day we went) since Megan’s illness came roaring back. I guess the sightseeing and Mexican food was a little premature.  We ended up canceling our flight and going to the hospital to get her some fluids which seemed to work better than the Mexican food (go figure!). The next day we were able to get to the airport to fly to our next destination…or so we thought. Megan, being a fan of the Amazing Race, apparently wanted to add a little drama and pressure to our scenario. While trying to check our bags, we found out that while rushing to rebook our flight before heading to the hospital, she had accidentaly selected the wrong day.  Unfortunately the next two flights out on that airline were completely booked.  Not wanting to spend another additional day in KL, our own Amazing Race was on! We took a train to the next terminal with additional airlines and Megan scoured the internet while I checked out the departure boards. We ended up finding a flight from the departure boards that had room.  We won the challenge!