Kuala Lumpur

Christine:

Here we are at the Changi Airport in Singapore, having just come back from Kuala Lumpur (or KL, as it's commonly known). We've just been for a swim in the rooftop pool here at the airport and are about to grab a bite to eat before checking into our transit hotel. All this in the airport! Changi is a wonderful stopover airport!!

We loved Malaysia and KL. KL is about a hour's drive from the airport, but fortunately, taxis are cheap! It was actually the same price for a cab as for the train from the airport. The hotel was in a very interesting neighbourhood; there was a Chinese restaurant open until 2 am across the street and an Indian restaurant open 24 hours with a tandoori oven right on the street beside it!

The following day, a car picked us up from the airport and we went off to the Kuala Gadah Elephant Sanctuary. It was over an hour drive from KL, and we got there quite early, so the driver took us to a park close by called Deerland. They had a number of animals there that you could feed and interact with, including deer, flying squirrels, honey bears, birds and all sorts of others. It was great fun! At Kuala Gandah we had a simple lunch of local food, which consisted of rice and chicken and a fried egg, and then watched a movie about elephant conservation. The centre is very involved in re-locating elephants from endangered habitats in Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar into a park in Malaysia. They also rescue injured and orphaned elephants. They had three babies there and a few older tame elephants that are used to calm elephants when they are re-locating them. There were people from all over the world. First the older elephants came out and the handlers rode them into the river and gave them a good wash (elephants put dirt on themselves to keep off the bugs). Then they put them with the babies in an area and brought out fruit and everyone was able to feed them. After that, they gave everyone rides on the older elephants - straight onto their backs, not on a basket or anything. It was awesome! Then they brought one of the older elephants down to the river and took 3 or 4 at a time on his back into the river, where he would go over on his side and dump the riders off into the water! It was so much fun. The babies were in the river too so we could all play with them and pet them. We bought some peanuts and the babies went mad for them, snaking their little trunks around our arms to get at them faster than we could feed them! It was such a great day! Our driver's name was Joe, and he became our "official photographer", so we've got some great photos! They had showers and stuff there so we cleaned up and changed and headed back into KL, going through a downpour on the way!

In the evening, we went out for dinner with a friend of my Uncle Jac's, Dave. He's Malaysian and we went to an authentic Malaysian restaurant. It was great - Dave's a great guy and we had lots of fun. After dinner we walked down the main shopping "strip" and then jumped a taxi to Petaling Street in Chinatown (Dave went home as he had to work in the morning). This street was Barry's version of heaven. There were traders chock-a-block, selling imitation watches, handbags, perfume, wallets, sunglasses, etc. Barry loves his "replica" designer watches and he was having lots of fun haggling and joking around with the traders. It was a fun evening all around!

The next day we slept in a bit and headed up to Batu Caves, three caves considered holy by Hindus and located just outside of KL. There are 272 step up to the Temple Cave, which has a number of Hindu shrines in it. There was a lot of water dripping, and people putting flowers and other offerings on the shrines, although I think there were more tourists than devout Hindus. On step 204 is another cave called the Dark Cave. It has no shrines in it, and you need to go with a guide to see it. There are a number of bat colonies living in it, so there isn't any artificial light in it and flash photography is only allowed in certain places. It was great going through it with headlamps and flashlights. There were some different rock formations as well as some cool bugs (and some not so cool cockroaches!). There are snakes that live in there as well, and a dog that lives there and looks after things - he eats coconuts! At the foot of the moutain, a little further on, is another smaller cave that had some more shrines in it. It was very cool and we really enjoyed it.

After that, we caught a taxi to the Bird Park, grabbed some lunch in a restaurant right in the park, and wandered through. It is mostly enclosed, like a big aviary, so the birds were all over the place. Lots of peacocks and storks and egrets. There was a parrot house where you could go in and feed the parrots and lorries - they would land right on your hand and eat out of it. It was very cool - Barry had a blast!

Barry:

It would appear that on my holiday I have become a free meal ticket for endangered creatures, feed this, feed that and give blood to any flying critter. I am currently enjoying the after effects of a very hot (chilli) bowl of Chinese noodles; it was very hot on the way in and it has gone through my body like a Chinese chainsaw. The jury is still out as to whether it is hotter on the way out.

Changi airport is so much fun, I do believe that I could spend a week here on holiday! We will have to return to Asia as the people and their culture is wonderful, the food is great and to this add the flora and fauna.