KL - Part 2, Nov 6, 2010

With Batu Caves crossed off the list, I was back to the base, changed my gear and hopped on to one of the KL's Hop-On Hop-Off Double Decker buses. Make no mistakes, no matter where you are from, or how short your stay in KL,  1 day on this bus and you'll know more about KL than most locals. I am not saying that - the locals are ;)

It's an ingineous idea - these buses go around the length and breadth of the city, to popular tourist destinations, you can hop-off at any of these spots, explore your brains out and then catch the next bus which will take you to the next stop. All buses follow the same route with city's history on offer to anyone who cares to listen.

So here I was - on that bus hopping around from one destination to the other - whether it was around the quiet dwellings of KL's bureaucratic ways -

or the roadside attractions which are more often than not taken for granted,

The thing is - you don't always remember the most obvious of places, but the minute details of the streets you roamed, pavements you walked on and the roads you crossed which have left a firm imprint on your mind and made you truly believe that you WERE INDEED there.

This was just the beginning of the day - I was like funnily possessed to visit as many sites as I could in the little time that I had - it was like going thru emails (you look at the title and if anything interests you, you care to browse thru it - otherwise you just move on..  )

On the way came a bird park which offered some lovely opportunities for some fine photography

The KL planetarium

KL in a Glance: Nov 6, 2010

I had planned a lot of activities for today and was determined to make it count. So I woke up early and with the help of little research I had done the previous day, I was soon ridining in a bus heading to "Royal Selangor Visitor Centre", which is considered one of the world's foremost names in producing quality pewter (a malleable metal alloy which among many uses is also used to make F1 trophies, thus the attraction). 

As anyone could have guessed, it was a very informative trip, in all kindness. Despite all the modern techno available, there is still a lot of handicraft involved which is really impressive.

Only now I am realizing 1 of my many dreams - 1st place in Grand Prix 2010 ;)

The next stop was, well eagerly awaited, 'Batu Caves' (a series of caves and cave temples said to be around 400 million years old). Located approx 13 kms north of KL, this was endearing.

I met Kimmy here, a Korean girl, who was too scared to climb up to the caves, because she had to catch a flight, which was still like 4-5 hrs away as I remember (Anyone in his / her right mind would find that very amusing and so did I). Nevertheless, she was a great company, in the little amount of time she had.

The immediate prospect of climbing 272 very steep stairs, in that hot and humid weather wasn't very appealing, even more so considering I was wearing denim (coz I was 'smart' enough to believe that it'll be cold inside the caves - It So Wasn't), but I took it in good stride and was on my way the next mo.

I should have timed my ascent, but nevertheless, sweat rarely felt sweeter.
I had traveled far and wide in India, been to the most majestic of temples, seen the holiest of lands for Hindus, but this was the first time I was being acquainted to a temple fully carved inside a mountain and I felt really elated and blessed to be there. It was a great and humble feeling.

It was almost 1 pm and had been a lovely day so far but now it was time to return and start the 2nd session - that of tour around the KL city 
(btw - Malays call it - just KL, if u say Kuala Lumpur, they'll know u are a foreigner).