Our hotel was based in the Golden Triangle, the modern part of Kuala Lumpur. Despite our travel guide suggested to use the public transports as our main means to move around, since we were used to walk a lot in London we ignored it and decided to get out on foot and explored the city. What a mistake! For once I did have to agree with Christian: KL is by far the worst trafficked place we have ever been and the less pedestrian friendly. Sidewalks and pedestrian crossing are rare as the Malaysian Tiger to be seen in the forest and in more than one occasion we got a panic feeling standing at the edge of the road or in the middle of a roundabout just figuring out how to reach the other side of the road.

Regardless this small inconvenience we managed to get our way around to see the major attractions that KL has to offer (thanks also to the rescue of a lovely Indian man that offered to walk us as going on the same direction).

We visited the colonial core around Merdeka Square opposite to the remarkable Sultan Abdul Samad Building, the Masjid Negara National Mosque, Chinatown where we made a visit to the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple. Unfortunately for us the 22mt gate tower of this Hindu temple was covered due to some works so we couldn’t see it at its full splendour.


KL Old Railways station was another spectacular building to see but as you could guess the most astonishing one must be the Petronas Twin Towers: the glorious 451.9 mt height towers icon of the modern Malaysia. They didn’t amazed me much from where I spotted them at first far away but once beneath they know how to make you feel so little and at night you could see them in all their glory and glitter.

As Singapore and even Malacca, KL is a melting pot of Malays, Chinese and Indian ethnic groups and I was impressed about its distinctive neighbourhoods. You just need to turn a street even within the modern part of the city to find yourself in Little India, surrounded by a poor suburban like Chow Kit, where by the way we had the best ever chicken curry rice from a food stall, or around the Malays Stalls at Kampung Bahru where we get unpleasantly disoriented in its narrow streets tempting to go behind the huge walled highway.

Tips:

• use the public transport!;
• shopping is cheap but if you are after like me some hiking shoes from women then forget it about it, women don't go hiking in KL.... that's what I have been told. Exhausted by the unsuccessful shopping hunt I had to buy a man model which they didn’t fit perfectly but at least they were only RM 44;
• you could go up on the famous skybridge on the 41st floor of the Petronas Twin Towers (almost half way) which is free but you have to queue up to get the admission ticket; opening hours 9.00 am - 7.00 pm but there are closed on Mondays and we missed it :-(