Mid term trip to KL

So, it turns out the students were right. There was a murder in Kovan last week and not just straight-forward either. In the last 18 months, as far as I'm aware, Kovan has only been listed in the crime reports for bicycle theft, shoplifting and an occasional house burglary. Now we have had a double murder.  What is more amazing is that a senior sergeant of the police force has now been arrested as the prime suspect. Reports suggest he was seriously in debt (read gambling) and this was possibly a simple burglary gone wrong. In the event he killed an older man and then the son was run over and dragged underneath the getaway vehicle where it eventually came unstuck a kilometre away, right outside the Kovan MRT station. There were many, many eye-witnesses as you can imagine if you have travelled on the Singapore MRT.

We have a small problem to overcome before taking the bikes out for a spin; the seats are not high enough. In searching for longer seat poles we have discovered that the diameter of our model is not commonly available in Sg. Wouldn't you know it. I think we have two on order but we will see if that is so when we return later in the week. You see as I write this we are in KL for the weekend with 9 others from MAE for a social few days. We took a flight straight after work on Sunday night and arrived at the Furama Hotel right by the Central District at about 11 pm. We were offered an upgrade which sounded lovely but then realised they were going to charge us double so we settled very comfortably into our standard room.
On Monday morning we were met by Karen (from a local MAE branch and who came to Sg for the Great Race) who took us out walking, as we would on a Monday morning. She had planned a walk through Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve, one of the only tropical rainforest parks left in the city. We caught the light rail from Imbi to Bukit Nanas but then found that the park was closed to the public. Pity we couldn't scale those steps.

 Since August 2012

We ended up in the City Centre park at the foot of Petronas Towers. It has lakes with mesmerising fountains, a massive children's playground and meandering paths through shady areas. Through the trees we could see the park was surrounded by modern shopping complexes and plush hotels. I think I would quite like to stay in the Mandarin Oriental next time we visit. 

Note I am the only one with a camera between us, so have not yet featured in a pic. Did Eric have an ulterior motive? Time for a coffee, so we made our way to the third level of the complex below the towers for a fabulous view of it all and escaped the heat for awhile.  

Next, we walked to Menara KL (KL Communications tower) back on top of Bukit Nanas. Some ventured to the very top of the sixth tallest building in the world but most of us settled for the view at the first level. This gave us a 360 degree panoramic vista and it was surprisingly clear considering how much smoke has been around this zone lately. 

 Knew there would be some steps 

We  had lunch in a cafe together up top, then made our way back to the hotel for a swim in the pool. The view from here is much more typical of the real KL.  Outside the beautiful City Centre precinct you have busy streets with roadworks, footpaths that suddenly go nowhere or have gaping holes in them, buildings in all states of repair and ugly, ugly wiring. Sadly, the heritage of KL centre seems to be disappearing. It just makes you so grateful to UNESCO for listing all of Georgetown, on Penang, as a heritage site so that it is preserved.

In the evening we met up with a few others from KL at Traders Bar, one of those flash hotels that borders the park we walked in the morning.  From here we overlooked the towers and could pick out the route the walk had taken. It was very pretty watching the coloured lights come on  in the fountains and the towers light up one after the other. As it got darker they looked a bit like a pair of glittering drop earrings to me.

We moved on to Jalan Alor (Food St) for dinner where the road is virtually closed to traffic and crowds gather to eat from an amazing array of dining options. Prices are also significantly cheaper at this level. Great food, great company, lovely evening. We finished it off in Heather and Michael's suite (they were upgraded to a suite and didn't have to pay extra. How does that work?)

Tuesday morning those interested gathered for a local train trip to Masjid Jamek, one of the oldest mosques in KL but, being Ramadan at the moment, it is temporarily closed to the public now. 

From there we walked to Merdeka Square, the spot where the flag of Malaya was raised in 1957 to mark Independence. The padang is overlooked on the one side by the Tudor style Royal Selangor Club and on the other by the very grand Sultan Abdul Samad Building, once the centre for state government and now the home of the Ministry of Heritage, Culture and Arts. It is a beautiful precinct and towering overhead is the national flag on a 95-meter flagpole, one of the tallest in the world.

 My favourite, the SASB

Most of the others took a bus tour but since Eric and I have been here before we made our way back towards the hotel, walking through the market and Chinatown. We were sidetracked in a number of shopping centres along the way and Eric is now very happy with his birthday present, a new SLR camera. I did wonder....

 Colourful shophouses 

 Market area

 More steps, but these play music!

In the evening most of us went to dinner in a steakhouse nearby. We all have early morning flights on Wednesday morning to be home in time for work at 2pm.