Kuala Lumpur: day 1

I spent about 3 days in Kuala Lumpur. I checked in early to my hotel called the Hotel Maya. It is a really nice hotel with beautiful rooms. The location was also perfect because it is right across the street from the tourism office, down the street from a monorail stop, and right around the corner from the Petronas Towers. Inside the Towers (or KLCC) is a huge shopping complex. I wandered around there for a while. Then I went on a tour called the “Country Tour.” It was a bus that took us to a pewter factory, Batik making place, and the Batu Caves. I really only wanted to see the caves, but the pewter factory had some nice pieces for sale. So just outside the city, is a Hindu temple that is inside some caves at the top of a hill. To get to the main Temple cave, you climb 272 steps. I was a little out of breath. Inside are small shrines, then another(!) set of stairs, not as many, that leads up to another shrine. There were people praying, and some things flying around, presumably bats and/or birds. There were also monkeys at the bottom of the steps – lazy little bastards, that apparently will steal food, or anything else interesting that you might have in your hand. They were busy eating coconuts and things when I was there, so they left me alone. I just kept picturing one of them leaping onto my head as I walked up those steps and me tumbling down while the monkeys laughed and stole my purse.
After arriving safely back to my hotel, I went to Chinatown to look around at the outdoor market. This was one of my least favorite things about Kuala Lumpur. Chinatown was dirty, too busy, crowded, and did I mention dirty? After walking around for way too long, I went to a restaurant called Nando’s that had the best garlic peri peri sauce. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. The sauce is Portuguese, and the restaurant is based in South Africa. Very multicultural! After dinner, I went back to the hotel and over to the sky bar for a great night view of the Petronas Towers and a drink. Then back to my beautiful room for a good nights sleep.