A Day in Kuala Lumpur

I have spent quite a lot of time in KL over the years, so feel no urgency to go out and explore when I am here. Still, tempting as it was, I couldn't just spend my day holed up in the hotel so went for a wander, starting with yet another meal in the KL Sentral Station canteen (my hotel was right behind the station):

Spending time in the station was a bit of a mistake, as early versions of this trip involved train travel all the way from Singapore through Malaysia and onwards, and hanging about in the station brought on some regrets. Not that the station is anything to write home about - it looks more like an extremely budget shopping mall

and lacks any of the class of the former KL Sentral Station. In my notes for KL, the only entry I had was "Colonial Cafe, Majestic Hotel". I have no idea where the suggestion came from to go there, but it was a good one. The building itself doesn't look like much from the outside

although it seems to have a fake main entrance down the street

but the Colonial Cafe was well worth the visit - even though it is actually only a year old, you wouldn't know it:

My smoked salmon on bread with mustard didn't quite look as expected

but the Ayam Kunyit was great

Since I had now eaten lunch twice in the space of about 90 minutes, I thought I should take a walk, starting with going past one of my favourite buildings in KL - the former KL Sentral Station, which still houses the Heritage Station Hotel (I have spent more than a week there):

I then made for the area housing the Islamic Art museum, which is on a hill not far from the old station - I didn't want to see that museum in particular, just felt like wandering to see what I would see - that turned out to be the Royal Police Museum, which in amongst all the apparatus used by the Police over time told quite a tale - the Police appear to have been the main force relied upon by the State to quell the communist uprising in the 1940's. One odd thing - either I missed a room, or they didn't have a whole lot to report post 1960 (although there was some police equipment I saw which was much younger then 50 years old). Wandering further, I found myself back at the Merdeka Square, which is where Malaysian independence was declared in 1957. This was the State government and Supreme Court building (and is now the Ministry of Heritage)

The people are gathered to see the World Strongman championship - I arrived just as some dancing girls finished doing their thing, and didn't bother to wait for some chaps holding 66 kg weights with their arms extended in front of them. On the other side of the Square is (I think) the Royal Selangor Club

I needed to find an internet cafe and decided to walk towards the Petronas Towers in the hope of finding one - this was not successful, so after a couple of hours solid walk in the warm and humid air of KL, I finally arrived at the Petronas Twin towers themselves, and collapsed into a long cold drink. On about the third floor, there is a Harley Davidson shop

and then from the fourth floor, there is a pretty good view of proceedings outside

The place was packed, so I retreated to a Vienese cafe, and was not bothered a bit when they said it would take half an hour to produce a molten chocolate lava cake. Oddly enough, it was 8 before I got back to Sentral - just time to collect my bags and catch the train back to my digs near the airport.