Greetings from KL

What a trip, what a wonderful holiday :)! All thanks to great company ;)

We travelled by bus (http://www.grassland.com.sg/), 6hrs each way. It was not a regular bus, and cost probably just as much flying would have done, but we sat / laid down very comfortably in our king-size chairs and watched movies from our own screens + got to see the scenery - and the best, on the way back, experienced the Singaporean 'kiasu' (which I have been advised about but had not really seen any evidence about until now, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiasu) when in the perfectly formed, loose queue to the passport check-up on Malesian side, suddenly two bus loads of Singaporeans pushed themselves into the queue (not the end of it but all parts of it) with an amazing will to get to the front of the que. One lady sid "I dod not see any queue here" and another, considerably older, pushed her elbows full force into anyone. Stuck in the middle of these kiasu Singaporeans I could not help my self but to laugh out loud.. !

Kuala Lumpur, despite of being a city of 1,8 million, was not terribly crowded. It was a lot dirtier (litter and emissions) than S'pore and a lot more .. hmm.. well, older, really, since there were many more buildings crumbling down and in bad shape (which goes partly for roads also). Other than that - and the fact that we needed to be a lot more careful with our valuables than in safe Singapore - KL was a really nice city. Lots of shopping to do, at very nice prices (at Bukit Bintang and even so at Petaling Street where majority was copies, both legal and illegal).. and eating was even cheaper than in Singapore! We did some of the touristy things, but could not complete my top 6 list entirely, so there's something (Kampung Baru) for the next time as well :)!

On Friday morning we missed getting tickets to Petronas Twin Towers, as they only give out 1700 tickets (for free, you cannot buy them at all) and one really has to get there early, as the tickets all go between 8:30 and about 9:30 (each person in queue can get max of 5 tickets). So we just had a look in the mall :D

On Saturday morning we were there at 8:15 but still could not beat the hundreds of others in front of us. So when it was our turn to get tickets, the tickets were given out for 4pm visits and our bus back left at 3:30. Luckily they were kind enough to squeeze us into the one of the mornign groups, so we got to go up to the bridge right away. Not a lot of squeezing though, as the groups going up were only about 15 people (the amount that fit into the elevator), so there was plenty of space at the bridge for a lookout, quite the opposite from Eiffel tower..

There were some nice parks in KL (but not like in S'pore where there are trees and smaller parks everywhere), and we visited two, the one in picture (behind the twin towers) and a rainforest park (Bukit Nanas Forest Recreational Park), which we almost dared not to enter as it was just after heavy rain and there were big red signs displaying all the "friendly" (not) creatures that come out at rain.. but ah, the air was so fresh in the park after the rain! I was hoping to see monkeys but saw none in the park, just a few lonely and sad looking ones at the small animal display by the KL Tower (by the park), where we went while it rained on us. There were many snakes and such on display and it was quite interesting - although tough on us who care about animal welfare. It really hit me during the KL trip that locals in Asia (generally speaking anyhow) have such a different approach to animals. When we visited the aquarium (cool place btw and really trying to educate), some simply shook the plasic boxes where spiders were kept. I felt like screaming "Leave the little bugger alone, his life is miserable just as it is, no need to create earthquakes for him!" but naturally, being a Finn, I said nothing (saying all this aloud in Finnish does not count!).

In the animal display by the KL Tower I got to hold this nice little snake for a while. He (/she?) was slowly going forward, so I could feel his muscles on my neck. A funny feeling, not scary at all.

Another not scary but tickling experience was the fish spa. It cost 6€, lasted 20 min, included a 5 min. neck&shoulder massage and a water melon snack and really was purifying! I simply sat there with my feet in the fish tank and these hungry little fishes ate the dead skin on my feet and legs. They came around as soon as I put my feet in the water and even pushed themselves in between my toes.. :D! I wonder, if I started a business like this in Finland, would people come?