So according to the original itinerary, we should have been having another sea day and be on our way north towards Yangon. However due issues with the river height (or something like that) leading to where we would be docking, we are skipping Myanmar altogether and have instead picked up three stops in Malaysia and one stop in Thailand.

Today was the first of these 'new stops' – Kuala Lumpur .

As we were docking over an hour away from KL (we docked in Port Kelang), we opted to do one of the cruise shore tours and chose the ‘KL on your own’. I think this is the best compromise tour – you are escorted into town, told what time you need to be back and then are let loose to see what ever it is you want to see.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to get tickets to go up the Petronas Towers as when we arrived in KL the earliest time we could have gone up was 3:00 and our bus back to Port Kelang left at 3:45. A little disappointing however we both got a couple of photos of the towers.

KL has a free hop on hop off bus that takes you around the centre of the city. We did one loop on the green line. You couldn’t really see too much, however we did go past quite a few shopping centres and high end hotels.

After the mini tour we headed down one of the many congested roads towards the KL Hard Rock Café. As is tradition, we must when and where possible, visit the local Hard Rock Cafe. Due to timing and the fact that there was a private function taking up most of the café, we were unable to partake in the eating of the nachos. We did however see a jacket worn by Jimi Hendrix and various other items of music history like the cufflinks the McCartney’s gave Pete Townsend.

The café was quite close to the KL monorail and as mum expressed an interest in going to the old part of KL we decided to catch the monorail to the edge of Chinatown and then follow the instructions to a short walking tour that was on the map we were given by our tour guide .

While catching the monorail was fun, it was very squishy. Thankfully the carriage was air-conditioned. We got off the monorail to the sounds of the Friday lunchtime prayers being broadcast across the area.

While on our mini walking tour we visited a little Buddhist temple and saw an old Chinese Clan house. Quite soon we were in the middle of Chinatown with shop owners trying to get our business – neither of us were in the market for handbags, shoes or cheap t-shirts.

After our adventure through Chinatown we got back on the HOHO bus and started our journey back towards the Towers. We got off the bus at one of the larger shopping centres and as it was well past lunchtime, headed straight towards the nearest food court for some lunch. In keeping with our ‘where possible eat the local food’ approach, I had a chicken curry with stir fried greens and an egg, while mum had some beef noodles . Overall tasty but much more food that what we really needed.

Fed and watered we followed the signs to the pedestrian walkway that would lead us back to the Towers. The walkway is a bit of an attraction in itself. It’s air conditioned and lets you walk above the traffic. The last part of the walkway takes you underground and you emerge in the shopping mall that sits below the towers.

Even though we arrived at the meeting place at 3:30 on the dot, we were still the third and second last people to arrive. On the short walk to the bus, we encountered other passengers who had misplaced their bus. They were a little distressed however from what I gathered they were reunited with their tour guide and made it back to their bus.

The bus ride back to Port Kelang was interesting. Traffic through the city centre was horrendous. I believe it took us almost an hour to get out on to the highway – I have to take mum’s word on this as I decided that as we weren’t going anywhere quickly it was time for a quick nap.

We arrived back at the dock safe and sound. After utilised the cruise terminals free wi-fi, we boarded the ship and after a 30 minute delay we were cleared to leave and started our short journey north to our next port.

Fun fact:
Cost to travel on the monorail was around 1.50 RM, which works out to be around 50c.