Visiting Kuala Lumpur

From Melaka, it was a short bus ride to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia with 1.7 million residents.  K.L. (as the locals call it) is a bustling city with lots of ongoing redevelopment projects transforming the older buildings into modern high rises.  It did not take us long to figure out how to ride the public transport monorail system.

The twin Petronas Towers, rising 1,483 feet, were completed in 1988 and at the time were the tallest buildings in the world.  We enjoyed a view of the towers from our hotel window.

We took the "hop on / hop off" bus to see the sights of K.L. and one of the most impressive was the National Palace.  It has a colorful changing 

of the guard ceremony.

Nearby in the Lake Gardens area, we toured the 21 acre aviary called Kuala Lumpur Bird Park -- easy to get our 10,000 steps in this day!

Wow-- a whole museum dedicated to textiles -- it was eye candy!!  The National Textile Museum showcased an exhibit detailing the involved process of making 

batik & I was fascinated.

The "hop on / hop off" bus took us to a craft compound where you could observe local artisans at work creating their designs using various media such as woodworking, silk painting, batik making.

I thought I would try my skill at batik painting -- a Hawaiian honu!

Dyed batik drying on a rack

This piece of batik came home with me.  I loved the bamboo shoot design that the artist used.

As night fell we could see the glowing lights of the Petronas Twin Towers from our hotel 

window and wondered what tomorrow would bring...