Malaysia

Here I am on my flight to Kuala Lumpur (West Malaysia), with some of the nice Royal Brunei Airlines Flight Attendants. Malaysia has nearly 30 million people and is the 66th biggest country in the world.

These are the Petronas Towers in KL - that's what the locals call Kuala Lumpur. The towers have been in lots of movies. My favorite was Mission Impossible. They were the tallest buildings in the world until 2004.

Inside the Petronas Towers are lots of shops, offices and even a hotel.

There are lots of ways to get around KL which is a very big city. Here I am at a train station trying to work out where to go. The names are not like I am used to in New Zealand. I suppose when people come to NZ from overseas they must have trouble with some of our place names.  

I am just about to get onto a local train. The Malaysian people are very friendly and helpful. Usually someone will ask you where you want to go and give directions how to get there. Because it is so hot here, the train stations have a wall between the track and the platform to help keep the station cool with air conditioned air.

The most common way for the Malaysian people to get around is on motor bikes. There are thousands of them. I'm just having a little rest on one...

The trains run under the ground or over the top of the roads. This rail track built above the road is typical of the inner city streets.

There is also a monorail that runs above the city streets around the main shopping district.

There is a mix of fantastic new modern shape buildings and older building all mixed in together.

This is an older part of town. Can you see the different coloured buildings. The city is very colourful.

I did a lot of walking! At the end of the day you can put your feet in these tanks and all the fish come and nibble at your feet. They eat all the old skin on your feet. The fish suck and don't have teeth. It really tickles at first but you soon get used to it. After about 15 minutes your feet are really smooth and feel great.

Someone in Room 1 asked me if there were lots of bugs in this part of the world. Here are some of the typical bugs around Malaysia. They might look ferocious but mostly they are harmless - luckily I haven't seen any live ones. 

KL has the worlds biggest free-flight walk in Bird Aviary. There are hundreds of birds flying around. There are some very colourful and unusual birds. Here I am with some of the birds. I saw owls, eagles and lots of funny looking birds I didn't know the names of. 

This is a Hornbill bird. They are very common in Malaysia.

The park is very beautiful and has lots of pretty features including this waterfall you can walk behind. They had a bird show where different birds perform lots of tricks including riding a bike and doing lots of funny things.

There are lots of temples. They are often colourful and all tell a story.

There are lots of places to eat at, such as this market place where you sit outside.

 The weather is very warm. The food is yummy.... lots of flavours. 

This is a food market where they sell fish, meat and vegetables.

And of course there is lots of fast food. Can you see the little trick here regarding the bacon.

 Can you remember why in this part of the world they do not have bacon?

Well time to move away from KL. Here I am at the bus station waiting to catch a bus to Lumut on the way to Pangkor Island.

This bus took me to Lumut which is a little coastal town about 3 hours north of KL.

And then I got onto this boat. It took about 40 minutes to get to Pangkor Island which is a little island where I had a few days holiday. There are not many tourists there - mainly local people.

Monkeys are everywhere. Here are some in a tree just outside of the place I was staying.

Remember the Hornbill bird. Here is one hopping across the road to the beach.

At last I made it to a beach on Pangkor island. The beaches are different to the ones we are used to. The sand is very white and fine. The water is a turquoise colour and very warm. As you can see not much to here but enjoy the water and sun.

Ahhh..... better go now and work on my sun tan!! Bye. I will write again soon.