Our Final Days in Malaysia

On Thursday we returned to the Sabahat Guesthouse in Kuala Lumpur. We had planned an extra "Debra paperwork day" just in case it was necessary... after all that was the purpose of this trip! It was not necessary so we spent the day at the KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre)...that's the shopping mall attached to the "Twin Towers" per the locals; ..."Petronas Towers" for the visitors. Anne & Debra had been at this mall briefly on our prior trip. We had reported to Margaret then that there was a Marks & Spencer. Last night (Thursday), Margaret said that all she wanted to do was go to Marks & Spencer on her final day. For those that don't know, Marks & Spencer is a British store; one of Margaret's favourites, if not THE favourite; that is no longer in Ontario so she never gets there. It takes her back to her years growing up in Scotland.... and normally has all her favourite foods and clothing. Anne was interested in going up one of the city towers (KL Tower or Petronas Towers). Debra had no great desires, she was only anxious to get home to Bruce & Ben!

For the record, the Petronas Twin Towers soars above the city to a height of 451.9 meters. The 88-storey twin structure is Kuala Lumpur's crown jewel. Majestic by day and dazzling at night, the Petronas Twin Towers is inspired by Tun Marathi Mohamad's vision for Malaysia to be a global player. Together with master architect Cesar Pelli, the international icon powerfully captures the nation's ambitions and aspirations. These towers were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998-2004 until surpassed by Taipei 101, but they remain the tallest twin buildings in the world.

The Kuala Lumpur Tower (abbreviated as the KL Tower) was completed on March 1, 1995. It is used for communication purposes and features an antenna that reaches 421 meters (1,381 feet). The roof at the pod is at 335 meters (1,099 feet). The rest of the tower below has a stairwell and an elevator to reach the upper area. The tower is the highest viewpoint in Kuala Lumpur that is open to the public. The building is the landmark of Kuala Lumpur with arch rival Petronas towers....kinda looks like the CN Tower in Toronto...

Anne & Debra agreed that they were happy to take Margaret to Marks & Spencer. We had yet to decide whether we would visit one of the landmark towers. Our guestroom manager gave us an overview of the tours and suggested that we might not be able to get into either as school was out. The taxi driver gave us more information about the tours so we decided to go over to see if we could get tickets or not. Margaret had no interest in getting any higher than the top floor of the shopping mall. Debra was undecided whether to spend her limited cash reserve to go up the tower. Anne, the ultimate tourist, was all go! As it turned out, Anne & Debra got discount tickets to the Twin Towers for 4:15PM...then we all went shopping....

Shopping with Margaret always includes coffee/tea breaks on a regular basis....and sometimes you're just hanging around waiting, patiently (?)...

Also, if you leave Margaret alone for any period of time, she normally has new friends by the time you return!!

 And of course, there's always lunch....

We were going out for dinner that night and it was already about 1:30PM, so we opted for appetizers only at a lovely Thai restaurant we had passed earlier. It was an excellent choice! We managed to cover all of 5 floors at this "little" mall and before we knew it, it was time for Anne & Debra to go for the tour. We left Margaret at a coffee shop with all the bags and off we went...

The tour was excellent. We first stopped at the bridge that runs between the 2 towers...

 

then all the way to the 86th floor....

After the tour, we picked up Margaret then headed back to our KL home. We had arranged to meet our new friends for dinner at The Green Man Pub for our final night in Malaysia... 

 

We did our final packing up before bed; Margaret was tasked with making sure that we were up by 5AM; the taxi arrived at 6AM; we arrived at the airport about 7AM, ready for our 9:25AM flight to Hong Kong. Unfortunately the plane was delayed in departing due to technical difficulties which made for a shorter wait in Hong Kong for Margaret & Anne's flight to Vancouver. Debra was scheduled on the "milk run" from Hong Kong, thru San Francisco, Miami, then to Tampa. The delayed departure from Kuala Lumpur meant that Debra missed her connection to San Francisco and had to stay overnite in Hong Kong. Debra arrived in Tampa Sunday nite instead of Saturday night. She is now very very happy to be home!!

 

 THANK YOU MALAYSIA!!!

A FANTASTIC TRIP

A BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY

TERRIFIC PEOPLE

SUPERB COSTS ON EVERYTHING

LOTS OF ENGLISH SPEAKING

VERY VERY HOT

AND VERY CRAZY CAR AND SCOOTER DRIVERS....

  

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