We had breakfast at Shook, a cafe on the ground level of the hotel. There were lots of people this morning and we had to wait more than 10 minutes to sit down. Charlie said to the floor manager that it would be difficult if people had to wait that long and then had to go out on tours. The manager came over and apologized to us. We later received some candy. Good grief. We really weren't complaining that loudly.
Chris came again to take us to the Bata cave. It is a Hindu temple with 271 steps into the cave, and a few more inside for good measure. See the photo below.
Every 17 steps there was a landing to rest on. I wasn't winded (neither was Charlie) but my knees felt like they were seizing up. A quick rest and off we went. Below are some views from several levels up.
Above, from inside the cave.
Inside the cave, as I mentioned, were a few more steps to another small shrine. We went to the top.
The shop above was one of many for worshipers to buy things to leave at the shrines. Souvenirs, too, were sold, of course.
Long-tailed macaques were running all over the place in the caves. One woman almost lost her purse in an attempted robbery - a la macaque. Another woman lost a bottle of soda. The macaques are cheeky, but nervous, so when someone began to chase the soda stealer, he dropped the soda.
Stalactites with a little help from Charlie. Chris is off to the side.
Another macaque.
After our cave adventure, we were brought to the Selangor Pewter factory. Charlie and I are standing in front of the Guiness world record stein made out of pewter below. There had been tin mining in the Kuala Lumpur area, but a Chinese man learned how to smelt pewter. His factory was going along OK, until the British came along and fell in love with pewter for beer mugs. The Chinese factory owner became fabulously wealthy. They did have lovely pewter things. We ended up buying a tea container with a Chinese dragon on it. Supposedly it will keep tea for up to a year. It's pretty even if it doesn't.
Coming into town, Chris found a spot to show us the Kuala Lumpur twin towers. Our hotel, apparently, should have had a view of them. Yesterday, Charlie and I were looking out a window trying to spot them. A bellboy told us he'd give us a quick view. We went into the executive club in the hotel, but, no, you still couldn't see them. Somebody had built a huge skyscraper blocking the view of the towers from the hotel - even for the execs. The towers were built by an oil company. The tower to the left is for oil company offices, the one to the right has offices that are rented to various companies.
When we got back to the hotel, we decided to explore the neighborhood some more. The photo below is from the inside of ONE of probably 20 huge malls that are within easy walking distance of our hotel.
We then decided to walk to the twin towers. Our stroll was a little like a hamster habit trail. The photos below are of an above-the-ground walk way that led 1.) to the convention center and 2.) to the base of the towers. We really didn't get a great tower view, but the walk was really fun.
There's a lovely park at behind the towers near the convention center. Charlie is standing near it.
Tomorrow we fly off to Pangkor. It's official name is Pulau Pangkor which translates to beautiful island. I hope so, we are there for two days. It's another resort, but here's hoping for the best.......
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