We delayed getting up for breakfast until the last possible minute. Nat a bad idea as Helen had been scribbling her journal until half one this morning. Breakfast is a buffet affair of which we take full advantage (though not the chicken porridge). Nasi goreng for breakfast... We trot over to reception to book ourselves in for the next two nights, you can't refuse a comfortable room. My hard bargaining skills were at full stretch when negotiating the price: How much will that cost?
Same as before, RM100.
Oh, OK
Pleased with myself, I forgot to ask for a laundry list.
We don't hit the street straight away but spend another hour relaxing. The main job for today is to visit the Petronas Towers. We jump on the LRT and emerge at KLCC, apparently the city centre. Staggering into the sunlight we look all around for the world's tallest building. Everywhere except, of course, up. 
As we stood wondering how beauty had managed to escape anyone's attention when designing it there was a screech of brakes and a thump. We turned quick enough for Helen to see something fall then a dazed person sit up in the road. A car's windscreen had been used as a trampoline and Helen said the bonnet was mangled though I didn't see that myself. All told, probably one of the many moped riders had come a cropper. Not enough to keep the traffic at a standstill.
We moved on round to the front of the towers for a better view and discovered that passing an accident in the road 100 yards back didn't temper the enthusiasm of anyone on the road. Cars edge forward in anticipation of a green light, mopeds frequently ignore red lights especially on filter lanes and pedestrians see any hesitation in the traffic flow as an opportunity to cross. For now very nervous tourists, crossing the road takes some time with all senses on full alert even when the animated little grren man is urging you into the fray. 
We headed back into the cool of the shopping centre underneath [the towers] and took coffee and cake on the 3rd floor. By poor chance this is a heavily disguised chain that is OK but not great but they do do durian smoothies. I've yet to try this mythological fruit despite its widespread availability. All the hotels we've been in have banned these stinkiest of fruits from the premises. You bet if anything's out it's pets and durians. I'm intruiged.
You can charge up the Petronas Towers for free so long as you've queued for the limited tickets and go at the proscribed time. Fearing insulting Muslims all over since arriving in Kuching in shorts we've stuck to trousers since so it's with some surprise that the two British girls in front of us troop in in their best south of France wear. I guess in KL they've gotten used to braless bare shouldered women tourists but even I wasn't expecting one of them to pull out her barely held up shorts and fiddle with something on her knickers.
In the mini exhibition they have a curious comparison of the (pre September 11) ten tallest buildings on which they draw scale models of each from which you would comclude that the Petronas Towers are about the third or fourth highest even including the radio masts cum spires. Not to worry. You get flung up at 4m/s to the 41st floor -- neatly coinciding with the Sky Walkway which is as high as tourists are allowed. Given the highest office floor is another 45 floors up it's a bit of a disappointment but you get a good view in your ten minutes allotted time. 
We went back to the shopping centre where Helen looked for an alternative day bag and I savoured some of Sony's flagship entertainment systems: particularly good projectors, I must say. After a while we thought we'd better head off in search of the bars and cafes and clubs of the Golden Triangle which after a good deal of plodding in the heat [we] decided must magically appear as the sun set. Or we were lost. Instead we headed for another noted shopping area where we decided we were too jaded to look around so settled for another tea and cake. Amazingly it was nearly six so we started for the hotel to discover both heavy rain with attendant thunderstorm and a shut LRT station impeding our progress. A slightly reluctant taxi took us back maybe the 3km taking a good half hour in the carefree rushhour traffic.
By now I've sweated through a clean set of clothes and we'd missed the laundry option at lunchtime. Oh dear, best not have too many Right Guard moments. We settle into our (Helens!) reading material -- must get beyond p7 of my own -- and the evening passed swiftly. No hunger pains despite being in the heart of Chinatown. Looking at the layer of lard around my middle there shouldn't be any hunger pangs for a while.
Hotel Malaya, Kuala Lumpur N3.14440 E101.69653 Elev. 41m
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.