Day 175 - Dripping City

KL is a great city. It combines the clean, green, openness of Seattle with the cosmopolitan bustle of NYC. Unfortunately, at the moment it is also a very rainy city. IN theory the monsoon ended in November. In practice, it seems to be hanging around for the holidays. It rained on and off all day yesterday. We woke up to grey skies, and headed out in a proper downpour today.

We first stopped back at Petronas Towers to pick up tickets to go up them in the evening. The tickets are free, but there are limited number. Distribution starts at 8:30AM. When we arrived at 9:45, the viewing sessions were already booked through 3PM. Luckily we wanted to go up at 6:30, and had no problem securing that timeslot.

Cz was soggy and grumpy about said sogginess, so we headed back to the shopping center via the underground walkway from Petronas Towers. Nothing cheers a soggy Cz like a new gadget, and we managed to find a good memory stick to back up pictures. Even better, the home entertainment store was showing The Incredibles as part of their home theatre promotion. We were duly entertained until Cz was drier (and happier).



This dryness, however was short-lived. True to the nature of sight-seeing, most of what we wanted to do was outside. We hired a car to cross town, and hopped off at the butterfly park. Every butterfly house I have ever been to has been in a large greenhouse. I forgot to take into account that in the tropics, everywhere is a greenhouse. The butterfly park was, in fact, outdoors, covered only by mesh. Luckily the rain slowed to a steady drip, and some butterflies were about. They were all colours and sizes. Some were larger than my hand and velvety black witj a vivid green stripe. Others looked almost like stained glass with many colours outlined in fine black lines. Still others were pale, translucent blue with black lines like a nets holding a tiny pieces of sky. Many more butterflies hung between leaves in a vain attempt to stay dry.

The butterfly park is only one attraction in the much larger City Park. According to my map, the butterfly park was very near the bird park, billed (no pun intended) as "The largest bird park in Asia, and the largest covered bird park in the world." When I heard covered, I assumed roof. I was wrong. Yet again. And rain. The ostriches looked about as thrilled with the weather as Cz was. But we sloshed through, and saw many very nice birds in various stated of wetness. My favourite were the dinosaur birds. (my name for them, I forgot the real one) These guys looked like short, fat ostriches with iridescent blue head and neck, long, red wattles, and a bony crest on the tops of their heads. Very bizarre. Perhaps most charming were the french-fry loving hornbills and mynas that congregated around the cafe. They perched on the railings eying the plates longingly, with the mynas throwing in an occasions grumph-SKREEE for emphasis.

Not wanting to deal with the rain anymore, we hired a cab to take us first to the national mosque, and then to Independence Square. Independence Square, as the name suggests, its where the British flag was lowered, and the Malaysian flag raised for the first time in 1957. From there we took KL's terrific light rail back to the twin towers for our scheduled trip to the sky bridge.

Little did we know that the visit would include not just a trip to the skybridge (The longest and highest in the world), but also a 3-d movie about the building of the towers, a visit to the museum, and a guide. We had a great time, and despite the clouds, the city still looked like a jewelbox in the night.

We took a photo down, down, down one side of the building. According to the information in the video, we were still at the top of the 'green zone' for safe evacuation, but it still looks like a long way down to me.

After our visit to the tower, Cz went in for an impulse haircut at the salon. Again, more than we had bargained for - in treatment, not price. He had a head massage, some kind of scalp treatment, even got to sit under one of those funny hoods you see in pictures of old ladies at the beauty parlours. He looked very chi-chi, but refuses to let me post the picture.

Tomorrow morning we will be joining much of Cz's family in the Philippines. We will be spending much time visiting and not much time blogging. Expect posts to be few and far between for the next three weeks or so.