Our second day in Kuala Lumpur (July 25), we decided to buy tickets to a Hop on, Hop off bus, which basically took us around the city to all the major areas, which was nice because the normal metro doesn't go to the area of town with the Botanical Gardens. So first things in the morning, we went to the the National Palace. Unfortunately, the palace isn't open to tourists, but we were still able to get some pictures outside with the guards (which we decided looked similar to the ones in London!)
Afterwards, we went to the National Monument on our way to the Botanical Gardens. The monument was very large, but very beautiful none the less.
The Botanical Gardens were beautiful and we ended up wandering around them for about an hour. There were tons of tropical flowers, tall palm trees, and many small lakes and rivers. There was also a beautiful house that I decided I will need to model my future home after (with a garden like I saw in the Orchid Gardens...see below).
After wandering around the gardens, we went to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, which is the largest free-flight walk-in aviary. So, basically, as soon as we walked in, there were tons of birds walking and flying around everywhere, which was cool because you could get really close to them (and they didn't seem afraid of people at all). My favorites were a tucan and a hornbill.
After the bird park, we decided to go across the street and walk through the Orchid Garden while we waited for our bus. Once again, there were TONS of tropical flowers in every color imaginable.
After (a late) lunch, we stopped by the National Theater, which reminded us both of the Sydney Opera House in Australia. It was nice, but slightly strange, to see different parts of many different cultures combined together to form what is now Malaysia.
Finally, we went to the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. Of course, because I was wearing a short-sleeved shirt and my hair was showing, I had to wear this (very hot!) robe to go inside. I officially have a new appreciation of Muslim women who have to wear these sorts of things everyday in the heat!
The mosque was very beautiful. We weren't allowed to go into the main prayer area, but we were able to walk around the rest of the building, which was open to the outside (the walls formed more of a tent over the area)...only on the equator! I would like to see them try and build a church with open walls in Michigan!
The nest day (July 26), we had to get up super early to get in line to get tickets to go to the sky-bridge of the Petronas Towers. They only let about 1000 people up each day and, after we had talked to a few people, we found out you had to be in line by at least 8 am to get tickets. To be safe, we got there around 7am and there were already about 250 people in line! We finally got our tickets around 9ish and then wandered around the downtown area for a couple of hours before we could go up to the sky-bridge at 1pm. So, with the rest of our morning we saw the KL Tower, walked around the mall at the base of the Petronas Towers, ate lunch, and I got this delicious milkshake from a place called the Milkshake Factory...they should bring these to the US!
Once it was finally our turn to go up to the sky-bridge, the view was amazing! We spent a little time at the top taking pictures and enjoying the view before heading down and exploring the city for the rest of the afternoon because we were slightly tired after getting up early.
We did a little bit of shopping in China Town and at this huge market in the center of the city. After it got dark, we got one last view of the Petronas Towers at night, swore to come back one day, and then headed to our hotel for the night.
As soon as we got back, however, we got an email from Angela (who was suppose to fly to Thailand with Marcus and meet us in Bangkok) saying that she wasn't able to board the plane because (as a Chinese citizen), she didn't have the correct visa! We're still not sure exactly what happened, but basically an airline employee told her she needed a visa in advanced or a group of at least 9 people to get visas on arrival. However, when she called the Chinese embassy, they told her that she didn't need a visa and should not have been denied boarding the plane! Needless to say, it was a very stressful night trying to contact Angela and Marcus (who's flight was delayed and was suppose to meet us at the hotel...we were praying he made it to Thailand because this was his first time traveling abroad), send emails to our hotel, etc. So, after 5 hours of sleep or so, we left Kuala Lumpur to head to the airport for our next destination: Bangkok, Thailand!
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