After a nice day yesterday, we had a quick breakfast at our hotel and waited in the lobby to be picked up for the Kuala Lumpur city tour. When the driver arrived, we recognized him as the one who drove us from Genting, and we also met the couple from Mumbai who were on the city tour with us. Our first stop was the Istana Negara (or National Palace). This official residence of the Monarch of Malaysia is famous for its golden domes and the ceremonial changing of the guard at the main gates. We spent some time admiring the grand architecture and the sentries stationed at the entrance.


We then proceeded to the ASEAN Sculpture Garden and National Monument. The ASEAN Sculpture Garden had a nice collection of prize-winning sculptures by some of the finest artists in the ASEAN region. The garden is a peaceful, landscaped park where modern art meets nature, featuring diverse abstract works made of wood, marble, and iron.


The National Monument (also known as Tugu Negara) is a sculpture that commemorates those who died in Malaysia’s struggle for freedom. It is one of the tallest bronze freestanding sculpture groupings in the world, depicting seven soldiers symbolizing leadership, suffering, unity, and vigilance.


After spending some time there, we were taken to the Batik Factory, Handicraft Store, and Leather Factory, which were mandatory items for all tours to include. The goods at all these places were terribly expensive, and most of us just quickly walked past everything to get this over with.

Our next stop was the beautiful Menara Kuala Lumpur. Having visited the CN Tower in Toronto, we were really looking forward to seeing the Menara Kuala Lumpur, which was said to be the tallest of its kind in Asia at the time. The tower serves as a telecommunications hub and features a design inspired by Islamic architecture.


We bought tickets for the observation deck and waited in the queue to take the elevator. Just before the entrance of the elevators, the ceiling had a huge faceted glass dome which looked really brilliant, like a huge jewel.


Once we reached the top, we took the audio tour which explained what we could see as we went around the observation deck. Some of the things we could see caught our attention: our hotel Grand Continental, the National Art Gallery, the theater Istana Budaya, and Eye on Malaysia at Lake Titiwangsa. Looking toward the horizon, we could even spot the limestone cliffs of Batu Caves and the massive Malaysia Telecom building, which is shaped like a sprouting bamboo shoot. Of course, the Petronas Twin Towers dominated the view.


After spending time at the observation deck, we returned to the base and were picked up by our driver. We asked him to drop us off at the Masjid Jamek area so we could walk around a bit and get a feel of the city. This historic heart of KL is where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet, surrounded by vibrant markets and colonial-era architecture. We saw a Hawker Centre there and had noodle soup and fried fish to start with. We then had lunch at a small local eatery there and walked around the market picking up a few small things we liked. After that, we took the LRT from Masjid Jamek station to Sultan Ismail station to get back to our hotel for a while.

That evening we planned to visit the The International WaterSky Spectacular at Lake Titiwangsa. From our hotel, we could take either the Monorail or the LRT to Titiwangsa station. Since we were already familiar with the LRT, we decided to take that option. We waited for our friend who was supposed to join us at the station there and then took a taxi to Lake Titiwangsa. We queued up for the tickets for the Eye on Malaysia, which was the tallest portable observation wheel in South East Asia. As the wheel rotated, the city lights began to twinkle, offering a spectacular 360-degree panorama of the glowing KL skyline.


Once we were done with that, we found a nice place to sit on the shores of the lake for Theatre of The Waters. This was a brilliant laser show open to the public as a part of the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 celebrations. The show combined synchronized fountains with lasers and music, projecting vibrant scenes of Malaysian life directly onto curtains of mist. It was extremely enjoyable and definitely well worth the visit. After that, we bid farewell to our friend since we were scheduled to leave Kuala Lumpur the next day.

We took the LRT to KL Sentral which is the main railway station of Kuala Lumpur. I had planned our travel from Butterworth to Bangkok on the International Express IE 36 as mentioned on seat61.com. I had made the reservation by email and we had to pick up our train tickets from KL Sentral. We reached the ticket counters, took a token and waited for our turn. After making the payment and collecting the tickets, we headed back to our hotel by LRT. We wanted to find a place for dinner close to our hotel and so we settled on Hamid’s since we had liked it before. After a quick meal there we called it a day and went back to our hotel to pack for travel the next day.

🛏️ Hotel Grand Continental
🚇 Masjid Jamek to Sultan Ismail
🚇 Sultan Ismail to Titiwangsa
🚇 Titiwangsa to KL Sentral via Masjid Jamek
🚇 KL Sentral to KL Sultan Ismail via Masjid Jamek