Port Kelang – Kuala Lumpur
Today, we arrived in Port Kelang, our final Malaysian stop before the end of the line, Singapore.
Port Kelang itself isn’t a lot to write home about. It is, in fact, four large ports, all located on a reclaimed island that is still in a state of being developed. As such, there really isn’t much for passengers to do if they choose to go ashore independently, so we were very happy to be given escorting duties, on a tour simply titled ‘Glorious Kuala Lumpur’.
Port Kelang, then, is the gateway to the capital city of Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur.
City tours are generally not my favourite, but I have to say that this one was a bit of a belter. The journey into the city took about an hour; it wasn’t long, though, before we were entering the outer suburbs of the city, with its many high-rise condominiums and towering office blocks.
The guide on my coach told us that Kuala Lumpur has a population of almost two million inhabitants and that its main sources of income comes from palm oil trees and cocoa. They are also very proud of the fact that it is the home of Proton cars, and half-home of Mitsubishi and Hyundi cars.
Our first stop in the city was to see the National Monument, a sculpture commemorating those who died fighting for Malaysia’s struggle for freedom against the Japanese occupation during World War 2. A short walk through the Lake Gardens brought us back to where the coach was waiting for us, to take us to the Butterfly House, which was an ornate garden covered in netting and populated by… well… lots of butterflies. They were a nightmare to try and photograph, but I managed to get a couple of decent shots.
After a couple of other short photo stops, we went to lunch. I’m always a little wary of tours that feed us, but this one was fantastic. An extensive buffet stretched right around three sides of a very large restaurant that catered for all tastes; I even went back for seconds…
A live five-piece band entertained us as we ate, and even this was of the highest quality; not too loud and great to listen to. When it was time for us to leave, I think many would have been happy just to stay where they were and get some beers in…
We had two more stops. The first was to get a close look at the Petronas Twin Towers; one of the city’s most famous landmarks. While we were there, we were asked to undertake a rescue mission; a passenger from one of the other tours had gone missing and had last been seen at the Twin Towers. As per instructions, the guide from that tour had waited a full 40 minutes but the man hadn’t turned up. He was believed to be quite elderly and had no money on him; since several passengers on my coach knew him, it was hoped that we’d find him holed up inside the tower… unfortunately, he wasn’t…
Our second, and final, stop of the day was to visit, and climb to the top of, the city’s other famous landmark; the KL Tower. Standing at 1,381 feet, it is the 7th tallest freestanding tower in the world (the tallest being the Tokyo Skytree in Japan, apparently). I say ‘climb to the top of’; actually, a rather wizzo lift took us up to the observation platform in less than a minute, from where we had some magnificent 360-degree views across the city.
As part of my escorting duties, it is my job to rate the tour and guide. It’s rare for me to give even the better guides a score higher than 7 or 8 out of ten, but I was so impressed by our guide, for all sorts of reasons (humour; knowledge; care for the passengers…), that I gave him a stunning 10 out of 10!
As we approached the port at the end of the trip, our guide told us that he’d received word that the missing man had turned up back at the ship in a taxi (having blacked-out and been mugged…).
Satisfied with a good days escorting, Tracey and I enjoyed this rather magnificent sunset from the back deck as we sailed away towards our final destination…
