Malay-over

I’m on my way back to the States but before I get there, my parents and I have a 3 day layover in Malaysia. We flew into Kuala Lumpur (KL) on Tuesday morning and checked into the JW Marriott, which is located in the heart of the shopping district. Once we got all settled in we visited the Petronas Twin Towers, it’s the home of Malaysia’s national oil company – Petronas. The building was completed in 1998 and is 88 storeys, at a height of 452 meters it’s the tallest twin towers in the world. On the 41st and 42nd floor they have a skybridge which is open to the public. It has an amazing view of KL and worth the wait to get the tickets. After visiting the Twin Towers we just walked around the city. Once we got back to the hotel, we went down to the basement level of the mall next door – Starhill Gallery. There they have the Feast Village which is like a mall food court but all 15 restaurants are unique sit down dining areas carved out with walkways connecting them all – very cool. On Wednesay we hired a taxi and headed to Genting Highlands, which is a resort area 6000 feet above sea level. You get to the main area via a cable car which takes 15 minutes to get to the top. After walking around for a bit we left and headed for Batu Caves, which is over 400 million years old and has a Hindu Temple near it. It also houses the largest statue of Vishnu found anywhere on earth. Then we headed to Royal Selangor – the worlds largest pewter factory. On the way there, I noticed a Mercedes S320 passed us with no licence plates, I asked the driver why that was and he said it was probably the king or queens car. Once we got to the factory I realized the Malay’s know how to market – they turned a relatively lame piece of material (pewter) into a 30 minute factory tour that was not at all boring. Finally, we reached the hotel and once again i noticed another car with no license plates, this time the Mercedes S500 had some sort of insignia on it. The doorman said the Queen of Malaysia was there for some event and that was her car. The event was for Batik, which is a technique used to make clothing that many Malay’s wear. We decided to go down to the lower lobby and check it out, it was a hugh event and the guard at the door let us in after asking where we were from. We sat down and watched about 20 minutes of the fashion that highlighted 5 designers that use the Batik method for creating garments. After scarfing down some food and getting some complimentary Batik’s we took off for the hotel room. Pics from trip