Running for Visa

A monorail train and modern buildings

The master plan for our first full day in Kuala Lumpur was to get visa to Singapore. We had been trying to get one already in George Town but everyone kept telling us that we have to get to the capital if we want one. We read from the home page of the Singaporean embassy that we should visit one of the official partner travel agencies for the visa. We checked the one that was closest to our hostel and started walking.

The walk was rather long but it was somehow relaxing to walk in a big and clean city for a change. The travel agency we were looking for was pretty well hidden and the locals weren't able to help us much. They didn't even know the street numbers when we asked for them! Finally, after walking in circles for a while, we found the right building and entered. The woman in the travel agency told us that it would take at least 3 or 4 working days to get the visa. We could have maybe waited for three days, but it was Saturday so we knew that we couldn't make it to Singapore this time. We were a bit disappointed but quickly came up with a new plan: we would visit the historic city of Malacca.

Inna calling to her friends

We weren't in a hurry to leave Kuala Lumpur though and walked the whole day and evening around the center. The city was considerably cleaner than for example Bangkok and it was clear that we were in a rich city. The center is full of modern skyscrapers and the monorail tracks make it look like a city from Blade Runner. On the way back from the travel agency we noticed a museum of telecommunication and I wanted to visit it since there was no entrance fee. The museum was quite interesting and Inna got to try an ancient "phone" made of a big, hollow piece of log. Perhaps I'll add a video of it later :).

Later in the evening we went to see the very center of the city. At 421 meters tall, the Kuala Lumpur Tower is the second highest free standing tower in the world and with its lights turned on it looked spectacular at night. Unfortunately the entrance fee to the tower was ridiculous. I had guessed that it could be high but as far as I remember it was almost ten euros per person just to go up!

The tower isn't the only high building in Kuala Lumpur though and we kept on walking towards what surely is the main sight of the city: The Petronas Towers. Once the highest buildings in the world, these towers will surely catch anyone's eyes. And they caught ours. The area surrounding the towers and the shopping mall within them are both ultra modern and fancy. So fancy that I was slightly worried that they wouldn't let me come inside in my traveling clothes!

The Petronas Towers

The area around the towers seemed to be a popular place for people to hang out in the evening and the atmosphere was relaxing. We sat there and took photos for a while before walking back to the hostel. On the way back a man from Singapore started chatting with us and told about the problems Islam is causing in Kuala Lumpur. He thought that the companies will leave and new companies won't invest in Kuala Lumpur if the religion will restrict the lives of the people too much. He explained that the nightlife and the relaxed attitude in Kuala Lumpur plays an important role in drawing in new companies as you can't find such a city elsewhere in the Muslim world. I guess he might be right, western people are used to free living and it will surely make it easier for them to expand to Asia if they can find a relaxed and free city there.

The telecommunication museum had its own Eiffel tower.

Not everything is made of steel and glass in Kuala Lumpur!

This huge bank building seemed to visible from every part of the city.

The KL Tower

Can you see something? Perhaps this will help you :).

Inna took this nice reflection picture.