After leaving the rainforest lodge we made our way back to Sandakan for lunch at the Sabah Hotel, where we ate on the first day of our tour. It was very good:)
Here are a few pictures of the Sandakan downtown area. We stopped in a couple of shops and ended up buying a couple of cookies for the road:) The living conditions look a little/lot rougher than we are used to.
I saw a sign in the window of a place for rent for 134 Ringgit which is about 30 American Dollars for a month. I wondered if it had indoor plumbing....
Next we got to take a tour of the Rainforest Discovery Center (of which I have no pictures of)
We enjoyed looking at flora and birds in the area.
We got to the airport around 5:00 for a 7:00 flight Kuala Lumpur. The flight ended up being and hour and a half late which put us in KL at 11PM. It had been a long day and we were tired. We then caught the KLIA train to KL Sentral, about a thirty minute ride. When we got off of the train there was a porter waiting for us with a luggage rack to take our belongings to the hotel. WHAT AMAZING SERVICE!
If he had not come I'm afraid wen would have been very lost! As it was we were able to follow him up a couple of elevators and out onto the street level where we crossed the street RIGHT INTO THE HOTEL!
We were happy to get there! We stayed at the Le Meridien Hotel which is a Marriott affiliate.
We were so happy that they were able to upgrade us into ANOTHER SUITE! This one was probably the nicest of them all and we were going to be there for THREE DAYS! We got right to sleep and woke up to a beautiful day! This was the view outside our bedroom window and guess what? We spent a good amount of time that day just unwinding at the pool.
But let me just say that before our time at the pool we stopped at the breakfast on the 5th floor. The desk attendant when we checked in said we could have breakfast at the executive lounge or on the 5th floor.
He quietly said, "but the 5th floor breakfast is better."
HOLY COW!!
Better?? It was the most lavish and expansive breakfast buffet we had ever been to!
There was a noodle station, an omelet station, a waffle/pancake station, a whole bar of Chinese New Year foods, a whole bar of Malaysian foods, a whole bar of American foods, and a whole bar of European pastries and delights. There was also a station with a man making fresh juice!
I mean seriously....this buffet was EVERYTHING!
After spending time at the pool we saw this cute couple in the lobby.
It was their wedding day and they were hosting a HUGE reception on the 5th floor.
Don't they look so happy? And Beautiful in their Malaysian traditional clothing?
That afternoon we did something SUPER fun!
We rented bikes with a group of fifteen others and toured the city!
It was just a great time!
We stopped at important historical and interesting places throughout the four hour tour.
We stopped at a fruit market and each of us got to try different fruits that we had never seen before.
We passed through Chinatown and got tot see a Chinese New Year parade celebration.
We also stopped and had a fabulous dinner with samosas, noodles, tandoori chicken, fried rice and some amazing cheese roti. For dessert they brought out something called roti tissue. It was a thin piece of dough (tissue paper thin, thus the name) fried and then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon.
It tasted like a churro.😀
Towards the end of our tour we stopped at this Hindu Temple and took off our shoes to be able to walk through. These temples are very interesting with many statues of their gods.
We found vendors outside the temple preparing these flowers for the festival that was starting the next day.
This carriage was being decked out for the festival.
For the festival people meet at the temple and follow the carriage in a procession to the Batu Caves. It is about a five hour walk for them.
We passed the Mederka Tower (the world's seventh tallest building)and got to see it all lit up!
We also passed the Petronas Twin Towers.
(they are the world's tallest twin towers)
What a sight! It was very cool!
The next morning we got a Grab to take us to church.
It was an incredibly spiritual sacrament meeting with the missionaries giving talks.
That afternoon we went over to the Mederka Tower and got to rid the elevator up to the top!
It was cool to see the city from all directions up that high.
An interesting note is the tower behind us in this picture is the SECOND tallest building in the world.
It is almost completely finished so it was not open for tours. Darn it! That would've been cool!
After that we went back to the hotel for an early dinner and a rest.
Around 5 PM we left the hotel to go to the Batu Caves.
In studying this to do in KL this was definitely one that we wanted to do.
It took about twenty minutes to get there in a Grab and is on the edge of the city.
It is a Hindu place of worship. Maybe a temple even?
This is the place where the people were going to be walking in a procession to that I mentioned earlier.
This gold statue is of Moragon, one of the Hindu gods. We did not realize in planning to come this day that it would be a special festival day for the Hindus. Because of the festival the place was full of people! There were many vendors selling foods and goods. Many people were wearing bright yellow clothing and carrying offerings up the stairs into the cave. Many women were carrying small pots filled with milk on their heads as an offering. One man was carrying what looked like a banana palms up the stairs. There are 272 steps to climb. NOT a small amount. Some were having a difficult time getting up to the top. I am happy to say that I made it to the top! I didn't know if I could make it! Also, there were lots of macaque monkeys all around.
I think this is such a cool picture with that giant statue and the beautiful colored stairs.
It is sad to think that people actually worship the statues and pay money to give offerings to them but that is what they know and they do their best to live like they've been taught.
Hopefully someday these good people can come to know Jesus Christ!
The next morning after another scrumptious buffet breakfast we got to go up into the Petronas Towers.
We first went to the bridgeway that connects the two buildings than we wet!nt up to the top to again, overlook the city. It was grea
That afternoon we had a very late checkout (7PM) because our flight didn't leave until midnight so we enjoyed the pool for a couple of hours before having dinner and then leaving for the airport. The porter was kind enough to take our luggage and see us to back to the train which would take us to there airport. I mean the service of the workers on this whole trip to South East Asia was just phenomenal. EVERYONE in service was so kind and helpful! It made our trip that much better!
Our next stop...Seoul Korea!!
