Part Eight: Rollercoasters and skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur

Before leaving, we visited the attractive Bayview Beach Resort in Batu Ferringhi Bay, followed by the Hard Rock Hotel Penang, which was really cool. I’m sure kids would love it there. Then our driver-guide, Andy, drove us to Penang airport. We bid our farewells to Penang Island, and then hopped on the short, 50 minute flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Surprisingly, our driver from the Cameron Highlands leg of our trip, Krishna, was there to greet us again in Kuala Lumpur! A lovely guy with a heart of gold, he was so keen to show off his country! Since he didn’t even realise we were on a work trip, it’s great to think that this is the level of service you’d enjoy if you visit.

The drive from the airport to Kuala Lumpur city centre took about an hour and we had to visit three hotels before dinner: Traders Hotel, Hotel Istana and finally, Berjaya Times Square, where we would be resting our weary heads. Of course, this was a small price to pay for such an amazing trip.

The Berjaya Times Square was stunning. Aaron, a hotel employee, took us round this mammoth-sized hotel, while we all wondered how a building of this size could exist. Everything was huge and we were blown away by the magnitude of the place. It was like being in one of the ‘Honey! I Shrunk the Kids’ movies.

After seeing a few inviting rooms, we dropped down a few floors and found ourselves in a shopping centre, where many of the shops on the ground floor were disguised as gardens – it has to be seen to be believed! From there we were whisked to a theme park in the building. Yes, a full-blown theme park! We thought we were hallucinating! What’s more, we got fast tracked to the front of the rollercoaster queue. Apparently it’s the longest indoor rollercoaster in Southern Asia, which is easy to believable! A couple of us had never been upside down on a ride before so we were able to tick that off our lists of things to do.

With our gigantic rooms being on the 41st floor, we all had incredible views of the dazzling, skyscraper-laden city. We got to enjoy the night time view before another hosted dinner, where the hotel went to great lengths to look after us. Some of us didn’t want the night to end, so we headed out once more to the Traders Hotel. We had cocktails in their magnificent Sky Bar, which has a swimming pool and amazing views of the Petronas Towers . At night, the bar feels like something out of a Bond film – there’s that Bond reference again – it was a stunning climax to our once in a lifetime trip.

To wrap up our blog series on our trip, we’d like to end on this note…

Malaysia was amazing. The people are the friendliest we’ve ever encountered and the sights are mind-blowing. We hope these tales of our trip encourage others to go visit and helped people to get the most out of their holiday.