After Seoul it was now time to travel to Kuala Lumpur. It had been quite a few years since I was last there, so my enthusiasm to explore with my camera was high.
Like in Seoul, I had also checked Google Maps beforehand to see where there were any interesting places to photograph. The very touristic and busy Batu Caves did not appeal to me at all and so it became a tour on the west side of the center. Via China Town to a botanical garden and back with a small detour, that would be enough for me.
And that was right. I walked through the city in about 34 degrees with high humidity for a few hours. But once back at the hotel I had few photos on my SD card. Apart from some small food stalls in a back street, the center had little more to offer than shoppers. Chinatown was mainly one big market with a lot of fake stuff. And outside the center there really wasn't much to see on the street. Few pedestrians, but many large and busy roads, which sometimes could only be crossed at the risk of one's own life.
The botanical garden was beautiful, but also offered little photographically in the middle of the day. Then I visited the adjacent bird park. It was large and beautifully laid out, but I always get a little gloomy when I see animals in a cage, which should really be able to enjoy their freedom.
Below are four photos that are somewhat worth showing.
The photo below is my favourite. When I look at it now, I still wonder what the hell that woman was doing there and also how she ended up there in that continuous heavy traffic.
The next day I didn't feel like another round in those tropical conditions. That worked out well, because not too far from the hotel were the Petronas Twin Towers. The tallest towers in the world in 1998, but now only 17th in the list of tallest buildings in the world. Despite the fact that the Merdeka 118 tower shown above is much higher, the Petronas Towers remain the most characteristic of Kuala Lumpur for me.
I took this picture while walking around in the adjacent park.
And while walking around there, I thought it might be fun to make a small series of these towers. I had previously read on the internet that you should have a nice view of these towers from the Traders Hotel opposite. And that was absolutely right…! There is a beautiful view on the pool floor and the staff present had no problem with me waiting there for the sunset.
After some experiments with my wide-angle lens, I took 7 photos from my small tripod to later merge as a panorama in Lightroom.
In the photo above you can see that the sky is already getting cloudy. It was therefore not long before a thunderstorm hung over Kuala Lumpur as you only see in the tropics. Visibility was literally decimated in one minute.
The sunset itself was a bit disappointing, but the so-called blue hour after that made up for it.
Once outside again to walk back to my hotel, my eye fell on a pool of water in which an unmissable reflection of the towers could be seen. All in all a nice end to my stay in Kuala Lumpur.
