Kuala Lumpur

We decided to give ourselves a day and a half in KL and cast about for things to do.  First we hit the Central Market.  It’s akin to a souk, and was at one time called the Grand Bazaar.  Lot of fun stuff.  We haven’t done much shopping on this trip, and we’re realizing the time for gathering gifts is here.  We then took the metro to go see the famed Petronas Towers.  The building is the National Petroleum headquarters.  I now realize I’m been mispronouncing them all along.  I’ve been saying Petronus, ala Harry Potter.  Oops.

The metro, as so many do, dumped us out in a fancy mall.  We spent a little time wandering to get our bearings and having lunch.  Once we decided it was time to get a view of the towers we headed for the exit…just in time for crash, boom, monsoon-like rains.   No view possible.  But in a masterstroke of timing, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra was scheduled to play Mahler’s Fifth in 15 minutes.  A quick stop for tickets and we were ensconced in an amazing musical space.

The tower tickets were sold out anyway.  We ran outside when the rain finally slackened and saw the towers.  Check.