Kuala Lumpur

Our first destination in Kuala Lumpur was the Bird Park which boasts being the world's largest free-flight walk-in aviary. Andrew and I agreed it was one of the best we've been to. We spent the whole morning there and probably would have stayed longer had the heat and afternoon rain not convinced us we'd had enough. We'll soon be visiting the bird park in Singapore so we'll have a quick comparison. Andrew got lots of great photos (of course) and I even managed to get a few passable ones.

A cooperative subject?

I always love the colourful peacocks.

Milk and honey. Yum, yum!

Pretending to look interested? Or deciding whether or not to crap on the tourist's shoulder?

Momma and baby

Cleaning time 

Pretty feet

The next day we went to the Butterfly Park which was again very good. The Bird Park and Butterfly Park as well as various specialty flower gardens, a sculpture garden and a lake park are all in the same vicinity but quite difficult to visit all in one day when you spend as much time in them as Andrew and I tend to and when it starts pouring rain every day anytime between about noon and 2 pm. Although, as Andrew noted, I resorted to sitting and reading my book for a while as he took massive numbers of butterfly photos.

We treated ourselves to a couple especially nice meals while in Kuala Lumpur and took advantage of some of the high-rise views (15th, 38th and 57th floors). One evening we went to Marini's on 57 -- supposedly Malaysia's highest rooftop bar and restaurant. It was confusing enough just getting there that they employ several extra staff to direct you up three different elevators.

Our greeting at the first elevator came with the notice that "I'm sorry ma'am but we have a dress code." I was wearing a nice skirt and blouse so had a rather confused look on my face until she explained that my shoes didn't make the cut. My version of travelling for 10 weeks does not include multiple pairs of shoes so my sports sandals were it. Yes, I know, I'm such a fashionista at the best of times! But no worries, they had some spares and I got these cute little orange shoes that actually matched the new shirt I was wearing. (On checking their website, they actually don't allow sandals of any kind.)

The restaurant did a few very unique things. These parmesan encrusted olive & cheese balls (a "gift from the chef") were on a reed and attached to a live plant. The waiter warned us not to eat the plant!

But Andrew's main course did come with a live basil plant that you picked the leaves off of if you wanted to add to your dish. Which I thought was a very cool idea! Also note the gold leaf, also edible, on the spaghetti.

But dessert was where things really started to go overboard. We ordered a dessert off the menu but first came a small pastry (another "gift from the chef," which was ok) followed by this huge monstrosity of cotton candy. Of which we took only a couple bites just to be polite. 

Then after we had the dessert we ordered, they offered an assortment of chocolate truffles and wrapped up two croissants for us to take to have for breakfast. Too much!

Also worth mentioning is the unique dessert we had the night before at Thirty8. A "chocolate box for two" which at first glance really did look like a wooden box but was actually made of chocolate and filled with chocolate mousse, a raspberry ice and miscellaneous other good stuff.

The Petronas Towers dominate the skyline and this was especially true at night time.

From the rooftop bar of Marini's on 57

In Kuala Lumpur City Centre Park (KLCC)

Water reflection of the Petronas Towers