Downtown KL, Shopping, and Batik

On Saturday morning, we decided to take the shuttle from our hotel to downtown KL. The shuttle dropped us at the base of the Petronas Towers. One of the things on our to-do list is to go up into the Towers, but we need to get downtown very early in the morning, since they only give out a limited number of tickets. Unfortunately, you can't go any higher than the sky-bridge, so you really don't get to go very far up in the towers.

We took a (very very long) walk through downtown KL to the Central Market, which is located in an old Art Deco building just on the edge of Chinatown. I was able to get a lot of very unique gifts (both for me and for others!), so I had a great time shopping there. All of the guidebooks had said that no one walks in KL -- and I can understand why! It was a several kilometer walk from the Towers to the Market, and it was so hot and humid that the walk just seemed to take forever! We did wander over to Chinatown after we left the Market. It was very similar to Chinatown in NYC -- lots of street vendors and imitation designer goods.

We had to duck back inside Central Market in mid-afternoon to avoid the daily downpour, but once the rain stopped, Robin and I headed over to the Sunway Pyramid Mall. The malls in KL are nothing like the malls in the US. Most of them are more like the Mall of America, not the typical mall most of us head to on the weekend. Hundreds of stores, bowling alleys, ice rinks... there is truly a mall culture here in KL.

This morning, we headed back downtown to walk around and explore some more. We had been referred to the Jadi Batek Center by another IBMer, and we had a great time. For a small fee, you can actually make your own batik! You draw on the cotton with a wax pen, and then paint it using a very thin water based paint. The colors spread on the material very quickly and the wax keeps the colors from spreading outside the pre-defined areas. Once the fabric is washed, the wax comes off, and the white fabric shows through. It took me a while to get used to the proper way of coloring the fabric, but I think the result is pretty good!

We also stopped off at the Pavilion Mall for lunch. I couldn't resist adding another mall picture - they are just so large and overwhelming, and seem to be on just about every corner!

Tomorrow, we head back to work -- but we're planning already for next weekend, so I'll have more to blog about then!