Tuesday, February 27th, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Greetings!

It's 5am, and Pat and I are awake and on social media.  Travel exploring by group always begins with exploring the group.  Dinner last night began the process of learning who we are, where we’re from, and how we got here.  Beyond inquiring about the last day’s journey, we’re asking each other about our lives, and what brings us to travel.  If you’re going to spend this much time together, and trust each other with our safety and adventure, you learn about who you’re with.

After a welcome and orientation in the hotel’s café from our tour leader (Pam), we shared our names, hometowns, and why we came.  As usual, most are seasoned travelers.  More singles than usual (we’re the only couple), with extensive experience with Adventures Abroad.  Two already traveling (Burma), and none who’ll be away as long as we will.

We walked for a half-hour to the world-famous twin tours, and had dinner in a restaurant there.  Hitting the ATM for local money, we bought a local SIM card for the smart phone.  Realizing I left at home the small pin used to open the chip case, I learned the usefulness of pierced earings.  Pat’s hearing-aid battery changer kit also has a small tool which works.  Made our first travel mistake by splitting up after dinner to check out the mall, and experiencing some confusion on returning to the hotel.

But it was a great start to what looks like another adventure.  We’re with people who share our ambition to explore and learn, and who care about each other.  Tonight, I'll include another post with today's adventure, and get into the routine of nightly updates.  And hopefully begin to sleep through the night.
Today we walked back up to the twin towers to buy tickets to take the elevator up to the top tomorrow night.  We then went to the KL tower (just a little shorter), and spent 30 minutes circling its summit to get a panorama view of the City.  Out one window, rises an even taller corporate tower being built to twenty stories higher.

Our City tour took us to most of the places we saw on the Hop-on/Hop-off bus we rode yesterday, except we stopped off at the National Museum today.  Good displays in four large rooms on two floors show the history of the Peninsula and islands which have become Malaysia.
Finally, we ended the day with a ride on the city's monorail, and a walk up the Bukit Bintang hill to the Opium, a restaurant with modernized Oriental fare Pam chose which served us a large variety of local dishes.

To see the photos we took today, click on Tuesday, February 27th, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.