Royal Selangor and KL Tower

On Tuesday morning we toured the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory. A Chinese man moved from rural China to Malaysia over 100 years ago to try to use his skills with pewter to capitalize on the tin that was being mined in the area. Four generations later, Royal Selangor is the world's premeire maker of pewter products. We were able to see the production floor up close, including this woman's demonstration of pouring the molten pewter into the mold.

Our tour was comical. The first time through, we were whisked through so fast that Katie had to run to keep up! When we got to the end, we asked if we could see more, and she brought us through again, only slightly slower. We think the idea is to get you through the tour and into the store as quickly as possible (we also theorize that this is fine with most of the tourists, who pull up in a huge bus and have 20 minutes to see the tour and buy something before the next stop). Finally, after shopping a bit, we asked if we could see the full tour (since we could see that there were interesting galleries to be seen if only we had the time!) and they were happy to oblidge us.

After the tour, we headed to Suria KLCC for a quick bite to eat. Fran visited his favorite KL store, Bread Story, and Katie photographed the interesting fruits at the nearby produce store. We had never seen any of these fruits before coming to Malaysia.

In the evening we went to the KL Tower, the city's telecommunications tower that also has an observation deck and restaurant at the top. They offer an excellent audio tour that oriented us with all the major sites of KL. Here's a photo of Katie at the top, with the Petronas Towers in the back reflecting the evening sun.

And here is Fran's attempt at artistic photo composition from the base of the KL Tower.

Although the Petronas Towers are taller, their observation deck is only halfway up, and situated on a bridge between the two towers, so that you can only see in certain directions. The KL Tower has the highest observation deck in the city and offers a 360 degree view of the city.

The tour pointed out many of the important sites from the British colonial era, including Merdeka Square, site of the original British colony and also of the declaration of Malaysian independence (which was a peaceful process). We were also able to see the Parliament building, Supreme Court, King's Residence (the king is mainly ceremonial, like in England), the Lake Gardens district with its bird, butterfly and orchid gardens, the Golden Triangle (where the chic boutiques and clubs are, along with the ritziest shopping) and the National Mosque and National Theatre. There's a LOT to see here in KL and we won't possibly have time to see it all on this trip. Oh well, we'll just have to come back!