14 November 2012

KL Last Day

Our flight to Delhi was scheduled for 7pm and the hotel advised a 4pm taxi so lots of time for an outing. 

We chose to visit some regenerating rainforest near the city. The big attraction is a 'canopy walk' amongst the treetops. 

Before entering the forest we admired a pond where 3 arapaima flopped around in very opaque water. 

The first part of the walk through the trees was a fairly broad track frequented by mountain bikers and joggers, who all seemed quite unaffected by the humidity or the gradient. It wasn't steep but we found reasons to pause now and then. 

We had been warned that when we turned right at a trail junction the path to the canopy walk would be steep - and it was. No worse than many bush walks in NZ but adding tropical heat and humidity made it a tiring 500 metres. 

We had a good rest before stepping out onto the swaying walkway. We would have rested longer but the attendant warned that it looked like rain and he might have to close the gate. It wasn't too bad. The sides were almost shoulder high and major cables provided hand holds on each side. 

There are three platforms along the way, providing the relative security of a wooden floor attached to a solid tree. We admired the views and took photos. An Australian couple caught us up, chatted and moved ahead. A few raindrops bore out the attendant's prediction. 

Safely down on the other side we congratulated each other on our intrepid courage and looked doubtfully at the sky. A school party came across the walkway behind us, whooping and ignoring the rain. 

We let them all pass before setting off. This proved to be a poor choice because the boys stopped in a bunch a short way down the trail and we had to pick a way past them. One of the teachers solicitously advised us to "Be careful". 

Going down was not such hard work but the wet trail was slippery and care was required. We had intended to lunch at the park cafe but instead chose to return to our hotel. 

The information office telephoned for a taxi and we seemed all set. We got off to a bad start with the taxi driver. He wanted 70 ringgit when we only paid 40 for the outward journey. He settled grumpily for 50. 

The return route did not seem familiar and the journey was taking a lot longer. We got rather anxious. Eventually we ended up at Sunway Resort, despite having shown the driver the name and address of the Sunway Putra Hotel. He finally got the message that we were in the wrong place and frantically asked other taxi drivers for assistance. Finally he found someone to give him directions and off we drove again. 

The delay was serious. We had to get back to the hotel to pick ip our luggage and set off for the airport  if we were too late we could miss our plane. In the event we had 10 minutes to spare. No lunch. No raid on the adjacent shopping mall for $6 T-shirts. But we did find our bags and our pre-booked taxi and we did catch our plane to Delhi

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