An afternoon at the museum

Saturday 22^nd February

Our plan this morning was to be at the Museum of Islamic Art by about 10.00am but our need to sleep in overrode that intention.  We decided to stay at the hotel until closer to the midday checkout time.  As we’d been without Internet yesterday, I got the photos and blog updated then we packed up and went down for breakfast.  Fortunately the lift behaved nicely today so we didn’t have to arrange for permanent accommodation at the Grand Seasons.

We left our bags with the obliging hotel staff and set off to the station, stopping off for lunch on the way. 

Overreaction?

Offerings include a cigarette

I really hope that 'knucker' means 'knuckle'

The plan was to take the train to Sentral then a taxi to the Museum.  What we hadn’t counted on was dishonest taxi drivers outside Sentral station.  We were aware that we needed to take a metered taxi if we didn’t want to be overcharged.  All of the taxis near the station had a sticker which read “This is a metered taxi.  Haggling is prohibited”.  We asked one driver how much it would cost to take us to the museum and he said 23 Ringgit.  I don’t think so!  He said they don’t use a meter, they use a ‘card system’ whatever that means.  We then tried going further down the road to flag down a taxi.  That didn’t work either.  One of the drivers we asked said that his meter wasn’t working.  We saw a taxi at the service station so went to ask the driver if he could take us.  He wanted 25 Ringgit.  Then we walked back over to the monorail station and at last found someone who was an honest driver.  We watched the meter ticking over and it made it up to 7.30 Ringgit by the time we reached the Museum, so the rogues near the station were going to charge us three times the real cost.  Not very tourist-friendly, guys!

The museum was absolutely fantastic.  The first gallery we saw contained some artistic Islamic calligraphy.  I never knew there was such a thing.  There was a wide range of styles, from very modern looking pieces to the more traditional.  Very impressive.

 

Calligraphy with 3D look

The writing on this piece went right to the very centre

We then visited the display of Islamic Architecture with beautifully detailed models of some of the major mosques of the world and information about their construction etc.  We could have spent much longer in that section, but we were conscious that there was still a lot to see.  Each area of the museum had a beautiful dome above it, each in a different colour and style with different decoration.  Just gorgeous!

One of several beautiful domes

We then had to do a bit of a rush through exhibits of hand written and decorated Korans and other books, weapons including jewel encrusted swords and daggers, textiles and clothing.  We were really impressed with this museum and will definitely go back there in the future with more time to spend.

 

Hand written and decorated books

Evil looking guns

Some of the beautiful items in the museum shop

Museum visitors

We finished our visit with a bit of a browse and a shop at the museum shop, then went out the front to try our luck with finding a decent taxi driver.  We saw some people getting out of a taxi as we were leaving, so we had a chat with them.  They had been charged 25 Ringgit, so the scam is working very well.  Needless to say, we didn’t get a ride back in their taxi.  Another taxi arrived and this driver wanted to charge us 15 Ringgit for the trip that had cost us 7.30 on the way here.  We refused, so he agreed on 10 Ringgit.  This was in another of the taxis with a sign saying “This is a metered taxi.  Haggling is prohibited”.  If he’d used his meter, we wouldn’t have had to haggle.

 

Vegetarian - Fish, Chicken and Duck???
Vegetarian must have a different meaning in KL!
Also notice the 'Marmite sauce' under "Pork"

We made our way back to the hotel on the monorail, collected our bags and then went back on the monorail (feeling a bit hot and tired by then!).  From Sentral, we were able to take the train/bus connection to the Low Cost Carrier Terminal to wait for flight number six of the trip.  We were really pleased to discover that there are showers available at the front of the terminal.  The only shower that we’d been able to find in the past was one in the men’s toilets inside the terminal, but not one in the ladies.  It was quite a relief to be able to have a shower after traipsing around in the heat, knowing that we had a very long flight ahead of us.

I made sure I had my sarong on hand this time, as it’s sometimes a bit cold on the plane.  I’m still not quite convinced that this isn’t an Air Asia ploy to encourage passengers to buy or hire their Air Asia blankets, but either way, I was ready for them this time.