1 Malaysia

We have now finished leg #2 of our Southeast Asian adventure, which took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The main reason we chose to go was because it was a good entry point to Bali, a place we knew that we definitely wanted to visit. We didn’t expect much of Kuala Lumpur, since it’s a city and there aren’t many must-see sights, but it ended up being a surprisingly neat place. Malaysia itself is a very diverse country, and although Malays make up the majority, Indians and the Chinese are also highly represented ethnic groups. The same goes for religion. Although over half of Malaysians practice Islam, and it is common to see women with long robes and scarves covering their heads, many other religions are also practiced. Therefore, the city was full of culture, with different types of architecture, cuisine, etc. to satisfy its diverse population. It’s a large and modern city though, with sky scrapers, sky trams, and expensive prices. Oh yeah, and malls…lots and lots of malls! You could almost forget you are still in Asia. Another interesting thing was that the Malay language uses our same alphabet, instead of characters. It even seemed that many words were similar to English, or as Emily put it: “looked like a kindergartener misspelling words.” For example, taxi is spelled “teksi.”



As we had an early flight from Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur, we spent most of the afternoon resting at our guest house. We met up with friends, Sarah and Anna, both of whom went to college with Emily and are accompanying us in both Kuala Lumpur and Bali. That night we hit up Chinatown, but unfortunately got caught in a pretty serious downpour on the way. Supposedly it doesn’t usually rain much in March, but every day that we were there, there was always a period of intense rain at some point during the day. Quite inconvenient for sight seeing and exploring!



Monday, we were more productive. We started the day off with some mosque hopping. We had to fill our wat void with something! It was our first ever visit to a mosque and we knew we had to dress modestly, so we left the tank tops and shorts at home. Little did we know, that wouldn’t cut it. Upon entrance we were ushered over to racks of what looked like graduation gowns. We also had to choose a head scarf. With many patterns and colors to choose from, Emily treated it like a fashion show, making sure to pick a color that complemented the robe, while making fun of my choice of black, which totally clashed…how embarrassing! As only Muslims are allowed in the mosques and there wasn’t much else to do, we had a mini America's Next Top Model photo shoot, posing in our outfits throughout the grounds...ok, maybe a bit sacrilegious, whoops. The next mosque we went to gave us pastel purple robes with hoods that Emily thought looked like ponchos for Splash Mountain. It only took a few minutes of walking around in hundred degree heat in the robes for it to look like we actually had gotten drenched on a water ride.



We continued our “culture day” by heading to the National Museum. I became fascinated by the “1 Malaysia” campaign display. The campaign, which is advertised on posters and banners all over the city, was organized within the last few years by the current prime minister and focuses on maintaining and strengthening harmony between the many races and religions that exist in the country. It is also meant to encourage Malaysian citizens to work together to improve their country in hopes that it will be granted developed nation status in the near future. I was impressed with how diverse Malaysia is but how peacefully the people seem to live together, especially since it has only been an independent country since 1957. I probably should have interviewed a Malaysian to see if they really feel that their country is as harmonious as the museum made it out to be, but for now I choose to believe it is. The last stop of the day was the bird park, which is supposedly the largest in the world. We chased some exotic peacocks, saw a couple in a photo booth with parrots on their heads, and ate some ice cream…normal bird park activities I would assume.



That night we moved into the luxurious accommodations where we spent the next 3 nights. We have a friend from Boston whose family moved to Kuala Lumpur 11 years ago, and although him and his brother have moved back to America, his parents still live there. He was gracious enough to organize for us to stay with them in their beautiful condo situated right outside the city. It had balconies with a beautiful view of a golf course surrounded by a jungle, along with all the accommodations we had been missing from home: comfortable couches (do not exist in Thailand), American snacks, TV with American Idol on TiVo, lightning speed Wi-Fi, etc. If I were to give them a grade for their hosting skills it would certainly be an A+. We were only strangers to them but they treated us just like family, their “adopted daughters,” taking us out for dinners and shopping, giving us free reign of their house while they were at work during the day, and leaving us notes telling us where to put our clothes if we wanted them washed (don’t worry, we weren’t that lazy, we did our own laundry). Basically, we had it made, and we couldn’t be more thankful to them for their hospitality. Thank you Jamie and Scott!



Tuesday, we spent the morning lounging around in our sweet pad and watching some TV for the first time in months. In the afternoon, we took a cab into the city to do some sight seeing. Kuala Lumpur is home to the Petronas Twin Towers, which from 1998 until 2004 were the tallest buildings in the world. They are quite a sight to see, especially at night. Visitors are allowed to go on a walkway that connects the two towers, but you have to get tickets early in the morning because there is a limited amount available. As we weren’t quite willing to set the alarms for that, we made sure to get reservations at Sky Bar, which is a rooftop bar on the 33rd floor of a building across from the towers. We had a classy time sipping wine at our window-side table while enjoying the wonderful view. After Sky Bar (we could only afford one drink each) we made our way to Rum Jungle, which we had to check out simply because of its ridiculous description in Lonely Planet, which was something along the lines of: “enter the jungle, where you can mingle with other crazy animals like yourself.” Yes please. The place was crawling with US Marines; supposedly there were over 3,000 of them in the city. They hadn’t seen land or been allowed to drink in 120 days, so they certainly lived up to the “crazy animal” status that Lonely Planet guaranteed we’d meet.



Wednesday was our last full day in the city, and by then we’d hit most of the tourist sites, except the Batu Caves. All week we’d been getting asked by our cab drivers if we’d gone, so we felt they must be worth seeing. After visiting, I have come to the conclusion that the cab drivers were pushing the caves not for their entertainment value but for the fact that they are little ways outside of the city, meaning more money for them. Overall, the best word to describe the caves is random. I think we were expecting to be ducking through dark caves that seemed untouched and ancient, but instead got caves with walls that had been painted in 70s themes, had food wrappers polluting them, and tacky statues at every turn. One of the caves, which they somehow convinced us to pay to enter, had rows of glass cases, some filled with reptiles with no descriptions of exactly what type of animal it was, while others were completely empty. To continue the randomness, Emily “somehow ended up” aka volunteered to go on a stage for some Indian dancing. Her and Anna joined with some more Marines (they were everywhere,) shimmying away to what looked like the dance at the end of Slumdog Millionaire. Then, we managed to climb the over 300 steps to the main cave where we feared for our belongings as dozens of monkeys ran and jumped around us. I swore that I saw one make direct eye contact with me and start inching toward me, ready to pounce and steal my backpack at any moment.



Overall, it was a pleasant and relaxing trip, with no pressure to see this or that attraction and Jamie and Scott spoiling us. We are now in Bali, where we will be for 9 days (!!!,) and although we are nursing nasty sunburns (more to come on that, I’m sure) we are enjoying ourselves and excited for more beach time!