Kickin' It in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur from Above

Our schedule allowed us only one week in Malaysia, but what a fantastic week it was! We hopped on the short 2 hour Air Asia flight from Siem Reap, Cambodia to the modern, bustling capitol of Kuala Lumpur & were immediately shocked at the stark difference in culture! After our 21 days in Cambodia, we had become accustomed to the travel difficulties that come with such an undeveloped nation, not to mention the last 5 days exploring 10th century temples of Angkor. Our first taste of Malaysia was like jumping into the future! We were confronted with a plethora of modern, air-conditioned bus options for the ride from the airport to the city proper. We had arrived back in the 21st century!

Hokkien Mee Mee at Lot 10!

Kuala Lumpur - where to begin! Bright lights, clean streets, new motor vehicles! This city has grown from a sleepy Chinese village to a bustling metropolis of 6.5 million people in only 150 years! The growth & wealth is on display everywhere you look from the massive Petronas Towers to the electronic subway system to the swanky bars lining the streets. Not many 150CC Honda Dream motorbikes here. Ducati's racing around corners & high performance Bentleys cruising the streets is what we witnessed. For a little perspective our first night, we wanted to see the city from above so we headed up the 1400 feet to the top of the KL Tower. The view from here was stunning & is actually a higher (and cheaper) viewpoint than the more famous Petronas Twin Towers! Kuala Lumpur's modern city seemed to sprawl on forever in the distance. KL is a bit short on must-see attractions actually. The real charm lies in wandering around shopping & eating your way through. We ate that first night at a legendary food court in the bottom of one of the countless malls. This wasn't your run-of-the-mill food court. Lot 10 Hutong has restaurants that have survived 2nd and 3rd generations. It's considered the only heritage hawker center in Malaysia. Each of the 30 stalls has been around for over 40 years! We really felt for a second like we were back in Beijing, strolling along the narrow cobblestone Hutong streets, catching whiffs of amazing meals being stir fried all around us & gorging on authentic Chinese cuisine. Needless to say, a big reason why we came to Malaysia was the food!

Glorious Batu Caves

Pesky Lil Fellas

We hopped on a subway the following morning for a visit to the Batu Caves. Located 8 miles north of KL, this limestone hill has a series of cave temples that are some of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India! We eeked our way past 140 foot golden statue of the Hindu God Murugan (largest in the world BTW) the and up the 272 steps surrounded by curious, aggressive macaque monkeys & fruit bats squeaking above. Quite an experience! Once inside the massive, dark caverns we watched local people getting blessed at the colorful temples & it was really our first taste of practicing Hinduism. So different than the Buddhism of Thailand - that's for sure! That evening, we went to KL's main attraction & landmark - the Petronas Twin Towers. The tallest building in the world from 1998-2004 until eclipsed by Taipei 101, they are still the tallest twin towers in the world today. The buildings themselves are so impressive. They dominate the skyline especially lit up at night & serve as a symbol of the nations soaring success. The mall inside the buildings is almost as impressive as the gorgeous outside. We watched Gravity in a state of the art IMAX theater which was so sweet!

KL's Main Attraction

Malaysia has an extremely diverse environment. The influence of a variety of cultures is obvious. Everything from the people to the architecture to the food is a fascinating blend of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Persian & European. It was a bit strange for us to be confronted by a variety of people who looked like they could be from China or India, yet they were locals. The countries in mainland Southeast Asia don't have nearly the diversity that Malaysia does. Islam is the national religion so we saw our fair share of women covered head to toe in black burkas. They even had segregated train carriages only for females. We had a delicious lunch of indian fish-head curry & proceeded to one of the coolest museums I've ever been to - The Islamic Arts Museum. This ornate, lavish 4 story building houses an impressive collection of priceless Islamic artifacts from ancient texts of the Qaran to weaponry & current pilgramiges to Mecca. I didn't know much about Islam, so it was very interesting for me to learn about it's history & principles. Particularly awesome was the room filled with scaled models of mosques from all over the world.

No Guys Allowed

So Many Mosques!

We strolled through Chinatown checking out a beautiful Sri Mahamariamma Hindu Temple which happens to be KL's oldest & richest. We learned about the history & culture of KL at the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery. That evening, we checked out Jalan Alor which is totally street food paradise. Such an overwhelming array of local delicacies on offer, but we opted for a delicious claypot chicken rice. After 3 fun days in KL, we were ready for the 4 hour bus ride to our next destination - the Island of Penang!

Killer Claypot Chicken Rice!

Daily Prayer at the Hindu Temple