The Excellent Adventure: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Our next stop on the Malaysia list is none other than Kuala Lumpur (or KL, as those 'in the know' like to call it). The Perhentians were amazing, but we were nonetheless looking forward to a change of pace in this giant of a city (7.2 million people). We headed out of the Perhentians early in the morning by boat, caught a plane from Kota Bharu, and landed safely in the KL airport later that afternoon. We reached the outskirts of the city by bus, and then our final destination, Chinatown, for 1 Ringit (32 cents) via a high-tech and extremely accessible train/monorail system. Thank god for mass transit. Chinatown is the epicenter of the KL backpacker world, and the center of the center is Petaling Street, an all-day, all-night monster of a street market. Thinking that this would be a great place to base ourselves, we found a nice little hotel aptly named the "Petaling Street Hotel" and made ourselves at home.

The view from our hotel's cafe balcony.

Waiting for the train.

The train in always convenient, but sometimes overcrowded.

Our first full day in KL we went to some of the tourist hot-spots, including Masijd Negara (the National Mosque, one of the largest in SE Asia), the Old Railway Station, the National History Museum, and Lake Gardens. After getting sufficently lost trying to find Lake Gardens, we wound up instead at the National Mosque, so we figured it would be our first stop of the day. We knew we had to dress modestly in order to enter the mosque (and we thought we did), but at the entrance they handed us lavender floor-length robes-- apparently our calves were a bit to risque for this particular mosque. So donned in incredibly non-breathing polyester robes, we walked inside. This mosque was interesting for a few reasons; the first of which is that it is beautiful, with a green glass 18-pointed star roof (representing the 13 states of Malaysia and the 5 pillars of Islam), and secondly because we had an interesting conversation about Islam with an very nice old man who worked in the mosque. He basically described to us (very factually) about what the Islam religion is based on and what they believe. The most interesting part of this conversation was our realization that Christianity and Islam are nearly one and the same (we amazingly didn't know this before); the only difference is that muslims believe Jesus was not the literal son of god, but instead one of thousands of prophets since the time of Adam and Eve.

The 18-pointed star roof.

Jessica modeling our new garb.

The courtyard outside the mosque.

We left the mosque feeling a bit better informed, and headed to the elusive Lake Gardens (read: we got lost again. ha.) On our way, however, we passed the Old Railway Station which is an early 20th century example of the blending of Eastern and Western architecture.

The Old Railway Station

Still trying to find Lake Gardens (which, by the way is a gigantic park, and as such should be easy to find), we came upon the National History Museum. This museum was great for two reasons: Air conditioning, and a look at the history of Malaysia from prehistoric times until the present. But mostly the Air-con. It's 100 degrees outside, can you blame us?

Malaysian flags flying outside the National Museum.

We FINALLY found Lake Gardens after the museum, and although we had spent all morning looking for it, it turns out that the main attraction, a giant open air bird park, was way over-priced, and thus out of our budget. What a bust. Oh well.

Our next day found us at the modern architectural symbol fo Malaysia, the Petronas Towers, which were formerly the tallest buildings in the world. This is another beautiful architectural example of East meets West.
After our visit to the Petronas towers we wandered our way through the city to Merdeka square, the place upon which Malaysia announced their independece from Britain in 1957. This is another area of the city that boasts beautiful architecture. After that, we wandered around the city and came across the "shopping district", which made us feel like we were in New York; lots of lights, traffic, and giant malls.

Jessica and the Petronas Towers.

The beautiful Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

Random street in KL.

The shopping district at night. The malls here were MASSIVE and very high-end. Among some of the stores were Gucci, Miu Miu, Chanel, and Salvatore Ferragamo.

On our last day in KL we decided to test out the "Space Needle of Malaysia", the KL Tower. Unlike the Space Needle, this building actually functions as a TeleCom building, but it is just as touristy (and expensive) as the Needle. Still, the views were beautiful from 905 ft in the air.