"KL"
Trip Start
Jun 17, 2005
1
2
21
Trip End
May 15, 2006
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia
Saturday, June 18, 2005
On the same night of graduation I was on a 24-hour plane ride to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to meet my older brother Tim who was doing some work in Southeast Asia. Dubbed "KL" by the locals, Kuala Lumpur is home to three major ethnic groups: Malaysians, Chinese, and Indians with a fairly equal distribution of 40%-30%-30% respectively. With that in mind, Malaysia is home to three major religions: Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. From my initial observation, each ethnic enclave seems to live with one another peacefully. However, my two days in KL really was not enough to make a proper conclusion.
On my first day in KL I unexpectedly ended up participating in three different tours. Here are some of the highlights:
Batu Caves
Just barely on the outskirts of KL lies an ancient Hindu cave perched on top of a massive boulder of limestone. From top to bottom there are 272 steps that you must ascend in order to get to the caves. And as you make your way up you will pass by monkeys feeding off of what us humans have left behind (e.g. potato chips). Do thoughts of an obese monkey pop into your mind? They did for me.
Once you arrive at the top, the view is right out of a National Geographic's pictorial. I will send you pictures.
Firefly
During the evening I took a semi-private tour to a river that houses fireflies. This light show of some sort is said to occur in only two places in the world: one in the Amazon rain forest, and the second in Malaysia. To get there you must drive along the countryside for about an hour and then take a rickety boat ride down this river. And as you near the bank of the river you will see thousands of fireflies performing their light show for you as they blink in unison just like a Christmas tree. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures because the lighting was too faint.
The City
KL's major religion is Islam so expect to see some amazing mosques. During the city tour I checked out some mosques, the National Museum, the Lake Gardens, and more. Personally, this stuff I don't find all that interesting so I am leaving it out of my journal. If you want to learn more about these sites check out www.virtualtourist.com for a real traveler's opinion or www.lonelyplanet.com.
Wordplay
A funny thing happened to me that same day. After the morning tour in KL, my tour guide dropped me off to go eat at a Malaysian restaurant, buffet style. So, naïve and hungry as I was, I grabbed a plate and filled it with spicy BBQ chicken, coconut chicken, curry chicken, curry rice, deep fried calamari, and you get the idea. So I sat down grubbing away. And as I sat there, out of the corner of my eye, was a man writing down on a pad of paper as he stared at "mee" plate. I looked at him a little confused. What the "hey" is he doing? It turns out he was writing down and charging me for every item I stacked on my plate. Later on I had learned that I paid nearly three times as much an average meal costs. But no complaints from me, the food rocked and the meal ended up being less than $10 US dollars.
The Twin Towers and Scrambled Egos
The next day I had to get up early in the morning to get a ticket to check out the Petronas' Twin Tower. The tower only allows a certain amount of tourists to view their observation deck during the day so you need to get there early. The Petronas' Twin Towers, with its 88 floors, used to be the two tallest buildings in the world. Now, it plays second fiddle to Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan and is about to play third string as construction for the world's tallest building is being laid out in Shanghai, China as we speak.
I also got to check out the KL Tower, which is a needle-like figure that houses a 360-degree observation deck. Built on top of a hill, the view from the observation deck appears to be higher than the Twin Towers. Check out the pictures I took. See if you can find the blue colored mosque hidden in the city? Once you find it, raise your hand and sit quietly. Otherwise I will not call on you. Just Kidding J
One love,
Paul
By the way, I am in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam right now. I will report back to you later.
