Taking in the sights and hanging out with friends in Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is one of those cities that we would consider “livable” and was not intimidating to navigate around. The downtown core is modern and has a considerable amount of tall new buildings. We didn’t stay long in Kuala Lumpur, but from what we saw, we found it to be a place that is easy to travel and the locals were very friendly and helpful. Just like Penang we enjoyed the mix of different cuisines like Chinese, Malay and Indian. The thing that we found really refreshing was the lack of pushy vendors, sellers or touts. There weren’t people on the street asking if you needed a motor taxi, or drivers yelling if you need a taxi or a tour guide. In that way Kuala Lumpur seemed like a city outside South East Asia.

We arrived in the city not sure if we would enjoy being there because we heard a mix of reviews from other travelers, but we have learned throughout our time away that advice from others should be taken with a grain of salt.

Did we enjoy Kuala Lumpur? Absolutely!

We are the type of rare travelers that actually enjoying being in cities. Kuala Lumpur isn’t a city with a ton of excitement like Bangkok, or it didn’t have glitz like Singapore, but we spent our time sightseeing, eating and hanging out.

Meeting up with “The Brits”
On our second night in the city, we met up with our British friends Phil and Danielle (whom we had met before the Perhentian islands). We had a good night out in the city eating from street stalls and enjoying a few drinks together and some great conversation.

The Petronas Towers
A visit to Kuala Lumpur wouldn't be complete without going up and walking across the skybridge of the formerly tallest buildings in the world. We were waiting in line for our tickets at about 7:00am and were one of the first to go up the tower for the day. It offered some great views of the city.

Visiting a couple Mosques and a Hindu cave temple
Neither I nor Andrew has ever been to a Mosque before so we were looking forward to seeing one for the first time. The first of two we visited was the oldest Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. Non-Muslims are allowed to come into the premises, but are unable to enter any of the prayer halls. It is mandatory that every part of your body be covered except face, hands and feet. Therefore we were both given robes (they resembled the robes you wear on graduation day) and I got to choose a colourful scarf to wrap over my head. A volunteer of the mosque kindly wrapped it around me and when I looked into the mirror it felt quite strange. With the scarf covering everything except my face, I felt very…. Anonymous. Malaysia is officially an Islamic nation and most women, of any age, wear a head scarf and clothing that covers most of their extremities although it is rare for the women of Malaysia to cover their face.

Mosques are decorated simply and modestly. This particular one was all white marble that created a calm feeling. Since we come from “The West” Andrew and I know very little about Islam and we have never met anyone who could tell us about the religion. Presently a lot of Muslims are misunderstood and treated unfairly and maybe it’s because we know very little about their culture other then what we see in the media. We had the pleasure of chatting with a volunteer at the Mosque about some of their traditions and their basic practice and beliefs. We picked up some brochures about Islam and have since read them. I am glad we did because it answered some things that we didn’t know about their religion and way of life.

The second Mosque we visited was the largest in the country. Again, we were permitted to enter into the premises (unless a prayer was going on), but now allowed to go into the prayer hall. Andrew and I both were given robes to wear, and the females put on the hood to cover their hair. This mosque had its prayer hall roped off and we were still able to see inside. It was also very modest and plain, with some Arabic inscriptions on the walls. I must’ve look like a really “curious/inquisitive” person because a very lovely volunteer scoped me out through the crowd and approached and asked if I had any questions about Islam. We chatted for a while, and again we picked up some more pamphlets that explain Islam to the laymen.

On our last day in Kuala Lumpur we took the public bus to see the Batu Caves, which is a large Hindu temple located in a cave with a massive golden statue in front. To enter the cave we climbed 272 stairs to the top with monkeys all along the sides. They all sat there and stared at us, waiting for the perfect opportunity to run up and grab anything discarded or in our hands. They were cute, but very mischievous and quick. On our way down from the temple, I carried a tissue in my hand, and in an instant a monkey snuck up from behind me and grabbed it out of my hand. Of course I screamed aloud, and when I looked back the sneaky little bugger was trying to eat my tissue.

After this we wished our wild British friends bon voyage and they were off to the exclusive country of Brunei (which they told us later is an alcohol free country). We spent the rest of our last day in KL relaxing and awaiting our bus to Singapore in the morning.

~Nicola

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Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia