TravellingTiki: Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur -- its name is, literally, mud!

Asia, Malaysia

The famous Petronas Towers

After 10 weeks in SE Asia, most of it in Thailand, we were ready for a change of pace, and to do some diving. However, before returning to Thailand’s Similan Islands, we needed to do a border run to another country, as we had nearly used up our 60-day Thai visas, to reset for another 30 days. We picked Kuala Lumpur, capital of Malaysia.

Kuala Lumpur means "confluence of muddy waters" - right here!

KL is a large city, about 1.8 million people in a country of 32 million. Malaysia is majority Muslim, a little over 60%. It was the first place where we heard daily calls to prayer, some lasting a long time as the imam decided to use the opportunity to give a long sermon as well. Shades of Sunday morning in Oklahoma for Mark – but at least that only happened twice on Sunday, versus 5 times per day every day! And participation in the sermon was optional in Oklahoma, not broadcast on a loudspeaker.

KL Chinatown

As usual, we took tours with local guides, the first a daytime tour of city sights. Our guide, Alvin, is a Malay, smart and curious. The tour was a long walking tour, and one of our first stops was at the cart of a tiny woman making fresh mochi (plain, mango, chocolate!) with ground peanut sprinkles. She was awesome, the mochi was warm and delicious, and only 5 ringgit! ($1.25)

Burn, baby, burn

Next stop was the Kuan Ti Temple in Chinatown. The place was more of a Taoist cultural center than a proper temple, with many folks coming in to light incense and to “burn money” for dead relatives. The money was in fact just paper, but it and the incense made for a lot of smoke.

On to Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in KL, built in 1873. The original structure was demolished, and the current structure was built in 1968. Its most famous feature is the gopuram (tower) at the entrance, covered with 228 idols. Inside are more sculptures and friezes painted many bright colors. There were so many deities with stories that it was hard to keep up with all the details Alvin gave us. He joked that his favorite was the ubiquitous sexy goddess with no shirt and many arms.

On the tour with us was a young Danish couple. On one of our rests in the shade (it was hot, humid, and sunny – and did we mention, a long walk?) we talked about Denmark. Alvin asked them what Denmark was famous for. We guessed those little sugar-topped cookies in metal tins, but they said they were major exporters of Christmas trees and pork! Then we remembered those Danish Hams (also in tins) in gift baskets of days past. Googled it and meat products makes #6 in value of exports, but tins of cookies were not on the list.

Mudsnails

Better yet, fermented durian!

Satay!

The second tour was focused on food, and it was one of the best food tours we have been on. Our guide, Fadly, used to be a cook, and he gave us an in-depth tour of both street foods and market ingredients from a night market in the Muslim Kampung Baru neighborhood that is rapidly being developed out of existence.

All basils!

Mangosteen!

Mosque over market

He had us taste many ingredients, and tasted a variety prepared street foods. We FINALLY tried durian. There are actually different varieties, and supposedly you either love it or hate it. We oddly were just sort of ...meh…about it. We liked mangosteen and jackfruit much more.

Why aren't you hurryin' to eat that durian?

KLCC Eco Park

Menara KL Tower

We also did a little exploring on our own, starting at the KLCC Eco Park, next to the iconic Petronas Towers.

We went into a mall to cool off, and we saw a Chili’s. Mind you, it is not our norm to go into chains for food,

The Chili's Martini

especially US chains, but KL is short on bars (at least that we could find) and we knew this was an opportunity. Linda had a margarita, and then Mark ordered a martini. The young barkeep had no idea what a martini was, so Mark explained to make it like the margarita (in the cool little plastic shaker the Cadillac Margarita comes in), but only with crushed ice and gin (vermouth spritz was not an option). He kept wanting to put lime juice in it but was convinced not to. It was rather good!

Cranes, cranes everywhere

KL is interesting in that the competition to build the tallest building is ongoing. The Petronas Towers, at 88 stories, was the tallest building in the world from 1998 to 2004. From our condo window we counted 15 different cranes erecting more tall buildings. One near our place had a banner on the top floor reading 114 – the planned number of stories.

We also visited the…wait for it…textile museum! We are increasingly fascinated by both the differences and similarities in textiles all over the world.

we MIGHT have ordered too much food! (Muslim / Indian)

We found Kuala Lumpur historic yet modern, culturally diverse yet Muslim-focused, and relatively clean. The people were polite, friendly, and curious. Many spoke English, and seemed surprised when we tried out our very few words of Malay. The food was quite good and cheap. Terima kasih, KL!