However, when we got to the airport, our 6am flight to KUL was not listed on the main flight board! So many terrible thoughts rushed to our head! Did we have the wrong date? wrong time? Were we scammed when we bought the tickets?! 3am is not the best time for jokes. Fortunately we were not mistaken or scammed and got on our flight as planned. Thanks AirAsia for giving Siobhan a mild heart attack!
We arrived in KL at 9 am and we were starving knowing we had a long journey to find our destination in a city we had never been before. And what should appear before us, but the heavenly, most amazing, fantastic, DUNKIN DONUTS! Siobhan was beyond ecstatic to get a proper iced coffee, and Roy was thrilled to try some of the new donut flavors! We tried black forrest cake, almond creme, peanut butter and jelly, and of course we had to get a traditional Boston cream.
After our bellies were happily full, we hopped on a bus, a train, a subway, and then walked through Chinatown to get to the Backpackers Inn.
Chinatown, what a lively place. Full of stalls of knickknacks, knock off bags, and endless amount of real Chinese food.
Roy dove right into the culture ordering Soya porridge, clay pot noodles, and steamed pork buns, where as Siobhan was a little more hesitant and was constantly saying "what is this" pointing to the food in front of her, with Roy replying "I have no idea just eat it!" We would say about 80% of the time it was really excellent food.
After unloading our bags, it started down pouring. A concept so foreign to us because we were in sunny Indonesia for so long. We hopped on a free city bus and headed to Bukit Bintang, a part of the Golden triangle and one of the best shopping areas of the world. We arrived (a little underdressed might we add) to a 6 floor mega mall full of top designers and top restaurants. Gucci, Prada, Tiffany's, Hugo Boss were all lined up in a row. Although we did not buy anything, we enjoyed window shopping. Well maybe more Siobhan than Roy.
The following morning, Roy was set on finding Masjid India aka little India for breakfast. So we walked many blocks over to the colorful little India with endless amounts of food, halkers, Sari stores, and blasting Indian music coming from everywhere.
We got the best lamb skewer we've ever had along with curry potato pockets costing less than 30 cents, fried crab, fried sweet potato puffs, tapioca, rose tea juice, fresh sugar cane juice and sour plum juice. It was the most versatile breakfast we've ever had!
After breakfast, we headed 14 Kilometers out of the city to the Batu Caves to climb the famous 276 steps to the cave, and see the largest golden statue of the Hindu Lord Murugan in the world.
We arrived, and were blown away of the limestone caves and temples inside. The Batu caves is a very popular Hindu shrine dedicated to Lord Murugan, a Hindu Deity with a 42.7M statue of him guarding the front and with the Sri Mahamariamman Temple inside to worship at. It was incredible to stand in the caves and see nature at its finest, with religion harmoniously accentuating it.
We hurried back to our hotel to start our afternoon City Tour of KL that we booked to get a little taste of the city. We had the BEST tour guide. He knew everything about all the historical sights and the history of Malaysia. We learned so much.
Our first stop brought us to a Chinese Buddist Temple dedicated to the sky God. We entered the temple with the upmost respect because there were many people praying. We took off our shoes, made a donation and lit 4 incense. The details and colors of the temple were magnificent.
Our next stop was the national Islam Mosque. It was very impressive. Large, clean, and spacious. It was full of praying rooms, speaking halls, water fountains and stone walkways. To be respectful, we were given light purple robes for the holy area.
After the religious part of the tour, we made our way to Independence square, a large plaza built in honor of Malaysia succeeding from Britain in 1957 including one of the largest flagpoles in the world (100M.) Every year on August 31st this plaza holds an exciting celebration of parades and streets full of people.
Following Independence square, we visited the National Memorial. We learned from our tour guide, Japan invaded Malaysia in WWII and occupied the country for three years. Malaysia fought back but were unsuccessful because they were attacked from the North and South in Thailand and Singapore. Many soldiers died defending their country. The names of those courageous men were engraved on the monument. It was a great memorial.
The next on our list was the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory, the largest pewter factory in the world. In the past, pewter was made out of tin and lead, which was very hazardous to people's health. Now pewter is made from a combination of three elements: tin, copper and alimony. Kuala Lumpur, before it became a booming city was known for its successful Tin mines. We saw the process of molding, filing, and detail work it took to make each pewter object produced by the factory. We even got to try some of the detail work ourselves and found it extremely challenging. These workers are very good at what they do.
After the pewter factor, we were off to the Royal Palace where the current King and Queen of Malaysia live. We learned there are 9 Sultans in Malaysia and every 5 years, the Sultans vote on who will be the next King to live in the monstrous Palace of Kuala Lumpur.
Its not all fun and games though. Although the Sultans and King have no real government power like the Queen of England, the King is required to sign and seal every official government document from Parliament. We were not allowed to go inside the palace but we imagined an incredible and astonishing place.
The final destination on our tour was the KL Tower standing at 420 meters! We took an elevator to the observation deck at about 350M and viewed the lively city of Kuala Lumpur. This city from above is huge with skyscrapers spanning the horizons in every direction. It was really cool. We even saw the iconic Petronas Twin Towers light up right next to us.
After all that fun, we were exhausted. So we took a quick nap before eating and heading out to a trendy, upscale bar called Skybar located on the 33rd floor of the Traders hotel to enjoy a drink while looking over the city.
Then we headed to a night club called Zouk, where we danced the night away to the bumping house music. Although most of the people in the club were Malaysian, most of the music was American!
And afterwards, what better way to cure the 3am munchies than some tasty satay from the night market!
KL was a fantastic energetic city. We had done so much in so little time, but we felt it was time to chill and take it easy. We heard about a nice place called the Cameron Highlands, so we bought a bus ticket, and we're back on the road!
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