Kuala Lumpur

After my dive trip, I planned on spending about 2 weeks in Malaysia, but knew that my interests lay more in Malaysian Borneo than the Peninsula... so I gave myself 2 days in Kuala Lumpur with Russell (who I met originally in Hanoi on the Halong Bay tour from hell), knowing that we'd cram a whole lot of sightseeing into a day and a half before he left for Indonesia with his French friend, Juliette.

Upon arriving in KL, I was immediately impressed with the ease of transportation, the modernity of the city and the relative cleanliness of the city. The other major Southeast Asian cities I had seen so far included Saigon, Hanoi, Phnom Penh, Vientiane and Bangkok - none of which has skyscrapers and shiny malls like KL does. The rain, the skytrain, the Starbucks and the over-the-top shopping malls all reminded me of home (or at least of Metrotown). I checked into a backpackery hostel with Russell and we took off right away for Chinatown, the Colonial District and some Indian food for dinner. Making sure we didn't waste any time, we also wandered through the posh Golden Triangle neighborhood looking for a Jazz bar among shops like Versace, Rolex, Prada and the Ritz Carleton Hotel. We didn't manage to find it and we had a hard time finding anywhere cheap to go for a drink seeing as the Muslim dominated government taxes alcohol severely, making liquor and beer prices higher than in most other southeast Asian countries. In any case, we wandered throughout the city until pretty late and managed to get up at a semi-decent hour the following day to do it all again.

We made sure to try Chinese cuisine as well (sampling food from each major ethnic group in the country, naturally) in between walks through Little India, Chinatown, Bukhit Bintang Neighborhood and over to the Parks area where the National Mosque and National Museums reside. Both were closed for lunch by the time we arrived, so we continued wandering before meeting Russell's friend Juliette back at the hostel. Once all 3 of us crammed into our 'Triple' room, we set off for the Chow Kit neighborhood, which supposedly has good Malay street kitchens. We got caught in a bit of a rainstorm but managed to find a place with a buffet set up of food and had some really nice peanut chicken satay. We hopped on a skytrain close to the suburban neighborhood and within minutes arrived at the KLCC station in the bottom of the famous Petronas towers.

Entering this shiny, flashy commercial world provided a stark contrast to the rainy, grungy neighborhood of street kitchens and corner stores we had just walked through. All 3 of us were blown away by the types of shops - all very American or British - as well as the architecture of the building itself. We took a ton of photos from all angles outside the building and grabbed a coffee at one of the two Starbucks locations in the mall. Knowing that Juliette and Russell had an early start the next morning to catch a flight, we headed back to our hotel via the ridiculous nightclub district, full of balding white expatriate men and a youngish Malay crowd.

I spent my last day in KL downing coffee and trying to ship a bunch of stuff home to lighten up my pack. I wandered over to the Islamic Arts Museum and the National Mosque once I had everything sorted out and was really impressed by the whole set up of the Islamic arts museum. The galleries were well organized and beautifully displayed, with some really interesting exhibits on Islamic Architecture and the spread of Islam to westernized countries, with the UK as the prime example. The mosque was a bit of an interesting experience, as they made me wear a giant Lord-of-the-rings-esque cloak with a hood before walking up the stairs to the entrance of the mosque. I wasn't allowed to actually go inside because it was prayer time, but I was able to walk around the complex, while I tried not to trip on my lovely lavender garb. In the evening I met up with another traveler I had met on the flight to KL and we splurged on a really great wheat-flour-full meal at the California Pizza Kitchen at KLCC. I have never eaten that much pasta ever. So good. We caught a movie at another massive shopping complex nearby - Seven Pounds, starring Will Smith (surprisingly good) - and I spent the rest of my night killing bedbugs and trying really hard not to think about them while I tried to get some rest.

On to Malaysian Borneo, the province of Sabah, for some jungles, scuba diving and caves next!