Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

With a long weekend available we decided to take a short trip to the capital city of Malaysia.  It seems odd that we now view a two hour plane ride as a short trip, however when you live as an expat this tends to hold true.  The city has 1.6 million people and while we have visited Malaysia before we have never visited the city and explored.

We had essentially two complete days to pack in as much as we could without overwhelming ourselves.  Day one began with our first stop at Batu Caves.  This was a very large limestone hill that has a series of caves and temples within.  The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India and dedicated to Lord Muruga.






Next we visited Central Market which was founded originally in 1888 as a wet market but later in 1980 converter to a handicraft market (home for various arts and crafts reflective of the city and culture).




Last to complete our day we visited Petaling Street which is where Chinatown is located in the city.  This definitely was a vibrant market at night and very familiar to us given our living experiences in China.  It had the typical "fake" products and a paradise for those which like to bargain for items of relatively low quality.




To start day two we visited Petronas Towers. Known as the Twin Towers they were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998 to 2004.  We ventured to the two observation decks and got to see the beautiful views of the city.  We are quickly accumulating visits to the tallest buildings in the world now seeing 8 of the top 11 I believe.




Next we visited the National Mosque of Malaysia.  Having a capacity of 15,000 people it is situated among 15 acres.  The key feature is a 16 pointed star roof which is not a typical design of a Mosque, looking like an opening umbrella.  Around the grounds are many reflecting pools and fountains which make it very beautiful among the marble floors.





Our next stop was Merdeka Square.  Within the city square the union flag was lowered and the Malaysian Flag hoisted for the first time in 1957.  While we were in the city an agricultural show was being conducted so we did not end up spending much time in the park area however we did get a photo of the "I Love KL" monument.




Lastly for the day we traveled to Little India.  Here there was wide streets with Indian stores and restaurants run by Malaysia's Indian community. Having just visited India it was nice to see the colorful fabrics and the smells of the wonderful food.


he morning before we headed to the airport we visited the Kuala Lumpur (KL) Tower.  This is a tall antenna tower that was constructed in 1995, where you can go to the top to view the city from an observation deck.





In summary we had a great trip exploring a new city and reinforcing how much we love Malaysia.  We embellished in many western restaurants reminding us of home and hope to one day visit Malaysia for a fourth time in the future!