Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!

Hello from Malaysia!

I really like KL. The city is a mix of old and new, traditional and modern, and is considered a fast-changing super-city. KL is divided into several districts including a China Town and Little India. We are staying in an area called Chow Kit which isn't the nicest, but it's close to the metro so it's great for that! Also, it is SO HOT here. Since we are much closer to the equator now, I can definitely feel the sun beating down on me each day, and I am def wearing sunscreen. It's not rainy season here, so we have been dry for a few days! It actually didn't rain too much in Thailand and Cambodia considering it's monsoon season, I guess.

This is where our hostel is located. The manager said he rarely encounters Americans here, and right now we are def the only ones staying here.

The People:

Malaysia is home to 50% Malays, 38% Chinese, and 10% Indian. It's quite spectacular to see the Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians all living together in harmony. I feel like I could people watch (from a location with A/C of course) all day here. Islam in Malaysia today is relatively liberal. Many women wear headscarves, but there are only some in veils and some in the full garmet where you can only see their eyes. Since it's pretty progressive here, they also have all sorts of interesting clothing combinations. I saw one girl around my age with a bedazzled/sparkly headscarf, Gucci sunglasses, and a nice bag! I don't blame her for dressing up like that. Once you are in the shopping district of KL, it's over. There are hundreds of designers from Europe and Japan, and I just want to buy everything here. (I'm not, though!)

Even though it's more progressive, everyone still dresses very conservatively compared to what we are used to, so we are not wearing any of our little dresses here. Instead, I always make sure my knees are covered, and my shoulders too when I can withstand the heat! Everyone already stares at us a lot here, so we don't need anymore unwanted attention. At least most people smile and say hello! We definitely feel very out of place, though. We haven't seen a ton of tourists yet, but maybe that's because we take public transportation everywhere and are staying in a semi-random area? The Ritz-Carlton is several metro stops away. ;)

The Food:

To be honest, we haven't had too much of the local cuisine yet. It's hard when there seems to be just as many Western food options everywhere! They really like McDonalds and Pizza Hut here. There is also Coffee Bean, Starbucks, and a local chain. I could go on and on about all the similar foods they have. Yesterday for lunch we ate at Pastamania which was packed with locals, btw. They were playing American music like Kanye West too which I found amusing. There is also Michael Jackson music played everywhere here.

Last night, we ate at a local vegetarian Indian restaurant, and it was so good (and much more authentic finally!) We had naan with a masala and 1 other dish I cannot name. Our entire meal was $5 each, including drink, so it wasn't too bad. It's obviously cheaper to eat at the street stalls (like we did in Thailand) but I cannot figure out what anything is here?! There is a mix of traditional Malaysian cuisine, Chinese, and Indian. I'm just doing my best to avoid things with meat. Tonight we are going to explore China Town!

Also, they love to put chili sauce on everything here, and I love it! It's not as spicy as Siracha and it's a bit sweeter, so it goes really well with sandwiches, french fries, noodles, etc.

The Sights:

We took a Hop on Hop off tourist bus yesterday (and used our expired student IDs for a 50% discount) to see all of KL. It's just like it sounds, and you can get on and off the bus at any of the various 23 stops along the way. The entire circuit takes about 2 1/2 hours if you stay on it. We got off at several stops to explore!

The Petronas Twin Towers are a sight to see! They are SO HUGE! I don't remember the exact dimensions, but they are well over 1,000 ft high and the tallest twin towers in existence. (Dubai has them on the tallest building.) The architecture is really beautiful too. They stand out by day and by night. Tomorrow we plan to take the elevators to the bridge that connects them to see the view.

In between the towers is the magnificent KL City Center which boasts over 50 acres of shopping and restaurants! I will be heading back there tomorrow to "browse" Topshop and other trendy stores. :) We actually found an even bigger mall (and better than South Coast Plaza) on the way. I know there are over 2 million people in KL, but do they really purchase all this stuff? Maybe it's big for tourists too, like me! I wish San Diego had some of these qualities! Haha.

We were going to go atop the 5th tallest communication tower in the world, "KL Tower, so we could see a great view of KL, but it was $10/person, and that didn't fit in with our daily backpacker's budget, so we just browsed the area and moved on.

Today we explored the "Batu Caves." I'm proud of us because we took the local city bus to get there and back which saves a TON of money on taxis. We haven't had to take any of those here yet which is a nice break from all their scams.

At the caves, you have to climb 272 stairs to get to them, and adjacent to the stairs is a very large Hindu figure of some sort. Inside there are several Hindu temples where you can worship. We took pictures and got a bit distracted by the monkies. They were everywhere inside the caves! No bats here. Just monkeys who want to steal your food. I kept my distance after one of them jumped on me in Thailand last year!

Tomorrow is our last day in KL and then we are off to Hanoi, our final stop together. Sad. I hear Vietnam is spectacular so you will be hearing from me again soon! Miss you all!