MALAYSIA - 4 M’s - MOSQUES, MONKEYS, MALLS, & MARKETS

Dec 5

DAY 47 – DEC 1 – BANKGKOK, THAILAND TO KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Got up early, caught the sunrise over Bangkok from my 15th floor balcony. My balcony overlooked the Lebua Sky Bar building, pretty cool.

My friend Tina left Arizona to meet me so long ago, flew to San Francisco – then Hong Kong – and she arrives 1 hr 45 min before me to KL – then an hour cab to our hotel.

We met at the airport, cabbed an hour to Bukit Bintang – checked in and walked over to Jalon Alor street food market. Loved the energy, had a great meal while catching up. Came back home to a spectacular view from our place overlooking the twin towers and an incredible skyline.

That’s a wrap for day 1 KL.

DAY 48 – DEC 2 – KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

I had a few things for us to check off on the agenda today. First up was the Federal Territory Mosque. We ended up spending probably 3 hours there. What an absolute education. We spent our time with a woman named Maz, a full education about the Muslim community.

The mosque was grand and palatial. Absolutely stunning facility, lovely people – was a great experience to learn about it and then witness an actual Muslim prayer session. Wow, the amount of dedication, commitment, time, and effort it takes to be a devout Muslim seems all consuming. Was quite an eye-opener.

From there we caught a Grab to Berjaya Times Square, went through the mall. It was a low-end mall with super thrifty finds. My suitcase is beginning to burst. Each place I buy a little something and I am running out of space, good thing I only have 3 countries left to go!

I absolutely wanted to see KLCC Park at night. Biggest treat for me!! It was a beautiful park – a central park type feel in the business center of Kuala Lumpur. The water fountain feature performed a water show while blasting ‘We are the World’. For me this was particularly heart-warming as I had just watched the documentary of the making of this song in Bangkok. It was fresh in my mind and a great high school memory for me. A massive Christmas tree prob 100 feet tall beside the water feature, and the twin towers beside us. Magical moment!

KLCC also has a massive mall, so we walked through the mall. I found a long leopard print pencil skirt at a local designer shop, only one on the rack, my size – a very cool find.

We went home to drop our bags, freshen up and went back to Jalan Alor street food for dinner. Such good food!! Last night we shared chicken in coconut milk and morning glory. My favorites! Tonight, I had sweet and sour chicken, which was chicken, pineapple, and veggies in a sweet and sour sauce, so good! And a glass of Pinot Grigio which was surprisingly quite good.

On our way home, we stopped for an hour massage. I did half feet, half thai body massage. My girl sucked, ugh… so depends who you get!

Home by midnight, ended up talking on the phone with Jorg till 2:30am – loving our chats lately!! Another great travel day.

DAY 49 – DEC 3 – KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Today was a tour day. I had pre-booked a 10 hour tour, but did not realize it was a private car tour for the 2 of us. Our guy, Nantha picked us up at our hotel.

The day started with Batu Caves. 272 steps to the top in humid heat was interesting. What a beautiful site. These sacred places have a dress code, and we are usually clothed with a sarong at the very least at all of these type stops. The caves are old temples so dress code is in effect.

Walking up, we saw numerous monkeys. Then inside the massive, gorgeous caves we saw many more monkeys living their best life! I even saw one male monkey lift a female’s tail, smell her privates – then proceed to go behind her and mate for all to see. A little intimate to witness the entire process, I got the tail end of it on video lol.

Walking down, we saw so many monkeys eating and playing. We even saw mom monkeys with babies hanging off of them. Incredible to be so close to them. Life is such a miracle.

We visited parks, the current King’s Palace, Independence Square, another Mosque, a Chinese temple, Chinatown, Center Market and a cool local lunch spot called Pak Jen.

We went to the top of the Twin Towers. Quite amazing, and surprising to see that a population of only 2 Million has such a vast skyline! Skyscrapers for miles in every direction.

We arrived back home by 5pm, went to the rooftop pool for a cold swim. It was a hot day, but cloudy so the water felt cold, but very cool to swim in an infinity pool overlooking the KL skyline. Beautiful!

I needed to do some work (yes I’m working the whole time I am out here) – so I bought an ichiban cup with some chips, I had sticky rice in the fridge and I stayed home to work with a million dollar view. Tina went out to grab some street food and a little more shopping.

We packed up our things, ready for our last sleep in KL.

PICS BELOW

1 Tina has arrived, with me now until I come home

2-11 Jalon Alor area - street food - massage - and showing different currencies me trying to keep it straight

12 waking up with a view of Kuala Lumpur skyline with my coffee and sesame seed naan I bought the night before

13 walking the streets, just having fun.. massive lipstick outside a store

14-24 Federal Territory Mosque with our new friend Maz. witnessed a prayer service. pics of lunch and dinner in there too and our massage late at night

25 match matchy bracelets

26-28 local babies, driving, and pics walking around

29-39 Batu Caves with tons of monkeys, temple rituals, etc.. one pic of a Myanmar person and a maimed young child laying in front of him begging for money. We saw a lot of this so we asked our driver. He explained, this is the Myanmar mafia forcing people to do this for money. Not sure why the children are so maimed but it was heartbreaking to see this all over the streets. last pic is with a bride taking her wedding photos

40 lunch at a local cheap yummy spot

41-43 view from the top of the Twin Towers. blurry pic of a full elevator that wouldn’t let us on lol and a super cool guy I randomly met at the top of twin towers, on his honeymoon from india living in winnipeg and has heard of Grand Palms RV Resort and will come out to see us this summer

44 swimming in our infinity pool at the top of our hotel in KL