2 days in Kuala Lumpur (KL)

Flying out in the wee morning hours from Abu Dhabi (3am to be precise) we traveled to KL for a 2 day stopover. We stayed there with Anand, our Malaysian friend from Northwestern. Much of the time, he was quite busy - but we did get to spend some time with his family, which was quite fun. Like him, they are an outgoing, charismatic bunch.

Last time we were in KL, we stayed in a hotel downtown, and never really ventured out much into the city. This was mainly due to lack of time, energy, and knowledge - at the end of our trip last year, we just did not have much will left to go out and explore. So, we left the city with a lackluster opinion.

This time, we stayed in a real neighborhood, and did some real exploration of the city. We also ate some good food (traditional southern Indian, Malay, Japanese, American), which is always a plus.

One neat thing we did was to take a tour of "old" KL. Anand is thinking of starting a tour business, so he offered us a free private tour with his potential tour guide, Leroy, in return for our feedback. We gladly accepted :)

The city is not old - 200 years, if you go WAY back, but it has only been a true city for 100+. It is not an ancient city, but rather a colonial city, inhabited first by Chinese immigrants and their Malay landlords. So we wandered through what is left of the original Chinatown, and subsequent British-controlled colonial KL. We learned some interesting stories, and walked...a lot.

That afternoon, we went to the theatre to take in our annual Chinese movie - we cannot watch Chinese films in China, because there are no subtitles...but in Malaysia, they do. Unfortunately, the theatre was packed, so even though we bought tickets 2 hours ahead, we were stuck in the front row (they sell individual seats, like a sports event, so it is not first-come-first-serve). It was ironic, because the film, 14 Blades, was filmed in Mandarin but shown in Malaysia dubbed into Cantonese.

The next day, we toured some of KL's green spaces, starting with the Bird Park. There was a host of tropical birds all fluttering around. Thankfully, we were not pooped on - though the mosquitoes feasted on our bare legs. Bug spray would have been wise.

Here is one bird that sounded more like a dying cat:

From there, we traveled through some gardens and headed towards the Islamic Art Museum. Rachel marveled at the sky all day.

And of course, no trip to SE Asia is complete without monkeys.

The museum was of high quality. Rachel especially likes Islamic geometric patterns, which are a mainstay of their art.

From there, we went out to lunch - our last hurrah at Chili's - and off to the airport. The ride home was a little crazy - the AirAsia flight crew had some trouble controlling the rambunctious Chinese crowd (generally loud and noncompliant with "remain seated" requests). But we were in the relatively quiet front section of the plane, and we were home before we knew it.

So KL round 2 was MUCH more pleasant. Now, I think it is a fine city.

-alan