Malaysia

After spending a couple of days in Singapore, we hopped on a short flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We quickly settled, enjoyed some awesome Turkish food and began the Malaysian leg of our vacation. Here are a few of the highlights.

We went to Batu Caves, a Hindu shrine, near the city.

Travis and I posing before climbing the stairs. 

We climbed 272 stairs to get to the top, and it was oh so hot!

The inside was pretty neat, but it was really dirty. I was a bit shocked considering it's a revered religious site, but there were heaps of trash laying around and wild monkeys and chickens wandering. Oh, and there was a guy with a python. EWWWwww...

Here is one of the many monkeys we saw while visiting Batu Caves. We saw a ton of monkeys throughout the trip.

After visiting Batu Caves, we made friends with a taxi driver who agreed to take us to our next destination, a nature park with several waterfalls. We spent a couple of hours hiking around and playing in some natural waterfalls. Not a rough way to spend a day.

The waterfalls were quite impressive. 

We played in this one for quite a while. The water was freezing, though.

On the way back down, we stopped to feed a crowd of monkeys.

After returning to Kuala Lumpur, we managed to find one of my favorite stores, Forever 21. There are no Forever 21 stores in Nagoya yet, so I was absolutely thrilled! It was the biggest one I've ever seen, too. 

I could have been there for hours.

We stumbled upon a great Raggae Bar in Chinatown. The music was great, and it brought back sweet Jamaica memories for me. Bob Marley will always have a special place in my heart. I heard about three of his most famous songs twenty times per day for a week during our honeymoon. :)

And finally, here are our vacation buddies, Chris and Jessica! We had such an amazing time together. I'm so grateful for the memories we made on this trip. Definitely the beginning of a lifelong friendship.

Malaysia and Singapore are well-known for durian, also known as the stinky fruit. Chris and Jessica ate it the night before we arrived in Singapore so Travis and I were anxious to try it. Chris described it as having a "spiral-perm-kind-of taste." And, I must say, he was pretty much right on.

I actually kind of liked it. It reminded me of an extremely sweet cantaloupe. The texture reminded me a little bit of a mango, but it was more slimy and stringy.

We really enjoyed the tea in Malaysia. It was super sweet  and delicious. This picture of Chris and Jessica was taken at a little hawker stall. We told a taxi driver we wanted to eat the best satay, and he dropped us off here. We were a little nervous since there were absolutely no tourists there, which is actually usually a good sign, and lots of cats were roaming around. But, I'd have to say his recommendation was perfect. We enjoyed some amazing satay. The funniest part, though, was when we asked what kinds of satay we were eating. The waiter knew a little English and told us, "Chicken and meat." So, we asked him what kind of meat we were eating to which he responded, "Meat." Oh, right... We tried a couple of more times to figure it out, and then we just gave up. Perhaps it was cat? 

The Petronas  Towers in Kuala Lumpur are awesome. Really beautiful buildings that certainly make Kuala Lumpur's skyline spectacular. Another sidenote to add, Al Jazeera has an office inside, which brings me to another topic.

We were told by a few locals that Malaysia is 70 percent Muslim. By the way, I have not verified that statistic, but I know it was around 60 percent in 2000, so it seems about right to me. I had never been to a predominantly Muslim country before so it was certainly eye opening. We saw many women wearing burqas, and many of them only had their eyes exposed. Even the bridges of their noses were sometimes covered. The most interesting scene was around the pool where the women would sit quietly near the pool in full burqa while their husbands enjoyed the water. Let's remember that it was 100+ degrees outside. Not. Fair.

Also, I think Kuala Lumpur has been experiencing a rise in fundamentalism  as well. As a result, we had to walk through metal detectors every time we entered our hotel. Additionally, all vehicles had to be searched for explosives. I didn't feel uncomfortable or unsafe for some reason, but the experience was a first for me.

We spent another night traveling to a neighboring town called, Kuala Selangor. We took a van taxi there, and wow, the ride was interesting. It was extremely curvy and the setup of the van required two of us to sit backwards. I don't struggle with motion sickness, but even I was beginning to turn a little green. 

Alas, we survived. We went to a seafood restaurant on the river for dinner. The food was okay, but not the best we enjoyed and unfortunately the most expensive. By the way, by expensive, I mean around $12/person. Not exactly expensive, but for Malaysia it was a little pricey. 

After we left the restaurant, Travis decided to inform us that we dined with an enormous rat the entire time. I guess I was kind of glad I didn't know beforehand because I would have been freaking out, but still! 

Our main motive in traveling to Kuala Selangor was a nighttime firefly cruise, and it was certainly worth the long and treacherous van ride. We boarded a nice wooden boat and enjoyed an hour-long cruise along a river lined with trees filled with fireflies. It was amazing. Felt like Christmas, but it was much greener if you know what I mean. No electric lights here. Just trees lit by thousands of fireflies. Awesome.

When booking our hotel, we found a really great deal. And, I thought I would just ask for a room with a great view of the Petronas Towers for kicks. It never hurts to ask.

This is the view we awakened to each morning from our corner room on the 22nd floor. We also had a corner window and could see the KL Tower as well. I was impressed. And just think, all I had to do was ask.

And, my favorite part of Kuala Lumpur might have been our hotel's pool. It was amazing. In Japan pools are rare, and if you find them they are packed full of rugrats. So, we spent several hours enjoying the amazing pool, which included a swim-up bar. 

Well, that does it for our Malaysia re-cap. If you're traveling to Kuala Lumpur soon, let me know. I'd love to give you some recommendations.