Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2

Day 20

Mason had work so I and Jon decided to go on a sightseeing tour around Kuala Lumpur together. Our first destination was Chinatown. We walked there from Masjid Jamek station. Masjid Jamek is a small but very beautiful mosque next to the station. In Chinatown we walked along Jalan Petaling which is said to be the main street in the area. Unfortunately it seems to serve more for tourists than for locals these days. But as we were hungry with Jon we found nice restaurant near the end of the covered part of the street which hosted only local customers. Jon’s skills in Chinese language were very helpful in this restaurant.

During eating we decided to visit next in Sri Mahamariamman Hindu temple. The temple was just short walk away from Jalan Petaling. This temple showed me clearly the difference between Hindu temples in Bali and in other parts of the world. And I love that you have to take shoes of in Hindu temple, it feels very good in hot weather. Some woman was celebrating her birthday in temple and she was offering free food for visitors. I had first some kind of porridge which drinkable but it didn’t almost anything. I was feeling full because we just had Chinese lunch and now the porridge but they already filled for me a cup of rice with beans. I didn’t like it because it tasted like coffee and I hate coffee. But it was very nice that they offered these foods for tasting. And I was certainly full after them.

Next we decided to go see the Masjid Negara, the national mosque of Malaysia. It wasn’t easy to find how to get there by foot because you had to cross river and big roads. Finally we found our way to the old railway station which is next to the mosque. This railway station is very beautiful and worth of visit. There was also some information about its history inside and it’s still in use even though it’s called old station. Then we walked to the mosque. There are strict visiting times for non-Muslims and we arrived just before one of the visiting times was starting. Jon was wearing too short shorts so he had to wear purple gown, my shorts were long enough so I didn’t get any special clothing. All female visitors were totally covered with gown and scarves and that was interesting because in other mosques I have visited in Egypt and Israel the clothing rules were not that strict. The mosque is modern and quite simple. The main praying hall has nice glass windows and there was also this smaller building with graves which was very peaceful part of the mosque. And I liked the spiky fountain outside of the mosque which was not working during our visit.

From mosque we went visit its neighbour the Islamic Arts Museum. Museum building is very nice and its collections are very interesting too. I think this must be the museum in Kuala Lumpur and I recommend visiting it very much. I especially liked the exhibition of miniature models of the most famous mosques in the world. Every exhibition room has amazing domes with careful decorations. From the museum we started to walk towards Merdeka Square which is the centre of Colonial District. Merdeka Square has huge flag of Malaysia and basically nothing else. Around it there were some nice buildings like Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Next we decided to go for a dinner in Little India. Finding an Indian restaurant in Little India turned out to be quite hard task. When we asked help people just told us keep on walking. We found many Malay food stalls and covered market street selling all kinds of useless stuff. Finally somebody pointed us to an Indian vegetarian restaurant which turned out to be very good place. We enjoyed our delicious meal and then headed back to Mason’s place after long day of walking.

Day 21

Mason was also working this day so I and Jon decided to go sightseeing together again. Our destination of the day was Batu Caves. Batu Caves has many Hindu temples but the most famous one is Temple Cave where you can enter after walking 272 steps. We took a train to the caves from Bank Negara station and the Batu Caves station is just next to the temples so it’s very easy to reach.

First there is a huge green statue of monkey god Hanuman greeting the visitors of the caves. After short walk you see the huge golden statue of god Murga for who the Temple Cave is dedicated to. The statue was partly in renovation during our visit. Before we decided to climb up the 272 stairs we had lunch in an Indian restaurant near the caves. I also had my first coconut milk fresh from coconut in here. Then we started to climb up the stairs. It was surprisingly easy task. I was little worried of it first because of the heat and my health problems but the climb went smoothly. Except there was one obstacle on the way: there is monkeys living in the caves and of them decided to stole my just bought big water bottle from my hand. And that monkey even knew how to open the bottle and started to drink from it. I was angry but at least other tourists got nice pictures. The Temple Cave was huge and cool but I was now scared of monkey attack. Well, they didn’t attack me again but against some stupid girls who started to eat their sandwiches near the monkeys. The girls got just what they deserved. What I liked most in the cave was a souvenir stall that was selling Hindu related stuff and one those items was a picture with non-stop Hindu song. The song echoed through whole cave and it was playing in my head the rest of the day and I can still remember it. There was also possibility to go visit other caves and get to know their fauna and flora. These tours are not free and it’s only possible to visit these other caves with guided tour. We didn’t go on the tour but it could be very interesting experience.

After the visit in Batu Caves I went back Mason’s place to rest but Jon continued his adventures in Kuala Lumpur alone.

Day 22

We spend the morning in home but we went for a lunch in Irish restaurant. I didn’t know before there could be Irish restaurants, only Irish pubs. After the lunch we walked around in Pavilion shopping centre and had ice cream. Then we went outside to have a walk in KLCC Park and took some pictures with Petronas Towers. That was basically all I did that day. My stay in Malaysia was very much about relaxing.