Kuala Lumpur

After 4-5 days in Penang it was time to take the 5 hr bus ride to the big city...Kuala Lumpur...which isn't so big really. At 2-3 million people it's 1/8th the size of Bangkok and only a couple of times bigger than Ottawa.

The bus ride takes you through some moderate height hills with lush rain forest along a modern 4 to 6 lane divided highway. This was the eve of Chinese New Year and the stream of cars coming North out of KL was like leaving Toronto on a summer long weekend.

Beautifully manicured road side stops along the freeway...you almost think you are on the 401 from TO to Mtl. Malaysia has a much more developed feel to it than Thailand, more 'modern' in its infrastructure and this is especially apparent as you roll into KL...fancy suburbs, modern roads, more cars than motorcycles, and of course it's skyline with the twin towers (see the photo of the Petronas Towers) that we've all seen so often (they really are impressive looking...esp at night).

We're embedded in a small-ish hotel on the edge of Chinatown and Little India. It's much like Penang where I described in more detail the crazy mix of Chinese, Indian, Malay with the presence of mosques, temples (Chinese taoist, and buddhist, and hindu) and churches often in the same block.

When visiting the Taoist temple, a Chinese women (currently living in Australia) chatted with us, explaining the tradition for their New Year and welcoming us into the temple. Another day, when we were strolling through the Chinese market, a teenage Indian girl started chatting with us as well - she was so friendly and inquisitive. We were touring a Hindu temple the following day, we met this girl again - this time with questions about Christianity. I would love to see her again before we leave..... We also had a nice opportunity to visit the new main mosque and speak with a woman there who was very open to telling us all about the Muslim faith, Islam. Lori had to don a purple robe as can be seen in the photo.

On the corner outside of our hotel is a hindu temple which is very busy day and night and bonus to us, a couple of ultra cheapo Indian curry houses right beside. We're getting into the Indian breakfast scene now...Roti's (kind of like crepes) with curry sauces....tearing the roti apart with the right hand and dipping it into the sauce. ...num num.

Ahhh yes, and let's not forget that John's hair (not having been cut since before we left O-town) braved the quick, scissor-wielding hands of the local Indian barber and survived...although we both were a bit hesitant once he sat in the chair and the hair started to fly!

It's Chinese new year but the downside of that is more than half of the shops in chinatown are shutdown and it's quieter than usual. Luckily there are lots of things to do in the city...Islamic art museum, temples and mosques to peak at, the Petronas towers to gaulk at, even a cinema where we took in our first movie in months... InkHeart...at a cost of 3.5$ per ticket.

A large park on the edge of town has a huge aviary....much of it covered over with netting up to 60 feet high with all manner of birds (parrots, lovebirds, Lorybirds!!! (see photo re: the chattering Lorybird), songbirds flying around freely). The larger tropical birds for some reason need to be in pens (the Hornbills...the most amazing birds we've ever seen, Toucans, Cockatoos, Mccaws, etc. There are peacocks wandering around freely all over the place as well as flamingoes, egrets and other water based birds. There is a show where they take a few Maccaws and have them do tricks (riding a mini-bike, going down a mini slide, watching a human play a shell game and seemingly always to pick the right dish which has the shell under it!!). Definitely worth a visit.

Our days mostly consist of getting up late (because we seem to be staying up later), wandering around to a roadside food stall, having b'fast, going to see a few sites, wandering around the ethnic neighbourhood of the day (Indian, Chinese, Malay), maybe taking in 1 museum or attraction, then finding some other roadside style cafe and chowing down a dinner and collapsing of exhaustion back in bed. It's hard work let me tell ya!

We can't stop talking about the heat enough!....During the afternoon the sun feels like its going to boil you alive and you just have to get relief somewhere for awhile to cool your core down. Luckily there is lots of AC around whether it be a shopping mall, museum, or back to the hotel for an hour or two. One afternoon, we were taking a break resting on the stairs in Independence Square when a man asked if we would take his picture (as he was alone) and a conversation began. A sweet man from India who has been working here for 8 years - his wife and son are in India. He shared his chocolate and peanuts while we chatted. His English was limited and unfortunately, we do not speak Punjab so we parted ways when the rain began.

So it's our 4th day here in KL and Lori has come down with a flu, weak, achy, etc so John is going crazy writing blog updates between darting back to the room to see if his wonderful wifey is OK. Luckily we have HBO TV in the room (this is our first TV in weeks) to keep my little movie addict occupied. Good thing Lori's husband is such a electronic fanatic ;)

We had a wonderful telephone call with Belinda, Andre, Nicolas and Timothy - it was so great to hear their voices - unfortunately, our Skype connection died :( We look forward to another opportunity soon.

The next stop is obviously Melaka a couple more hours to the south...but after that...where to go we don't know. Do we see more of the Malaysian Peninsula , skip over to Malaysian Borneo, Go to NZ/Oz, or cut out NZ/Oz completely and start heading back to the west again via India? We have some soul searching to do. Heading to NZ/Oz delays getting to India by a month or so and by then will it be as hot there as it is here?....that could be too hot...and besides, isn't it a bit ridiculous to go to NZ/Oz for only a month or so?