Apologies, dear readers (or reader), for delaying this post for so long. After a night and a full day on the town, I have much to share in the way of photos, stories, and the like. As always, any photos that don't make it to the blog are available publicly on Picasa.
On Thursday night we embarked on our first visit to Kuala Lumpur, where we ate dinner at a revolving restaurant at the top of the Kuala Lumpur Tower.
As usual, the food was buffet style and gourmet. And, as usual, when such food is presented to me, I am compelled to indulge my love affair with it. Before almost eating myself sick, though, we took a turn about the observation deck, which affords a hazy view of the city.
After dinner, the bus took us to chinatown, which is rife with the usual crowded stalls selling knock-off Chanel purses and pirated DVDs. There was one reputable stall, however, that, most likely due to a box falling off a truck somewhere, was able to provide me with an absolutely and unquestionably genuine Rolex for about $25. Is it silver or platinum? You be the judge:
Saturday we boarded the bus again, this time for a full day of sight-seeing and tourist trapping. Our first destination was the king's palace. Malaysia has a ceremonial king much like its past colonial occupiers, the British. The kingship is traded between the sultans of nine of Malaysia's thirteen states (the others don't have sultans), each of which gets to be king for five years at a time. Yesterday was the welcoming ceremony for the new king, an event that thus happens once every five years.
There were maybe 200 soldiers marching (more than just the one group in the photo), which means the government probably had to call in the reserves to pull the whole thing off. Here's part the palace the new king gets to redecorate:
Next up is the largest Chinese temple in Malaysia. The facility is set on top of a big hill, and it's where the local Chinese residents go to register a marriage. I have better pictures of the building in the web album, but this photo I wanted to immortalize (excuse my ego).
Ah, two beaming newlyweds! Their infectious happiness made my jaw drop slightly into an "aww," and I had to take their picture. It reminded me of Erin, who I am missing quite a lot. Best of luck to you two, whoever you are!
I should include a group photo-op which we took just before leaving the temple, since it's the only one we took the whole week. A few of these people left today (Sunday), mostly for Ada. We had two more, but they left before our day excursion.
After that we went back into town to do some shopping and have lunch. On the way we saw the conflux of the Gombak and Klang rivers, where the city was founded in the 1850s. This mosque, located at the site, was calling people to prayer. The powerful, haunting voice of the woman who sang left a really strong impression on me. I wish I could offer you a recording, but sadly a picture is the best I can do.
Close by was the Royal Selangor pewter factory. Pewter is an alloy of tin, antimony, and copper, and can be easily cast, worked, and polished to a shine. Tin is the reason Kuala Lumpur was founded, and was the basis for its economy for a long time. We took a tour of the factory, and when they (predictably) dropped us in the gift shop I picked up a gorgeous pewter shot glass (about the only thing I could afford, though I may head back for the self-sealing tea cozy if I end up with some spare cash). Here's a shot (no pun intended) of me downing one, with a beer chaser ready and waiting:
After inhaling an unhealthy amount of tin dust, we rode out of town to the Batu Caves, which contain primarily three things: Hindu shrines, lots of steps, and monkeys. This was by far my favorite visit of the day, and not only because of the sweat-drenching stair-climb:
The cave was beautiful. With spots like that to set up a temple, it's hard not to be religious.
Plus there were monkeys! Tina bought a bunch of bananas to feed them, but one cheeky monkey ran up and stole them all. Silly monkey!
After the caves and the lovely smell of your own sweat combined with that of bat guano, we saw a batik painting facility. Batik is a traditional art whereby a pattern is painted on fabric in paraffin wax, and then water-based dyes are soaked into the fabric. The wax keeps the dyes in the lines, and is dissolved off using a solvent once the dye has set. Imagine a beautiful paint-by-the-numbers kit that you can wear:
Finally, since we were all tired, it was time for two hours of shopping at Kuala Lumpur's busiest and most expensive mall, directly below the Twin Towers. Six floors of conspicuous consumption, American style! Don't get me wrong though: if I made upwards of $500,000 a year, the convenience of having Dunhill, Louis Vitton, Coach, and Rolex stores all in one place would be like a dream come true. But, alas, Paul and I resigned ourselves to eating at Chili's.
And so the night ended. I have yet to get a great photo of the twin towers, which I apologize for not doing. It's true, we were there, but right underneath is not exactly showing off any skyscraper's good side, photographically speaking. To make it up to you I offer you this photo of a billboard outside the chinese temple:
On Thursday night we embarked on our first visit to Kuala Lumpur, where we ate dinner at a revolving restaurant at the top of the Kuala Lumpur Tower.
As usual, the food was buffet style and gourmet. And, as usual, when such food is presented to me, I am compelled to indulge my love affair with it. Before almost eating myself sick, though, we took a turn about the observation deck, which affords a hazy view of the city.
After dinner, the bus took us to chinatown, which is rife with the usual crowded stalls selling knock-off Chanel purses and pirated DVDs. There was one reputable stall, however, that, most likely due to a box falling off a truck somewhere, was able to provide me with an absolutely and unquestionably genuine Rolex for about $25. Is it silver or platinum? You be the judge:
Saturday we boarded the bus again, this time for a full day of sight-seeing and tourist trapping. Our first destination was the king's palace. Malaysia has a ceremonial king much like its past colonial occupiers, the British. The kingship is traded between the sultans of nine of Malaysia's thirteen states (the others don't have sultans), each of which gets to be king for five years at a time. Yesterday was the welcoming ceremony for the new king, an event that thus happens once every five years.
There were maybe 200 soldiers marching (more than just the one group in the photo), which means the government probably had to call in the reserves to pull the whole thing off. Here's part the palace the new king gets to redecorate:
Next up is the largest Chinese temple in Malaysia. The facility is set on top of a big hill, and it's where the local Chinese residents go to register a marriage. I have better pictures of the building in the web album, but this photo I wanted to immortalize (excuse my ego).
Ah, two beaming newlyweds! Their infectious happiness made my jaw drop slightly into an "aww," and I had to take their picture. It reminded me of Erin, who I am missing quite a lot. Best of luck to you two, whoever you are!
I should include a group photo-op which we took just before leaving the temple, since it's the only one we took the whole week. A few of these people left today (Sunday), mostly for Ada. We had two more, but they left before our day excursion.
After that we went back into town to do some shopping and have lunch. On the way we saw the conflux of the Gombak and Klang rivers, where the city was founded in the 1850s. This mosque, located at the site, was calling people to prayer. The powerful, haunting voice of the woman who sang left a really strong impression on me. I wish I could offer you a recording, but sadly a picture is the best I can do.
Close by was the Royal Selangor pewter factory. Pewter is an alloy of tin, antimony, and copper, and can be easily cast, worked, and polished to a shine. Tin is the reason Kuala Lumpur was founded, and was the basis for its economy for a long time. We took a tour of the factory, and when they (predictably) dropped us in the gift shop I picked up a gorgeous pewter shot glass (about the only thing I could afford, though I may head back for the self-sealing tea cozy if I end up with some spare cash). Here's a shot (no pun intended) of me downing one, with a beer chaser ready and waiting:
After inhaling an unhealthy amount of tin dust, we rode out of town to the Batu Caves, which contain primarily three things: Hindu shrines, lots of steps, and monkeys. This was by far my favorite visit of the day, and not only because of the sweat-drenching stair-climb:
The cave was beautiful. With spots like that to set up a temple, it's hard not to be religious.
Plus there were monkeys! Tina bought a bunch of bananas to feed them, but one cheeky monkey ran up and stole them all. Silly monkey!
After the caves and the lovely smell of your own sweat combined with that of bat guano, we saw a batik painting facility. Batik is a traditional art whereby a pattern is painted on fabric in paraffin wax, and then water-based dyes are soaked into the fabric. The wax keeps the dyes in the lines, and is dissolved off using a solvent once the dye has set. Imagine a beautiful paint-by-the-numbers kit that you can wear:
Finally, since we were all tired, it was time for two hours of shopping at Kuala Lumpur's busiest and most expensive mall, directly below the Twin Towers. Six floors of conspicuous consumption, American style! Don't get me wrong though: if I made upwards of $500,000 a year, the convenience of having Dunhill, Louis Vitton, Coach, and Rolex stores all in one place would be like a dream come true. But, alas, Paul and I resigned ourselves to eating at Chili's.
And so the night ended. I have yet to get a great photo of the twin towers, which I apologize for not doing. It's true, we were there, but right underneath is not exactly showing off any skyscraper's good side, photographically speaking. To make it up to you I offer you this photo of a billboard outside the chinese temple:
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