Tahoe Johnson’s Journey to Southeast Asia

Pictures Notes:  Ferry coming in the day we were diving —  we could leave the island the next morning! Kuala Lumpur Welcome center with Petronas Towers in back; Sultan’s Palace grounds; National Islamic Mosque (stylized after Mecca); Obama’s face on money changer stall; a monkey-crossing sign ( a change from the bears!); pictures of family taking an “art” break at Petronas Towers.  Josh – well he was just chilling (I think the 4 days of all day diving lessons had done him in); Annika very happy to have a pancake with chocolate on it; Annika feeding birds in an aviary.

 

    

The trip to Kuala Lumpur required: a 2 hour ferry ride (quite uneventful), 2.5 hour sitting around bus station, and 5 hour bus ride.  To go from an island back to the bustling big city was a rude awakening.   The KL traffic was more much congested than Singapore and getting dropped off at the main bus depot was a bit overwhelming: capitalism at its best – probably 30 different bus organizations, hundreds of hawker stalls, people everywhere  – loud, busy, and of course dirty.  After we got our bearings, we walked to China Town (couple of blocks) and stayed at another backpacker hostel. We were complete sweat hogs by the time we made it to the hostel. (We make quite a sight. We look like a family of ducklings -one parent in front and one in the back with the “ducklings” in between, each pulling their own bag.) It was evening, so not much to do except we tried the local Chinese cuisine (see fish picture next blog).

For sightseeing, there is aHop On-Hop Off Tourist Bus – you can get on anytime within a 24 hour period and it follows a 22 stop route around KL hitting all the major sights.  According to the guide books, wait times were no more than 10-15 minutes and there were headsets in the seats to give you a dialogue of the city. A great idea, but waits were more like 30 minutes and headsets did not work.   Highlights were:  seeing the city skyline (which really has grown only in the last 10 years) – old colonial buildings, largest free flight bird aviary in the world (Annika in heaven). Josh and Natasha did not want to go (plus costly) so Tim and kids sat in the outdoor restaurant catching up on internet  while birds would fly up to your table and beg for food – the 3 ft hornbill was incredible.

Islamic Art Museum:

Incredible display of Islamic writings in the Chinese, Arab, and Indian historical periods, calligraphy styles (Josh kind of enjoyed that), weaponry, incredible textiles from different periods (textiles and silks – large part of the trading history), Korans from all ages and the beautiful drawings, calligraphy, and gold embossing that went with it.  One prayer book was only 1 inch by one inch with the full writings – go figure how the artist wrote that one.  There were small scale models of different mosques around the world . 

Petronas Towers:

You all have probably seen them in James Bond movies or others.  They are a marvel to behold.  It was quite an engineering feat  See pictures of next blog.  The building is the headquarters for the gas and oil company called Petronas.  We took the tour that takes you up to the bridge that connects the towers on the 46th floor. Only employess can access the towers. It also holds an incredible music hall for the royal Malaysian philharmonic.  Attached to the towers is a six story mall full of high end stores.  We splurged here on dinner since the kids were really ready for a break from Malaysian hawker stall food. Found a Californian Pizza Kitchen (!) – paid an arm and a leg – but kids were happy (no more whole fish) Got a window seat overlooking the Petronas Towers Fountain and Park.  Good day but again very busy and late in getting to bed.  In order to catch up on picture blogs, writings, searching web for future travel plans – it is around 1am before Tim and Natalie finally call it quits. (So some things haven’t changed:)

Batik at Cultural Center:

(Natalie here) This was the highlight of my day, of course! We all learned how to batik at a local crafts center. They provided all the materials and you could sit there as long as you wanted and work on it. Sort of like our paint-your-own-pottery stores. We spent at least 2 hours there and everyone really enjoyed it.

Grafitti Artist:

We looked up grafitti in KL and came across a young artist who had a studio not too far from us in Chinatown. We went to see the studio, where they had a lot of “grafitti-style” art on canvas painted by young artists just starting out. We actually got to meet the owner of the studio. He “writes” under the name “They” (odd, I know) He was so friendly and curious to talk to Josh about grafitti in the US and Malaysia. He’s actually been chosen to be part of a cultural arts exchange to New York next month. He offered to take Josh out that night and paint! But Josh wasn’t too sure about it – a little intimidated, I think. And I wasn’t sure how we’d handle it. Tim or I could have gone with them, but they don’t leave until 11:00 at night, and I wasn’t exactly sure whether grafitti artists are viewed as criminals or not! But it was definitely a chance to see something beyond the tourist path!

We’re heading up to Cameron Highlands, which is 3000 ft. in the mountains of central Malaysia and looking forward to being cool for awhile. More later…

Tags: Travel

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