In the middle of last week, John and I decided to pay a last minute to visit Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. KL is the capital city of Malaysia and is about a five hour bus ride from Singapore. Our goal was to have been in five countries this year and Malaysia makes five:) Just in time for December! Even though our trip was last minute, we had quite the adventure…
…our trip started out with us taking a late bus from Singapore slated to arrive in KL in the middle of the night. This part of the trip was fairly uneventful and actually quite nice–it was a great chance to sleep on the way. We were greeted in KL not at a bus stop, as we anticipated, but, instead in the middle of the street by a barage of cab drivers all with umbrellas. They were pressing so hard to get to the door of the bus, that a few of the umbrellas (and those holding them) seemed to be hit by the bus! After some haggling in the rain, we finally found a cab to take us to our hotel.
The hotel was fabulous…very clean and the staff was extremely courteous. It reminded me of being back in the southeastern US! Our room even came equiped with instructions on how to use the toilet. Check them out:)
Don't forget to read the instructions:)
The next morning, we woke up and decided to head to the Batu Caves, a limestone cave series about 13 km from KL that serves as a series of Hindu temples that honor Lord Murugan, a Hindu deity. In fact, the world’s largest statue of Murugan guards the cave at 42 m tall. It is quite the sight! We also got some great videos. They are of some of the rituals we were lucky enough to catch. One of the videos documents the musicians throughout the ceremony and the other, a Hindu priest (we presume) “feeding” the spear, what we believe is a representation of the God. If you notice, the statue is holding the same spear.
Me with my coconut in front of the God.
John at the bottom of the 272 steps leading to the caves!
The videos of the Hindu rituals, John talking to a duck (it quacked back), John chasing a chicken, a monkey trying to escape from his cage, and a hilarious bar band….will be posted on Facebook until I figure out how to post them on the blog:)
After leaving the cave, we decided to check out “Cave Villa,” a touristy attraction conveniently located next to the caves. We didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into, but, it was cheap and we thought it would make a good story, so, of course we went. Our first experience here was feeding the fish. (We have the video of this). These Koi are much like carp back in the US…they will swim on top of each other (and sometimes out of the water) to get the food they want. And, they are hilarious to watch. Check out our video on Facebook:) Next, we walked into a “Cave of Virtues” which consisted of cave paintings illustrating Hindu proverbs, only half of which had English explanations next to them. The rest were in Tamil (which, surprise, neither of us speak:) It was fun trying to figure out exactly what they were trying to illustrate though. John and I can be very creative.
At the end of this cave was the entrance to another section of the cavern containing a reptile exhibit with over 400 species of frogs, lizards, turtles, and, yes, snakes. If you know me well, you know that I have an immense fear of snakes. Or should I say, had? I come by it honestly, my mother shares the same thoughts. So, you can imagine my reaction when our sweet Malay tour guide informed us that he had the top four poisonous snakes in the world in his collection. Keep in mind we’re in the middle of a cave during all of this. John and I spent some time wandering around the exhibit, admiring the animals (I admired the turtles, mostly), so the guy offered to let us hold some. Which animal do you think he offered? Yes, a snake. As soon as he pulled the Rainbow Soil Snake from it’s home, I took off running towards the tortoises. I wanted nothing to do with it. He assured me it was a very gentle, lazy snake and handed it to John. I did manage to take a few pictures of John with the snake and was relived when the snake was back in its keeper’s hands. Then, he started to walk toward me and asked me to touch it. Mustering up all of my courage (I knew this was a fear I needed to conquer) I stuck out my finger and touched it’s slimy body. Taking a deep breath, I thought I had done well for the day. Then, the man told me to hold it and John would take my picture. My heart started racing and I started imagining all of the nightmares I’ve had about snakes over the years. Then, I decided to take it. Here is proof:
Mom, you'll never believe this.
Please notice this smile. I owe this to twelve years of cheerleading…I can smile through anything. After holding the snake for what felt like an eternity, the man finally took him back. I thought it was over. Oh, no. The man was so excited that I conquered my fear and that John and I held his animals that he wanted us to hold his pythons. “Don’t worry,” he said, “they’re only babies.” Great. A baby snake. We walked to the front of the cave where he found a rubbermaid box. He reached in and pulled out two pythons. One for each of us. John and I love to match–you know that. But, this is a bit extreme. You know if I’m saying that, it’s VERY EXTREME:)
Matching snakes. How sweet.
John and our friend eating the pythons...
Yes, I put a snake around my neck. I still prefer my pearls:)
After our reptile adventure, we went back to the hotel and had a lovely swim. I was desperate to get the snake off of me:) That evening, for dinner, we went to a Japanese buffet–all you can eat Sushi and Japanese Hibatchi type food. We got to eat all of this with a beautiful nighttime view of the Petronas Towers (pictures later on). It was incredible and we were stuffed. But, we decided to stop at the hotel bar and check out the band. This band consisted of four scantily clad girls singing and dancing and one random middle-aged guy in the back with a laptop, keyboard, and a guitar. We have a video of them singing the Umbrella-ella-ella song. It’s pretty incredible–check it out on Facebook. After meeting a random guy from Ireland at the bar and enjoying some good pop music, we retired for the evening…exhausted.
End of day 1. After a day like this, what could day two possibly have in store? Plenty.
We woke up the next morning and took off to the Petronas Towers–the tallest twin structures in the world! They really are spectacular. We had to pause a few moments to get some pictures.
John with the towers.
On our way to see the towers, we passed a movie theatre and saw advertisements for “Bolt.” We’ve been waiting for “Bolt” for a long time and know it’s already out in the States, but in Singapore, it doesn’t come out until this Thursday. And, to top it all off, it’s coming out in 3D!!!!! We were thrilled to find out it was already out in KL. So, we got tickets to go see it in Malaysia:) The theatre was full of small children screaming and laughing at the silly hamster, dog, and cat but it was really cute. Also, we wanted to comment on the price of movie food in Malaysia. We bought a large caramel popcorn (they don’t have regular, two bottles of water, a lemon tea, and some Cadbury chocolates for US$4.50 total. We were amazed! A large popcorn alone in the states would cost you more than that. We were so amazed by the prices we decided in the theatre to include them in our blog.
Then, our culinary highlight of the trip. We left the movie theatre and decided we wanted to grab a bite to eat. We scanned the landscape and saw a familiar brand across the mall–it was a Chili’s! We had been craving Chili’s chips and salsa and food since about September and were so excited to finally find one! (Matt Kuhn and Elizabeth, you would be proud!). So, we gorged ourselves and then decided to head out to the Central Market–a local market that sells Malay handicrafts and items imported from all over Southeast Asia.
He did not want to take this picture:)
Before we left the nice clean mall for a market, we headed to the restroom. Normally, I wouldn’t include this in a blog entry, but when one receives a bruise while in the restroom, it is worthy of noting. Evident from the first pictures of this entry, “western toilets” as I now call them are not always the norm over here. Often, the toilet is just a fancy hole in the ground. This seems to be particularly popular in Malaysia. We were in the nicest mall in town and this was the restroom situation. Well, I went into the stall and everything was fairly uneventful until I started to leave. The hole is usually raised by two steps from normal ground level. As you can imagine, the stairs are fairly slippery. I had on Rainbows (FU people, you know the traction situation on Rainbows–it’s not good!). As I stepped on the stair, my feet slid out from underneath me and I landed with my backside on the stair. No worries–I didn’t land in anything gross! My pride was hurt more than anything else. I got up and walked out of the bathroom as if nothing had happened. A few hours later, I noticed a pain on the back of my upper thigh. I now have a beautiful purple bruise in the shape of a stair (a straight line) across the back of my leg. It’s a great souvenir from KL. As soon as I walked out of the bathroom, I doubled over and started laughing. Once I told John the story, we were both cracking up. Needless to say, I’ll be more careful next time!
Now, on to the Central Market! Our cab driver there called himself a “naughty old man cab driver.” This story can’t be told on the blog (the conversation the cab driver had was a little graphic). If you’re over 18 and want to know the story, I’ll tell you. Just ask about the cab driver saying “boom boom.” This story is HILARIOUS.
The Central Market was closing down by the time we got there. We had just enough time to pick up some Christmas presents and watch a giant rat run from a store front into a restaurant. We didn’t eat there…no worries:)
On our way to catch the bus back to Singapore we caught another beautiful view of the towers…this time at night. Check them out!
At night!
We caught a bus back that was like an airplane, but on the ground. We had an meal, drink options, and wonderful seats that reclined most of the way back. We didn’t arrive back in Singapore until about 4am–so this was quite nice! Especially since today is a work day!!!
That’s it for our KL adventure! We’re heading back to Malaysia next weekend for a beach weekend, so we’ll be sure to update you on our adventures there!!! Have a wonderful beginning of December!!!
John and CB's Most Excellent Adventure 