Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

It's weird to be in Kuala Lumpur (KL) because this whole trip, I've known this was one of our last stops, which means that because we are here we are nearing the end of our trip.  At the same time we still have nearly 2 weeks left, which is a good length trip in and of itself, so I like to think we're not that close to the end.

KL is a really interesting city, mostly due to the juxtaposition of the old and the new, the inexpensive and the cheap and the variety of cultures, and we have been doing some interesting things here.

Such as eating really yummy food in really gross places.

Like this alley, for example, where Anson saw rats coming up from the sewer.  We're used to this type of eating by now, though and it really in our experience, the best food is the least expensive food.  It's amazing that such a delicious meal can cost less than 9 Ringgit (3.1 Ringgit to the USD).  We've had a couple more expensive meals in Malaysia though such as Steamboat (hotpot) in Cameron Highlands and Din Tai Fun (you know the dumpling chain that's also in Seattle, Kelly?).  Compared to the ~10 Ringget meals we are used to eating those meals seem expensive, being 40-50 Ringget, but really they're still way cheap...er, I mean inexpensive (Dad), since that's how much you'd spend in dollars on a comprable meal in the States.

We also saw Betel leaf chew being made on the streets, which we of course did not proceed buy and try ourselves.  Or maybe we did and maybe it nearly made me puke.  Either way I can tell you that there won't be any red-stained teeth in the future for these two Browns!

We also visited a Hindu temple.

And saw many examples of the new by the old, just two of which are pictured below.

And learned why there is a sticker on the ceiling of our hotel in the shape of an arrow that says "Kiblat" (it's the direction of Mecca for Muslim prayer).

And took lots of pictures of the city.

When I decided to wear my white dress, we pretended like I was a particular British princess visiting SE Asia.

But the game of pretend kind of fell to pieces when it was time for me to put my borrowed and requisite Mosque attire on.  It wasn't quite as gorgeous as hers.

And we ate more delicious food in slightly less yucky places.  But really, I wish these restaurants would stop ripping us off.  8 Ringget for two lunches and two ice teas?!  Come on!

We also went to the Sky Bar (a bar that is WAY too cool and expensive for us, but cheaper than the touristy city-viewing tower) on the 33rd story of Shangri-La hotel to see the city view and took lots of pictures of the Patronas towers, which were the tallest buildings in the world from 1998-2003.  In fact, according to Wikipedia (which is a very reputable source, cited by one or more museums in SE Asia), Malaysia was the first country to out-build the US in terms of tallest building.

So naturally, we took lots of pictures of the towers.

But my favorite picture we took that night didn't have record-breaking buildings in it, just the shadows of two average-sized people.

Of course, you can't visit KL without visiting Batu Caves.

Which are full of way-too-tame monkeys, which were mostly fun to see and take pictures of - I think monkeys are more fun to see in their natural environment.  My favorite part, of course, was the dog whose job it was to guard the bathrooms from the monkeys (which I have a video of but again cannot get it to upload).

I nearly got attacked by a male with giant teeth after taking the picture below.

And my final photo was not taken near Batu Caves (it was taken in a park near central KL where we also saw monkeys), but I had to post it because it was so apropos to a prior post.