However, I'm sitting at Reggae Mansion Hostel now, waiting for my train to Butterworth to go to Penang, Malaysia. The hostel I beyond nice, but Kuala Lumpur just may be my new favorite city. It's modern, but not too modern, it's preserved many of its older colonial style buildings, and ha gorgeous skyscrapers popping up as well. The mass transit is easy and convenient to use. The city is clean, but no to a ridiculous level like Singapore...it has a great sense of charm and character to it. Oh, and it's full of Malaysian food, which is damn good stuff!
We've did a tour of the city today and met some great people on it, and had a lot if fun checking out lots of the city. The Chinatown and Little India of KL are bustling places with a lot of charm and displays of their respective cultures abundant everywhere.
I hadn't realized it before coming here but 60% of Malays are Muslim..so we checked out the National Mosque today as well, which was pretty. The highlight was talkin to a very friendly guide at the mosque who invited me to his mosque for a personal tour! Sadly I has no time to make it happen.
We made it to the National War Monument and also the 5 year old National Palace, home of the King of Malaysia. There's actually 9 kings, and they rotate who is king. The king serves for 5 years, so only a lucky few get to be king twice in there lives.
We went to Batu Cave as well. After going past a giant golden statue of some Hindu god, you go up many steps into a giant cavern in the mountain. Inside is new Hindu temples, so while the cavern is really developed it was still really cool and over run with monkeys!
At the end of the day we also went up to the top of the Petronas Towers for some incredible views and to walk across the sky bridge.
After feeling a little tired if the traveling just before leaving Indonesia, KL and Malaysia have definitely rejuvenated me. I guess I cannot pinpoint what it is, but I just really love Kuala Lumpur. I also forgot to mention how diverse it is! I'd highly recommend it as a destination for anyone, it's extremely tourist friendly.
Pics:steps up to Batu cave, looking out of Batu cave, the Petronas Towers, Sultan's building off of Merdaka Square, slice of the city skyline, in Little India, and looking up and out of Batu cave
