Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Since we were in Thailand for more than 30 days, we had to leave the country and come back in. This is commonly referred to as a visa run. When you fly out, they cancel your first visa and issue a new one when you come back. I heard much debate on how many times you can do this and there is a difference between a land crossing and flying.  Some people opt to take a bus to Myanmar for the day but it’s a 5-hour bus ride and there’s nothing in the border town.  We decided Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, would be much more fun. It was a cheap, 2-hour flight and there is no visa requirement, although we did of course go through immigration. 

 

When we got to Kuala Lumpur, commonly known as KL, it was much hotter than northern Thailand.  There is an elevated pedestrian walkway linking several major shopping areas of the city and there was an entrance right next to our hotel.  They were blissfully air conditioned and just as crowded as the city streets below, but without the cars.  My first stop was a huge mall nearby.  It was a bit high-end, but still fun to walk around.  When I got off the walkway, I ended up in a long outdoor corridor with a wide variety of sit-down restaurants on either side. I picked one and settled down for an afternoon of people watching, and what an interesting mix of nationalities I saw. 

 

 

The mall was 5 stories tall with every shop you could think of from cosmetics to clothes to electronics.  The bottom floor was a giant food court, with choices from all over the world, including a couple of American chains I wish I had seen first.  I know, it seems crazy to want an American restaurant when traveling but remember 2 things. I haven't been to the US in almost 4 years and I have eaten nothing but Asian food for almost 3 months. The BBQ ribs in one place looked so enticing I almost considered a second lunch.  At one end of the mall was a huge auditorium that all the floors overlooked.  That day they were having a sing along, where shoppers would come up on stage in groups of about 10 and sing a popular song. Everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves and to be honest, the music was pretty good. I was surprised at some of the people on stage.  Of course, you had fun loving young people, but also older people in business suits, and quite a few who looked like they hadn’t cracked a smile in ages.  But put them on stage and they transformed into silly kids, smiling and dancing to the music while they belted out the songs.  It was good entertainment and the rails on all 5 floors were crowded with people watching from above.  

 

My friends Thalita and AJ were also in Kuala Lumpur.  I had met this awesome couple when they were in Chiang Mai for a Habitat for Humanity build and we became fast friends. They are also world travelers and have a really good blog called www.batteredbackpacks.com. As an added bonus, they live near my family in Florida. Caron and I met them for dinner at a great restaurant called Opium.  It was in a really hopping part of town filed with restaurants and bars and brimming with people from all over the world.  As always, it was a fun evening.

 

The next day Caron and I struck out in different directions.  I headed to the local market, which you should know by now, I really love. Central Market didn't have food like many do, rather, it was handcrafted items like jewelry, art and clothes.  I collect face masks and was lucky enough to find two really unique ones. They were both hand carved wood and still less than $20 each.  Malaysia is a religiously and ethnically diverse country with about 61% Muslim, 20% Buddhist, 10% Christian and 6% Hindi. The market is divided into different areas that showcase this diversity. It was interesting to see the different items representing each culture.  The Indian section was filled with beautiful material to make sarongs as well as elaborate jewelry.  The Muslim section had many stalls selling scarves and prayer rugs, and as an added bonus, the stalls outside were playing Arabic music. There were stalls selling traditional Chinese herbs and many, many stalls with art from each culture.  Of course, there was a food court with so much variety it was a bit overwhelming.  Everything looked so good! 

 

It was about a half hour walk to my next stop, the Botanical Garden. I was amazed at how clean everything was, they were actually sweeping leaves out of the street and sidewalk. People were very friendly and many actually said "hello, how are you", as they passed me in the street.  The huge Botanical Garden was beautiful. They had a planetarium and an orchid garden, but I decided to go to the bird aviary instead. I had a limited amount of time, so I had to choose one. I would love to have seen everything there.

 

This is the largest free-flying aviary in the world and it was basically a large net high in the sky. There are about 200 species of birds including peacocks, some interesting blue Victoria Crowned Pigeons, and a whole lot of Milky Storks. The male peacocks were in the mood to show off. I saw so many elaborate tail feather displays and was equally impressed with their little mating dance. Luckily for those of us taking pictures, this involved basically turning in very slow circles.

 

In the early afternoon, they feed the storks.  One minute they're all sitting around doing nothing and then, as if the dinner bell rang, they all took flight to a dried-up lagoon. A man come out with a loaded down wheel barrel and the poor guy didn't stand a chance. He was surrounded by these huge white birds that would dive in, take a fish and fly off.  Several of them flew back to where I was sitting and proceeded to eat their lunch. It smelled horrible! Like dead fish, which it was LOL. Most of the birds gobbled down their meal, but one bird seemed to have trouble. He tried to swallow it several times, but it was stuck.  He'd rest up and try again, but for a long time, he just sat there with his fish in his mouth.  I’m sure he eventually either got it down or gave up and spit it out, I didn’t wait around to see.  It was a huge park and although I spent all afternoon there, I still didn’t get to visit all the areas. 

 

That night we again met up with Thalita and AJ. This time we went to Jalan Alor, a large outdoor food street.  The restaurants lining the street all seemed to be serving the same thing, including a lot of seafood.  They were all very busy, so we just went for one with open seats. I got grilled chicken fish. Surprisingly it tasted kind of like a cross between chicken and fish, but maybe that was just the power of suggestion. It was a whole fish and looked almost prehistoric, with a very long beak in the front.  I looked up chicken fish and of course there is no such creature.  I'm sure it was a local name, but I did see it on several menus.  Regardless of its name and ugly looks, it was quite delicious, which was the important thing.  

 

I would love to have spent more time in KL, it’s a wonderful city and 2 days wasn't nearly enough.  Perhaps on my next trip, I'll take more then just bird pictures.  The one of the elevated pedestrian walk way is from Google images.

 

Link to photos:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/x98HpWywOs966uuJ3