Kuala Lumpur- love it and hate it

For us, the jury is still out on this very busy but interesting, cosmopolitan city. We arrived close to dark and by the time our taxi found our guesthouse and we were settled for the night it was dark. After dark is when KL really comes alive. Like New York City, this place never sleeps. You can eat, drink, shop or get a foot massage until the very wee hours of the morning.

Downtown Kuala Lumpur

A 10 minute walk from where we were staying

Personally, arriving in a new place is the very essence of why I like to travel. Peering from the air conditioned window of the taxi I can't wait to get out and explore as I pass by the very active streets filled with every kind of people imaginable. The women in full Birka intrigued me the most. Seeing thousands of women dressed from head to toe in black exposing nothing but their eyes is fascinating to me. They seem like black ghosts  floating along the streets as they walk with their families who are all dressed in very hip, trendy clothes. It's such a curious thing to see in everyday life and I can't help but wonder what kind of women I would find under all the heavy blackness. How similar are we?

Finding our guesthouse was like trying to find a needle in a haystack in this hot, humid, steam- bath like city of over 6 million people. Cars, buses, taxis, mopeds and people are all jostling for position  but eventually we were let out to the welcoming arms of The Orange Pekoe Guesthouse. I didn't take a photo because I didn't want to worry my loved ones about how we were living but thankfully the inside was a thousand times better than the outside.
Our priority is always to make sure the boys are happy and comfortable wherever we are. If we lose their enthusiasm we are hooped. This place was great! It had a lovely little lounging area, a communal kitchen with chocolate cereal and wifi. Perfect!
Jalan Alor street was our first stop as we really needed to eat. The streets were packed with people, cars, and really, really disabled people begging for money. We had a hard time eating the very mediocre food we ordered ( we miss Thai food already!)  and in the days to come the boys refused to ever go back here even with the bribe of coconut ice cream.

You can get ANYTHING to eat here, except chicken fingers. Chicken feet, yes.

Jalan Alor is bustling!

fondue on the street!

Eventually we ended up spending time at 3 different guesthouses during our 6 nights in KL. Our favorite was the Sahabat as it was from here that we discovered our favorite Indian restaurant- TG's Nasi Kandar. This place was open 24 hours and served up some killer roti stuffed with banana and served with delicious daal. Chicken Mertebak- a roti filled with chicken, potatoes, onions and spice served with a fragrant sauce was what we had for breakfast every morning and it was here that we discovered Teh Tarik with ginger. This was the best Chai I have ever had and it cost us about .30c a glass. Remy and I spent hours here every morning eating, drinking, people watching and reading the English newspaper while the boys slept in. At night the staff would create a special plate of  sliced cucumber and carrot just for Bowen. Do you know how hard it is to get raw veggies in an Indian restaurant? We ate here at least once a day but usually twice. I screwed up the photo transfer to my computer so I lost the photos we took here but take my word for it, it was great.

Look closely at the image of the queen puffing on a stogie

When we weren't  eating we were seeing movies ( $5 each!) visiting the massive sparkling shopping malls until we were frozen from the air conditioning, visiting the Islamic Arts Museum , the Planetarium and the Menara (KL) tower and the indoor amusement park. Reflexology is BIG here so all four of us had the full one hour treatment for $16 each. That was so fun Remy and I did it twice!

The Pavillion shopping centre

a great place to drop the boys for a few hours

 Batu Caves was our one big excursion located about 15 km away. The massive gold Hindu statue and the 272 steps leading up to the caves were spectacular but the real hit for us was Jerry, the tiny pet monkey of one of the restaurant owners. We spent a LOT of time playing with Jerry which has created the desire in both boys to now have a pet monkey. I must admit, Jerry was very cuddly and very, very cute!.

The golden Hindu statue at Batu Caves. Note the 272 steps just beside.

Jerry, the monkey won all our hearts!

Malaysia is a mostly Muslim country so the lack of alcohol is very apparent. You really have to go out of your way to find it and when you do it is very expensive. Ok, beer is about $2.50/ bottle in the stores or about twice that in a restaurant but relatively speaking, this is expensive! Spirits are even pricier. It's refreshing though to go to a restaurant or a beach and not see anyone drinking, including us.

As interesting as this place is we found the constant haze from the deforestation in Indonesia to be too much for our pink lungs. Next stop is the Unesco World Heritage city of Melaka.

~Liz