Welcome to Malaysia! Not so far from the equator now, the temperature has risen up to humid 34 degrees at day, monsoons were heavier and we noticed fauna and flora was much more exotic. We caught a morning flight from Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's metropolitan yet still super diverse capital.
It came to me as a surprise how Malaysia's different from Thailand and Cambodia. First of all, it's so much richer and more advanced, arriving there was a comeback to the civilised world much more similar to the one we dwell in. Kuala Lumpur is probably even more modern than some european capitals, it's a concrete jungle with wide streets, multi-storey air-conditioned pedestrian passages which honestly were a struggle to find your way in. Sky scrapers shooting in the sky, neat and well-maintained public spaces, modern public transport. You can see that its a very rich city. Even though finding your way through overscaled passages and roads was overwhealming and confusing at times.
It's a muslim country and islamic influences are widely recognisable everywhere. People on the streets are not as orthodox as in Qatar or UAE, but still a vast majority of women keep their hair covered and a proper dresscode of covering shoulders and legs applies. But basially in Kuala Lumpur you are allowed to dress however you like as long as it's not too revealing. It's very multicultural, has large percentage of hindu and chinese habitants who have their own districts in the city. Not mentioning a number of white visitors or inhabitants. People of Kuala Lumpur are used to diversity, you don't feel uncomfortable or unwelcome there because you look foreign. I must say it was also really comforting to see that all the words were written in alphabet that I know, and many things were in English.
I said before that it's very diverse. Yes, I'll show you. We were staying in a hotel located in Chinatown which had a totally different atmosphere than central KL. Two or three storey houses were painted with vivid colour and abundantly decorated, but much less neat and clean. The whole neighbourhood looked kind of colonial, I wonder was it a remain of the british rule. There all houses were additionaly decorated with traditional lanterns and signs in chinese so that you won't have any doubts that you're in Chinatown.
We went exploring in the evening, after a violent monsoon finally stopped. We travelled around by metro. Actually, in Malaysia they have ridiculously strict customs of decent social behaviours. In the metro you aren't allowed to eat, drink, talk loud, eat durians, have pets, show affection like kissing what was described as "indecent behaviour". The list was long and consisted of around 20 prohibitions. Oh, and also metro and trains had special coaches reserved only for women.
In central part of Kuala Lumpur there's a typical malaysian quater. It's uncanny, because it's a bunch of small and rather poor houses. These plots would be extremely valuable for investments due to their locations, but the inhabitants refuse to move. Looking from above it was visible, a small and flat neighbourhood surrounded by massive blocks and skyscrapers. I don't have many photos because we visited it only during nighttime.
We walked towards the most recognisable building of Malaysia - the Petronas Towers. They are located in the modern centre with an exclusive, metropolitan vibe surrounded by vast plazas with spectacular fountains and parks. We even managed to catch an audiovisual light show on the fountains.
The following morning we booked tickets to go up the towers' viewing terraces. We were taken to the skybridge at 38th floor and then to the top around 80th floor. The view was spectacular from there, all these buildings we looked up at were ridiculously small. After all, they are the tallest twin towers now (after 9.11. that is...).
We wandered around central station as we waited for our train and discovered a massive park. It was a perfect place to chill when midday sun was roasting us up.
In the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur a must-see attraction is a hindu temple carved in limestone mountains. These were the Batu Caves. The main temple was free of charge accessible by taking colourful stairs. The stairs were the most impressive to be honest, and your way was additionally entertained by flocks of daring monkeys running around tourists and stealing their food. Literally, i saw a monkey grabbing a bottle of water out of somebody's hand, detatching the cap and drinking it. Clever bastards.
The temple was located in a super large cave. It was actually amazing, but it wasn't manmade, just the amazing power of nature.
To entertain ourselves we went to a birdpark and saw live toucans, parrots and hornbills. It was pretty awesome until a wild monsoon came and trapped us under a pagoda for an hour.
A very interesting building we saw was the National Mosque. It's an enormous, monumental yet modern temple with an impressive capacity of 15,000. To enter the mosque we had to wait until a certain visiting hour and all visitors whose clothes didn't meet the customs were obligated to wear special togas.
Last neighbourhood we wandered about was the Hindu quaters. Typical for hindu - colourful, full of restaurants and bars where food was served on banana leafs and eaten by hands.
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