Fun visa stuff has sent us out of the country again for at
least a few days. This time to
Malaysia! To be completely honest, among
the options, I was least excited about going to Malaysia even though I didn’t
know much about the country at all. I
just knew it bordered Singapore and was a little hesitant about embarking back
into masses of shopping malls & paying $30 for a taxi again. But as the plane was flying over Malaysia and
I looked down, I knew instantly that
everything I had thought about Malaysia was wrong and that this place might
have some potential afterall – all I could see from my little AirAsia seat was
beautiful, thick jungle, and more trees, and more trees, and even more trees! Yay for green! I’m happy already J
We ended up staying in Kuala Lumpur (the capitol city) most
of the trip, which was not a part of the plan, and most people who have been to
Malaysia would be completely confused by this because there are so many
different beautiful parts of the country!
But we were just completely struck by the architecture there first of
all – gorgeous Turkish, Islamic style buildings on one side, with Chinese style
housing on the next street over, add a good bit of Indian influence throughout,
and oh! Look over there! That church & house looks like it came
straight out of New England in the 1800s!
What? There’s some crazy diversity
here, that’s for sure… it’s fantastic!
Of course, I did hear from people who actually LIVE there
that there’s a good bit of racism & segregation with different ethnicities
sticking together and not mixing well with the others, but first of all… that
pretty much happens everywhere, and secondly, I was only there for a few days,
so of course I didn’t get any sort of personal glimpse into that side of the
city.
I visited extravagant mosques, including the National Mosque
& Masjid Jamek. The National Mosque
has certain hours allotted just for tourists so they don’t disrupt anyone’s
prayer time. At first, I didn’t quite
get why not everyone was allowed to go in at prayer time, just to visit &
see what it’s like. But THEN, once the
tourist time rolled around, I got the picture pretty quickly. Tourists are crazy, man! They’re (WE’RE) like hyper animals on crack bouncing
around, wanting to see & do everything all at once. Yeah, there’s a reason for “tourist hours”
all right… tourist hours here I come!
They gave me a bright purple choir robe with a hood on it to
wear, just so I could go in the building.
And there was a group of Korean women behind me who were busting out
laughing when the guide put head scarves & robes on all of them so they
could go inside the mosque as well. I
remember thinking that they were being disrespectful & might offend the
guide. However, I have to admit that
after I got all robed up, all I wanted to do was flap around like a chicken
& do the ‘walk like an Egyptian’ dance.
I tried to contain myself as much as possible, of course, but it’s not
quite as easy as you’d originally think!
Something about hooded choir robes just brings out the crazy in ya’! ;)
Apart from that, we visited all KINDS of places and I think
we saw every single inch of the city – gorgeous gardens & parks, museums,
markets, and then over to the Petrona Towers which are 2 MASSIVELY tall
skyscrapers next to each other with upscale malls underneath. They held the title of the tallest buildings
in the WORLD until about 2003 or 2004 (and taller than both the Sears Tower in
Chicago and the Empire State Building in New York, I believe). The mall aspect of them truly resembled
Singapore the most, but because we attacked it in moderation it was very cool.
Hey! I even found a fancy movie theather to go to for $5 (I miss the
movies!). Unfortunately, they only had
sweet caramel popcorn, instead of the super healthy buttery loveliness we have in
the States, but oh well … can’t win every time.
And it’s so UNREAL how expensive it is to go to the movies in the
U.S.! Especially when every theather I’ve
been to in another country that I can even think of has been FARRRRRRR nicer
& poshier (by a landslide!) than any theater I’ve been to in the U.S.
On a different note, Malaysia also has SCORES of islands,
jungles, volcanoes, and areas to visit that outdoor lovers rave about … maybe
one day I’ll make it back for a longer span of time because I would love to
travel around the WHOLE country. I’d
also consider living & teaching there in the near future. There’s one job position right now that I
kind of have in the back of my head for the fall… who knows??!
Another aspect of Malaysia that we were absolutely THRILLED
about was the FOOD! I heard the food was
great, but I’ve heard that about many other places too and wasn’t that
impressed… but WOW! Malaysia’s got it
goin’ on with the food! Geeeeez! And since it’s a Muslim country, most of the food
is halaal (even McDonald’s!), which means the animals are killed in a humane
way & are prayed over & they don’t include little unknown bits of crap
in the food. So for people who lean towards
the “picky eater” label, and who aren’t even Muslim, halaal food is great!! J
Ah, Malaysia... who wants to go back with me???
