Kuala Lumpur
Our purpose in visiting Malaysia was to meet up with former Buford, Georgia neighbor Evelyn.
We use to do our morning walks together and grew very fond of her and husband Freddy.
She visits her family in Malaysia every two years and invited us to meet up on this trip. My only impression of Malaysia was from what I saw on the news and I had no idea what was in store for us. Upon arrival at the airport we booked a taxi to the Concord hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
Along the 60 kilometer drive we noticed construction everywhere. If you look north, south, east, or west they are building new high rises.
During our stay the new King was inaugurated and I found it fascinating that one of the largest Muslim populated countries would promote harmony among other religions resident in the country.
It seems in this country Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Christians all get along as neighbors.
We met our friends at the hotel and went to the Pavilion Mall for supper and discovered Madam Kwan's.
This restaurant served chicken rice with spicy sauce and, an unbelievable excellent spicy noodle dish.
They also had some incredible deserts. Needless to say Miwa and I dined at this restaurant three nights in a row.I wish they would open one here in Yokohama.
In the morning Miwa and I had a reservation to tour the twin towers where MI II was filmed with Tom Cruise and Entrapment with Sean Connery.
First they took us to the Skywalk and then to the 89th floor observation deck. There were interactive devices, many interesting exhibits, and of course great photos of the skyline.
The towers were constructed by Japan and Korea with a connecting bridge.
In the lobby we met Evelyn and her aunt Winnie, not her real name, but since Poh is her family name, people started calling her Winnie.
She volunteered to give us a tour of the city. Our first stop was to the Batu Cave, a short distance out of town.
This place is a limestone cave with a series of temples. To reach the main cave you have to climb 272 steps.
A man handed me a brick to carry up the stairs. They are doing restoration and this is cheap labor for getting the materials to the top.
In the main cave is a Hindu shrine. At the top there were several monkeys looking for a handout.
We went ahead and climbed the next set of stairways to another part of the cave with another temple.
Since Malaysia is very hot and humid visiting the caves was a nice detour.
On our return to the city we stopped at the historic railway station, central market, Chinatown, the oldest temple and oldest mosque in Malaysia.
The next day Miwa and I took a train to the Botanical Gardens, the Bird Park, largest free flight walk-in aviary in the world, and the Orchid garden. During the evening we traveled to the Pavilion Mall again for our last meal at Madam Kwan's.
I have hundreds of high quality photos available for Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Bangkok, and Singapore.
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