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Published: February 11th 2008
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So, here we go! Second stop in KL, more amazing food but as well lots of sightseeing which I didn’t have much time for during the first stop!
Kuala Lumpur is really surprising with its unique cultural diversity, mix of local, Chinese and Indians. When walking around, you feel like traveling around Asia and not just in one city.
The first stop of this journey took us to the central market and allowed us to experience the subway, first hand! A bit confusing, ended up in a bus but finally made it to the central market and the area of China town.
Central market is a very touristy place which is not so much my cup of tea, so after a quick look around, we started exploring the area of China town, much more interesting and although it is called china town, you meet a lot of Malaysian from Indian origin too. This area is full of life, lots of tiny shops where you negotiate half in singlish, half in chinese, feel like china but with a twist! Managed to buy a few more paper rice lamps for home (yes!!) but most importantly had a lot of fun bargaining
with them!
If you walk out of the main streets into the lanes, you can see a completely different aspect of China town, more quiet, closer from the life in a lane that you can find in China. Most of the constructions are not renovated but still colorful and you get to see first hand how people leave in this part of the town.
Talking about colorful buildings, we ended up at the Sri Mahamariaman Temple. This was kind of a surprise as I didn’t know that this temple was located in this area. It is actually the most elaborated Hindu temple of Malaysia and although not very big, it has a truly impressive architecture! Its shape resembles a human body lying on its back with the head facing west and the feet pointing east. The entrance (representing the feet) is a pyramid-shaped gate tower decorated with colorful depictions of Hindu gods.
We walked inside, truly enjoying the ohh so refreshing marble floor under our bare foots, taking our time and observing some locals making the ritual garland flower offering.
As you walk around the main structure, you get a chance to take a better look at all
the sculpture on the roof that is decorated with features such as intricate carvings of Hindu deities, gold embellishments, precious stones and hand-painted motifs depicting stories from early Hinduism...
On the back of the temple, an intimate Pooja ceremony was starting as we arrived...that was really our day of luck, indeed, although I went already to India, I never got the chance to witness one, and even better, this one was in a very small group which allowed us to be close enough to see all the different steps of this prayer ritual.
This ritual is truly elaborated, prayers are combined with different steps during which the divinity is clean and then covered by different items offering (sandalwood, saffron paste and coconut between others), one of them having the color of blood, guess this is to remind the blood of the animals they would normally cover the divinity with...
Truly impressive...
Kuala Lumpur distinctive feature is as well the mix of old and new...so, so our next step was KLCC...and its most famous building, the Petronas Towers :-) Used to be the tallest towers on earth a few years back, still impressive although coming from Shanghai, well...don’t look
that high! hahaha ...
The contrast of this area with China Town is striking...modern buildings everywhere you look, green areas, huge malls and not a paper on the floor! Paradise for shopping in KL (ok...I did some more shopping again...but eh...had to experience the contrast!), urban & clean but none less interesting...
Last stop...well, dinner time! and back to an other famous food street for some true Indian food! ... soooo good !
Food in KL is truly amazing...especially when you are with friends from Singapore who grown up with that type of food and who make sure you get to discover every single dish.... ok... excess of gourmandise but it worth it!
Ready for more!
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Guido
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Incredible
Pas vrai!!! tu es toujours en voyage .... as-tu oublié qu'il faux travailler quelques jours par an? Gros bisous mon amour ....amouse-toi. Guido