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Published: November 18th 2008
Here we are... in Kuala Lumpur and it is probably one of the most international cities we have been in. We have all the comforts of home and it's kind of nice. CPK, Chili’s, Wendy's, McDonalds, Burger King, Cinnabon, Starbucks, Coffee Bean, A&W, not to mention all the shopping! When we entered Malaysia we had no preconceived notions and it has done nothing but surprise us over and over again.
That could be because, for once, we have a local showing us around! When I studied abroad in Australia in 2003 I met my friend Eddie from Malaysia. We have kept in touch for five years via email and stuff and here I am in Malaysia seeing my friend Eddie after so many years and man... I forgot how much I love him! He is full of energy and has done nothing but show us an amazing time here in Kuala Lumpur.
The first night here we met up with him and he took us on an amazing food tour of Chinatown, where we were staying. He took us to the best little stalls with the best noodles and food ever. It's amazing the great food you can find
when someone knows where to take us. I was just smiling because the food was so good and so cheap! I couldn't help but love him for showing us where the locals eat!
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The next day, we were on our own since Eddie had to work so I took us on a sightseeing tour of Kuala Lumpur. We woke up early to get in line by 7:30am to get one of the free tickets to go to the skybridge viewing area of the Petronas towers. The towers were the tallest building in the world from 1998-2004 before being surpassed by Tapei 101, but they are currently the tallest twin towers in the world. Tower one is fully occupied by the Petronas Company and the office spaces in Tower Two are mostly available for lease to other companies Al Jazeera English.
The skybridge is on the 41st floor of the 88 story building and is the highest 2-story bridge in the world. The bridge is 170m above the ground and 58 m long, weighing 750 tons. The skybridge also acts as a safety device, so that in the event of a fire or other emergency in one tower, tenants
The views of KL
From the skybridge at the Petronas Towerscan evacuate by crossing the skybridge to the other tower. However, the total evacuation triggered by a bomb hoax on September 12, 2001 showed that the bridge would not be useful if both towers need to be emptied simultaneously- oops!
We managed to score a ticket for 9:30am, but when we were in the waiting area they ushered us in with the 9am group (the first group of the day!). The views from the skybridge were amazing. You could see the entire skyline and the park area that is next to the towers. After this, we had some time to kill before the large attached shopping area opened up so we strolled through the park near the Petronas towers and took a million photos of the towers themselves. Jeff got himself a Starbucks (7 years working there and he still loves it!) and we wondered around the huge KLC mall that is attached to the towers. The mall has anything you could possibly want in your life from designer clothes to a Billabong/Reef store. Of course, we can't really afford to shop so it was kind of torture for me to be in such a great mall, but I
survived.
We took the metro back to Chinatown and I took the boys on a walking tour of the area from my Lonely Planet guide. We walked past Hindu temples, Buddhist temples and Islamic Mosques- once again a testament to the diversity of Malaysia. After walking around the city and admiring the architecture for a few hours, I decided we would then walk over to Lake Gardens. Lake Gardens is a huge park area with museums and monuments and aviaries. Well... things always seem easier than they really are and we ended up walking a long way out of the way and crossing major highways on foot. By the time we hiked the small hill to the gardens, past the National Mosque, we were exhausted and had no energy to even walk around the park. Not to mention, we had not had lunch and our energy was non existent. So- I gave up and we went back to Chinatown to relax. We had plans to meet Eddie that night to begin Chris' birthday celebrations (it would be his 27th birthday at midnight!). We decided to meet in front of the Petronas towers so the boys and I decided to
Me with the towers
The third tallest building in the world head there early and grab an endless chips & salsa platter from Chili’s before our big night. It's the little things like endless chips & salsa you miss after four months on the road and we loved every second of it!
Eddie's friend Double D is a DJ in Kuala Lumpur. He has a radio show and spins at clubs on the weekends, so he hooked us up and got us into a brand new club here in the city called Quatro. We met up with him and a few others of Eddie's friends (Zoë from Holland and Nathan from India) and got a table at this club. Next thing we know, Eddie is bringing over a bottle of Johnnie Walker black label to begin Chris' birthday celebrations. By the end of the night, the bottles kept coming and we had finished three of them- Chris, Jeff and I did not pay a dime! Eddie and his friends took care of us all night and we had a blast. Double D kept getting on the microphone and announcing that his friends from the USA were here and to give a big shout out to Chris the birthday boy. He
must have wished Chris a happy birthday over the sound system 10 times during the night. We danced the night away and I even had all the security guards on my side when a crazy Malaysian girl who doesn't like foreigners started pinching me and elbowing me on the dance floor. I kept my cool though since I am far away and didn't feel like spending the night in Malaysian jail! 😊 We even got a ride home from Double D so we didn't have to pay a cab. It was seriously such a fun night and Eddie and his friends really made sure we started Kuala Lumpur off right!
We had plans to meet Eddie the next morning of near his house, but after only a few hours of sleep in a loud hostel, we ran a little late. Still, Eddie managed to take us to a great little food place near his house where we ate great Chinese food and Eddie taught us the traditional way to drink tea. I don't know what it is, but all the food just tastes better with Eddie around! He has taken us to some great noodle stands, fried rice stands,
KLCC Park
KLCC= Kuala Lumpur city center steamed pork buns, crazy desserts, ramen noodles with soup over them and so many other crazy Malay foods we would have never tried without him. We love it!
After this, Eddie drove us out to the Batu caves 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur. The Batu Caves is a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu or Batu River, which flows past the hill.
The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, dedicated to Lord Murugan and now there is a giant statue of the god outside the caves and many Hindu shrines inside the caves. The Hindus say it is a sacred place and no one has ever fallen down the 224 steps to get to the top. They say this is because there is some sort of protection at the caves since it is a religious sight. Eddie said if we want to make the 8 o'clock news, we should fall down the stairs. Luckily, we did not! There are monkeys all around the caves and the cave itself is a huge open space with stalagmites coming from the top.
The sun shines in just perfectly and illuminates one of the Hindu shrines inside.
It is the focal point of Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia which attracts over 1.5 million pilgrims yearly, making it one of the largest annual gatherings anywhere in the world. People must fast for a while before the festival and then they climb the stairs with hooks and piercings in them. However, after they take out these piercings, they have no marks on them, making the whole thing a mystery that can only be explained by a religious experience. We were so lucky to have Eddie to take us here since there is not public transport that goes out to the caves. Just one more exciting thing we got to do with a local.
Then, Eddie took us into the city and gave us a small walking tour. Jeff and I had planned to take Chris on a bungy ride near the Kuala Lumpur tower for his birthday, but after walking very far out of the way to get there, we found out they had moved the bungy ride to a theme park one hour outside of the city- there went that birthday
idea! We still enjoyed walking around the city and seeing the different buildings and malls. Kuala Lumpur is such a modern city with a great public transportation system, it really impressed us!
We had a drink for happy hour to celebrate the birthday and then decided to head back to our place to get cleaned up and head then back to Eddie's to go to another club Double D was spinning at. We took a bit longer than expected because we were exhausted after walking around all day on only a few hours of sleep. All of us looked like zombies as we headed out to catch the train to Eddie's house. We managed to survive and arrive there to find out that Eddie's car had gotten a flat tire while he was waiting for us at the train station. Um... that sure put a damper on the plans. Instead of Eddie driving us to his favorite restaurant, we ate at another local food stand (which was still delicious) and we caught a cab out to the club. We still managed to stay out till 4am, but, we definitely took it easy the whole night. I probably could have fallen
asleep standing up with the loud music around me if I had let myself. But... we still had a good night and Chris had a great Malaysian birthday!
The next few days we just spent chilling around the city and hanging with Eddie and his friends. We didn't do much more sightseeing just because we had more fun actually hanging out with someone we knew and his group of friends. Eddie took us once again to some amazing food stalls for some great Malay noodles and this crazy dessert. It was shaved ice piled up like a sand castle, then they pour brown sugar and coconut milk over it and throw in some corn, peanuts, kidney beans, and little jelly type squares. The textures are crazy and it took a while to get used to, but the dessert was freaking great! After this, Eddie took us to the local night market near his house. We were definitely the only white people and got a few stares, but we were with a local so it was all good. The night market had the strangest mix of stands. Within 10 feet of each other you can buy: 1. Bras and panties
2. Children and adult clothes 3. Bootleg DVD's 4. Fish 5. A nose ring 6. Dim Sum and god knows how many other random things. I mean, what more would you need from a night market?
That night we spent our third night in a row going out to the Kuala Lumpur clubs. This night we went to Mist. All these fancy clubs were way outside the city and we would have never known about these places if it wasn't for Eddie. They are all decorated crazy like a Vegas style club! Double D hooked it up once again and we got free entry and VIP access- not to mention is was 2 for 1 drinks until midnight. We had another great night of dancing and meeting new people. It's been really nice to actually have a group of friends to hang out with. It feels normal- like home. It's hard when you have to make friends every day of your life, so being with the same people for a few days in a row was fun. By the time we left we had a solid crew of the trio, Eddie, his Dutch friend Zoë and Double D.
The crew celebrating the big b'day
The trio with Eddie, Zoe and Double D We were sad to finally say good bye to Eddie and leave Kuala Lumpur, but we will probably have to go back at some point to fly out to Indonesia so I am sure we will see him again. Eddie also brought his camera out a lot, so we were lucky enough to get all of his photos, which is why there are way too many photos in this blog, but ENJOY.
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Courtney Enriquez
non-member comment
What a Blast
Those caves look amazing... and thanks for always sharing the history lessons... besides seeing you they are my favorite part of these blogs :o) Keep Safe, Court p.s. That first pic of you, wearing that red and black stripped shirt, is adorable. The light hits your face just right... your parents should put that baby in a frame for sure!