Kuala Lumpur

After our stay in Jeju we left Korea for good and headed to Malaysia.  It was sad leaving Korea, but we were excited for our trip.  The first city we stayed in was Kuala Lumpur.  Both Carrie and I loved this city, it was very easy to get around and there were lots of things to see.  We spent two full days in the capital of Malaysia.

The first thing we did was head to the main transit station called KL sentral, which was conveniently located a couple blocks away from our hotel.  We bought tickets to a hop on hop off bus that stopped at all the important things in the city.  We began our tour of the city with a trip to the home of the King and Queen, called Istana Negara.  We only stayed for five minutes because we were not allowed to go onto the grounds so I took photos from the entrance gate. 

KL Sentral

The Malaysian Flag

Home of King and Queen

Guards

Their Crest 

Our next stop was the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park.  This, as the name describes, is a large park for birds.  It is  the largest free flight walk-in aviary in the world.  It was very interesting to see all the beautiful birds in the park.  Many of the birds were allowed to roam free, but some of the predators were caged for protection.  We walked around the park and I took photos of as many birds as I could.  We even saw three baby peacocks.    The best way to show you how cool this place was is to just show you the photos of the birds.  This part is especially for our cousin Amy, we thought about her the entire time we were walking thought the park.  I don't know the name of each bird but they are very beautiful.  

Peek-a-boo

The back of a sign in the park

The Hornbill 

The trash cans were birds as well

A pretty flower in the park

A baby peacock and its mom 

Another baby peacock

This peacock put on a show for us

I tried the black and white setting on my camera

More hornbills

A different hornbill

This guy thought he was a bat

For all you Disneyland fans, "The back side of water"

After the lovely bird park we hopped back on the bus to the very next stop where we wanted to visit two sights of the city.  We headed to the Islamic Art Museum; we enjoyed two of the exhibits the most.  One was the exhibit of the hajj, the yearly expedition taken by many Muslims to Mecca.  The exhibit showed the many ceremonies that the Muslim people must do during the trip to Mecca.  It was interesting to learn about this experience.  The second exhibit that we enjoyed was about the different famous mosques around the world.  The exhibit showed the reasoning behind the architecture of the mosques and how they are designed in a specific way.  They also displayed models of the mosques around the world.

After learning about the famous mosques from around the world we went to a local mosque across the street.  Carrie had to wear a purple robe in order to enter the mosque, whereas I didn't need to wear anything different since my shorts were below my knees.  The mosque had lots of pillars in the entryway of the prayer room.  The prayer room was located on the second floor of the mosque and on the ground level was a school where a bunch of kids were playing in the hallway.  Kids will be kids no matter where or who you are. 

The Mosque from the outside

The tower where they make the call to prayer

Carrie's purple robe

Barefoot inside the mosque

The beautiful marble floors with pillars 

My favorite picture of the tower where they make the call to prayer

The entryway to the prayer room

I liked them very much

Carrie next to a pillar

Full length purple robe

The prayer room

Only Muslims were allowed to enter

From the floor to the top with my forehead

The intricate details of the bottom of the pillar

Kids being kids

After that we headed to the most famous building in Kuala Lumpur, the PETRONAS twin towers.  We arrived at 3 pm and were told that the towers were very beautiful at night so we went into the mall that is conveniently located on the first 5 floors of the towers.  We decided to see a movie at the cinema to wait until the sun went down.  It was worth the wait.  We stayed at the base of the building for about 30 minutes in awe of this awesome architectural masterpiece.  The pictures do not need to be explained.  

This token is how you entered any type of public transportation and then you dropped it into the exit gate on your way out.  

Our second day in KL was less impacted and more relaxing.  We went to a Hindu temple that was located in a cave called Batu caves.  The cave wasn't that deep but it was located up 270 steps.  Carrie and I both told each other “Ha, 270 steps, we got this!!!” We headed up and on our way up we stopped a few times to check out the local welcoming committee.  Monkeys were all over the place, only one seemed to be aggressive if I looked at him, but as soon as I looked away he stopped coming toward me.  They were cute but I was warned by my sister to not touch or provoke them. Inside the cave were many different religious items and more monkeys.  The cave themselves had large holes in the roof and was very beautiful. 

After we went to the cave we traveled back to the center of the city and did a bit of shopping in a local building called Central Market.  This market was like one big flea market and there were very similar shops around each corner.  The market also had a food court were we got, for the first time, Malaysian food. We found a Malaysian food buffet and got all different types of traditional dishes.

A mom and her baby

Three little monkeys sitting on a fence.

The city below

Yum Root beer

Malaysian food

Yummy lots of flavors 

Carrie's three layer tea

For our last dinner, we went to the downtown area of Kuala Lumpur.  It was very modern with lots of flashy shops.  We went looking for Middle Eastern food and found a good selection and ate some yummy shawarma and kebab. Then we headed to our hotel for our early morning flight to Borneo.