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Album: By Country | By Date Malaysia | July 2001 < Prev: Hong Kong to Kuala Lumpur | Next: Manila >
Travelogue: By Country | By Date Malaysia | July 2001  

July 2001 - Kuala Lumpur to Manila

A relaxed, easy city and another great plane ride


Butter naan, a kind of Indian bread, baking in a jar-shaped oven. Kuala Lumpur is home to large Malay, Chinese, and Indian populations. The oven and the baker A Chinese temple. One of the most interesting things about Malaysia is its ethnic makeup. The Malays are the dominant group, running the government. They are muslim. The Chinese, drawn from many parts of China and arriving at different times, make up about most of the remaining third of the population and supposedly dominate the economic life of Kuala Lumpur (or "KL" as everyone calls it.) Indians, originally imported to work the plantations and aboriginal groups make up a smaller segment. Dragon at the Chinese temple
Shrine Hairy gods The Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur. Coconuts for the Hindu temple.
God in the Hindu temple For us, it was interesting to find Lord Venkateshvara, the god at Tirupati, in Kuala Lumpur The Hindu temple gleamed and was as clean as a mosque The "front porch" of our hotel, the Swiss Inn, put us in the middle of things.
Food Fruit Fruitcake (trying on sunglasses in Chinatown) Chinatown street at night
Waiting to go home to bed after dinner and discovering that one of the stalls sells Magic cards. Chicken Fish Star fruit
Kids in a shop Buddha in a shop The Masjid Jamek and the spot where KL's founders first set foot in town. (The name Kuala Lumpur means Muddy Confluence. With reason. We passed the confluence after a big rain, and the river was a muddy, liquid trash pile.) The founders were 87 Chinese tin miners who eventually moved to a location some miles from here. Strategically commanding both river valleys, the community flourished as a tin-collecting centre despite its malarial jungle location. The Masjid Jamek
The KLCC is a giant, indoor mall with all the typical mall amenities and all the typical mall stores. Dying for a Starbuck latte? This is the place for you. Garlands outside the Hindu temple Maggie in Borneo Tote and Maggie in Borneo
Can you tell we liked the hats? These too.