Kuala Lumpur is such a cool city, it is a blend of three different cultures and people. The architecture and the general vibe around the city reflect that.
To start our trip off, I dragged them to central market- it’s on everyone’s list of things to do. To be perfectly honest… I thought it was a little overrated. While the outside of the market is iconic with it’s beautiful tile, the inside is mostly the same type of tchotchkes that markets in Thailand and China have. Which is not to say that it’s bad, but I think we’ve become a bit jaded to that now.
The classic image you see on everyone’s instagram of KL (which is what the cool kids call Kuala Lumpur, or so I’ve been told)
I loved the tile on the floor and steps, the colors are lovely and the design is great. The whole trip to Malaysia I found myself noticing the little details added to buildings like this.
My guys are so patient about getting their picture taken… sometimes.
After we checked out the market, we went to an Indian restaurant that had all kinds of great reviews… that ended up being so-so. I didn’t take pictures of that one- it didn’t really deserve them. But walking distance from there was a Hindu temple I had on my list to see.
This was our first trip to a Hindu temple, but I had looked up in advance what the requirements were so we were prepared with appropriate clothes. This is the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, the oldest Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur.
These garlands are available to purchase to bring into the temple. I’m unfortunately not completely sure of the purpose, except I think to offer to the deities.
The main entrance of the temple, this is in a very busy section of the city, and then BAM there is this great beautiful temple! There are 228 gods depicted in statues on the tower.
At this temple, and on this trip as a whole, I’m glad I live in an age of digital photography, because I would have run out of film trying to capture all the amazing artwork surrounding the building.
Ganesh has taken a new special place in my heart as he is the god of scholars and intellectuals in Hinduism, as well as the remover of obstacles. I currently have a Ganesh statue that sits on my desk while I work on my thesis.
While we were looking at this statue, a man came up to pray and he started a conversation with us to explain who this was and why they were important. It was so friendly and not an attempt at conversion, but just a genuine interest sharing with us.
Everyone we met at this temple was welcoming, I think in part due to the fact that we tend to err on the side of caution when in temples and not join in on religious activities. As opposed to some of the other visitors to the temple, who pushed past devotees to film the ceremony. We were encouraged to come closer and see what was happening. I took one picture before I realized that this probably not the best time to be snapping away.
We were lucky to be there during prayer time to watch the devotees pouring milk and water over the statue of Ganesh and two other deities that I’m not familiar with. It was really interesting to be welcomed in to experience this with the people in the temple, there was music being played on an instrument I didn’t know.
Artwork like this surrounded the building, each section telling a story of the gods. I don’t know what story this is telling, I’m only really familiar with the story of Rama and Sita (not depicted here).
We stayed in a nice Airbnb, not too far from the action, and it had a nice swimming pool, an essential for any trip with Alex.
He has always been a water baby, and it doesn’t look like that will change anytime soon. It was on this trip that we discovered something wasn’t right with his ears- he kept complaining about it hurting to go to the bottom of the pool… which was only about 5 feet deep.
This kid is such a ham, he was pretending the jet in the hot tub (more like lukewarm tub) was eating his hand.
That night we wanted to go to the famous street vendor area for dinner, there was such a crowd that you would really have to push past people to keep walking down the aisle. There were so many options, and so we decided to walk all the way down and then make our choice. We made it to the end and found a Thai restaurant just around the corner. It wasn’t the best thai food ever, but it was very good!
Yes this picture ^^ is blurry, but I was trying to show scale… those are prawns, giant man eating prawns. They are lobster sized!
This place is famous for it’s chicken wings, so we had to try them on our way out of the food street.
My two guys with their nescafes- Alex tried it and loved it, he had one at every meal for the rest of the trip.
It was very hot chicken! It was pretty good, but we found someone who really loved it.
He wouldn’t sit still long enough for a good picture, but this cat clearly knew where the best meal in town was. He cried at our feet and we ended up giving him quite a bit of chicken, but he’s also so spoiled that when we gave him a grisly bit he ignored it and cried for more meat.
Mark and Alex find cats, dogs, birds, fish– any animal really, to be friends with- this trip was no different. If someone wanted to kidnap Mark, all they would need is a cat, he follows them down dark alleys to try to pet them.
This was another very local Indian place we went to, the food was good the guys running the shop were very nice and despite a language barrier were really invested in making sure we enjoyed ourselves.
The view of KL tower, which was near our airbnb too.
The sign says “Ladies of KL” and I just really liked it, it was fitting of the three main cultures all living there.
I don’t know what kind of flower this is, but it smelled nice and was beautiful.
View of the Patronas Twin Towers-
The next day we went to the National Mosque, and to enter you have to be properly dressed. Being the person and traveler that I am, I did some research before we left and came prepared with my own outfit. I had two very nice ladies help me wrap the hijab because I couldn’t get it to stay on right.
I was really blown away by the beauty of the mosque, I loved the aesthetic of the building and all the stained glass. At this mosque there wasn’t as much to see as I had hoped, the building you can see from the road is actually the museum nearby and not the mosque. But we met some nice people and got to see some beautiful artwork.
Kids get it the best, Alex got to go in just the way he was, while Mark got to sport the nice robe they provided.
This was the domed building I thought we were heading to, I loved the design on it.
These two ladies were in charge of making sure everyone was dressed appropriately, and they were the ones who helped me with my hijab. They seemed surprised but happy that I came with my own gear, and thought it was funny that I wanted their picture.
And then Mark found another cat. You thought I was kidding right? He can find them anywhere! This cat was very chill, the little girl in the picture was pulling on her tail and leaning on here and the cat just laid there.
Like Father like son.
As has become our tradition, we sought out an escape room while we were in KL. We’ve done two in Japan, two in Thailand and one in KL. This one was interesting, not the best one we’ve done but not the worst either. Without giving anything away, there was one clue that didn’t work, and one direction that made us avoid moving something that needed to be moved. We finished with extra time, but had the clue worked I think we would have beaten it on time.
Traveling Expat Family 