Some Life : Kuala Lampur (KL)

KL is a marvel, and much improved by the most luxe hotel experience of my life — the Mandarin Oriental. The downtown is cleaner and more modern than Philadelphia. I keep forgetting and thinking I am in Singapore. It has the typical trifurcated Chinese, Indian, and Malay populations. The street food is typical of the Malay peninsula, and the weather is hotter than Hades.

After checking into the gorgeous Peninsula, we ‘grabbed it’ to our first hawker center, SS2. Note: Grab is the Malay equivalent of Uber, and Grab bought out Uber in 2018. We think this purchase was made because it was too difficult for Uber to manage. Grab is Chinese owned. Sadly, the center, which was quite far from our hotel, was mostly empty due to a combination of Chinese New Year and Muslim Sabbath. We made due with a lovely chicken rice and visit to the local pharmacy for vitamin C (me having my second illness of trip, a small cold).

Next day was a whirlwind tour, by various Grab drivers, to KLCC nature walk....climbed high in trees for a quick walk, the bird park....Jurassic park of birds with peacocks, parrots, cranes, and so on, a batik show, and the national textile museum. Oh and the KL S Sentral Market for late afternoon lunch.Whew.

The afternoon was completed with gym time, sauna, soak, and so on. Oh poor me.

The Batu caves are not far from town, and were filled with worshippers, many of which appeared to have shaved heads, caked with some kind of powdery dye. I believe they then waited in line to be blessed by the priests, who were topless gurus in sarongs minding the fires and other activities up front. I couldn’t really figure out all that was going on...there were tickets for sale, pots of food, plates of offerings, and covered pots. Families were dressed in their finest, and some people sat down to meditate.

Batu Caves, image of Lord Murugan, Hindu God of war.

I walked up the steps...a bit of a feat, especially considering the many macaques, who all but blocked the way with their cuteness. I noticed some people let the monkeys climb up their bodies to snack. It was a lot to track....monkeys, steps, worshippers who just stopped and sat down on the steps in the middle, and so on.

Lord Murugan, from the top, notice macaques owing for photos in the foreground.

Macaques all the way up and down the hill.

Next up, the biggest, oldest, most glittery Chinese temple, Thean Hou. It was also bustling, and took many minutes too get to owing to the tremendous traffic jam. The jams continued as we climbed up the stairs to the main temple. People everywhere, and brides everywhere....we saw at least four couples who appeared to be getting married or renewing vows, not sure which.