We had planned a longer visit to Kuala Lumpur but Malaysian Airlines tricked us! We received a flight change notification for a change in time from 1:30 to 3:30 and thought nothing of it until we were ready to depart for our flight on the 9th and realized that the change was not only a time change but also a change in dates. Our visit to Perth was extended by one day; however, our visit to Kuala Lumpur got truncated. Once we realized the change, we endeavored to put together a list of all of the top sites in Kuala Lumpur and challenged ourselves to get to those sites in less than 36 hours. Here's a synopsis (in case the NYTimes wants to borrow it).

Our incredible experience in Kuala Lumpur started with a trip from KLIA via the KL Express train to KL Sentral, the main train station in downtown Kuala Lumpur. The train (and the entire train system which we used extensively during our 36 hours) is immaculate, comfortable, inexpensive, and easy to use. The express train from the airport is also super-speedy taking only 30 minutes to reach downtown.

We arrived late in the evening (around 11 PM local time) at KL Sentral and were greeted by our host, Bandu Ranadeera, a friend of our friend, Mehboob Vellani. Bandu was beyond gracious not only picking us up from the train station and hosting us at his home but also feeding us an amazing Sri Lankan dinner when we arrived, a full breakfast both mornings, and taking us out on Wednesday night to experience the city and nightlife of Kuala Lumpur.

Our host and tour guide, Bandu, with Nick

After a restful sleep, we started our tour of Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday morning at the Petronas Towers. We always called them the Pe-trō-nás Towers but they are actually the Petro (as in petroleum) Nas (as in Nasional) Towers. A fascinating set of towers, the Petronas Twin Towers were completed on March 1, 1996 and remain the tallest twin towers in the world at 452 m high with 88 floors. Here's a few other interesting facts:

The twin towers were the tallest buildings in the world until 2004 when Tapei 101 took over the title.
The two towers along with the bridge are meant to resemble the "M" in Malaysia.
The skywalk on the 42nd and 43rd floors is the world's highest skybridge which connect two towers. It is 58.4 m (192 ft) long and weighs 750 tons.
There are 88 stories in the twin towers though the highest accessible floor is the 86th floor.
The architecture of the buildings is influenced by Islam with the 8-point star at the top standing for unity, harmony, stability, and rationality. The glass facade was designed to resemble Islamic art motifs.

At the Petronas Towers preparing for our tour

After an elightening visit to the Petronas Twin Towers, we headed out on foot to the Kampung Baru or "new village," a small village in the metropolis of Kuala Lumpur which still has a few traditional Malay homes; colorful houses that were built on stilts/pilons during a time when KL was much swampier. You have to look hard to find these homes as they are tucked away amidst the rapid development happening in this neighborhood but we did see a few. What was the real delight of this neighborhood was the Chow Kit Market, a wonderfully colorful and active fresh fruits and vegetable market. We took our time walking up and down the aisles as it was fun to look at the many fruits and vegetables which we don't normally see in the States. And, of course, Nick put a smile on everyone's face by saying "Selamat Pagi" to all of the locals. After having a coffee sweetened with condensed milk, we took off on our next adventure, a trip to the Islamic Arts Museum.

More traditional Malay homes in Kampung Baru

To get to the Islamic Arts Museum, we headed back to KL Sentral on the train and then walked over to the museum through the Lake Gardens. Lake Gardens, known officially as Perdana Botanical Gardens, is Kuala Lumpur's first large-scale recreational park. Measuring 91.6 hectares, it is located in the heart of the city and was established in 1888. The park was beautiful but, compared to Central Park, was a ghost town/park. Though to be fair, it was also brutally hot and humid and no Malay in their right mind would probably want to walk through the park in the middle of the day.

We eventually arrived at the Islamic Arts Museum (a little sweaty) to discover a beautiful and well-curated museum of exhibits, artifacts, history and culture of Islam. Because Malaysia is primarily an Islamic country (61.4%), we felt compelled to learn more about Islamic culture and felt the museum would be a good way to do it. While it's impossible to pick up on all of the nuances of Islamic culture in a museum visit, we enjoyed the architecture gallery the most which detailed the key elements of mosques and presented scaled replicas of many famous mosques around the world (including one in New Mexico built in the adobe style). We were delighted to learn about the most important features of mosques.

Mecca - Mecca is located in Saudi Arabia and is the birthplace of the Prophet Muhammad. The Masjid al-Haram is the Sacred Mosque and the place where all Muslims face when they pray
Minaret (tower) - This is the most visible structure from which the call to prayer is announced.
Mihrab - A niche in the wall that indicates the direction of Mecca.
Minbar (pulpit) - Most mosques have them and this is where the Islamic scholar delivers the speech or sermon.
Domes - Often located above the main prayer hall, domes significant the sky and heaven.
Musallah (prayer hall) - The prayer hall rarely has furniture and welcomes worshippers who alternately kneel, prostrate themselves and stand to pray.
Ablution Area - Ritual purification precedes all praying, so mosques often have areas for worshippers to was themselves.

After our visit to the Islamic Arts Center, we did a brief detour through the Malay World Ethnology Museum also located in Lake Gardens. The Ethnology Museum told a story of Malay history and life through a small collection of textiles, weapons, technological devices, theater, musical instruments, and games from a collection of Malay countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.

The exhibits at the museum were light on content and depth (small space, big history). The two big takeaways for us were the exhibits on wayang kulit and wau. Wayang are plays put on using puppets. The most famous are wayang kulit, or "shadow puppets that are usually made of skin and are slightly translucent so the colors and shapes project from behind a screen. Wayang originated in Java and spread to other parts of Southeast Asia, hence why they appeared in Malaysia.

In Jakarta, we bought a wayang golek, or three dimensional rod puppet and a wayang klitik, which is a cross between a kulit and golek and is a two dimensional wooden puppet.

Wau are intricate kites flown by young and old Malaysians (they used to only be flown by men). The most widely flown wau are the wau bulan, or moon kites. When we first saw them, we knew they looked familiar: Wau adorn the tails of Malaysia Airlines planes. In the case of the planes, Malaysia Airlines adopted wau kucing, or cat kite.

From here we headed back to KL Sentral and prior to meeting up with our host, Bandu, we briefly wandered through one of the many malls we saw in KL. To spend time in KL is to know that people love to shop. You can find any and all stores and restaurants contained within vast multi-level air conditioned malls. We even saw a mall devoted strictly to technology. According to our host, most of these malls are geared toward the many tourists who visit as the prices are typically higher than what a local person might pay. Still it is a bit overwhelming to see the enormity of stores and availability to shop.

After our brief jaunt through the mall, we met up with Bandu who shuttled us over to Merdeka Square or "Independence Square." Merdeka Square has a lot of history attached to it but its most significant importance is related to Malaysian independence from the British when the Union flag was lowered and the Malay flag was hoisted on 31 August 1957. Around Merdeka Square we saw a collection of stately buildings built mostly by the British in the late 1800's (and restored by the Malaysians) including the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, the cricket green in front of the building, the Royal Selangor Club Complex and St. Mary's Anglican Cathedral. Interestingly, the architecture of many of these buildings is a bit Indian which is due to the fact that the British who designed these buildings had most recently been in India. We also went to the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery which told the story of KL through miniature models and a wonderful light show. It also included a brief glimpse of the future plans for the city of KL which are quite ambitious.

Royal Selangor Club Complex and a small patch of the cricket green

From there, we treated Bandu to a meal at the Jalan Alor night market...some of the most delicious Southeast Asian food we ate. We then relaxed with a 30-minute foot massage where Tim's enthusiastic masseur gave him bruises!

The next day, knowing that we only had a brief time in KL, we moved our flight from the morning to the afternoon and it was a great choice! We took the MRT train up to Batu caves and, being virtually the only tourists, we experienced this holy place with a small group of Hindus. Batu caves are caves created from the erosion of a massive limestone hill that rises up from the land just north of KL. It's one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India. We climbed nearly 300 steps to get to the first, largest cave where we were greeted by Hindu worshippers praying to beautiful music. We climbed another 50 or so steps to another inner cave.

To finish off our nearly 36 hours in Kuala Lumpur, we hopped on the MRT back to KL Sentral where we then gathered our bags before being whisked off to the airport aboard the KL Express train. Almost 36 hours in KL.

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