It's pretty easy to get to KL from Bangkok - the flight is only two hours, and most nationalities can get admitted for 90 days at the airport without a visa. The airport in KL is about an hour outside of the city, so I had some more time to read the guidebook on the drive into the city. The hotel we were staying at was a fairly central location, and close to a stop of the elevated monorail.
The first night we walked over to the Petronas Towers via a lengthy air-conditioned walkway. With some mystic-looking clouds in the background, here is what greeted us:
We walked through the park closer to the towers and saw this cutesy colorful water show set to music:
The next day I started exploring by heading to the Masjid Negara (National Mosque). It's quite a popular place for tourists to visit during non-prayer hours, and unfortunately those tourists don't always arrive properly dressed. There was an area for storing shoes, and to put on robes/head coverings:
I walked up to the main prayer hall on the second floor. As I was looking into the prayer hall, I was approached by a volunteer who shared with myself and other visitors some background on the mosque, the symbolism behind the times for the call to prayer, and more about Islam in general. She was so wonderful and helpful and a fantastic ambassador for her religion.
Open air gathering area:
Heading to the main hall:
Inside the main hall:
The Islamic Arts Museum was just up the street, and next on the cultural tour. The lower floor had an exhibit of photos commemorating Malaysia's independence and journey as a new nation from 1957 and on through the 60s and 70s. History is good to know, but the real pull for me was the ceramics on the fourth floor. I absolutely love Islamic architecture (the Alhambra!) and ceramics (tiles, jars, pottery!) and I finally figured out why. On the fourth floor there were signs describing the main principles of Islamic art - geometry, organic images of nature and plants, calligraphy - and a general effort to create art that matches the idealized interaction with the surrounding world. I think this paragraph sums it up well, from Khaled Azzam (http://www.khaledazzam.net/architecture-tradition/universal-principles-of-islamic-art.php):
Traditional Islamic architecture fully reflects this consciousness of the architect. There was never any attitude of conflict, defiance or conquest over the surrounding environment. This in Islamic architecture is seen in the curve of the dome, the fluid forms of vaults, the crenulations of the skyline and the recesses and protrusions of the walls which allow the building to interact gracefully with the surrounding space. Even the internal space of the building, the courtyard (metaphorically the heart of the building), was open to the sky symbolising the aspiration of the heart towards heaven.
Photos were forbidden inside the museum, but here are some from the exterior, as well as from our friends at Google Image Search:
From the museum entrance:
From Google Image Search, a view of the interior of the museum and one of the domes:
From Google Image Search, an inverted dome inside the museum:
From Google Image Search, a view of the museum's roof:
I think I also love it so much because all the blues and greens - so serene.
After the museum I hiked up to the bird park. Luckily these places are fairly close together, but wearing jeans and a long-sleeve cardigan to dress for the mosque (along with a lightweight scarf) and the hotter temps in KL definitely meant I was a bit of a (literal) hot mess. I think I drank three bottles of water before noon. I was out of my third bottle and looking for the fourth when I came upon a sign that state "Don't feed the monkeys." Oooookay. I wasn't heading to a monkey park, that's weird. Then I looked to my right, and saw this:
Oh, hello. And he's joined by 30 of his closest troop mates in the trees nearby. Downtown KL, just walking down the street, there's a troop of monkeys. And I note they are macaques too - just the species I used to work with! Ahh! So I didn't feed them, and definitely kept my distance, but here's some more shots of the rascals:
The sidewalk where I stumbled upon the critters. Note the three macaques taking over the top of the lightpole:
The bird park in KL sits on 20 acres, and is a HUGE free-flight aviary with around 3000 birds from 200 species (90% local species). Some birds are kept a bit more restricted - I'm guessing if they are feisty ones (like the eagles) or rare (like the hornbills). A great afternoon though - here are some of my favs:
Some fellas playing chess outside the park:
Shy:
Suspicious:
Not all birds at the bird park:
Yellow-billed stork, gathering nesting material:
Couldn't walk 10 feet without tripping over a white egret:
Some of the many white egrets:
Peacocks were also quite common:
Fruit snacks:
Show off:
Flamingo on the move:
It was a beautiful park to walk through:
At a dead end trail, I saw this group of yellow-billed storks soaking up the sun (or having a secret meeting?)
When you're a stork, your little babies aren't so little:
The hornbills were all in cages. I think this one escaped..
Hear a rustle in the bushes. Wait. Watch. Then out crawls this fella:
Emu. Check out the mini...teeth?
One more of the macaques, this time going for a tightrope act:
Last for the day was a stroll through Chinatown. Malaysia's population is comprised of (roughly) 50% ethnic Malay, 23% Chinese, and 7% Indian (with other minorities and indigenous people rounding out the population). I found a beautiful fabric store, which immediately helped tick off an important box (my mom is very kindly making us a quilt based on our travels, so I've been sending fabric from each country we visit). There were food stalls, incense shops, pirated DVDs, sunglasses, and other nick-nacks.
Jalan Petaling, Chinatown
Enough for one day - more to come from KL.
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