Kuala Lumpur in Pictures

En route to meet a boat, I had the opportunity to visit Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia for a couple of days.  

Pretty well exhausted after 36 hours in transit, I was grateful to be delivered at 2 a.m. local time to the Hotel Majestic by my cheerful driver Vieky ( pronounced just like Vickie) . Wow. I almost never travel in high style like this, but for less than the cost of a stay at a  Hampton Inn, I got to stay in this beautifully refurbished and expanded colonial beauty, originally built in 1932

For some reason,  I kept thinking of the "Hotel Grand Budapest"
and the "Best Exotic Marigold Hotel".  I had a delightful stay, even without
 the charming concierges from those hotels!

The lobby in the new wing, where I stayed.

I chose this hotel based on favorable recommendations, and because it was within walking distance of almost everything I wanted to see.    Though the city is not really laid out for pedestrians, I was able to walk almost everywhere I wanted easily.

The old British colonial district has some pretty impressive architecture, in the Indian style, which is being kept up well enough. The tropical heat and humidity are hard on brick and stucco buildings.

Leaving my immediate neighborhood in the Colonial District, I crossed over the railroad tracks and river into Chinatown, the old-fashioned market area of town where food vendors sold everything from boiled peanuts, rice mixtures roasted in banana leaves, fruit smoothies, packets of fresh sliced fruits to shoes, bags, carvings and all kinds of goods.

The facade of the old Central Market.

A view from the mezzanine inside the Central Market building.

Some of the old colonial street fronts in the Market area

Fresh fruits of every description...rambutan, sugar apples and other tropical fruits.

The famous gate to the Chinatown shopping district. A guy offered to take my picture,
and deftly wove through moving traffic to get this shot! 

A main street in the Jalan Petaling area.

Fresh fruit and veggies everywhere. It's mango season! just look at those beauties.

Some Buddhist monks checking out the swag.

The lady was cooking a layered rice and meat dish over screaming-hot charcoals
She finished it with sprinkles of savory scallions and other greens, and some sauces.
  It sure looked good. I was sorry not to be hungry at the time.

The brightly painted front of the colorful Hindu Temple in Chinatown.
You can smell the incense and burning flowers from the street.

Inside the temple. There are small shrines all around the walls, too.

The pantheon of the Hindu gods and goddesses.

Home at last, after walking over seven miles all around town. A beautiful view from my room.  In the morning before sunrise, the muzzein at the National Mosque, just to the left, sang a beautiful chant for about ten minutes before the usual call to prayer.  I enjoyed lying in my cozy bed and listening, for while he chanted, the city quietly listened too.

In the morning, my driver Vieky picked me up to take me to visit the famous Batu caves.  A mountain of limestone rises up rather incongruously above the countryside and can be seen long before we reached it.  The entire mountain is hollow and stalactites drip down like melted wax.  The ceiling caved in eons ago, so the interior is skylit in some places.  To reach it I climbed over 200 steps right up the mountain behind the golden Temple Guardian.

Chinese, Japanese and Korean tourists make up the majority of visitors to Malaysia. Saudis and other Gulf Arab nationals like to visit here also, especially now, when Ramadan has ended and they celebrate Eid with feasting and fun.  I spoke with two parties of Saudis who were jovial and engaging.

Shrines inside the Batu Caves.  Blue tarps covered many of the brightly painted statues on the shrines,
 since they are being repainted and will be unveiled at a ceremony later on.  They are ornately painted, and Vieky told me they have to be repainted every year or two.  Just like painting a bridge; when you get done you start over again!

Ganesha the Elephant headed god.

A blurry shot of musicians playing a tabla drum and a kind of oboe-like horn.  What a sound!!

The faithful buy fragrant garlands of flowers to offer at the shrines.  They smell wonderful.

A family enjoying themselves at a temple outside the caves.

Hanuman, the monkey headed god who is Rama's right-hand man.

Vieky took me on a tour  through KL's modern business district to admire the urban architecture
 and to see the famous Petronas Twin Towers.  They were briefly the tallest buildings in the world and are
 still the tallest twin towers.  They are clad in gleaming stainless steel. I love the design.
 This girl from Indonesia asked me to pose with her for a photo.  So I took a shot of  us too.
 Then they asked if I would  pose with her boyfriend too. I'm not sure why!!

More of the fabulous cityscape of KL. Lush landscaping enhances it.

Oil nut palms reflected in a glass skyscraper.

My driver Vieky.  I teased  him that he was Batu Man driving the Batu Mobile.  He cracked up.

After lunch and bidding Vieky farewell, I walked to the KL Botanical Gardens, the Bird park ,
and the Butterfly gardens.  The rain held off  and it was lush and beautiful, an oasis of quiet in this busy city.

Tree flower at the botanical garden.

So then these three guys from Bangldesh came up and asked if I would pose for a picture with
 them.  So again, I took one of us together, too.  Again, I'm not sure why.  Is this a new trend or something??
Taking your picture with old foreign white ladies???

A butterfly landed on an Ixora flower and posed for my picture.

 I made my way to Merdeka Square, where Malaysia formalized it's independence from Britain.
Again, here is more fabulous architecture , old and new.

A mosaic of the famous photo of the signing of the declaration of Independence of Malaysia.

Merdeka Square, lined with buses full of tourists.

From here I walked back to Chinatown for something to eat and to see the Chinese Temple, which was closed yesterday.
The people in the doorway were saying their prayers.

An incense burner inside the temple.

In the background of the photo above, you can see these two yellow columns,  When I got close up,
 I could see that they were filled with lighted boxes containing hundreds of little statues of the Immortals.  Cool!

I have no idea who this is, but he's the main  attraction.

I enjoyed my two days in Kuala Lumpur!