KL is a great mixture of historic and modern.
It’s a long way from Vancouver to Kuala Lumpur, but our flights were worse than normal. First we flew to San Francisco. There we waited for the flight to Hong Kong. It boarded on time but then the pilot announced that strong headwinds made it impossible to cross the Pacific Ocean straight for Hong Kong. Instead, we had to follow land: Canada, Alaska, Siberia and China. And that meant we’ll have to refuel in Seoul, South Korea. Singapore Airlines was pleasant, the staff very nice and the food not too bad. We finally landed in Seoul where it was very foggy. We couldn't see a thing. Pretty soon the pilot stopped moving down the tarmac and announced that he couldn't find the terminal without a truck to guide us in… We had to stay on board and then he announced that we would refuel but couldn't take off again until there was a window in the fog to allow this... After another long wait, we were pushed back from the terminal but by then the fog had frozen and the plane needed to be de-iced. What else could they throw at us??
After de-icing the fog closed in again! We couldn't even see the wing tips. There was 50' visibility!
By the time we finally made it to Singapore, we'd been in the same seat for 27 hours! We were given packages of toiletries, extra meals, a deck of playing cards and a beautiful pen from Singapore Airlines. But a plane is a plane, loaded with lots of people. We’d run out of food and I won’t mention the toilets. The most impressive thing was that, at the gate in Singapore, airline staff handed us boarding passes for our newly booked flight to Kuala Lumpur plus a telephone card to phone the people who would pick us up there.
We finally made it to Kuala Lumpur where I was to conduct author presentations in an international school. We were put up in a school condo with a balcony overlooking a lush, tropical court yard and large pool. Things were looking up.The school is a huge, 3 story building with palm trees everywhere. Open hallways and stairways, a large cafeteria, even a school pool. The library is on the third floor, a large, beautiful library. Almost 500 children from 44 countries attend this elementary school.
We walked 5 minutes to a small shopping center and strolled across an evening market. Lanterns hung among the lush palm trees. We enjoyed margarita's and wonderful food: pineapple rice, cashew chicken, crab omelettes, packages of leaves with chicken in it and much more.
Kuala Lumpur is a wonderful mix of traditional and modern. In downtown Kuala Lumpur we visited a historic museum to learn more about Malaysia. We enjoyed seeing the historic, colonial, houses of parliament, a beautiful church, the national library, a huge Buddhist temple, the ornamental train station, a large islam information center and the national museum. Daytime temperatures are around the 30 degrees and the humidity is around 85% which makes you hot and sweaty whenever you are outside. KL is only 1 degree above the equator, so no wonder it is hot here.
A mix of colonial and contemporary.
That is the real Kuala lumpur, the confluence of two rivers, Kenny explained.
The next day Kenny, a taxi driver, picked us. First we stopped at the Petronas Towers. Made of shining metal, these twin towers and the connecting bridge, with a glass floor, have become the symbol of Malaysia. Once the tallest towers in the world, they were made famous in movies by Jackie Chan and Sean Connery’s Entrapment.
Then Kenny took us to the real “Kuala Lumpur” - the muddy confluence of two rivers where the city was originally founded because of tin found in the area. We strolled through the Central Market, bought postcards and gorgeous scarves. Then outside to Chinatown but found it too crowded and tacky. Little India was more interesting, with little food stalls and fabric shops everywhere. We ate interesting looking “donuts” and balls made from garbanzo bean flour with vegetables. Strolled by historic buildings, a large mosque as well as a huge Buddhist Temple on top of a hill with nice views of the city.
We toured a tin factory. Selangor tin is famous around the world and is mined here. In the visitor’s centre you can see the whole process of melting, molding, polishing etc. In the gift shop we ended up buying a wonderful set of book ends featuring Winnie the Pooh.
With Kenny we enjoyed lunch at an authentic Malaysian Chinese family restaurant, basically just a roof over some tables and chairs on a street corner. A kind of bbq on the street was used for grilling saté. Kenny ordered: rice, chicken sate, steamed Red Snapper in vegetable broth, prawns and crab.
Downpours seem sudden and intense here. Soon the streets flood. Then thunder and lightning started. We drove outside the city on our way to Kuala Selangor where the famous fireflies are. I had no hope at all of seeing them because of the rain. On the way, the rain got so bad that we barely saw the road. The rain became torrential. Lightning lit up the entire sky.
Optimistic Kenny insisted that everything was a good sign because “storms blow over and thus the rain will end soon.” We made it to the firefly park but it poured so wildly that nothing was happening. This is a protected wildlife area along the banks of the Selangor river. The fireflies live in the mangroves.
We sat and waited for at least an hour and then, suddenly, the rain stopped and the boats went out. We went in a small wooden punter with a man standing on the back and rowing us across a fairly wide, brown, fast flowing river. All was pitch dark. Then, suddenly, the bushes lit up like Christmas trees. Across the river, more bushes glowed, reflecting in the river. Because of the rain, the bushes glowed wet, reflecting millions of “lights”. They all blinked synchronized, truly looking like blinking garden lights. Fireflies (in Malaysian Bahasa: kelip-kelip) are winged beetles that produce light in their lower abdomens as part of their mating ritual. They use the flash patterns to help them distinguish between the opposite sexes. The light is a result of a chemical reaction called ‘bioluminescence’. We must have floated along the quiet river for an hour. It was quite magical. You are not allowed to take flash photos and it’s quite impossible to capture the magic anyway. I found the image below online to give you an idea…
Much of Malaysia is covered in palm oil plantations, effecting the original forest and wildlife. The people are among the friendliest we’ve met anywhere. The food is outstanding and we felt quite safe everywhere. English is widely spoken. Most people are Muslim and it is appreciated if women cover their hair with a shawl, but Malaysia is also a very modern country. With its beautiful beaches (Langkawi is on my bucket list!!) and warm climate, it’s a great place to visit!
More details:
Malaysia: https://www.britannica.com/place/Malaysia
Fireflies: https://www.wonderfulmalaysia.com/firefly-park-kuala-selangor-malaysia.htm
