Kuala Lumpur: Other Architectural Niceties Rather than Just Tall Buildings

Heather outside the Masjid Jamek, wearing a beautiful green head covering
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Malaysia has an interesting history.  It was religionized by the Muslims back somewhere around 1100 AD.  Then it was colonized, first by the Portugeuse, then by the Dutch, then by the British.  Finally in 1957 it achieved it's independence.  A proud day I'm sure.

The influence of all of this history is interestingly available to see in the architecture around Kuala Lumpur.  Particularly common is the Islamic architecture.  Heather and I decided to tour one of the oldest mosques in the city, Masjid Jamek.  Being a Muslim place of worship we were expected to respect their religion and not enter any of the buildings.  We were welcome to look around the grounds as much as we liked.  Also, we were to abide by their fashion beliefs.  So we both wore the robes that we provided for us, and Heather had to also wear a head covering.

We basically tried to piece things together from our own educated guesses.

Mike just outside the mens prayer area. No shoes allowed inside. We weren't allowed inside either.
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Unfortunately, though, we weren't provided with a tour guide or any information on the mosque or the religion except for one monument which talked about the buildings history.  So we really didn't learn much here.  We basically tried to piece things together from our own educated guesses.  For example, on the grounds of the mosque are two star shaped pools filled with water.  There are also two different prayer areas on opposite sides of the buildings (the pools were also on opposite sides), one for men, one for women.  Our guess is that the pools are used for washing which is to be done before going into the prayer rooms.  If anyone out there knows any different, please email us to let us know.

Star shaped pool for pre prayer scrubbing
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Michael and Heather