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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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The train arrived in KL around 8 am. It was a quiet and pretty comfortable train trip. Especially considering that the bed right across from me had a young Muslim woman with her enormous baby boy.
Having been here before made me feel pretty confident in figuring out where to go. We had a delay boarding the skytrain because it was so full. Still we got to Chinatown pretty easily and within an hour we had found a room. In fact we are both in a dorm room with only 3 beds. Very clean. 20 ringitt a piece.
We started out touring the town together. Elisabeth has figured out pretty quickly not to trust my directions. She is excellent in asking at each street corner. It does help. We headed to the Lake gardens which contain a bird sanctuary, a butterfly garden and several other features. I took so many pictures that I used up my rechargeables and a set of spares. I learned that some butterflies are really into posing and some are really shy.
Elisabeth decided she was not for the birds and left on her own adventure. I spent ages with the birds. One memorable point I was sitting at a table with a small white egret type looking bird about a foot and a half away from me. The peacocks were screaming and some hornbill was blaring and then from the mosque the call to prayer came over the loudspeakers. It was a truly exotic moment.
I had a few amazing moments with birds who seemed so tame. Then I stopped at the Hornbill restaurant that is part of the sanctuary. The building is under the netting that allows so many birds to be moving around freely. Right as I sat down two white billed hornbills came up into the tree very close to me and did a song and dance performance. This variety makes a high gurgling sound with its head pitched up. Then another came and they bounced around each other and stared at we diners. Then they took off. No extra charge. And I had my first potatoe (wedges with tomatoe sauce) since I left home.
My next stop was the National Museum. Such a homespun sort of museum. There were recipes for national dishes in one display. And that was not the only mention of food. Since Malaysia is dominated by three ethnic groups, The Malay, East Indians from south India and Chinese there is a emphasis in displays showing all cultures. You can tell that the Chinese had the most money. There old stuff was much richer.
What I discovered from the natural history part is that the original inhabitants were divided into three basic ethnic groups. Negrito, Semiol and proto-Malay. They each occupied a third of the peninsula. Kind of odd how this theme runs through the history of this country. Lucky for me the big rain storm of the day came as I was inside the museum.
When I left I caught the skytrain for the views at the Merkala Tower. The 4th highest in the world of the antenna towers. The views are spectacular and the thing that most impressed me is how very green this city is. There is a lot of open space and big stretches of jungley forest all over the city. It makes for a lovely site.
Now the hostel has filled up with very loud backpackers. They are playing piano and guitar and singing out of tune. If you hear a late breaking news story about a middle aged American who went berserk and murdered a bunch of backpackers in Kuala Lumpur you will have an inside scoop on the story.
previous travel blog entry
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