Monsoon Season in Malaysia

Jess and I are about half way through our 10 day trip to Malaysia and Singapore. We met a German guy named Chris (I think I've met a Chris from every continent besides Africa in the past 2 months) at the Phuket airport in Thailand and have been sharing our traveling experiences with him ever since.

We stayed in Kuala Lumpur (KL), Malaysia, and saw the entire city at night from atop the Menara tower. We walked around a lot and took pretty much every form of transportation you could think of- taxi, boat, bus, train, light rail (monorail), subway/metro, and plenty of our own 2 feet.

We missed the National Mosque, but walked around the beautiful Lake Garden nearby. We also missed free tickets to the Petronias towers because they only hand out 1,300/day and we arrived several hours after the ticket office had opened.

No making out in Lake Garden

Next we went to Taman Negara, a beautiful national park northeast of KL. We did a lot of hiking, almost went in a cave, but were too scared of the bats, slippery rocks, and snakes, without a guide. We enjoyed meals at different restaurants on the river, and took a boat to a hiking trail near which was living an aberigine tribe. There are 39 members of the tribe. Two of them spoke enough English to show us how to make fire and shoot through a blowpipe. We took off that night and were completely soaked by a monsoon that rushed in right before our departure.

In the aberigine tribe

We are now back in KL, attempting to see what we missed before- tickets to the Petronas towers, the National Mosque (surprisingly plain/empty because they don't pray to an idol or any thing), and possibly Times Square (a large shopping/cinema building). A lady explained some of her Muslim religion (Islam) to us- 1 God (Allah), you are closest to Allah when your head is touching the ground during prayer. Inside the main prayer room of the National Mosque can fit 3,000 people. Outside, the mosque can hold 12,000. Every Muslim has to pray in a mosque on Fridays. They pray 5 times a day, facing Mecca as a symbol of unity. Jess and I had to wear robes and handkerchiefs to cover ourselves before entering the mosque. After visiting the National Mosque, we walked through India Town and enjoyed eating with our right hand at a delicious vegetarian restaurant.

Reflecting at the National Mosque in KL