Malaysia 2024 - Day 1

National Mosque of Malaysia

Bright and early we got up for the hotel breakfast buffet before setting off on a day of walking around some notable landmarks. Our first destination was the National Mosque of Malaysia and of course we had to try out their MRT. Unfortunately the public transportation system is a bit confusing with all the different agencies and being somewhat disconnected from the tourist attractions. There was no direct line to the mosque so we took the green line from Bukit Bintang to Muzium Negara (National Museum of Malaysia).

There was no time to waste as the walk from the station to the mosque would take 25 minutes and thankfully the route took us through part of the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately for us, the botanical gardens sits on a hill that we climbed via a set of long stairs. I hadn't talked about this before but Malaysia is HUMID which was expected but it has been a minute since I've had to exist in humidity. I kept telling myself as we climbed that it's actually not that bad, could be much worse. Then the mosquitoes started biting. Definitely bring bug spray for the forest areas.

20 minutes of meandering through the gardens led us down to the National Mosque of Malaysia, a building that looks unassuming on the outside but is very vast and specious inside the walls. The mosque was meant to be a symbol of independence from the British government. I was worried that I had made a foolish decision to wear shorts (already foolish because of mosquitoes) and that I would be the only person that needed to wear the robes provided by the Mosque. Thankfully, it turns out all females needed to wear the robe regardless of what you were dressing. The robes were very baggy and females needed to wear the hood up to cover the hair so it reminded me of Mario Shy Guy. Jon also opted to wear one because he was wear shorts.

All shoes must be taken off before going up a set of stairs that opens up to a large airy space with a long pool in the center. The granite floors were clean and you can see someone occasionally dust mopping the floors. We walked around the complex, making our way around the different spots.

While exploring, I spotted a little cat sleeping under a shoe rack that showed no interest in me and continued to sleep.

Merdeka Square (Independence Square)

We wrapped up our time at the National Mosque and planned out our path to another symbol of independence, Merdeka Square. Knowing that Kuala Lampur is notorious for being terrible infrastructure for pedestrians, the route had one challenge of cross some fast roads right across from the mosque. Walking to that road, it didn't seem so bad considering it is only a 2 lane road but in KL, the cars drive fast for such a small road. We decided to give it a shot because there was clearly a path on the other side. A few minutes went by and there was no good gap for us to run across. Another girl next to us also seemingly following the same route as us watch the traffic go by. Finally we saw a chance when a car looked like it was going to turn instead of going forward, bolted across the road and the turning car did not actually turn so close call for us.

The rest of the walk wasn't so bad and we quickly made it to Merdeka square which is a big grassy field surrounded by buildings. Many tourists were there taking pictures with the field and the clock tower and we even saw the girl from the mosque moments after. The square felt very out of place with all the commercial high rises surrounding it and otherwise, to me there was not much to see.

Chinatown and Petaling Jaya

Jon cupping a durian

From Merdeka Square, we crossed over the Klang River (River of Life) after waiting at a crosswalk that never turned green for the pedestrians. People were crossing in front of cars because this light was probably never going to turn green.

Walking through some dirtier parts, we made it to Chinatown and found ourselves at a durian dessert shop called Durian BB. It was a cute cafe that had A/C and durian flavored ice cream and drinks and addictive theme song that will forever be stuck in our heads. They are heavy on marketing and want you to buy things from their shop by coming by with free samples and even suspiciously placing tokens for the claw machine on your table. We used the tokens, didn't get anything and got suckered into buying some freeze dried mangosteen because it felt awkward not buying anything. At least we got a cute Durian BB tote bag that was useful for the rest of our trip. 

The fun part of the shop was upstairs where they have large figures of their mascots (different tropical fruits) and even a little game that you play by moving your body to control a character to dodge durians. We were pretty much the only ones upstairs and had some fun looking at the different exhibits.

After cooling down, we walked down Petaling Jaya to see what it is all about but I walked quickly through the street because I hated buying things under pressure and knowing that this is a tourist trap, I wasn't interested in any of the things being sold. While this street is in Chinatown, most of the sellers were not Chinese.

We explored a bit more, stopped at a cafe to cool down. At this point the sky had opened up and the rain was pouring down endlessly, thunder signaling a monsoon passing through. It seems most of the tourists took cover as they didn't have umbrellas but we whipped out ours and powered through some rain to a noodle shop to eat a late lunch.

We were seated with an older gentleman eating alone. After we ordered, he asked us in English where we were from to which we answered the United States. We had a nice conversation with him and learned that he was from KL. Since he is retired, he enjoys coming in the city for the day to walk around and eat his favorite foods like the noodle shop we were at. Though he did say Penang has much better food in his opinion. He apologized for his bad English but I thought it was quite good and communicated just fine with us. I asked him where he learned his English and replied that he learned through watching English shows and movies. He is also fluent in Cantonese and Mandarin and understood Jon and I when we spoke either languages. In his younger days, he frequently went to Singapore for work and seems to appreciate the US but sadly he said it was too expensive to travel to the US. After some more chatting, he humbly bid us farewell and went on his way.

After slurping our noodles, we opted to walk all the way back to our hotel. Our little flower umbrellas was at least enough to keep our bodies dry but Jon's shoes got completely soaked especially from the puddles we had to cross. Surprisingly, we didn't have a terrible time find sidewalks but did have to take some breaks from the strong downpours.

Bukit Bintang

By the time we got back to downtown, the rain was reduced to a sprinkle and we walked through the empty streets of Jalan Alor before the dinner crowd. In the area, much to the opposition from Jon, we walked into an quiet alley to escape the people and we stumbled upon some animal murals on the faces of the buildings. It was very cool to see the art integrated with the buildings to bring some brightness to the alley.

We went back to the hotel, thankful to have some time to rest and dry up. Dinner was right around the corner but neither of us were hungry so we went out to the near by malls, walked through and ended up at Brands Outlet which is like a cheaper Old Navy. There was a whole section of T-Shirts that Jon just had to take buy a couple shirts along with some chunky sandals he desperately needed since he didn't bring any sandals.

By this time, I was getting sudden urges to empty my bowls which I had attributed to the constant hot to cold switches. I decided to try to make the urges go away and each time it went away, I thought I was all good. But they kept coming back and while Jon was ordered a sandwich for dinner, I couldn't take it anymore and ran back to the hotel. Through the night, it was evident I had probably gotten traveler's diarrhea already on the first day. We could only speculate that it came either came from the salad I had from the hotel or the water we asked for at the cafe. It was a full day that ended tragically and made for a uncomfortable night and my first shart ever.

Malaysia - Day 2
Malaysia - Day 3