Cross Cultural Encounters

We had a clerk at the front desk help us arrange a private tour guide to efficiently take us to those “Must See” locations, which we had missed on our own. The driver met us in the lobby to start our new adventure. Our first stop was at the National Monument (Tugu Negara), which commemorates those who died during Malaysia's struggle for independence, especially during the Japanese, WWII occupation and afterwards. Unfortunately, the walkway surrounding the monument was partially closed; we could only see the back and sides of this emotionally charged memorial. Missing this was very similar to visiting the United States Marine Corps’ Iwo Jima Memorial and not being able to see their faces.

At the Royal Palace, the requisite military honor guards at the front gate included two on horseback. The palace was beautiful, even viewed from a distance and likely would have been ornately, gilded on the inside. Alas, as an active regal residence, that was not possible for us commoners, unlike the open, historic palaces of Europe.

The prime minister's mansion was on a scale similar to our own White House but was not as impressive as the royal palace. This makes sense as the palace has a centuries’ long history, while the prime ministry has only decades since independence. Our driver could not stop on the entry road which lead to the prime minister’s residence. So, we just looked at the part along the roof line which is visible from the street and continued to our next stop

Our driver then took us up to the base of the radio tower. We caught some great views from this lofty site, but did not go up the structure, because we had seen the area from the Petronas Twin Towers earlier. On the edge of the grounds sits an attraction called the Upside Down House. Don walked around it and found the exterior intriguing enough to take several photographs. 

We then went downtown and finally got into the National Textile Museum. The fabrics were amazing, especially the early bark cloths. I did not see much Batik fabric, but the museum did an excellent job in displaying the historical weaving and dyeing processes. We tried going to the National Mosque, also known as the Blue Mosque, and had forgotten that we were touring on Friday. The mosque was closed to tourists on this the holy day of the week for Muslims to gather and pray. Poor timing on our part, but will have to keep it in mind for future visits to mosques.

We also went to Little India, a section of Kuala Lumpur with many Indian shops and restaurants. The street decorations were worth the visit. Don, of course, had to walk a short bit to take photographs.

We had our driver take us to the Botanical Gardens where we took our leave. Going into the park we encountered a bridal party and exchanged a couple pictures with the bride, who was fascinated by my hairdo and colors. As we wandered through the park primarily looking for the orchid gardens, we found the deer park and saw several resting in the cool shade by a stream; Don wondered, were these the same type as in his previous, venison dish. The deer could not be photographed well enough within their habitat exhibit, due to the layout and bad lighting.

 We finally found the orchid gardens but they were closed that day, again this is Friday. We considered going to the Bird Park, but thought it was a little steep both in the admission price, around $40.00 each, and physically the pathways inside the open aviary required significant walking down and climbing out. We had already done a lot of walking up and down hills, so we decided to head back to the hotel by taxi. We were glad we did! Since it was starting to rain.

We ate at another restaurant near the hotel and I again had prawns. We had not realized until that night what a good view of the Petronas Towers we had from in front of the restaurant and only a couple of streets from our hotel. Don got a few good pictures of the Towers from there.

We got packed in readiness for the next day's new experience, a daylong journey with a private driver.

All in all, we were satisfied with our stay in Kuala Lumpur.