Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

On Thursday, Joe and I took separate tours for the second and last time, since we wanted to see different things. The tour I took was a general overview of the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. For a long time, the only thing I knew about Kuala Lumpur was that it was home to the world’s tallest building, the Petronas Towers. These twin towers were officially designated as the world’s tallest buildings from 1998 to 2003. While the twin Towers are no longer the world’s tallest buildings, they are still a landmark in this city. The highlight of my day was getting to see these famous twin towers up close and in person. It was the last stop of our day, so more about that later.

Our tour guide’s name was Ho, and she was delightful. Everything she said was with a big smile, and sometimes a chuckle, even if she was just telling us about the weather.

 

Ho

As we started out from the port, Ho told us that we would have an hour drive into the city of Kuala Lumpur. She said that we may run into some road blocks because of unrest regarding the recent elections. Malaysia is based on the British Parliament System, where the party who wins the majority of seats chooses the Prime Minister. Since neither party won a majority, it is not clear who the prime minister will be. So Ho said that at present, the country of Malaysia has “no father and no mother”. Happily we did not encounter any road blocks.

As mentioned previously, the official religion of Malaysia is Islam. However, there are also many Buddhists, Hindus, and Christians. According to Ho, the Islam practiced here is not fundamentalist and they pride themselves in the fact that there is freedom of religion and everyone gets along.

Malaysia’s motto is Malaysia Truly Asia. It is to indicate that it is a sort of a melting pot for people from other places in Asia, such as China, India, Singapore, Indonesia, etc. Malaysia has more public holidays than any other country, with 15. The winning governing party can proclaim up to seven new holidays. So everyone observes Christmas (even non-Christians) with one day off, Chinese New Year’s with two days off, Ramadan with three days off, various Indian festivals with six days off, and also Independence Day, Malaysia Day, and Mohammed’s birthday.

Men in Malaysia can have up to four wives. Sharia law governs marriage and property rights. According to the laws, the man takes his first wife in the normal way. If he wants to take a second wife, he must get approval of the first wife. For the third wife, he needs approval of the first two, and for the fourth wife, as you can guess, he needs approval of the other three. Ho referred to this as needing “3 green lights”. If the man should for some reason want a fifth wife, he will need to find a way to get rid of one of the other four. Preferably legally.

Malaysia was built under the British, and they have left their legacy. There was a brief period when they were under the rule of other countries, including Japan for a few years during the war, and then they achieved their independence in 1957. When independence was achieved, the first prime minister raised his fist in the air and shouted “Independence!” seven times. This gesture is memorialized in a mural in Independence Square. A new building, the PNB 118 building is being built in such a way that the top is supposed to resemble the raising of the fist in the air in the “independence” pronouncement.




As mentioned previously, the Petronas Towers were at one time the tallest buildings in the world. Now they are about 16th on the list. So Kuala Lumpur is building the PNB 118 building that, when completed in 2023, will be the second tallest building in the world. (The tallest is in Dubai.) It will have 118 floors, and will house offices, retail space, a hotel, and an observation deck.

PNB 118 under construction

Our first stop of the day was to visit the National Museum. This museum displays the history of the country. There are four galleries: one denotes the prehistory and houses the skull of the oldest man found in the area from 10,000 years ago. Other galleries cover the Malay Kingdom, Malay under Dutch, British, and Japanese rule, and Malaysia as it is today. The royal color of Malaysia is yellow. I didn’t know that countries had royal colors.

 




The Royal Throne

The city of Kuala Lumpur was actually founded before the country of Malaysia. It began when tin was discovered here, and it became a big tin mining town. It is your typical, big city, hustle and bustle of activity. Buildings are a mix of the old and the new. It is very clean and we were impressed with the beauty and appearance of Kuala Lumpur.

We drove by the Old Railway Station which, according to Ho, was built in the Kashmir style of architecture. We passed by the National Mosque of Malaysia and stopped long enough to take pictures. We drove by Independence Hall and some other buildings that showed the beautiful architecture of Kuala Lumpur.

 

Independence Hall



We stopped at the National Monument where we got off the bus and took a short stroll through a nice park and took pictures of the monument. This monument was designed by the same person who designed the Iwo Jima Monument in Washington, DC. The two men on the bottom of the statue are communists, and it represents that communism has been squelched. The others are British soldiers.

 


As previously mentioned, our last stop of the day was the Petronas Towers, also known as the Petronas Twin Towers. There was quite the crowd gathered in the plaza in front of the towers, as this is a major landmark and attractive tourist spot. There are 88 floors in the towers, and a walkway that connects the two towers around the 21st or 22nd floor. The towers are built of glass and steel, and represent Islamic Architecture, according to Ho. There is an observation deck on the 86th floor. We did not go up to the observation deck. While we were there, we observed some window washers alongside the building about a third of the way up. Ho told us that it takes one full year for the windows of one entire tower to be washed.



Ho told us that a French climber named Spiderman climbed one of the Petronas towers three times. She said that the first two times he climbed, he did it illegally and was arrested. Then Spiderman finally wised up and got a permit, so made the third climb legally.

Joe's tour took a trip out to the Blue Mosque, which Joe said was very impressive. Sorry that we can't show pictures, because as previously mentioned, Joe's phone broke. He is using his camera, but we don't have the cord to connect the camera to the laptop to download pictures. Joe's group also spent time at a local artisan mall. The government controls the mall and only certain vendors are allowed. Because Joe's tour was a full day, they stopped at a local hotel restaurant for lunch. They were served some Malaysian food which Joe reported was all very delicious.

And...speaking of food, this being Thanksgiving, Joe and I plan to make our way to the Restaurant on board the ship tonight (as opposed to the World CafĂ© that we usually frequent) where they will be serving turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and other traditional Thanksgiving foods for the sake of the Americans on board. Not sure if we should indulge in the pumpkin pie, or stick with the gelato. Decisions, decisions…

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