This time my path led me to a region I had never really been to before, Southeast Asia and there I visited Malaysia, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam and in the next couple of days I will try and give you a brief review of my experience.
Malaysia
So, I left Melbourne in January (I guarantee you it wasn't easy and I looked like a goth boarding the plane with mascara all over my face...) and flew to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia as the starting point of my journey. My visit there was only a short one and I mainly used it to meet my friend Hien. He was so kind to play my tourist guide (thanks again!) and took me to all the cool places of interest. KL is a nice and clean city and to be honest I didn't have the feeling that I had arrived in South East Asia. Maybe it was the "westernized" malls or the dazzling modernity of Petrona Towers or the new government district that I did not expect at all. Actually, I didn't have any expectations and was more surprised than anything else.
Malaysia is one of the two (Indonesia being the other one) Muslim countries in SE Asia, however Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity is also practiced by the smaller communities in the population. So within one day Hien showed me the massive pink mosque (unfortunately I wasn't allowed in as there was a prayer going on at the time), the impressive Batu Caves (with the huge Buddha) and his personal place of worship the Chinese temple. For me, being a non religious person I found it quite interesting and educative to visit all these places within a couple of hours. I got blessed by a Hindu priest to have a healthy, successful and happy life until I die (of course I will share the luv
) and Hien gave me an introduction in how to pray properly using incense sticks. In return I showed him and everybody else in the café ;© how to eat coconut meat out of the shell and simultaneously splash the juice all over my face.
Also the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of Kuala Lumpur is the famous, impressive Petrona Towers and you literally cannot miss them , although they are no longer the tallest building(s) in the world (some tower in Taiwan measures 508 meters - that's half a kilometer!!!) and I can see why they are every architects dream. The same can be said about the buildings in the new government district Putrajaya. I was really astonished about the motto the bigger the better. Have a look at the pictures and you will see what I mean.
By the way, after looking at the pics you might wonder why there was a firework while I was in KL. Apart from the City Council being honoured by my visit
, another reason is that Malaysia is celebrating 50 years of independence from colonization and has proclaimed 2007 as the 'Visit Malaysia' year. Therefore they are having nifty stuff for tourists including a Ferris wheel and fireworks. Very cool!
After watching the spectacle with Hien and Ruwan (a cool American guy I met at the hostel) we went to the opera house and I instigated to gatecrash a rehearsal at 11 pm...the building itself is nothing much compared to Sydney Opera House, but sneaking around the corridors doing something rebellious was great fun. You see I'll never lose the child in me.
And before I finish this report for now I want to warn you. Be aware of the Durian. For some reason almost all the Asian people I have met (including Hien) think it is the most delicious thing ever. With all these recommendations and being curious about new stuff as I am I tried it. Just once. Never again. First of all, I am not even sure if it's a fruit or vegetable or whatever (officially they call it a fruit?!?), but it looks funny, smells hideous and the inside tastes even more hideous. This is my personal opinion, but go and check it out if you don't believe me...
This is it for the moment, but I will be back with all the news and adventures about Thailand soon.
