Malaysia

Image: Buddhist Temple, Penang, Malaysia

28 December 2023

My quest to make the most of treasured friendships took me to Malaysia and Sri Lanka at the end of 2023 for 16 days with my wonderful friend Chef. Signs decorating the streets in Kuala Lumpur declared it the “Season for Joy and Indulgence”, so Chef and I undertook to do just that. Although to be honest, that’s our usual motto 😉

My only other visit to Malaysia outside the airport was to Penang in 2019. I didn’t get around to posting about that trip so you’ll just have to believe me that Penang is great. I have included some photos here so I don’t lose them. Sorry not sorry to the purists out there.

Kuala Lumpur is well worth a visit and a great place to break up a long journey to/from Australia. It is clean, shiny, friendly and affordable. Public transport is efficient, the architecture is a great mix of old and new, the street art is great, and the city feels safe. The tropical climate ensures the landscape is green, even in the city, although the air is always a bit sticky from the humidity.

In trying to understand why Kuala Lumpur airport was built in the city 60km south of Kuala Lumpur, I learnt a new term ‘urban agglomeration’. The term has been around for a while and refers to when nearby cities connect and integrate their infrastructure to improve opportunities for economic growth in their region. That’s exactly what Malaysia has done by building its Multimedia Super Corridor. While all the shiny tall buildings are in Kuala Lumpur itself, the major international airport and all the federal public servants were moved south to support a global tech hub that offers temporary tax breaks and easy access to the airport. That’s the long way to tell you that as a tourist, you need to plan for at least an hour’s commute from/to the airport.

We were a bit fancy and stayed in a nice hotel. The buffet breakfast was phenomenal catering to tastebuds from north, south, west and east Asia, the Middle East, Africa and a tiny section for Europeans. With our full bellies, we did a big bus tour to get our bearings on the city and then enjoyed exploring the different cultural areas and the associated food.

The Malaysian culture is interestingly diverse. The official religion is Sunni Islam with Buddhists, Christians and Hindus also calling Malaysia home. The ethnic groups are made up of the indigenous people, Malays, Chinese and Indians adding up to over 33 million people across the Malay Peninsula and on the island of Borneo. Nearly 900 islands are also part of Malaysia, with the number changing according to whether it’s high or low tide. I think climate change will increase that variation.

This great mix of cultural backgrounds means the food is absolutely delicious. You definitely go to Malaysia with an appetite and an open mind. Jalan Alor has a nightly food market extravaganza. A must see.

We visited the Batu Caves complex – a series of caves in a tall limestone rock used as Hindu temples just north of Kuala Lumpur city. The 272 rainbow stairs to the top were our warm-up for the hills we were planning to conquer in Sri Lanka. The statue is of Murugan – considered the “God of the Tamil people” and the Hindu God of War. I was impressed to learn that the God of War rides a peacock.

Before we go to Sri Lanka, and just because it needs to be recorded somewhere, we saw monkeys playing on the monkey bars! There are about 16 monkeys in this photo but good luck spotting them all.