Exploring KL Some More

This year, Labor Day (May 1) and Hari Raya/Eid fell next to each other, so the school and the embassy were both closed for a five day weekend.  We had ruled out driving anywhere, because we had heard that the holiday traffic was awful.  One local told us matter of factly that it had taken him 15 hours to drive to Penang on a holiday weekend, a drive that took us 4 hours on a Sunday morning.  Plane ticket prices were also extremely high, and we weren't sure what the testing requirements would be to travel, so we figured our safest bet would be to stay in KL and try to explore some more.  The Four Points in Chinatown still had the deal where we would get a connecting room and breakfast for all of us included in the price of one room, so we went back there.

There were still lots of museums and restaurants in that area that we hadn't been to yet, but Malaysia wasn't going to make it easy on us.  Despite all the press about how Malaysia was working to revitalize both the international and domestic tourist markets, all the museums were closed for the holidays.  Many of the restaurants were also closed, and the ones that were open had items from their food and beverage menus that weren't available, because their suppliers hadn't delivered during the holidays.  Malaysia may say it wants to increase tourist revenue, but it really doesn't understand how to do that.

Still, we are forever flexible, and we managed to see and do a lot, despite the obstacles put in our path.  We got checked into the hotel and admired the view from our rooms.  We were on the city facing side this time with views of the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers.

The hotel was buzzing and doing a much better business than when we were there in October.  The best evidence of this was the kids' cooking class which Elena went to the afternoon we checked in.  When we had been there before, Elena and Viv were the only ones attending.  Now they were set up for a LOT more kids.

Only one table's worth of kids ended up actually coming, but there were clearly a lot more kids staying in the hotel, and they were ready for them.  It was the chocolate lava cake recipe, so Elena was definitely interested in staying.  She got to crack the egg herself this time, but they gave her a plastic glove that caught most of the mess.

The hotel bar opened at four, which was the same time the cooking class was supposed to start.  Jeff went down to grab us a table for a happy hour drink, but he also asked if it would be okay for Elena to join us and eat her cake.  They said sure, so she hung out with us for a while happily eating her cake and ice cream.

We then returned her to the room, ordered the girls room service, and headed down the street to a Korean BBQ place we had wanted to try but hadn't gotten around to last time.

We got our own circular table, and one of the servers came with flaming hot coals which he inserted into the center grill.  Then he lowered the copper venting device down over it.  We also had a whole bunch of side dishes to go with our meat.

Jeff decided to combine the best of both worlds and grill the kimchi they gave us.  He absolutely loved it.

My favorite new discovery of the night was peach soju. Soju is a clear, rice based alcohol from Korea, and the peach flavored one is delicious, if a bit dangerous, because it does pack quite a kick.

Jeff also enjoyed the pork ribs he ordered.  They came with a box of gloves, which was a good idea, but the sauce on them was red, and so he ended up with these red stained gloves that made it look like he'd been up to something really evil.

When we were done, we left out the back door which we knew would go to our favorite Chinatown alley.  They had a rope across the back door to deter people from trying to enter that way.

The other deterrent was the container of glowing coals that they kept near the back door.

The alley way was hopping, so I'm glad we came out from a restaurant instead of trying to get in through the one main entrance/exit.  Still, we managed to get some fun pictures.

We needed to walk around a bit to digest after all our Korean food, and Jeff got another fun picture looking back at where we had been.  He caught part of a mural that took up one entire wall of a building, and then the colorful building that has the Concubine restaurant we really like, and looming over all of that, the second tallest building in the world.

When we got back to the hotel, the sun was just starting to set, so we sat out on the bar's balcony and watched the city change from day to night.

For our first full day, I had booked a driver to take us to various points of interest around the city, so that we could check more things off our list of places to see.  We started locally with a Chinese temple we could see from the hotel.

The gates were still closed when we got there, but when we came back at the end of our adventures, the gates were open, and we were able to go in.  It's a clan temple, and there are family scenes that reminded me of the kinds of relief carvings that you often see in cathedrals.  It was a beautiful juxtaposition of old and new.

We really liked all the decorative elements.  Vivian especially liked that the bars looked like bamboo.

Next up, we went by the royal museum, which used to be a palace.  The museum was, unfortunately, closed, even though the sign said it was open.  We consoled ourselves by taking pictures outside.

Since the museum was closed, we proceeded to the new royal palace.  We knew we wouldn't be able to get in there, but we could take pictures outside again.  As we drove up, our driver explained to us that it was like the palace in London where you could take pictures.  I said, oh, like Buckingham Palace.  He nodded.  I'll leave it to you to decide on similarities and differences.

It was SO bright and sunny, we could barely keep our eyes open for a picture, and we happily retreated back to our air conditioned vehicle.  We drove next to the National Monument.  As our driver told us, it is to commemorate those who fought in World Wars one, two, and three.  Jeff and I raised an eyebrow at each other, but decided we would see what the monument said.

Sure enough, it had three conflicts listed.  The last one was from 1948-1960, which is a struggle known as the Malayan Emergency.  Basically, there was a group that wanted independence from Britain, but they wanted the country to become communist.  The British/Malaysian forces ended up defeating the communist forces, and then Malaysia got its independence as its own constitutional monarchy.

After the first monument, there was a more Islamic themed one.

It had fountains that led to a more U.S. style statue.

The ceiling was decorated with the emblems of the various regiments that had participated in the wars,

and the floors continued the Islamic motifs.

When we got all the way around, we saw that the statue had clearly been influenced by statues in the west.

It was an interesting spot, and there were lots of other people there taking pictures.  

Our next stop was another symbol of Malaysian independence, Merdaka Square.  This is the square where the British flag was officially lowered, and the new Malaysian flag raised in its place, and it is the site of the annual Independence Day celebrations.  While most of the government buildings have now been relocated to Putrajaya, the Ministry of Information, Communication, and Culture currently uses the building on the square.  It's a huge space, so we got pictures of parts of it.  It's a really interesting combination of British and Islamic architecture.  There's a brick clock tower, but with Islamic domes and arches.

Jeff got a picture of the flagpole, but the wind wasn't really blowing, so you can't see the flag well.

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of a Malaysian family in their matching traditional dress.

As we were going around to the various tourist sites, we saw several families in color coordinated outfits.  I asked my friends if there was some kind of family color theme going on, since different families were in different colors, and they said no, the family just picked a color they liked.  Apparently, the most expensive item is the silken wrap that the men wear, since the best ones are hand woven.  We saw this family in blue, but at the royal palace we also saw families in green and purple, all taking pictures.  It was a fun piece of literal, local color.

Behind Merdeka Square was the point where the two rivers of Kuala Lumpur meet.  Kuala means the meeting of two bodies of water, and lumpur meets muddy, so we went to see where the two muddy rivers meet.  Appropriately, there is a mosque on that point.

KL is trying to revitalize this area.  They have dubbed it the River of Life.  They light it up at night and are working on making it more pedestrian friendly.  There is also some lovely art that has gone up.

Later on our tour, we drove around to the front of the mosque and actually went in.  They had prayer rugs that people could borrow, and then take their shoes off and go into the shaded prayer space.

Vivian and I loved the tiles along the water channel.

Our last two stops were another Chinese temple and a Hindu temple, both on the same street.

Elena and I were especially excited about the Chinese temple, because there was a statue that looked just like the picture in the hotel's bar that we had been talking about the day before.

The colors are a little different, but stylistically, it's definitely the same.  When we got back to the hotel, we were all hot from our morning about town, and so we headed down to the pool for a dip.  Jeff put in dad time with the girls while I lounged.

By the time we got cleaned up, everyone was hungry, but it had started to rain, hard, so we decided to see what the hotel's restaurant had on offer for lunch.  They had a buffet set up.  It wasn't too expensive, Elena was free, and they had chicken satay, the girls' favorite, so we settled in.

I think the girls tore through something like twenty sticks of satay, but they saved space for dessert.  There was a chocolate fountain with various things you could dip in it.  Of course, their top choice was marshmallows.  As Elena described it, they have chicken satay sticks, without the chicken, and you can put marshmallows on them! Jeff and I had to work really hard not to laugh.

With our big, late lunch, on top of our big buffet breakfast, we really didn't need much in the way of dinner, but Jeff and I were determined to go out.  The two restaurants we had wanted to try were closed, so we went back to one of our favorites, Concubine.

I tried a new drink called Green Day which was a combination of kiwi, cucumber, and coconut.  It was delicious.

We also got my favorite dish there, cheeseburger gyozas.

I don't know what they season the beef with or what's in the cheese sauce, but they are addictive!

The next day, I wasn't quite sure what we were going to do.  The museums I had hoped to go to were closed.  Both the KL Tower and the Petronas Towers were closed.  The only thing that I could find that was open that we might all enjoy was the aquarium near KLCC.  It opened at 10, so I figured if we got there early, it wouldn't be too crowded, and we could have a nice morning.  Well, we got there a little after 10, and there were literally HUNDREDS of people in line waiting to get in.  This is what happens when nothing else is open. I heard one man saying to an aquarium employee monitoring the line, but I bought my tickets online, can't I just go in? She said, no, this is the line to get in.  Jeff and I both agreed, we were not waiting in line with hundreds of people to get into the aquarium.  Vivian took the decision in stride, but Elena, who had really been looking forward to seeing all the animals, started crying.  I quickly redirected us to the underpass that leads to the KLCC mall and tried to comfort her as we walked.  I promised to take her to an awesome aquarium soon, but she was still crying, so I upped my game and offered her a stuffed animal from the mall.  That made a difference, so she stopped crying and committed to the stuffed animal hunt.  Of course, nothing is ever simple, so we had to go to several stores before we found one that actually sold stuffed animals.  We found what we were looking for at Isetan, a Japanese department store.

It says Smile on its belly, so she has named it Smile as a reminder to hold on to hers, even when things don't go her way.  We also got the girls smoothies from Boost, and then we went outside to the KLCC park to enjoy them.

We found some statues of aquatic animals.  Not quite the same as the aquarium, but the girls liked them.

The park also has a huge number of playgrounds, so the girls got to play without the crowds.

After the day's excitement, we opted for a relatively quite night.  The girls got room service, and Jeff and I had dinner at the bar where we chatted with some of the people who work there, since by that point we had gotten to know them.

On Wednesday, we got up, enjoyed our buffet breakfast, packed up, and said goodbye to the hotel.  We weren't sad though, because we had a MARVELous day planned.  It was May the 4th, so it really should have been a Star Wars day, but there wasn't any new Star Wars content.  Instead, Marvel was releasing their new movie, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and the finale of their newest Disney + show, Moon Knight, both on the same day!

Our first one was the movie, which we had afternoon tickets for.  It was the first Marvel movie that Elena got to see in the theater, and it's only the second movie she's ever seen in theaters.  Jeff and Vivian wore their What If? shirts, because we figured there would be some tie ins to that show, and we were right.

It's only rated PG-13, but the reviews said it was supposed to be scary, so we had Elena bring Smile just in case.  It turns out that I was more upset by the movie than she was! She kindly offered me her stuffie and petted me on the head saying, don't worry Mommy, it's just a movie.  What a kid.

When we got home, we had a short break, and then we switched into our family Moon Knight gear.  Jeff took some pictures, and then he and Vivi each augmented one.

Even though KL tried to thwart our fun by closing museums and restaurants, I feel like we still managed a really fun five day weekend.  We saw all kinds of cool things and got to enjoy family time.  You can't beat that.