malaysia 2

kuala lumpur was next...a fantastic city...(well, mostly, but that comes a little later)...the capital of the country, in some ways very similar to singapore...but unlike singapore, which felt rather sterile at times, kuala lumpur has plenty of soul, and feels very lived in...i loved it...sure, it isn't as clean and orderly as singapore, but it's still a LOT cleaner than just about any other big city i've seen...it has great public transportation, plenty to see and do, lots of shopping, (including plenty that i'll never be able to afford unless i start playing and winming the lottery!) and fantastic food...it's also a great city for simply wandering aimlessly...
kuala lumpur is perhaps best known for the petronas towers...when they were built, they were the tallest buildings in the world...(and they take pains to point out that they are still the tallest twin towers in the world)...491 meters tall i think? 89 floors...there is a double decker skybridge connecting the towers at floors 41 and 42, this is as high as tourists are allowed to go...each day, 1400 lucky people get to go up to the skybridge...for free!!! the not so fun part is that you have to queue up at 0830 (preferably earlier) in order to snag one of the tickets...the ticket then tells you when you get to come back to actually go up the elevator...i got one for much later in the afternoon, then got on a bus and went to some hindu caves...(which were HUGE, but not otherwise impressive...only 272 steps - each of which is numbered - to get to the mouth of the first cave!)...when i got back to the towers for my trip up to the skybridge, i had to wait until my specific time was called...we were all herded into a theatre, given 3D glasses (which made everyone slightly dizzy/nauseous) and shown a video that basically promoted petronas, and tried to show what a great company it is...it's the malaysian national oil and gas company...after that, we put our bags through the x-ray machine, walked through the metal detector, and got on the elevator that whisked us up to the 41st floor...fast...everyone had to pop their ears a couple times...we only got to be in the skybridge for about 5 minutes...then another quick ride down, and they sent our little group into the exhibition room...the exhibition room shows a few of the physics behind building the towers, and shows how tall they are compared to other tall buildings in the world...there is also a little spot where a machine measures you, and tells you how tall you are against various buildings in the world...i'm 1/267th the size of the sears tower in chicago:)...
one day i took a day trip from KL, and took the transit train to putrajaya...it's a planned city, about 23km away, the administrative city of malaysia...most of malaysia's government ministries now have their offices in putrajaya...wide boulevards, pretty flowers, huge buildings, sidewalks everywhere...none of the buildings look alike, but somehow they all go with each other...i was there on a friday, and as i walked past the mosque, it was just before time for noon prayers...friday noon prayers are the one time of the week where muslims are required (by islam) to pray at the mosque...(the other 34 prayers a week can be done anywhere)...there were people streaming toward the mosque...after i got back to KL that day, i ended up at the national mosque...built in the 60s i think...since i'm non muslim, i was given a purple robe with a hood to wear before i could go in...and even with the robe, i wasn't allowed in the main prayer room, though i did get to look in...i love how mosques are always so open, so airy...there were a number of pamphlets available, in a number of different languages...titles included eating in islam, dress in islam, prayer in islam, sex in islam, becoming a muslim, and who is Allah? interesting reading...the one called dress in islam seemed to attack the west, but the others were all just giving information...
another day i took a day trip to two smaller towns...one is called shah alam, its the state capital of selangor, which surrounds KL...the state mosque in shah alam is called the blue mosque, and is the biggest mosque in southeast asia...it can hold 24000 people...the guy who showed me around (i was again given a robe, with a headscarf) said that during friday noon prayers, it's about 80% full...klang was the second town i visited that day, it had an art deco inspired mosque, but not a lot else...it was nice to wander around a town that hardly sees any tourists...
now, onto the not so nice part of KL...one of the nights there, i decided to go to a performance at the national theatre...when i booked the ticket, they asked if i understood bahasa malaysia, and i said no...they said that wouldn't be a problem, that it was more a musical than a play...they said there would be lots of singing and dancing, and that i'd enjoy the costumes...i did enjoy the costumes, they were bright, and intricate...there wasn't nearly the amount of singing and dancing that i expected, but it was still fun...anywho, i walked home...i got about 20 minutes away from home when i was mugged...i suppose it was really an attempted mugging, since they didn't get anything from me, and i wasn't injured...two guys did it...the whole thing only took 5-10 seconds, but i've never felt that invaded...NEVER...what made it worse was that there was a group accross the street, laughing and cat calling while it was happening...i don't understand why anyone would think that behaviour acceptable...it's wrong...their hands went under my skirt, and up my front...off in the distance i could see two foreign guys who realized what was happening and started to run toward me (the group accross the street and the foreign guys running were things i apparently registered, w/out actually realizing they were happening until later) but they didn't get close enough in time...after it was over, i kept walking down the street, really shaken up...the foreign guys asked if i was okay, and i ignored them, i was so freaked out...(when i got back to the hostel, i realized i had been very rude)...anywho, it took another 20 minutes of walking to get back to my hostel, during which i had an asthma attack...it sucked...2 chocolate bars and an ice cream didn't help the asthma, or make me feel any better in general...that night there was another girl in my dorm room, and for the first time ever, i was glad to be sharing...needless to say, i didn't sleep well, not much at all...since then, i've avoided single local guys like the plague...i've also made every possible effort to be inside by the time the sun goes down...