Initially our plan had been to go to Guilin, a city in southwest China surrounded by the limestone mountains that make its famed karst landscape. I however underestimated the demand on the Chinese railways for the holidays, and found that ambitious travel agents had snapped up all the available tickets within a day after they were available. As such, a short term solution had to be found and, thanks to my ever-beloved Air Asia, we instead detoured to Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia and a regional air hub.

My main point of comparison was with my previous trip to Malaysian Borneo; alas, aside from political/demographic similarities, KL seems a world apart from the rest of the country, and lacks, in my mind, the charms that Borneo had, owing in part to its wilderness and remote locale. KL is a highly modern city with a rail system (much appreciated by me!) linking the major points. We found our hostel in the Golden Triangle area, near the city’s business center.

Our first day we stopped off at a Hindu temple in the city before taking a bus out of town to visit the Batu Caves set north of the city. The caves are famous mostly as a Hindu pilgrimage site, though why the Hindus like the caves I’m not clear on. Nevertheless, for Malaysia’s Indian minority, it is quite active at this time of year as they celebrate a festival called Thaipusam in which acts of devotion are done to attest one’s faith. This can range to an on-the-spot head shaving to one man seemingly delirious with a set of hooks in his back struggling against a man pulling him back by the hooks. It was quite the sight.

Later that night we ventured out to Menara Kuala Lumpur, a TV tower, to enjoy a night time view of the city. KL is home to the tallest twin towers in the world, the famed Petronas Towers, which reach up to nearly 1,500 feet and at one point had usurped the world’s tallest building title from the Sears Tower. More on this later. Our dinner consisted of excellent Indian food available across the way from our hostel.

We paid a visit the next day to the city’s central mosque (Malaysia is predominantly Muslim), a lovely, low structure in the heart of the city near Merdeka Square where Malaysia became independent half a century ago. Alas, our visit to the National Museum was foiled by its move to a park farther off, spoiling my ability to get a full-on history fix.

Our final day we had the morning available before winding down to the airport for our flight to Hanoi, and used it to get up the Petronas Towers. Again I underestimated demand and we nearly found ourselves out of luck if Kathleen hadn’t asked about alternatives to get in. Thankfully, one can rely on tourist fickleness and we were able to claim open spots and get up to the skybridge for some fantastic views of the city. The towers themselves are beautiful architecturally and have fine details.

In my guidebook KL is described as the ‘kiddie pool’ of Asian cities, and all in all, it fit the definition. It did serve as a nice rest point however, and the characteristic friendliness and kindness that I had found in Borneo reared its head again here, this time at our first hostel. We had booked it online, only to find upon arrival that there were sewer main issues due to construction that could adversely affect the water supply. After one night, we found that this meant no showers, sink water, or toilet flushing. Yes, indeed, a problem. After breakfast we checked out and moved to a new hostel. But when I tried to pay the manager, he refused it, because of the water issue. This despite it not being his fault. It was an uncharacteristic act of class in a region that does its utmost to squeeze the tourist wallet, so the action is (and remains) much appreciated on my end of things.

Next up: Vietnam