Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

The weekend of 06/24/2011-06/26/2011, a bunch of the EAPSI fellows traveled to Kuala Lumpur, the capitol of Malaysia. KL, as it’s fondly called, is very progressive and cosmopolitan—it reminded me of a dirtier NYC. The short flight to KL was only ~1 hr from Singapore and we were able to return via bus in about 5 hours. While in KL, we stayed in the Capitol hotel in the Golden Triangle Area right off of Bukit Bintang—great area with lots of shopping, hotels, restaurants and night life. Some of the major sites of the city that we saw included: the Petronas Towers—Tallest twin towers in the world standing 1,483 ft tall; Batu Caves-- a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples and is one of the most popular Hindu Shrines outside of India; Thean Hou Temple—a Buddhist temple which is considered to be one of the largest and most visited holy places in Malaysia; Petaling Street—a night market in Chinatown where you bargain to get a designer purse for ~$10 USD, KL Tower—the tallest communication tower in the world standing 1,381 ft tall. We also tried mangostein for the first time (absolutely delicious) and had our first Asian Kareoke experience—the knock off 90’s music videos totally made the experience that much better. Overall great weekend!

Patrick, Nicole, Me, Ola, Gitt, and Evan in front of the Guan Yin Temple

One of the Statues in the Guan Yin Temple

Me in front of the Petronas Towers--Tallest Twin Towers in the World

Gitt, Me, Patrick, and Nicole paying Maccala at the Malaysian Tourism Center

Turtle Garden at the Thean Hou Temple

Tiny Pinapple nicknamed abortion pinapple because if you eat 3, it will cause you to have an abortion

Main shrine in the Thean Hou Temple

Entrance to the Thean Hou Temple

Me in front of the Mammouth Hindu Statue in front of the Batu Caves--something like 140 feet tall and is the tallest Hindu God statue in the world

245 Steps to get up into the Batu Caves

Inside the Batu Caves

Lots of monkeys in the Batu caves--this one stole a capris sun from a tourist and squirt it in his face when he was trying to drink it.

Why are you looking at me---I didn't steal this soda

Huge limestone in the Batu Caves

Me in front of one of the Hindu shrines in the Batu Caves

Batik Factory- applying the intricate wax designs on the fabric

Batik Factory--Applying the dye to the fabric 

KL Tower

Petaling Street in Chinatown--huge market where you can bargain cheap prices for Gucci, Prada, Burberry etc. (I bought way way to many purses/wallets here :-)