There are four things you need to know about KL – shopping, eating and the Petronas towers. The towers are just jaw dropping. I couldn’t take my eyes off them any time they were in view, especially at night. Seriously we’ve seen a lot of skyscrapers on this trip but these two, for some reason, they just command your full attention. So make time to stand around slack-jawed and looking up, practically begging pickpockets to target you the next time you’re in town. Shopping is like a national pastime here. Compound that exponentially given that it’s the last two weeks before Xmas. There are huge malls, there are tiny street markets. There is counterfeit everything. In fact the only thing I would buy here is food… which bring us to… Oh man. Okay. Oh boy. There is just food everywhere here. 24 hours, super affordable, super delicious. They have these huge metal carts, they’re like an entire food truck exploded, with every kind of meat-on-a-stick imaginable. And veggies, mushrooms, you name it. And you pick a bunch and some stuff gets boiled, some stuff gets grilled some stuff gets fried. The only pattern I’ve noticed is that it’s delicious. Well, that’s more of an irrefutable truth, really. Keep an eye out in the pics for the tiny octopus satay. It’s adorable and delectable. We took a tour through 7 major sites in town, including a mosque, a Chinese temple and a large Hindu temple in a cave. The Hindu temple in particular was striking, lots of gorgeous sculpture work and… monkeys. Roaming free. And the best part? Watching people feed the monkeys. Because people don’t always realize they are going to. See, monkeys are mischievous. Also, they’re wild animals. There was one family, I heard the dad say “here, eat it quickly before they see,” while handing out bananas to his family. Well, unlike mine, his wife’s not that great under pressure, and on realizing that there was a monkey a little smaller than a wastebin advancing on her, she screamed reflexively in three short bursts and threw her banana to the monkey. I bet she’s real easy to mug. In other cases, the monkeys steal any plastic bags they see – I’m guessing because they’ve figured out that after humans buy stuff (like food, for example) we tend to carry it with us in plastic bags. They’ll just creep on you and make a grab for it, it’s actually quite impressive to watch. It’s like in Castlevania, or was it Super Mario 3? Where there are ghosts that chase you but when you turn around they freeze? Anyway it was like that. Night markets were common as well, I think at home we would consider it more of a street festival because of the massive scale and the sheer variety of things on offer. But that’s just how they do here.
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/97388931@N08/sets/72157639261520543
Video of a guy getting his feet tickled by fish: