Alright, time to see Malaysia. Our hostel advertised that it provided breakfast. It meant it provided toast. I’m in KL, surrounded by way too many delicious things. I’m not wasting a meal on toast. Turns out we were too jetlagged for breakfast to really matter. We woke up after 10 AM and, by the time we stumbled out of the hostel, it was time for lunch.

KL, like the rest of Malaysia, is famous for its hawker stands. I’m not really sure where this name comes from, for it really describes nothing at all. A hawker stand is basically a dirt cheap restaurant. The uhh, food making part (as opposed to the customer sitting part) can be anything from a full fledged kitchen to a mobile cart. The important part is that it’s completely no frills, mainly plastic, cheap, and good. Where we ate for lunch cost us approximately $2.50.

Hawker lunch

In continuing with amazing Asian transportation, KL has a free bus system (it also has an unfree bus system). While not the most comprehensive system, it hits the major areas and is convenient for tourists and commuters alike. From the central station drop off point, we walked to the Islamic Art Museum. Having just come from the Middle East and bugged my eyes out at grand mosques, I wasn’t expecting very much from an Islamic Art Museum. I was totally wrong.

The Malaysians have amassed an incredible collection of Islamic Art. My wild guess is that, since it’s in Asia, it’s more representative of Islamic Art around the world than what we saw in the Middle East. For instance, it had an entire section dedicated to Chinese Islamic calligraphy. China didn’t even have a museum dedicated to Chinese Islamic calligraphy. Seeing Arabic on Chinese wall scrolls blew my mind. I had grown up with wall scrolls my entire life, and own a few myself, but never imaged anything being on them except Chinese characters and motifs. Like, this is my culture, and I had no idea it existed.

The rest of the museum was equally impressive, with collections of Korans, old books, textiles, and jewelry from around the Muslim world. Of particular cool-value was their exhibit of mosques from around the globe. To-scale replicas were constructed of some of the more important ones, along with informational placards. Cindy and I were surprised to see that about half the miniature mosques that people were gawking at were mosques we had visited on this trip, from China, Uzbekistan, and Abu Dhabi. It’s nice when things come together like this.

We headed to Chinatown for an early dinner comprised of salted duck egg congee and stir fried noodles. From what we could identify, the noodles had at least pork, shrimp, clams, liver, and crispy pork skin. The Malaysians are not afraid to mix and match.

Dinner

Hindu temple in Chinatown

After dinner, we strolled to the Petronas Towers. Speaking of amazing Asian transportation, KL has an elevated walkway that extends from a main commercial district all the way to the Petronas Towers. This might not seem like much until you consider this is a distance of over a mile. And it’s not just one path. It’s a network of paths, with intersections, turns, and multiple entrances/exists. And all of it is air conditioned! You can just walk from one end to the other and not worry about traffic, lights, or anything else inconvenient. It’s like being able to walk from Fort Street to Ward Center in a safe, fast, cool environment. For the record, Malaysia’s per capita GDP is about 1/7th that of the USA’s. And this is the infrastructure that Malaysians have.

Fancy mall at one end of the skywalk