Nature, Culture, and City Life (KL Day 1)

I thought a nice way to ease into the city would be to start in the gardens and then work my way towards the city center. Due to my slightly odd sleep schedule, I arrived at the Lake Gardens an hour before opening, so I headed down the road to check out the National Monument.

This statue was erected to commemorate the soldiers that died in WWII and the Emergency.

If it looks familiar, it should, at least to those in Washington DC. It was created by the same sculptor that did the Marine Corp Memorial (Iwo Jima) in Arlington.

I wandered around the park until the hibiscus and orchid gardens opened. These gardens were small, but quite lovely, and well worth the 30 cents I paid to enter.

I did not know it, but apparently, the hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia (peach-colored flower in the top picture for the non-gardeners.)

I then headed to the large, enclosed bird park, which exceeded my expectations. Many of the birds were in cages, perhaps as much for their safety as for ours, like this guy...

“I’ll eat my way out if I have to.”

But most were roaming/flying free, including flamingos, cranes, scarlet ibises, peacocks, and even a few rhinoceros hornbills.

But my favorite would have to be this particular hornbill...

I then wandered down to the Islamic Art Museum, which had some beautiful fabrics, tilework, metalwork, and carved/inlaid wood, but unfortunately, they don’t allow pictures, so you will have to use your imagination.

By now I had taken in nature and culture and was ready for the city. KL has a good mix of Malay, Indian, and Chinese cultures, so I was headed to Chinatown to start my wanderings and grab some lunch. Now if I could just get there!

While KL is walkable from a size perspective, there are not always convenient pedestrian facilities. It seems the road indicated on my map was actually an elevated highway. I found another way around, which proved successful to a point, that point being when I found myself needing to cross a heavily trafficked 6-lane divided road. After playing Froggert with my life – what they lack in speed, they make up for in surprise – I managed to make my way over to the Chinese Assembly Hall, which was apparently hosting an afternoon rock concert. I made my way through the throngs of Chinese teenagers with pseudo-punk-street-cred to find a tea house serving bowls of noodle soup with seafood for a few dollars. This is actually a complete meal, as the bowl is large and the contents hearty. For those familiar with Vietnamese cuisine, I would liken it to Pho without the self-assembly.

Chinatown was just as I expected. It looked, smelled, and sounded Chinese. Aside from the Chinese faces and written characters, there was a distinct smell of fish and Chinese herbs, and a fast chatter in a language I don’t understand. I wandered the streets, poking my head into shops and restaurants, and even walking through a fish and produce market. I visited quite a few Taoist temples, and unexpectedly in Chinatown, even a Hindu one.

At the Sze Ya temple, which is supposedly the oldest Taoist temple in KL, a gentleman was kind enough to answer my many questions. It seems that this temple has altars to gods specific to education, business, and health. When people wish to pray to these gods, they light joss sticks (incense) and leave them to smolder in the sand-filled urns before each altar. I watched a woman with her four children burning joss sticks for the god related to education. (It reminds me of Catholics burning candles in church for the intercession of saints.)
Outside, there were rows of spiral joss sticks hanging from the ceiling, like the ones in the picture above. These burn for a longer period (about 2 days, as opposed to 2 hours for the standard ones). Many people also burn “gold paper” in small fireplaces to either side of the entrance for good luck. The smoke-filled air, smell of mild incense, and muffled street noise made the city seem far away and I realized how someone could find peace in a temple at the middle of a busy city.

I stopped off at the Central Market to see the local crafts and then headed to a line of street stalls to find dinner. Jin Alor is a street packed with hawkers (their word, not mine) selling stir fry, fried seafood, satay, soups, curry, banana leaf sachets, and every other food you could imagine. Finding something to eat was easy – deciding what to eat was hard.