Today's post comes on a bit of a sad note for Nadia and I as we saw her parents off tonight for the journey home to Toronto. We had such a great time with both of our parents (hers and mine) in India, and again we had a great time with Nadia's parents in Thailand as well as here in Kuala Lumpur (which for some reason I keep calling 'Kuala Lump Lumps').
And then there were two...
Since our last post in Chiang Mai, we've traveled to Phuket, Thailand, and now onto Kuala Lumpur, or "KL" as it's commonly referred to. Before we get to that, we have to catch you up on some more of our travels in Chiang Mai...
After two big cities in a row in Mumbai and Bangkok, we felt like taking it a bit easier, so our two days in Chiang Mai generally consisted of temple visits and shopping at the local markets. We saw some great Buddhist temples, including this one called "Chediluang", which we would have missed completely had we not walked around the back of the Wat (aka temple) in order to get to the Chedi in the back:
The markets in Chiang Mai were fairly different than those of Bangkok, featuring more articles from the tribes of the north. Nadia and Fozie contemplated some new headgear...
But thought better of it in the end.After a tough day of sightseeing and shopping, what better than an hour long foot massage to take away the pain. At about the equivalent of $6 Canadian for an hour-long session, it was a great reward...
We were also in Chiang Mai on the 82nd birthday of the King (December 5th). All over Thailand celebrations were going on:
There don't seem to be vehicles resembling North American / European taxis in Chiang Mai, so to get back to the airport, we hopped into a "Songthaew", which is essentially the back of some guy's pick-up truck:After visiting the chilly Northern climbs of Thailand (with regular daytime highs of 25 - 30 celsius), we were off to Phuket to soak up some sun...But not before Fozie got her Lays chips - in our six weeks of travel together, we hardly went anywhere without her good friend Lays...
Phuket is a beautiful island located in Southern Thailand, and the perfect spot for us to unwind for a few days. We stayed at the only hotel right on the beach in the resort town of Karon (appropriately named, "Inn on the Beach"). We soon clued in that many of the other resorts on the beach were likely wiped out by the tsunami of 2005 - a bit of a chilling thought....Of course, we have to include the essential sunset beach shots:
KL has really been about two things: Sightseeing and shopping. We've been to see the National mosque:
As well as the absolutely amazing Islamic Arts Museum:
We've also been to check out the Petronas Towers, which are some of the most magnificent recent architectural towers we've seen:
As well as the KL Menara Tower...A little sister to our beloved CN Tower. Fortunately, it was a nice clear day, so we were able to capture lots of great shots of KL:
We took a blazing hot walk through Merdeka square, where we literally made our way through the square trying to get from shady place to shady place:
And of course, there are the shopping malls...And what an experience. The malls here are so well designed and well laid out on multiple levels. With that said, we haven't found the bargains here that we saw in Thailand. We all agreed that part of what makes KL come alive right now is the fact that all the malls are done up for Christmas. 
After all that shopping, we decided to stop for a tea/coffee break and a biscotti. Farouk got more than he bargained for as they served him what looked like the world's biggest tea biscuit. It took all four of us to finish it:
As most of you know, Malaysia is an Islamic country, so it's kind of strange walking through malls full of Muslim men with topees and women in hijab and to see Christmas decorations and hear Christmas carols everywhere. KL is a really multicultural city, and in some ways reminds us a lot of Toronto. To show you what we're talking about, we've included a couple of short videos outside of the Pavilion shopping mall where they were having a mini Christmas celebration that attempted to include all cultures :
We're now off to Brunei to say Salaam to the Sultan and to check out a culture that few know much about. It will definitely be interesting...Bye for now.
Mike and Nadia
No comments:
Post a Comment