I think that means good morning. But I'm not too sure. I got into Kuala Lumpur last night, and got to my new friend's house. His name is Ken, and he's chinese-malay and lives in KL, teaching at the University here. (Interesting fact: all University in Malaysia is taught in English... who would have known. I even caught students reading their textbooks on the trains and stuff too, as further proof.)
The Islamic Art Museum (the only picture I could get, cause you weren't supposed to have cameras)
So I got to his house, which is nice, and relaxed for the evening. Today, I woke up and took my time in the morning, mainly thanks to skyping all you guys from home. By the time I got my life together, I hit the streets at about 130 pm. I spent the afternoon walking through China town, and Petaling Street, which is where they sell you all the "brand names". And spent about 30 minutes roaming the streets of Chinatown.
Then I tried to get across the "river" to the old train station, because the architecture is so cool, but I couldn't figure out how to because the city is all major streets and when I tried walking under bridges I kept coming up on the same side of the river. I eventually found the way, in a long round-about walking tour and came up to the train station, which was a really cool looking building.
Left: The National Mosque
After that I went to see the Islamic Art Museum and the National Mosque. They were really interesting, and I know nothing about it. So it was cool to read and see pictures, artifacts, buildings etc of Muslim influence. Then it started pouring and thunder and lightning so I got stuck at the Mosque for about an hour.
Following that I walked through the end of the rain to get to Merdeka square, where the Malaysians finally took their independence and flew their flag for the first time. Or
raised it. Or did something. (Honestly I thought it was a shopping mall before I got there... I must have read something wrong.) The buildings around there were crazily nice, and it was neat to see the old style architecture with
huge super-modern skyscrapers in the distance.
Merdeka -->
By this time, i had to get home (Ken was cooking dinner for us) and I took the train to the end, got on the right bus, and sat on it for an hour. I had no idea where to get off, and by the time I called my friend and tried to figure it out, I was back at the train station. I was completely lost. The area I am in, and much of KL is huge mega-apartments that have their own little cities. They have gyms, laundry, cafeteria, pools, and they're all self-contained. So after the first 3 of them, I was confused, and the bus went on a freeway, off and through side roads, and then back on and off and on again... I was glad to see the station. I called Ken, my host, and he was on his way to the station to pick up another couchsurfer who would be staying with us.
Now we finished dinner, teriyaki tofu, chicken, eggplant and pumpkin curry, a sprouts dish. It was great. Now we're sitting around, so I should get back to the conversation...
