Kuala Lumpur

Day 62 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I’m living the high life right now, sitting in a lounge bar (picture above) at the foot of the Petronas Twin Towers (picture below) with a mango smoothie. Lugging your computer all day should have its compensations.

I started my day with a cup of tea, finding hot water in my hostel after much challenges (there is an electric kettle, but without its base; there is a base, but for another type of kettle that isn’t there; finally, the water fountain has a “hot water” function). And of course I used my own mug and teabag.

After that, I went to do my laundry (yeah!), dropped off the clean clothes in my room and went on my way to the Islamic Arts Museum.

Officially, it is a 750m walk. Probably as the crow flies. The advantage the crow has is that it isn’t dependant on finding walkways, crossroads, and so on. As one must cross busy roads, take skyways with construction work, because there are several rail tracks on the way, it gets… interesting. In a really roundabout way.

But, skirting the National Mosque, passing in front of an interesting building that I have no idea what it is, I finally found my destination.

The museum is divided in thematic galleries, starting with the architecture of mosques around the world and the influences that led to their layout. There are scaled models of the best known. I had downloaded the day before the audioguide on my phone (it pays to be prepared), so I benefited from the extra explanations.

After the architecture, it was the Qu’ran and how to make velum, calligraphy and how to keep scrolls…

(I’ve just switched from mango smoothie to mint and cedar tea. The high life, I tell you.)

The other galleries are about textile, weapons, wood objects, coins and seals, ceramics, metal workings… displayed in the light of the Islamic influence (Iznik ceramic, for example) or with Islamic text decorations (metal working…) and so on.

It was all very beautiful, clearly displayed and explained. The building itself is interesting, with cupolas and inverted domes, gardens with fountains, a lot of light.

The special exhibition was about the medicinal arts as found in the Islamic world in treatises and other writings. I enjoyed reading about an amphora stand: carved into a stone, it holds a clay amphora upwards. As the clay is porous, the water slowly drips through and ends up in a depression craved into the side of the stand. It is a filtration process allowing one to get clean water for general use.

I took advantage of the museum restaurant to have lunch, poached eggs in tomato sauce with vegetables and fresh bread, it was good!

On my way back to the main road I decided to have a closer look at the mosque instead of skirting it completely. The mosque itself was closed to non-Muslim tourists, I don’t know if it is a general rule or just the wrong time. But I could still enjoy the fountains on the side.

I took the subway for a few stops to the Convention Center and more interesting, the famous linked towers. Since I saw them in the movie Entrapment with Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery, I’ve wanted a closer look. And you can’t go to KL and not get a look at them. It would be like going to Paris and not trying for a picture of the Eiffel Tower from the Champ-de-Mars or the Trocadero.

So here I am, I had a turn in the Convention Center garden with its whale fountain, and I’m writing this. If I feel patient enough, maybe I’ll wait for the night to have the lights on the towers, but it depends on how I’m feeling. And also the sky is getting dark clouds, and the view from the park wouldn’t be as interesting under a tropical rain.

So we’ll see. (Yep, thunder, the rain is probably not far.) As usual, head to the gallery to see all of my pictures of the day.

(Edit: here we are, the towers lit with dark clouds as a background.)

Tomorrow I take a plane to Jakarta, in Indonesia.