Kuala Lumpur (Academic Travel Part 3)

March 15, the group left Dubai and headed further west to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for our last week of travel. We arrived late Friday night after a long day of traveling. Malaysia is home to three main ethnic groups, Malay, Chinese and Indians. Therefore, although their official language is Malay, their unofficial language is English. Malay's will usually speak Malay and English while the Chinese will usually speak Mandarin, Malay, English and sometimes another Chinese dialect. The three cultures keep their customs and languages but also seamlessly mix adding to the charm of Kuala Lumpur. It's a beautiful city with a lot of urban green interspersed between the old and the new, creating a vibrant city.

Saturday, Jeannie and I were able to meet up with some old Sleepy Hollow friends. We spent the day touring Kuala Lumpur with Jeya, who brought us to a great restaurant for breakfast called Lotus. We had a traditional breakfast of roti, coconut rice and noodles. Jeya then took us on a tour of the city and we saw sites such as the the old British Prime Minister's Mansion, the old Palace and Putrajaya. Putrajaya is a planned city outside of Kuala Lumpur that now serves as the federal administrative center of Malaysia. The name symbolizes the success of the Malay government, combining Jaya, which means success in Malay and Putra, the name of the first Malaysian Prime Minister. For lunch we went back to their house where they had prepared a fantastic meal for us. Jeya taught us so much about Malaysia and it was great to see her and her family again!

The Old Palace

Monday morning, the group went to meetings in Cyberjaya, a key part of the Multimedia Super Corridor in Malaysia, which aspires to be the next Silicon Valley. The talks were on how Malaysia is staying competitive in both the Internet and Green Technologies. We learned about their current activities and future plans in order to stay competitive while continuing to grow and advance.

Tuesday we left for a canopy walk in the forest preservation. The canopy walk was a suspension bridge that didn't seem so stable, the walkway consisted of ladders with 2x4s laying over them. There were zip ties holding some of the boards to the ladders, however most were broken. Although, the view was very pretty, I was glad to be back on solid ground!

Jeannie's view from the Canopy

We then headed to the Batu Caves, a limestone hill which houses one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India. To reach the temple you climb 272 steps up to the caves. Once in the caves there are multiple shrines built and dedicated to Lord Murugan, the Hindu God of War and Victory. At the base of the caves, there stands the largest statue of Lord Muragan at 42.7 meters high!

Entrance to the Batu Caves

After we stopped at a store that specializes in hand make batiks, cloths made using a wax resist dying technique. Batik prints are associated with Malaysia and Indonesia. The textiles are produced by applying liquid wax to the cloth, then dyed, the wax prevents the dye from seeping through to the fabric. When finished the wax is removed with boiling water which also fixes the colors onto the cloth. The designs were beautiful and each print was unique since each is done by hand.

Batik Prints Drying

Our last stop of the day was the Thean Hou Temple, a six tier Chinese temple dedicated to the Goddess Tian Hou, the Heavenly Mother. The temple is one of the largest in Southeast Asia and represents aspects of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The architecture showcases the traditional Chinese design and was absolutely stunning!

Our last day we visited Taylor's University, a private Chinese University in Malaysia. We met with some students and learned about the Malay education system. The students took us for a tour of their campus and over lunch we were able to share our experiences. For dinner Jeannie, Stephanie, Chris and I went to a Malay restaurant called Bijan. The food was amazing and it was a great way to end the trip!

Last night at Batik!

Kuala Lumpur was an amazing city and I would love to one day return!