Spoiled in Kuala Lumpur: a special treat for our weary feet

We just spent a week in the great city of Kuala Lumpur, a melting pot of Malay, Chinese and Indian culture, religion and politics. We flew to KL on the 1st of the month with plans to meet up with an American family that has been living and working here for the past couple of years. We met Karen 4 months ago in LAX just an hour before we flew to Auckland - over a cocktail in the airport lounge, we briefly exchanged our stories and was offered a place to stay when we came through Malaysia. Tim and I were pleased, but both initially blew it off, fully understanding that we were strangers and that these types of offers usually go unexplored. Little did we know that Karen and Jack would come to follow our blog regularly, give us many helpful local tips via e-mail (and mid-meeting text messages!) and provide us with a REALLY NICE place to relax and explore during our time in Malaysia.

Majhid Tanah bus station

Between a lot of buses up and down the southern portion of Malaysia, we found ourselves in Melaka for a couple of days and in what was supposed to be a "resort" beach for an overnight stay before throwing in the towel and heading to KL early. Melaka was not the small and quaint port town that we were expecting, and while interesting, not a place we wanted to try to burn 3 - 4 days, so we asked around a bit and decided to head to Pengkalan Balak, a beach community about an hour northwest. We were initially excited about our beachfront chalet and managed a decent night sleep, but after we realized there wasn't any "resort", no one spoke English and it started pouring rain, we through a tandum temper tantrum and hitched a ride to the bus station to head back to KL.

We had one night to chill on our own before heading to Karen and Jack's on the 4th. We found a cool backpacker's in Chinatown and gravitated to the infamous Reggae bar across the street for dinner. Part of the mystery was trying to decide if your waitstaff was a girl or a boy - an added bonus to an already hip spot to hang (assuming you had a couple hundred ringgit to spend on cocktails, which we didn't). We wandered the night market and after breakfast with some friends we'd met in Gili T., we spent the day shooting around town, browsing the mall (indoor rollercoaster included), catching an IMAX movie and dodging the rain. We landed on K & J's doorstep about 8:30 pm dripping wet and probably a little cross-eyed.. still they welcomed us in.

Out for a Mexican meal with our wonderful KL hosts

Oh what a delight is was to have a place to refresh ourselves and get off the backpacker track for a while. We were also happily surprised that Jack was able to spend a lot of time with us over the next few days showing us the sights. We spent plenty of time at the house getting caught up on laundry and e-mail, organizing photos, taking care of left-over issues with "The Man" (Quantas and Telestial), shipping a few things

Mia loves the attention, even face stretches

home and just relaxing in general. We had a home cooked meal every night and access to western style food without a pricetag - I never thought we'd be so excited to see a box of Cheerios. We also had some wonderful pockets of time just exchanging stories and histories with Jack and Karen... they are not only very down to earth and generous people, but they are wonderful parents to their 3 kids and very well-traveled and active in their community here, as well as when they are at home in the Twin Cities. We REALLY enjoyed getting to know them better and can't thank them enough for opening their home and their hearts to us!

Below I have included some photos of our numerous outings while in KL - a big thanks to our Tour Director, Mr. Jack.

Saturday morning was the wet market with Karen and Jack - apparently it's called the wet market because it's where the animals meet their end and the floors tend to get a little slippery - too much information perhaps? Regardless, it was very interesting

and the best place to get produce. Then it was to KL Towers for a view of the entire city... After that, we went to the Butterfly Garden and to an Elephant Orphanage - I don't have the name of the reserve with me, but it was impressive. The following day we took a rest, as I was suffering from a low-level sinus infection and sore throat.

1st elephant ride- Kuala Gandah, Malaysia

On our last full day in KL, Jack took us along on his weekly visit to the Chin refugee kids - from Borneo. He and some friends bring snacks and spend a couple hours with the children teaching them English. What a unique and wonderful experience it was to spend a little time with these children, who are basically waiting to be assigned a home in the US. I could of scooped them all up in my arms and taken them home with us, but obviously that is not the reality of the situation. Luckily, these kids have family, but they are living in limbo for now and the weekly visits they have with Jack and the others seem to mean a great deal.

I am short on time trying to wrap this up, but our time with Karen and Jack in KL was a highlight and something we will carry in our hearts for years to come. Thank you, thank you, thank you and we promised we'd continue to "pay it forward".

We are a few days into our time in Phuket, Thailand and will write more about that soon. Kisses from a milion miles away. We love you and miss you!

Jen and Tim

written by

TwoSouls on April 10, 2008 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

from the travel blog: Malaysia: Historic Ports and Jungle Forts

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reading of your wandering feet makes me happy. thoughts of you both for health and good journey. shifted to victoria bc for a bit. out my morning window is the ocean. look out your morning window. can you see me? i'm waving hi across the sea. xo! --kates.

written by kM on April 18, 2008

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