In October me and Beatrice went to west Malaysia for about a week. Given the limited time we stuck to Kuala Lumpur and a few places nearby. Malaysia is a bit cheaper to travel in than Taiwan, and at least in some places is better equipped to handle tourists, so you can sometimes get fancier accommodations for the same price. In other ways it was less convenient, especially with some of the transportation seeming much less developed than Taiwan. Vegetarian food was easy enough, but sometimes it was only available on request and I wasn't always certain that sauces and so on were really vegetarian.

Kuala Lumpur (KL)

We stayed in KL for the first couple of nights and again at the end. We got a guest house in Chinatown, where there seems to be a lot of cheap accommodation. KL is more spread out than Taipei and tends to feel greener (in the sense of having more trees and things) than Taipei and other northern Taiwanese cities. It is also much more ethnically diverse. There is a small colonial area with older buildings, but otherwise the city is pretty modern.

KL features a variety of Mosques, Chinese temples, and Hindu temples.

The transit system is ok, with subways, skytrains, and a monorail in addition to buses. However, it is not nearly as convenient as the Taipei system; there are few signs and there is little integration between systems.

Bathrooms are usually pay to use, but the prices are almost always cheep.

Food courts are very common, and there you can sit where you like and order from any stall. Some are enclosed restaurants and some are open street markets. Regular single counter restaurants are also common, though. There don't seem to be night markets except in Chinatown (where it is more in the Hong Kong style than the Taiwanese style), but street market food courts are similar for the food part. Tea and other beverages often come in a bag when ordered to go, but I only tried this once.

The usual motorcycles in Malaysia are a different style than those in Taiwan or Vancouver. There is less of a horizontal axis and more space near the footrests, like with scooters. There are a few scooters too, in about the same style as Taiwan. Motorcycles and scooters are less common than in Taiwan, but much more common than in Vancouver.

KL has the Petronas Twin Towers, which were the highest buildings in the world before Taipei 101. In a way they actually show their height better than Taipei 101 because the individual stories are emphasized more, whereas 101 emphasizes the large segments. We didn't try going here for a viewpoint since apparently availability is limited, but went to Menara KL instead. It is a tower in a park not too far away. We happened to get there during a BASE jumping competition, which meant that people were jumping off the top every couple of minutes and parachuting down. This was especially interesting at the observation deck where one window featured people free falling rapidly past. The tower also had a small and somewhat sad mini-zoo at the bottom along with some other stuff, and more interestingly also wild monkeys.

We also went to the aquarium in KL. This was a little expensive but quite interesting, with extensive displays including a walk through tunnel in the largest tank, where there were sharks and a big ray.

Just before we left Malaysia we also went to Times Square, a fancyish mall. The bottom floors are a regular somewhat upscale mall, more in the North American style than what we see in Taiwan, and very spacious. The upper floors have an amusement park, including a roller coaster that loops out over the atrium. Another mall we visited earlier was less upscale and more of a street market moved inside, with small crowded halls.

Batu Caves

We went to Batu Caves near KL. It is a Hindu temple and the site of a major pilgrimage festival. Besides the world's tallest Murugan statue, a long flight of stairs, and various shrines inside the caves, it also features a lot of monkeys. The monkeys hang out on the railings besides the steps and occasionally run around on the steps especially if there is food. Beatrice gave one a granola bar and it took it out of her hand with the wrapper part way open, finished opening it itself, and ran off to eat it without sharing with the other monkeys. The adult monkeys we saw all seemed to be female. The temple itself was also impressive, but I don't know enough about Hindu temples to appreciate it properly.

Ipoh

Our first stop farther from KL was Ipoh, a largish but still much smaller city something like 200 kilometers north. To get here we took a train, which took about 3 hours and was quick other than a mysterious pause part way there. The train was very modern and comfortable. I think it was some sort of new electric train, and there were older trains going the same way. Getting the train was more confusing, as the long distance and local commuter trains share a station and the location of the ticket office we wanted was not at all obvious from where we entered.

Ipoh also has a colonial area around the train station including some old British building and a pub that was supposed to be something like the oldest in Malaysia and was started by Chinese owners in an largely non-drinking culture. Farther from the station the city seems to be largely Chinese and feels like it hasn't changed much in two or three decades. Buildings are mostly old-looking shop houses with simple signs. For dinner we went to a street market / large food court, featuring brusque Cantonese-speaking stall operators and karaoke at one end. Despite the overall Chinese feel, there were at least three mosques and signs for Eid.

Ipoh also had more five foot ways, the covered walkway in the front of the ground floor of buildings. In Taiwan they are common but don't have an English name as far as I know, but in KL there were very few. In Ipoh a couple of shops had bamboo blinds to coverer the five foot way, which I gather is traditional but rare now.

We also visited the Perak Tong Temple near Ipoh. This is one of the Chinese Buddhist cave temples in the area, located in a limestone outcropping. It features a large Buddha statue in the entrance cave and various statues and wall paintings in the caves behind. Stairs lead up through the back at to a series of viewpoints overlooking the area, along with a bit more art. From the viewpoint it is apparent the area has some large industry and also extensive suburban-looking residential areas.

Cameron Highlands

After Ipoh we hooked back to the Cameron Highlands by bus. It was a scenic trip, but the bus didn't make any bathroom stops in the three hour trip, although the driver did stop a few times to pick up mail. This is an old British hill station which supports tea growing and other agriculture that works better in the colder climate. It is also popular as a tourist destination for both Malaysians and foreigners, probably for the same reason. It actually got a little chilly here, especially at night.

In Cameron Highlands we decided to take a tour offered by our guest house since the distances were so large. This turned out to be a good idea, as our guides were very knowledgeable. The first stop was the Boh Tea Estate to see the tea plantations and (at least a demonstration) factory. The tea plants we saw were about 80 years old, which appearently isn't very old for tea plants. Tea is grown by extremely low paid workers from poorer nearby countries, processed in several steps, and sorted into a few grades for distribution.

After that we continued to one of the higher peaks to see the mossy forest. It gets its name because moss grows everywhere on the trees. It traps the moisture passing by the peak, which then keeps the forest wet. Eventually a layer of moss turns into the new forest floor and is replaced by a new moss layer. The area apparently has a large number of unique species. One of our guides specialized in orchids, but unfortunately I don't know enough about them to report his descriptions.

The peak also had views for quite a distance. I think on a clear day it is supposed to be possible to see to Indonesia, but when we were there it was only possible to see part of the highlands and a dim impression of the lowlands in the other direction. The expanse of mountains was very dramatic, though.

The tour also visited a butterfly farm (or maybe butterfly garden; I think there are supposed to be places with both names), which was a bit artificial but still interesting and very good for photos. It had a large meshed area for butterflies (and/or moths) and then another area for plants and a variety of animals in cages. I'm not sure which species were local, but apparently at least some of the butterflies were local but not seen as much in the wild any more.

The other main feature of Cameron Highlands is the pseudo-British atmosphere. We went to get English tea at what turned out to be genuine old English school building that had been turned into a guest house and restaurant.

Leaving the highlands we took a bus back to KL (it was actually going to Singapore but stopped in KL too). It took about four hours and made a stop in the middle for bathrooms at food. The rest stop had free bathrooms and a good food court.

Flight Home

We took Air Asia flights both ways between KL and Taipei. At KL Air Asia operates out of the Low Cost Carrier Terminal, which is a largely separate airport next to the main airport. It is basically a big shed with a place to park planes next to it, and seems to serve mainly Air Asia but also a couple of other airlines which I think do mostly local flights. Here getting on and off the plane is done by walking out and climbing steps to the door, which was a nice change from the usual fancy tunnels.

This was also the first time I've actually been able to see out the window much during a flight in recent travels, as it was light and only moderately cloudy for most of the way.