Wandering Kuala Lumpur

Kuala Lumpur is the very definition of an ultra-modern city with all the amenities that one does not think of when one has never been to Southeast Asia.  While we tend to think of Southeast Asia as a developing part of the world, the transit and infrastructure is on par with, or better in some cases than a lot of Western locations that I have visited.

One of the first stops we had to take was to visit the park by the Petronas Towers, as it seems to be in just about every single photo of Kuala Lumpur.  I also had the ulterior motive of visiting the park in the area to grab a few geocaches, so everyone was happy.

Although the towers were quite cool to look at, I have to admit that the artwork in the park was just as cool, if not even better.  I mean, look at that whale!  The park also had a great kids area where there was a wading pool and some awesome swings and play structures.

As Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country, we also thought that it would be good for Danielle to get some head-scarfs in case we wanted to venture into any mosque or their surrounding areas.  There are countless shops that sell any color or pattern you could ever want.  After buying a few, we were on our way!

We ended up spending a bit of time wandering around the National Mosque, and got lucky enough to have a tour by a few of Danielle's friends from when she visited ten years ago.  They were an awesome group and the tour was very interesting and entertaining to say the least.

Kuala Lumpur is a beautiful and modern city that totally defies what any person who has never traveled to Southeast Asia might think.  It is clean, bright, friendly, and has a great balance of old culture and customs while still creating a society that integrates the many different groups of people that find themselves living there.  The Islamic, Indian, and Malay styles mesh beautifully together to create a hybrid of cultures, food, and help to make Kuala Lumpur one of the most friendly and open cities that I have visited.

The Ultra-Modern World that is Malaysia

I am sure that the content of this post will be both naive and wishful due to the fact that I only was able to spend three days in Malaysia, but in spite of that lack of time, I can honestly say that this is one of the most pleasant countries that I have ever visited. 

We traded in the orange robed monks of Thailand and went for a Saturday-to-Monday trip to various locations in Malaysia. I must first admit before writing more that this is my first experience in a Muslim majority country, and as such I honestly did not know what to expect. I have many friends who are Muslim, but this would be my first experience in a country where it is more normal for a woman to wear a head covering than not. 

As I sit here in Starbucks, gleaning off their free WiFi, I am able to look around the store and count about twenty women with head coverings of some kind, and two without, one of which is my wife. 

The west tends to view the headscarf as a sort of oppression, but in all honesty, I think that they are extremely far from the truth. I realize that my knowledge of equality and privilege are skewed, but in Malaysia, these women seem to use these head-scarfs as a sign of individuality. Aside from the more formal solid colors, the fabric is all individual and comes in all colors of the rainbow. They seem to be a culturally appropriate way to represent the individual. 

We in the West tend to over-simplify things to make it easier to stomach.  Yes, cultures are quite different, but in order to rationalize this difference we tend to just lump that culture in as being evil or bad in regards to our "true" religious beliefs and our more "civilized" culture.

Examples:

Muslims - Bad!

Women wearing some form of covering - Oppressive!

Etc.

I was openly invited into many different mosques, met Muslims who lived by many different interpretations of their own culture and code, and had the opportunity to listen many times to the truly beautiful call to prayer.

I am by no means trying to say that the whole world is quite like this, nor am I saying that all of the Islamic world is as peaceful as Malaysia appears to be, but I am saying that the average person seeks peace far more than they seek any sort of divisive nature. 

I have long been a proponent of befriending people outside of ones own culture for this sole purpose. 

One of my friends that I used to work with said it the best - "The laughter of children sounds the same anywhere in the world."

The only difference between this Starbucks in Putrajaya, Malaysia, and any other in the world is that I am paying in Ringgits, and that the food they serve is halal. 

A coffee is a coffee, and free WiFi brings people inside regardless of the color of their skin or their choice to wear a hijab. 

Moral of the story - everyone loves coffee, and just perhaps free WiFi is the route to more peaceful interactions across cultures. 

Also, Starbucks cannot spell your name right anywhere in the world. 

A Milestone - 1,000 Geocaches!

I am really excited to announce that I finally hit 1,000 geocache finds!  I thought it might be fun to go through my find logs and upload a bunch of photos that show the progression of all of my finds.  I have had the opportunity to geocache in multiple countries, meet some amazing friends, and almost die on multiple occasions.  I have had the chance to go on hikes in the South-Pacific, find caches hidden in temples in Japan, walk around ruins in Thailand, and go around various beautiful places in California, and other places in the U.S. Geocaching has been the cause of me being able to find amazing places on both sides of the date-line, and both North and South of the equator.  

Needless to say, this hobby has been the cause of many great adventures and led to me meeting some amazing new friends.  

Thanks for the great memories, and I am looking forward to many more to come!  

More Geocaching!

This was an all-around great day of geocaching.  The weather was beautiful, and the temples were amazing - as they were all decked out for the previous day and the New Year. 

One of the great things about geocaching is that it forces you to go see many new places and wander around areas that many tourists might not find.  

For this adventure, we rented bikes again (about $1 a day) and rode around Sukhothai finding temples and caches.  Needless to say, it was absolutely beautiful.