Kuala Lumpur means “muddy stream”. Not such an exotic name after all, is it?
We took a walking tour of the important buildings around Heritage Square, where Malaysia declared it’s independence. Lots of old colonial buildings, mostly now home to museums including the textile museum. Notable is that the bar of the Royal Selangor Club still adheres to a rule established in the late 1800’s under British control of no women or children being allowed in the bar.
We toured the Royal Selangor Pewter Factory and learned about the importance of pewter in Malaysian history. We also met the Great Granddaughter of the founder (pictured with Susie above), who told us an interesting story about an old man and a tea pot (recounted here from their official website). I pounded out a curved bowl from a flat circle of pewter. We’ll see if it last the duration of this trip. And how do they cast a hollow handle for a mug? Watch the video below. I held up a tour group of 30 Chinese tourists to get this video, so you better watch it.
We shopped at the Central Market, where Susie found lots of batik fabrics, but only bought a little owing to the remaining 6 weeks of travel we still have on this trip.
We visited Batu Cave and the 100+ year old Hindu shrine inside. Really interesting setting. At the end of January there is a festival at this temple where they get 1,000,000 visitors over a three day period. I can’t imagine…
We also visited the Malaysian National Mosque and had a great discussion with a guide.
We ate good food in dives, found ice cream bars and dodged late-afternoon thunderstorms. All in all a good taste of KL.
We also had some down-time to relax and catch up on things at home and plan later parts of this trip. On a typical two-week vacation, you put off dealing with normal life things until the vacation is over. As a nomad, normal life things need to be woven into your travels. This is more about living in retirement in a series of interesting locations rather than being a full-time tourist. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. Laundry, taking care of finances and business back home, staying connected with family and friends, napping, reading and well even writing this blog, they all still need their time.
Next we are headed to Penang. Actually Georgetown which is just opposite Penang on an island.
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