Week 10: Kuala Lumpur

Since my last blog post I have changed locations to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I will be spending several weeks continuing working and learning about new cultures and places. For starters, the food here is AMAZING. Contrary to my experiences in China (where I still don’t like to go to a sit-down restaurant on my own) I cannot wait to keep eating in this new country. This may not be so good for my physique, but it’s good for my soul. The variety of food is enormous: over the span of 2 days I have eaten Indian, Thai, Malaysian, and Saudi Arabian food, all of which was delicious. The people in the city are similarly diverse: rather than standing out here, I can blend in with the blend of cultures: there are a large number of Chinese, Indian, Western foreigners, and Malays living in Kuala Lumpur, and the diversity is more reminiscent of New York City than any city in China was.

My company has me staying in an area within 2 minutes of my office walking, so that’s a perk! Consequently, it’s also a suburb of the city that contains a resort/water park, filled with wave pools, waterslides, and all sorts of other aquatic fun. Thankfully, this area is fairly quiet throughout the day, missing the hustle and bustle of the downtown area. However, with Malaysia being a primarily Islamic country, I am treated to regularly timed prayer ‘announcements’ from the local mosque. These are not so bad- I would describe them as “Arabic Gregorian Chant”, except for the fact that the first is at 5:45am. Not an altogether unpleasant way to wake up, but definitely not my first choice of time.

Other than checking out the water park and eating more than I should, I spent some time looking around Kuala Lumpur. It’s not a very historic city, but I managed to see the square where Independence was claimed from the British as well as a popular marketplace and the local Chinatown (go figure!). To top it off, I got a look at the iconic Petronas Towers, marking my first weekend in Malaysia complete.