Ryan and I took a 15-day trip from January 24th to February 8th to Malaysia and Singapore. It was great to be able to get out of Vietnam and experience another part of Asia...especially developed Asia.
We landed in Kuala Lumpur and spent 3 nights at the Paradiso guesthouse. Out of all of the hostels we stayed at on our trip I would have to say that this was the best. It was clean, cozy and the two men that ran the place were immensely helpful and accommodating.
As soon as our bus shuttle dropped us off into the city and we jumped onto the monorail I instantly felt a bit of culture shock. Kuala Lumpur is so clean ...at least when compared to Hanoi. They have Starbucks! They have a Borders bookstore! They have Dunkin' Donuts! They have proper shops where I can buy things in my size!
My favorite part of Kuala Lumpur is that it's multi-cultural. There are people from India, China, South East Asia and the Malay people all living in the city. I loved seeing the different faces. I think that's one of the things I miss most about the United States.
Our friends Amalia and Bence were also in Kuala Lumpur so we spent the first two nights hanging out with them. The first night we ate at a food stall in Little India and walked around and took pictures of the Petronas Twin Towers.
The following day Ryan and I spent most of the day at the Islamic Arts Museum. We ate an amazing Middle Eastern lunch in the cafe and wandered around the museum for hours.
We were supposed to go to Taman Negara National Park the next day, but because Ryan was feeling a little under the weather we decided to spend another day in Kuala Lumpur and postpone that trip for another day. Ryan and I just wandered around the city and we ended up in Kampung Baru - a suburban neighborhood in the northern part of Kuala Lumpur consisting of mostly Malay residents.
Walking around a bit more, we came across a market with people selling all sorts of meats, fruits, vegetables, and other foodstuffs.
Normally I would have been grossed out at the sight of chopped up pig, cow, chicken and some mystery animal parts...but after living in Vietnam as long as I have these things didn't faze me in the slightest.
Most of the fruit we saw at the market were very familiar because they have most of the same ones as in Vietnam, but we came across this strange fruit that we've never seen before. The outside felt like a snakeskin and the inside was white and not very sweet.
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