March 2, 2025

Before I realized we would be visiting Malaysia, my knowledge of the country was extremely limited. I knew about the missing Malaysia Airlines plane (MH 370), Michelle Yeoh (the actress) and Ronnie Chieng (the comedian) and I had some t-shirts with “made in Malaysia” on the label. Tod was pretty much the same, so before we left home, we watched a few You tube videos about it and armed with our newfound knowledge looked forward to visiting Kuala Lumpur, the capital city.

It's just a whoop and a holler from Singapore, so when we got up Sunday morning and opened the curtains, we were greeted with brilliant sunshine and Port Klang, the harbor for the city of KL (as the locals call it). Tod was amazed that there were container cranes as far as the eye could see. Probably for all those t-shirts. We busily got ready and still fighting jet lag stepped out into the blistering heat and humidity to find our air-conditioned bus that was fortunately parked nearby. It was a full bus, so we headed to the very back seats which were comfy and had great visibility.

Off we went on our way to KL – which was about an hour away. Fun facts about Malaysia include; it’s the fastest growing country in Southeast Asia; It includes about 25% of Borneo which it shares with Indonesia and Brunei; it was colonized by the British so most people speak English; half the population is Muslim, a quarter are Buddhist and the rest are a mix of Hindus, Christians etc); they have a King; they used to have the tallest building in the world, the Petronas Towers, until Dubai beat them with the Burj Khalifa ; they have orangutans, tigers, sun bears and leopards amongst other animals and saltwater crocodiles. We had a great tour guide who spoke perfect English, so it was a pleasurable ride in. The cars were primarily Chinese, particularly the Proton. We’d never seen Chinese cars and they seemed nice enough. Gas was $2.50 a gallon – no wonder the Singaporeans jump the border! It seemed to be a thriving area, no signs of third world type communities, but I imagine they’re outside the big city. They had beautiful freeways, but we must have stopped for tolls at least 5 times in the hour drive in with the tolls being around $0.35. Seemed hardly worth putting up toll booths.

We continued into this massive metropolis with a skyline dominated by dozens of exotically designed high rises. I thought they were beautiful, Tod (the engineer) not so much. Although I thought they were stunning, it looked somewhat like architects run amok, they were all so different. As the guide described them it was always by an American architect or an architect that now lives in America. There was a sharp contrast with all the leftover colonial buildings that remained from the British that we had also seen in Singapore. Come to think of it, we should be seeing a lot more of those type of structures as most of our upcoming port stops have been places colonized by the British.

First stop at the King’s palace. They think a lot of this guy and the guide rattled off about his history and the history of Islam in the country. He said that today was the first day of the holy month of Ramadan and that all Muslims would be fasting – no food or drink from sunrise to sunset for the month. We made a few more photo stops and then off to the Petronas Towers where we would stay an hour. As we walked in, everyone was stopping to take a picture of a formula one (at least I assume so) type car perched above the entrance. I took a photo too thinking it must be important. But we don’t follow car racing, and the last time I saw a Formula One race was when I saw the film Grand Prix starring James Garner in the 60’s. So don’t trust me.

We had an hour to explore the 6 story mall while some of our tour mates opted to go to the top of the towers.. We tend to avoid super high places, so we wished them well and set off to find the food court to get a cold drink. It was very much like any mall and food court you’d see in the states, except for the addition of all the Malaysian food. We stopped at a fresh fruit drink bar, a Malay version of Jamba Juice. After getting our delicious juices, we cracked up to see a sign advertising a “Ramadan special smoothie”. This mall was only open until 6 PM so we looked at each other and just laughed and shrugged. Far be it from us to understand Islam.

Off we went to find a Watson’s (a Hong Kong chain store equivalent to Walgreens or Boots) to pick up a few sundries. We were directed up one floor, so we took the escalator up and marveled at all the American chain stores. We even saw a Columbia store filled with down jackets and the like. Doesn’t seem warm clothing would be a big seller in a place so near the equator but there were lots of people in there. We found Watson’s and Tod stood staring at his phone while I shopped. I just needed a few things and there was certainly a lot of staff in the store. There were about 6 young women in hijabs kind of standing around, so I asked one for what I was looking for and she directed me to it. “They’re buy one get one free”, she said. “Oh, that’s ok, I only need one”, I replied. Crestfallen she said, “but it’s FREE!”. Reminded me of an SNL skit. I just said, “ok, I’ll take it” to avoid a scene and went off to find my other items. Sure enough another girl popped up telling me about the various special offers. I was ready to check out loaded with double the items I didn’t need and I signaled to Tod to meet me at the cashier. We waited in line briefly and then after the very nice lady rang it up, she pointed to an extremely large display behind her with dozens of items and told me since I had purchased so much, I could choose something from the display behind her for 50% off. Again, I politely said, “no thank you”, and again I got the deflated look and she remarked, “are you SURE??”, “OK fine, I guess I’ll take that” and pointed to a box of Colgate Optic White tooth paste which was the closest thing to her. She pulled down three boxes and said, “which variety would you like?”. Ack! Who knew there was 3 varieties of the same toothpaste? “Uh, I’ll take that one” and randomly pointed to the one in the center. She smiled broadly and rang it up and we were off. Admittedly we were surprised at how little all that had cost us. Capitalism is alive and well in KL. As an aside, we’re feeling very much like we are representing the US when we have these interactions. Americans are not exactly viewed positively these days to the rest of the world, so we make an extra effort to be very polite and courteous.

On the bus back to the ship, the guide started his Malaysian sales pitch saying what a great place it was to come for medical tourism. He said you could get face lifts, tummy tucks and all kinds of elective surgeries for cheap. It would only cost $5 to deliver a baby and a C-section was only $150. I leaned over to Tod and whispered I wondered if that included the anesthesia. He also said it was a great place to retire and that a couple could live a rich life on $2000 a month and that included a car. Actually, in my YouTube viewings I had seen one where a British couple had done just that, retired in Malaysia. They remarked that everything was wonderful – the people, the accommodations, the food and the car but after a year they were returning to the UK. The one thing they found they simply couldn’t tolerate was the tropical climate. Can’t say as I blame them!

Soon we were to the Port and the guide’s last words were “Tell all your friends about wonderful Malaysia!”. So, consider yourself told!

Off to the Malaysian resort island of Lankawi tomorrow.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Langkawi, Malaysia

Boarding the Zuiderdam