March 15, 2024 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Day 51 of 138 days

Oh what a beautiful morning. I can hear my Mom sing the song this morning.
 I am not very good with the different languages, and remembering how to say Thank you in every language, but at least I am able to say the name of the place we are visiting. This has taken me awhile. We are in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Mike is much better with his pronunciation of the places we are visiting.

Our excursion is to see the Blue Mosque and other highlights of the area. We learned the Muslim is the religion of Malaysia, so the government funds building and upkeep for all the Mosque. The other religions, Hindu, Buddhists, Christian including Catholic the people have to pay for their churches and upkeep, so the non Muslims are paying twice to practice their religion. They also have two court systems, the Sharia courts interpret and apply Islamic law and secular courts rule on civil and criminal matters.

We did not have time to go into the Mosque, but we are told they do not adorn their religious spaces. The men and women do not pray in the same areas. This mosque has room for 25,000 worshipers.

We are here during Ramadan, so the towns are more quiet than usual. Any shop run by Muslim are closed, this is a time of fasting and prayer for them, that lasts 1 month. This is based on the Islamic calendar. Ramadan is in mid March this year, next year it will start late February. During Ramadan, they rise before sunrise and eat together as a family, most stay home, but they will attend school. If the child is past the age of 12, they follow the fasting rules. Prayers are said on a schedule, and they attempt to get to their Mosque to pray. They will gather again as a family after the sun goes down to break their fast.

These pictures are from the area across the street from the mosque, the gates and wall surrounding the grounds of the mosque. I did not see parking for 25,000 people around the mosque, so I can't visualize how this all looks come 7 pm when they all gather.

Tents were set up in the parking lot, and this is them preparing a meal for breaking the fast. They are cooking the meat until it will fall apart, then vegetables will be added later in the day.

Our guide was explaining the coat of arms for Malaysia. The tigers are for the tigers found on their islands, the crest and 14 point federal star, are for the Islam as the official religion, the 14 points are for the original 14 states that compromised Malaysia, including Singapore. It was not changed when Singapore left the group. There were 10 kings in these 14 states, so since they could not continue with all the kings, now every 6 years they get together and elect a king from among themselves.

On the right we were told we were going to a World War II memorial that was sculptured by the same artist who did Iwo Jima monument. I saw this and was confused. This has the dates of WW I, WWII, and another war for their independence.

Here is their WW II memorial. It was pointed out the the men in this statue look British, other than the man holding the flag at the top. He looks just like their first Prime Minister who is Asian. LOL

As you can tell from looking below the setting is beautiful.

Notice the downtown area is a mix of British colonial and modern architecture.

The decorations in the bricks were interesting. I love looking around for art.

This is one of the two couples taking their wedding pictures. In the Chinese culture pictures are good luck. They will go to many different spots to have pictures taken on their special day.

One of the brides was wearing tennis shoes to walk from place to place.

This is across the river, and the place the Chinese landed and built their homes. They were brought here to mine the tin.

This is KL Tower. It is a 1,381 ft. tall telecommunication tower in KL. It is the world's seventh tallest tower. More on this later.                                                             

This is where 2 rivers meet, and the Chinese town was just across the river from here. Kuala Lumpur means "muddy confluence"

They have shortened Kuala Lumpur to KL.

This is Independence Square, the  Union Jack was lowered, and their new flag was raised when their independence was won. Their flag resembles our flag. Our guide joked that they were in  a hurry to have a flag, so they copied ours. It is similar with the blue background in the corner with their crest and 14 pointed star. The red and white stripes complete the flag.

Our view from the top of the KL Towers. This is a large modern city, that is the Capital city of Malaysia. It has a population of almost almost 2 million. We were told the average minimum salary is $382. per month. When they receive their pay, 1/4 is taken for their retirement. The employee and employer both contribute toward this. 

We stopped for lunch at a hotel. Across the street was the Home of Fish Head Curry. It was advertised as the best Fish Head Curry available. Ugh, no thanks. We have had some issue with Mike not having something available that is not shell fish to eat when lunches are provided. They use Oyster Sauce even with beef, so we have a sack lunch for him.

This is our next stop, the Petronas Twin towers. This was listed as the tallest building in the world from 1998 - 2004. It was surpassed by a building in Taipei, and they continue to build taller elsewhere.

We learned this was designed by an American Cesar Pelli, but the contracts to build were won by a Japanese, and Korean  company. The two story connecting walkway contract was going to be awarded to which ever company completed their tower first. The Korean company started 30 days behind the Japanese, but completed their tower first, and got the connecting walkway contract.

Next stop was a craft Market. Below you will see Mike trying to make off with their rickshaw.

This ship was docked just the other side of us. Two very different style of ships.

Matthew Steel is a 22 year old vocalist. He has been on the ship since London. Tonight was his first ever Cabaret. He did a great job. We took a picture of him with us to document we were there.