Megapost: Kuala Lumpur and Georgetown

I’m simplifying things. I’ll be uploading great numbers of photos to andyradin.smugmug.com, and I’ll post a representative few of those here to tell the story of what’s going on. Feel free to browse all the photos over at smugmug if you like.

I think I’ve said most of what needs to be said about KL. So I’ll just illustrate a bit:

Gigantic shopping malls

Nighttime dinner market

The national mosque

Monkeys

Him: “Mister, you wan buy watch? Rolex, Omega…”
Me: “Already have watch!”
Him” “Mister, one more! Mister! Mister…!”
It’s amazing how quickly one’s English devolves to the lowest common denominator, actually.

Georgetown is on an island in the far north of peninsular Malaysia, in a strategic spot fought over by the Dutch, Portuguese, British, and Japanese. Despite all that conflict, it’s the Chinese and Indian immigrants who really made their mark here. In a symbol of the Malaysian multicultural heritage, one corner here holds a mosque, a Chinese temple, and a Hindu temple all facing each other, and all seem to call to prayer at the same time. It’s a pretty relaxed town, full of busy street life, gracefully crumbling buildings, and excellent street food.

Apparently rickshaw transport is the tourist thing to do

This is an ancient Hindu symbol – in fact this temple surely precedes the Nazis’ appropriation of it – but it’s still always a little jarring

Relaxing by the water’s edge

Little India in Georgetown is chock full of incredibly colorful clothing stores and bizarre mannequins (see my Peru pictures…). These two men just happened to complete the family here…

Incense at the Chinese temple

Holy man in the Hindu temple

Sun setting behind the mosque

The naked wonder of riding the bus

Up next: photos from the idyllic island of Pulau Perhentian. At the moment I’m posting from Singapore, having spent four nights on Perhentian Kecil and gotten quite painfully sunburnt. Survived a 16 hour epic bus ride from the northern reaches of Malaysia all the way to the other end and into Singapore, where it promptly turned to torrential dumping rain. Will be here a few days running errands and getting malaria meds. Next stop will be Indonesia and deeper into the wild. Plans are still in the air due to the unseasonable weather – the rainy monsoon started a month late this year, and seems to be holding on an extra month now. Water visibility for diving and snorkeling (one of my primary objectives) is really ruined by this. More to come.