A Day in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Last Wednesday we left for Malaysia to spend our October holiday on the beach, while the Chinese celebrated their 60th anniversary of communism and Mid Autumn festival. Our first stop of the trip was to the capital, Kuala Lumpur. We arrived very late Wednesday night, just in time to brush teeth and get into our pajamas and crawl into bed!! We stayed at the Ascott which was located within walking distance to the Petronas Towers (which are the largest twin towers in the world). I had not done a lot of research on KL because of my lovely sinuses and basically just lack of time!! I had talked to my friend who grew up there so I knew to be leary of the cab drivers and that was about it!! I had also looked up where Toys R Us was located so we could do a little shopping! My friend told me that the Ascott was in a great location and she was right - we only took a taxi to and from the airport and even then we arranged payment before we got into the van!

On Thursday morning when we woke up I took a quick look at the local tourist magazine and found that there was a lovely park located right behind the towers. It was a beautiful, warm, blue sky day, and the magazine said there was a great playground for kids. Our kids don't get to play on "great" playgrounds here in China, so we thought we would check it out!

It was incredible and we basically had the entire park and wading pool to ourselves!! We, of course, didn't realize that the kids could play in the pool, so we didn't bring swimsuits. My three loves could have cared less, it was over 90 degrees and so they soaked themselves completely!

Coop's thoughts...should I go under and risk getting in trouble or not...oh it's hot out, I'm getting wet!!

Eens making sure Coop is okay after walking directly through the waterfall!!After all of the sunshine and soaking, we all worked up quite an appetite! The kids ordered pancakes with ice cream (okay, we compromised because we had promised we would buy them ice cream!) and Danny ordered a Malaysian feast which cost a little over $4!! After our hearty lunch, it was rest time and changing clothes time!! We also took a dip in the pool at the Ascott before we headed out to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen! The Petronas Towers at night were beautiful. CPK was located in the shopping mall on the first several levels of the towers and we watched all of the fountains going while we waited for our food!

Although we only got a glimpse of KL, it is quite a fascinating city. There are so many different cultures that are present, Malays, Chinese, Indonesians, South Indians, and Thais, plus many more. Malaysia itself is predominantly Islamic with many devout Muslims. There were men and women prayer rooms located throughout the airport and calls to prayer begin at 5:00am. I would love to spend more time there and really explore the different parts of the city and see how the different cultures have made their own mark!

This is a bit of a side note, but while we were eating breakfast at the hotel, there were many Muslims eating at the same time. Our children were not exposed to Muslims in Bettendorf, IA, so seeing the women with their faces covered was very new to them. I was so proud of them, they didn't even appear to notice. There are many positive things I can say about our expat experience thus far, but one of the biggest joys for me is watching my children become international citizens.