Category: General

Betsy’s last day has been fun.  We took a final trip out for roti chanai at Betsy’s request and did some shopping in the morning, and then spent the middle of the day at the Lake Gardens district of KL.  The Lake Gardens area contains a bunch of neat things, including an orchid park, a hibiscus garden, a butterfly garden, the World’s Largest Enclosed Outdoor Aviary, and a deer park featuring local species of deer.  We got to see the flowers and deer, and they were pretty cool.  The deer at the park included the tiny kancil, or mouse deer, which is no bigger than a small dog.

We also got a chance to stroll through a memorial to Tun Abdul Razak, the second PM of Malaysia.  Nothing says Southeast Asia like big memorials to political figures which laud their vision, smarts, and political independence from global economic trends.  Razak gets the sobriquet "Father of Development" (Bapa Pembangunan), just like Soeharto has for Indonesia.  The museum, while interesting from an ironic social science standpoint, was good for our purposes for little other than its wonderful air conditioning.

We capped off our day with a nice dinner at the revolving restaurant Seri Angkasa at the top of the Menara KL, the world’s fourth tallest tower.  According to one source, the tower is "a member of
            the prestigious World Federation of Great Towers," which seems a little like me being part of the prestigious World Federation of People Whose Initials are TP.  The views from the restaurant were pretty amazing, especially those of the Petronas Towers.  It was quite a good meal, and we had a nice time, but it is sad to think that we have to get back to real life starting tomorrow.

Today Betsy had her first chance to step inside a mosque.  We went to the Masjid Negara, the National Mosque, which JM and I visited several months ago.  As we remembered, the mosque itself is pretty huge, and since it was only constructed about 40 years ago, has a very 20th century institutional architectural feel to it.  Betsy likened its interior to a banquet hall.  Betsy also got to dress up like a smurf, draped in blue fabric and sporting a fancy blue tudung, or headscarf.  JM, since she was wearing long sleeves, only had to wear the tudung.  We got some pictures which we will post in a bit.

After the mosque, we headed to the Islamic Museum and marvelled at the pretty ceramics, textiles, weaponry, architecture, and calligraphy on display there.  We stopped for lunch at the Middle Eastern restaurant in the museum, which has a great reputation.  I had eaten there before, but JM had never had the chance.  We proceeded to stuff ourselves silly on an exquisite semi-buffet lunch.  For $11 a person, you get a buffet containing about 20 traditional little dishes (hummus, fava beans with red peppers, Turkish-style eggplant in olive oil, and on and on) as well as a dozen desserts (baklava, kataifi, semolina cake, dates stuffed with almonds, and on and on).  For a break in the middle, they bring you one of 8 dishes that you can order and which they prepare just for you.  JM and I had fish, Betsy had lamb.  Amazing.  Not to mention that the restaurant itself is beautiful with a modern, elegant air; they didn’t mind our cargo pants, though.

That lunch was enough to do us in for most of the rest of the day, but not before we browsed the very excellent gift shop.  JM and I picked up a highly-regarded translation and annotation of the Qur’an by Abdullah Yusuf ‘Ali.  It’s available online here, but we wanted a book version.  Tomorrow is our opportunity to finish up whatever else there is to see in KL before Betsy heads back stateside.  If anyone has any desires for cheap souvenirs or knock-off versions of name-brand consumer goods, now’s your chance to put in a request.