After so much time in the Malaysian jungle I wasn’t sure what I thought about heading to a big “city.” I’m typically not a fan of exploring big cities at all. If you have been following along you know that Yeosu (our Korean home base) contains 300,000 people which feels HUGE to me. The beach is 2 miles away, and there is a mountain in our backyard. Literally. That’s all I need to be one happy gal.
So, I was hesitant to spend time in Kuala Lumpur. Which in my mind you can’t compare AT ALL to East Malaysia (where we spent the majority of our trip.) We had our layover in Kuala Lumpur back to Korea so we decided (well Tom convinced me) that we should spend 2 nights, and 1 full day exploring the city. So we did. I live to tell you it was much more interesting than I had expected, but that I am glad we only stayed one day. We walked for 14 hours around the city (with stops to enjoy, relax, and eat) and I felt like we saw EVERYTHING I possibly wanted to see. From the Muslim Mosques, to the Indian temples, all of the cool architecture, the food, the mix of culture, the crazy demented city monkeys, all of the amazing markets (we went to three), to the gorgeous garden park. I am happy to say we DID it!
Tom and I both had an extremely hard time leaving Malaysia. We love living in Korea, but it was such an absolutely incredible trip that it was hard to say goodbye. Kuala Lumpur concluded our time in Malaysia, but I know we will be back. I loved the diversity of the people living in Malaysia: Chinese, Native Malaysians, and Indian. The diversity of people brought diversity of food which I hadn’t even mentioned yet. We ate real Italian food from an Italian expat living in Malaysia, Chinese food, Indian food, and everything in between. I was humbled by all of the travelers we met there and I am inspired to continue to discover more of this big beautiful world.

In the morning we headed to the famous Batu Caves. Caves made of limestone, a place of worship for Hindu’s, and home to one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India.

The crazy demon monkeys around the Batu Caves. Stealing people’s food and drinks. Not like the monkeys we seen in the wild. The may look cute…don’t let them fool you.

Night Market findings. New watch from a guy who uniquely made each one (besides the watch face hehe)
So there ya have it. 3 blog posts in 3 days!!
I am so excited that I have successfully documented our entire trip to Malaysia all before second semester starts back up for teaching on Monday! First, we are saying goodbye to our good friend Alyssa as she has completed 2 years of teaching in Korea, and is embarking on many months of traveling. Sunday is our 1/2 marathon! We are so excited to do a race in KOREA.
I’ll be back next week with more stories on how we had an amazing trip on a budget, things we learned that we won’t travel East Malaysia without, and our travel plans coming up in just 3 weeks!
Happy Friday to you all. I just have to leave you with 4 more photos that sum up the diversity we experienced in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia- so perfectly. 🙂