Monkeys, Mosques and Monuments

This morning I woke up at 8am so I could organise my days as I didn't manage to do it yesterday. I had breakfast and left the hostel around half 9 to get the monorail to Masjid Jamek. Masjid Jamek is a mosque and its supposed to be pretty impressive. The small part I saw of it looked quite nice but (presumably because of Ramadan) non-Muslim visitors weren't actually allowed in the mosque. This wasn't the only annoying thing to happen today. As I walked to my next destination I managed to catch my big toe on something and took a chunk of skin off and started bleeding. I had to hobble into the nearest shop for plasters and tissues.

Once I was all bandaged up I carried on to Merdeka Square. At one end of the square is the City Gallery. Out the front is a famous 'I❤KL' sign. Or at least I'm told it's famous. I took a selfie with it and went into the gallery since it was about a quid to go on.  I watched a video of the independence ceremony that took place on 31st August 1957, where the British handed what was then known as Malaya over to the Malayans.  The British flag was lowered and the malayan flag raised in its place. The gallery is also home to a model of Kuala Lumpur city. There was a little video that I watched that gave some facts about the city and light up the relevant parts of the model and was all set to dramatic music. It was actually pretty cool.

After finishing at the gallery I went to actually look at Merdeka square, where the independence ceremony had taken place and saw the all important flag pole. It was actually probably the biggest flag pole I've ever seen. The square looked remarkably like a cricket pitch. Just look at the photo to see why. I walked round the outside, past a fancy building that I don't know the name of, to the other end. There was a whole load of fountains which were pretty nice.

After looking at the fountains I walked alongside a dual carriage way towards the national monument. It was very hot so on the way I stopped at a little area with a plant/tree cover and a nice fountain. It was quite peaceful if you ignored the cars shooting along beside. There was no one else there except me and a couple of men sleeping on shady benches. They seem to do that a lot here.

Eventually after walking for what felt like a year I made it to the national monument. It was quite far out the city centre, set on a hill in a park. It was quite a peaceful setting. The national monument (or the part I saw) comprised of two war memorial statues. In the background of one you could see the city's skyscrapers poking out above the trees. It was quite scenic.

Next I headed to the National Mosque, through one of the city's parks. As I started walking I heard the call to prayer. It probably wasn't the best time to be visiting a mosque but it turned out it wasn't from the mosque I was visiting. On my way I came across some seemingly wild monkeys, just chilling in the trees at the side of the road, playing and messing about. They were pretty cute. When I eventually got the Mosque prayers were over and people were leaving. Non-Muslim visited weren't allowed in here either and I wasn't able to get a decent picture, but this mosque had a slightly different style to traditional mosques. It had a bright blue roof of a different design than usual. I bought a bottle of water at a shop nearby and had to ask some dude to open it as I couldn't.

I completed a circuit and ended up near the monorail stop I got off at this morning. 

Before I returned I had a quick browse round Central Market before heading back to the hostel, arriving around 3:45. I got a shower and slowly got dressed. Sometime around 5ish (maybe) I got ready to go out with the intention of going to KL tower. Then I discovered it had started chucking it down. There was thunder and lightening and it didn't look like it was going to let up. I decided to go anyway and put my rain coat on. I was wearing leggings as I felt it might be more appropriate to cover up and they got absolutely soaked. I stopped on the way to the tower to get some chicken and rice from a stall near the hostel but I had to stop and stand under a shelter to eat it or it would have gotten very soggy.

It turned out to be a lot further than it looked on the map. Or at least it felt like that on the rain. My toe hurt, I was getting soaked and I was walking through streams that were coming down the street. Most people were just sheltering but I wanted to get to the tower before dark so I could see both day and night views over KL. When I arrived they suggested I waited to go up as it was raining and I wouldn't be able to see much but eventually I went up anyway. I wasn't able to see for miles but the views were still pretty good. I took some photos and then sat and watched night fall over the city until the buildings were lit up. Then it started getting mad busy so I left. It was about 19:45 by this point. I walked back to the hostel in the rain, which had lightened up considerably. I stopped in a shop to get a drink and a Nigerian dude started chatting to me and asked if I wanted to go for a drink. I told him maybe tomorrow.  In went back to the hostel and collapsed onto my bed. My back hurts from walking and standing up so much. Tomorrow I will do less walking.

As I've been walking around the city today, I've noticed people tend to do either one of two things when we cross paths; they either stare at me or are really friendly. Do many people have said hello or welcomed me to Malaysia or smiled. But also so many people have sort of stared. I'm wondering if it's because I'm roaming around with shorts and a strap top on in a Muslim country. I haven't seen many other women in shorts...

 

The blue roof of the mosque is visible on the right middle section of the photo