KO'd in KL... Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

January 31 – February 8, 2009
(Feb 8 - 13th Brisbane, Australia)

My bones were still suffering from the jarring potholed roads of Sumatra as I arrived in Malaysia’s port city of Melaka. In striking contrast to recent travel in Indonesia, our luxury highway coach whisked us down the silky-smooth highway towards Kuala Lumpur. The city is an interesting blend gargantuan modern shopping malls, beautiful lush scenery, stoic Muslim institutions, high-tech architecture, and interesting but scrappy night markets and food stalls.

Bored from a month long nasi goring diet, my mouth watered for the Indian tastes I’d savoured in Penang Malaysia. I headed straight to the Indian restaurants to sate my cravings, where I sat down surrounded by locals shovelling rice and curry into their mouths, their right hands caked past the wrist in rice and sauce… I will leave it up to your imagination what their left hands were likely caked with! Personally, I prefer the cleanliness of a fork, a spoon, or a chopstick, and the comfort of a good roll of TP. After a quick dinner, I headed into Chinatown’s night market, where stalls glimmered with knock-off versions of Tags, Rolexes, and Mont Blancs. Handbags, t-shirts, and other fashion were abundant, but Thailand definitely has the edge on quality, cost, and selection.

Just as the smells of worldly cuisines permeate the air of Kuala Lumpur, so does the smell of money. In contrast to the night markets peddling knock-off material, the megamalls sell high-end expensive luxuries that are gobbled up by the hordes of trendy fashionista consumers. Complete with indoor amusement parks, grandiose cinemas, and trendy restaurants, this is an easy place to lighten your wallet. Floor after floor is packed with the latest incarnations of cell phones, cameras, computers, and electronic gadgetry. This is heaven for a tech-head, and hell for a budget traveller like myself!

The most recognizable symbol of KL has to be the majestic twin Petronas Towers, 452 metres of shimmering aluminum and stainless steel which has been brought to you by heaps of petro-dollars. Outside the complex is a small version of New York’s Central Park, where children play in the fountains and pools, and where I get yelled at by the police for getting my toes wet. I strolled for hours around the Orchid Gardens park which overlooked the cityscape of towers, shopping centres and rigid Muslim infrastructure.

After donning purple robes to cover my bare knees, I temporarily escaped the stifling humidity as I entered the serenity of the National Mosque. It’s simplicity, intricacy, and vastness (and notably silent speaker systems) had a very calming effect to myself, but also to the stray Muslims who were sprawled out on the polished floors for a cat nap. Since this country’s policies are highly defined and regulated by Muslim culture, I took the opportunity to read all the literature provided in attempts to gain perspective on their thoughts. If you are interested further, please read at the bottom of this blog where I have quoted the literature and posed questions, comments, and observations. Malaysia seems to be a relatively successful social experiment in the coexistence of the Maylay, Chinese, and Indian backgrounds, and also with their mixed religions of Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Taoist, and even a hint of animism.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The Petronas Towers, full moon, and some freaky colouring I got with the long exposure.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A reprieve from the sweltering heat in the National Mosque.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Petronas Towers, full moon, and even a bit of the adjoining bridge.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Scott and I outside the ghostly Petronas Towers at night.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Petronas Towers with Chinese New Years decorations.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Steel, steel, and more steel.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The lush grounds and pools outside the Petronas Towers.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The grounds outside the Petronas Towers.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At the orchid gardens.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. At the botanical gardens.

Quotes from the KL National Mosque literature, and comments from... me! (To my Muslim friends, please don’t take this as criticism, just honest and brutal curiosity… I don’t let any other religion off any easier… While most religions have beautiful portions to them, it is my personal belief that all organized religions have lost their true meaning and have become institutionalized with arbitrary yet convenient rules that serve the organizers and leaders rather than humanity (and beyond).)

• God is self-sufficient and has no needs. His creations need Him but He doesn’t need them for His existence. (This is kind of a pivotal statement, which in my mind provides a broad platform for hypocrisy.)
• Many will say that they too believe in The One True God but their daily lives are infused with idolatrous practices such as wearing talismans and worshipping statues. Worshipping physical representations of God is considered the only unpardonable sin in Islam. (If God has no needs, then he shouldn’t care too much about this one, so long as it helps people lead a virtuous life. Perhaps it is God’s own ego that pisses him off when someone worships a representation of Him. But then again, the goal is to rid the ego, so hypocrisy is witnessed even at the highest level.)
• The best names in the sight of Allah are Abdullah (Slave of Allah) and Abdur Rahman (Slave of The Merciful). (So, God does need people, since he seems to prefer slaves.)
• Muslims are required to pray 5 times a day at fixed times. Performing these well spaced out prayers at the appointed times will leave no time for mischievous deeds. (It also leaves less time to ask questions. This seems to indicate that quantity not quality is important.)
• In Islam, cleanliness is considered a part of one’s iman or faith. A Muslim remains in a state of purity if there were no acts that nullify his or her purity. Among them are excretion from penis, vagina and anus (including releasing gas), deep sleep (exempted if the person was firmly seated on the floor when he slept), touching the skin of sexual organs with palm, touching the skin of the opposite sex whom the person could marry and loss of reason or consciousness. (Touching the skin of the opposite sex is on par with excretion from a penis or anus…? It kinda makes people just not want to hug, touch, or kiss. I think there is something wrong with that.)
• When we eat with the consciousness that is an act of worship, we are more likely to be less wasteful in our eating, eat less and think of others who are in need of food. (I couldn’t agree more with this one! This helps us respect the world that we live in, and if followed might allow much of world to realize what is actually going into their bodies.)
• Wearing expensive apparel to show-off one’s status and affluence is not the way of Islam. (Partly convenient because it could reduce the amount of money payable to the institution, and aren’t mosques a reflection of wealth, status, and affluence? It seems that the louder and more deafening the speaker system is, the higher the status of the mosque. This seems to be a contradiction.)
• A Believer does not hesitate to spend his or her wealth in the case of Allah. Do not be miserly by paying the minimum, pay more if you can do so. (Very convenient for the institutions, isn’t it? What is done with this money anyhow, build nice mosques which are in a sense a symbol of God – which he didn’t want? So, we have a culture not spending money on alcohol or excesses, encouraged to be successful without ego, and expected to contribute heavily to the institutions. This financial plan is built by a genius!)
• The disbelievers and the evildoers will realize at death about the Punishment in the Fire that awaits them. They will be in great pain as their blodd vessels and nerves are ripped apart when their souls are forcibly removed. (Woah, here’s a God that doesn’t need people, yet feels the need to punish them with fire and brimstone… Kinda sounds like Catholocism, doesn’t it?)
• Islam prohibits anal sex as an unnatural practice. The Qur’an permits all positions of vaginal intercourse. (Who is responsible for prohibiting or permitting anything as natural or unnatural, and what sort of criteria were they using?)
• Muslims must direct their sight away from things that will arouse desires and lead them into prohibited sexual acts. (If an act is desired, then why is it prohibited? Don’t people realize that by prohibiting something in itself creates a desire? Isn’t it better to learn how to deal with that instead of try to pretend it doesn’t exist? )
• Islam emphasizes foreplay in sexual activity. (Again, I couldn’t agree more!)
• Women enjoy more protection and respect within Islam compared to any other faith. Just about everything that feminists in the West strived for in the 70s was already available to Muslim women 1400 years ago. (I am VERY curious what is meant by ‘just about’, and what is meant by protection, and protected from what? Do the men enjoy protection as well?)