May 18th, 2013 - Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park, Malaysian Monkeys, and Indian Food

Today was the GREATEST day. I say this with no word of a lie—we had the absolute best time!

Now, I’ll need to explain a few things before I tell you more, so that this makes sense, so bear with me for a few sentences.


First, you ought to know that I have a bit of an internet addiction. In the course of this addiction I met Ali on a forum site discussing pretty much everything under the sun. He made these really cool posts about Malaysia, and they got me interested in the country—one of the reasons I pushed LuckyStar and myself to come here.

Once we decided to visit Malaysia, I wrote Ali an email asking if he’d like to meet, and he said yes! I think we both engaged in a bit of excited mutual flailing, but you can’t see that through a computer, so our dignity was safe.


Anyway, today we met. Ali brought his sister Syahreen, and we met for coffee at the Pavilion mall, which is so swanky that Lucky and I felt very small and homesick inside—we both could not help but to wish that LuckyStar’s parents had chosen this week to visit us because they would have loved this mall so very, very much, and the one across the road was even nicer.



There was no shortage of high-end, brand name stores here—Guess, Swatch, Fossil, Coach, Versace, you get the idea. There was even a Jimmy Choo. I’ve never seen one of those outside of photographs and books where the author needed to inform me that a lady was possessing both good taste and scads of money, so I was very impressed. A bit of fun trivia—Jimmy Choo is from Malaysia. Let’s file that under the list of things that I would not have known if the Tourism Malaysia had not told me so in their many informational pamphlets.





It was all sparkly, polished, clean and so pretty!


We waited by the Pavilion Crystal Fountain, which consists of three very large stacked bowls (representing Malaysia’s multiracial culture living harmoniously in unity and ascending to signify the growing aspirations of the people, according to the plaque) painted with hibiscus flowers (the national flower of Malaysia and a symbol of opulence, passion, and progression—also according to the plaque) and sits at the entrance of Pavilion, and had breakfast at a really great café/bistro called Espressamente Illy. Amazing Panini sandwiches, crepes, and great Chinese mint green tea.

The view from the front of Pavilion.

At about noon, two people approached. Nerve-wracking at first—we’re quite used to being ignored by everyone—but the two people were Ali and Syahreen! Construction noise was quite loud at Illy, so we went and sat in a nearby Starbucks (some things really are universal), and chatted for a while. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel like the four of us really hit it off right away. When travelling to strange and distant lands, it’s always such a relief to find nice people with whom you share common interests. And to be honest, we’ve been really lucky so far on that front.

I’m not quite sure how it happened, but after chatting in Starbucks, we were on our way to the Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park, and learning all kinds of amazing stuff about Malaysia by one o’clock. Ali and Syahreen were kind enough to offer to be our tour guides for the day, for which we can’t thank them enough!

We drove past what Ali told us was the St. Mary’s Anglican Cathedral (first build by the British back when Malaysia was a colony) and then ever deeper into the tangled network of Kuala Lumpur’s roads. I have the utmost respect for Syahreen, who drove. I’m too scared to drive on Canada’s roads—I’d have a nervous break-down on Kuala Lumpur’s. They are winding and complicated and there are a lot of one-way streets. (Lucky suggests that those who experience motion sickness, like herself, get doped-up on Dramamine before even looking at a moving vehicle in KL.)

Still in use today!

Finally, we reached the Butterfly Park! The Kuala Lumpur Butterfly Park is a big garden with ponds, fountains, koi fish, and nets stretched over the top of the whole structure to keep the butterflies from escaping and rampaging across the city with their intimidating large wings. Most of the butterflies there were normal-sized, but there were certainly a few that could whisk small children into the sky, never to be heard from again.



Being a garden, as one might expect, it was also brimming with all manner of plant life, including some vibrantly coloured and interesting flowers. Not to be outdone by the flowers, the butterflies themselves came in all manner of shapes and sizes and colours—some even had an iridescent glow to them, the kind one might only imagine reading about in a Jules Verne novel.

This is a duck or a goose, not a butterfly. It was in with the butterflies, though!

A great beautiful turtle! Snapping turtle, maybe?

There are 1032 known species of butterflies in Peninsular Malaysia. I don’t think we saw all 1032 species, but there was a tremendous quantity of butterflies, let me tell you. Besides the butterflies and the garden, the facility also included a small museum showcasing the large variety of reptiles, amphibians, insects, and creepy-crawlies that Malaysia has to offer.

A less craggy turtle!

The super shiny ones are from South America, so they weren't flying around here, but they are very beautiful!

When looking at tourist destinations to stop at during our trip, this was one of the places we really wanted to go, and it was worth the 20 ringgit tourist price to get in. The exorbitant prices at the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park which we stopped at afterwards, however, were much too high. We skipped the actual Bird Park, but outside of it we saw monkeys!

They MIGHT be Grey Langurs. Wikipedia has been strangely unhelpful in identifying them.

Such pathos.

 

Wild free-roaming monkeys balanced precariously on the powerlines and in the trees. They sat, they climbed, they groomed, they tumbled around and played, some were very zen and contemplative—it was adorable! It was also our first time seeing monkeys in either Malaysia or Thailand, so we were pretty thrilled.

Finally, we rounded off our day with a phenomenal meal at the Restoran Sri Nirwana Maju. Absolutely delicious. We ate in what Ali assured us was definitively Malay style, off of a banana leaf using our bare hands (a word of advice: use your right hand. After I finished, the waiter took the time to let me know I’d done it wrong ;)).



The spices in Malaysia are just as fresh and strong as they are in Thailand, and the food was seasoned to delicious perfection. Eating with your hands is something you’d expect to be difficult, but it came to us very easily—a bajillion times easier than chopsticks, anyway. I still haven’t progressed beyond stabbing at my food and hoping for the best with those.

Delicious Indian food!

We had, counter-clock-wise from the top left corner, something cool and refreshing made with cucumbers, a delicious thing made with long beans (they’re about two feet long, and taste fairly similar to green beans), fried and spiced anchovies (my first time eating anchovies!), and rice with a vegetarian curry sauce? I think. Not entirely sure, but it was really tasty! On top of that, we had a fish curry and a chicken curry, both of which were delicious. Eating meat off the bone is a thousand times easier when you’re squishing it into rice with your fingers.

Did I mention that it was delicious?

After that, Ali and Syahreen brought us by a place called The Loaf Bakery & Bistro, where we picked up some things for our dinner that looked like English muffins, but they were far moister, each filled with a creamy filling. They were amazing—I had a cranberry one with a cream cheese filling, and I am not ashamed to say I teared up a bit while eating. It was unbelievably good.

Finally, Syahreen and Ali dropped us off by our hotel, promising to meet again. We’ve issued a permanent invite to the both of them (and their families, of course) to anywhere we are, whether that be Canada, Thailand or somewhere else entirely. When you have such lovely hosts, it’s only fair to repay in kind!

Thank you, Ali and Syahreen!

What a wonderful day!

-Geogirl