When we first arrived in Jakarta about almost a year ago, Jeff and I booked a smokin' deal on flights to Kuala Lumpur. We couldn't resist round trip Air Asia flights for under $50 each. We counted down the months for ages and finally departed a few weeks ago. After getting sneers and looks of disgust from Indonesians in regards to Malaysia, we wondered what the heck is the big deal? Well after a little digging we find out that the rivalry stems from Batik (traditional formal wear) and the Pendet Dance (traditional Balinese dance). Apparently Malaysia is trying to capitalize on Indonesian culture by claiming these traditions as their own. Maybe in retaliation Jakarta can steal a few infrastructure ideas from KL such as public transportation, sidewalks, clean waterways, lack of garbage, and sanitary street food. Rivalry aside, we loved Malaysia and hope to return to Penang for a future weekend trip.
We're often cooped up indoors in Jakarta so the theme of this vacation was wandering around and exploring. We even fell into the ultimate tourist trap - a double decker bus ride to whisk us to all the important sites.
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| Istana Negara - The National Palace |
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| Sri Mahamariammam Temple - Oldest Hindue temple in KL |
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| Petronas Twin Towers |
To put it mildly, we were crazy for the food in Malaysia. We couldn't get enough of the local curry houses which serve around a dozen different curries buffet style. You can get rice, chapati, or dosi and pile the curries on top. We would fill our plates beyond capacity and somehow still only pay around $5 total.
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| Might not look like much, but some of the best Indian food ever! |
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| Yes I ate it all and had to waddle around for the next hour |
We stayed in Chinatown which had a shortage of Western style breakfast, so we did our best to embrace Chinese food for breakfast. It took a few bites to get over the feeling that we were eating dinner at 9AM, but the flavors won us over in the end.
The highlight of the trip for Jeff was our adventurous trip to Taps Beer Bar. It involved wandering around for several hours of trying to find it, but it was well worth it. The bar would fit perfectly in downtown Portland and the selection of beers made Jeff giddy with excitement as he sipped his IPA and Saison beer.
On our last night we took it up a notch and headed to Sky Bar to take in the legendary views of the Twin Towers. Jeff managed to sweet talk the manager into the best seat in the house when we arrived. It was a perfect ending to our long awaited trip!
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