January 17th

Beginning our first full day in Malaysia, we began our day at the Batu Caves in the city of Gombak.  Boasting an astonishing 272 flights of stairs in the 90 F heat, it was a sweaty morning, to say the least.  However, while summiting the cave, we were pleasantly surprised by the abundance of monkey’s which seemed to will us to the top.  On a side note – while one may surmise such small monkey would be very kind, unfortunately, this is simply not the case. 

Pictured is an angry monkey as I may have stepped too close while he enjoyed his Subway sandwich. 

I digress.  Now fully within the cave, there were two shrines within the larger temple where groups gathered to pray. 

Finally, as we embarked on our descent down the stairs of the Batu Caves, some of our group members enjoyed the infamous fruit, Durian, for the first time which for most was a less than pleasant experience. 

After a short and very much needed air-conditioned bus ride from the Batu Caves, we stopped at a small silk painting gallery/store. Here we purchased original paintings and scarves and were able to watch firsthand the beautiful craftsmanship of a couple artists as they painted organic designs on silk canvases.

Later on, we traveled to one of the last remaining Pewter factories in Malaysia.  Pewter was one of Malaysia’s highest exports before its margins were flipped making it more expensive to make causing a collapse of its market.  Stepping back for a second, Pewter is made of a mixture of three elements: Tin + Antimony + Copper = Pewter.  After walking through the factory we were informed on both the factory’s history, as well as its day-to-day operations.   

For lunch we visited the Kuala Lumpur’s central market. Once of its oldest, opened since 1888, was full of stores and restaurants and was a perfect place to grab a bite.

Towards the tail end of our long and busy day, we had three more stops which we decided only a quick visit was necessary. Our first was to the National Monument, commemorating the men who sacrificed their lives for Malaysia’s fight for freedom during WWII. This statue is very similar to the Marine Corps War Memorial in Virginia and is made by the same sculptor, Felix de Weldon.

The second stop was to the Istana Negara, the palace that homes Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Monarch of Malaysia. The national palace takes up about 250 acres of land and cost 812 million Malaysian ringgit (~$200m) to build! The main gate was flanked by two guards mounted on their steeds and was as close to the palace we could get.

Our last stop was to the Petronas Twin Towers. These 88-floor dual office buildings are one of the more notable landmarks of Kuala Lumpur for their extreme heights of 1483 feet! The buildings were the joint tallest in the world from 1998-2004 and remain the tallest twin towers in the world.

By Justin Sirota and Rocco Babun