When we arrived in KL the queue time to the passport control was longer than the flight… The lady who checked my passport and examined in detail every single page of it and asked if I entered Singapore at all, as there was no chop (Asian word for a stamp!) stating I ever crossed a boarder to Singapore. I was shocked, as I didn’t even know if I was supposed to have a stamp, I travelled a lot in Europe and actually they do not these any more… She started questioning me, as she knew I came from a Singapore flight, and her voice sounded as if she was interrogating me, like I was some illegal immigrant or something… I didn’t feel very comfortable; after all I had been in a holiday mood just starting my long weekend. To prove her I live and work in Singapore I showed her my Singaporean Employment Pass card, which she examined suspiciously, showed it to her nearby colleague speaking Malay, put a Malaysian chop on the first page of my passport and returned my both documents. When I opened my passport I realized that on the same first page where she put her stamp, there was a Singapore chop! Well, maybe she missed the first time she looked at it… I wasn’t really sure… Nice welcome in KL…
After passport control we went for a taxi to get to our B&B. But, as we approached the taxi stand, we only learned that to get a taxi ride we need… a ticket! So, we went back to the main airport building and purchased a ticket from a special taxi ticket counter. We went back then to a taxi stand, with all our bags, and finally took off to KL. When we entered the city we noticed that it’s pretty busy, noisy and dirty… After Singapore our standards became very high, as it’s very very clean, so KL stroke us as poorer than our ‘new hometown’. We found our B&B, refreshed a little and went out for lunch to a nearby restaurant and coffee and cake in Starbucks just across the road from our B&B. The rest of the day we spent in Chinatown, wandering in the local markets and discovering this part of the city. The first and lasting impression was very similar to the one we had in the morning, Chinatown was also dirty and poor… The hygiene standards were bad, the buildings looked old and you could feel the city didn’t get any financial support from the government for a long long time. Even the shops and stand around Chinatown didn’t project high standard of their products… In one of the jewelry stores we saw a security guy, who didn’t wear any uniform, but he had a machine gun! Was this just a culture shock or it’s just me?
The next day we got up early, as we wanted to go up the famous Petronas Towers. I heard from my colleagues that people start queuing for tickets since very early morning, so we were there after 7am. The ticket shop opened at 9am, and we were lucky enough to get tickets for 11am the same day! We had a Malay breakfast, famous Nasi Lemak, and came back for the tour. The view from the 86th floor of the Petronas Towers was fantastic, although the weather that day wasn’t the best. Then we went to the bridge connecting both towers. I must say that it was worth waiting all morning for those views!
In the afternoon we went to a National Mosque of Kuala Lumpur. We all got purple gowns covering us from head to toes, the Muslim way, and we went in, bare foot. When we got to the main point of the mosque we started chatting with a very nice gentleman who was there to give information to tourists like us. He sat down with us for about 30 min and spoke about Islam and some of its rules. Well, I have always perceived myself as a tolerant person, especially when it comes to nationalities, customs and religion, but I couldn’t agree with the traditions and boundaries of Muslim life he told us about. Well, it’s totally different to my Western understanding of life and society, but it was nice to learn more about the Malay lifestyle! We went for dinner to our next-door Moroccan restaurant, in the spirit of discovery, and I must say we all really enjoyed the food… 
On Sunday we went to the Batu Caves with one of the most famous Hindu shrine outside of India, up in the mountain cave. But before we got there, we had another ‘culture-shock-experience’ in KL, riding a bus! We took a bus from our street to get to the bus interchange station first. There was a bus driver, and a ticket man. They waited till there was a good bunch of people on the bus and started selling tickets when the bus was full. When the bus took off he sat down on the bus stairs, yes, the ones we used to enter the bus, and stayed there with the bus door was open throughout the whole ride! We were shocked to see this, as he could have easily fallen off the bus at any time and hurt himself! The ticket man was encouraging people in the street to get on the bus, so several times we took more passengers just in the middle of the street! The bus also hit a man who was just crossing the street! That was just unbelievable! We switched the busses on the bus interchange station and we waited again till the bus got full before it could take off. The ticket man was shouting around: ‘Batu Caves! Batu Caves!’, trying to get more customers on the bus. When we finally took off we could see more of the city’s parts, not too different from the city centre… When we arrived at the Batu Caves we saw the world’s tallest statue of Murugan, a Hindu deity, outside of the caves. Batu Caves serves as a pilgrimage site for not only Malaysian Hindus, but Hindus worldwide from countries such as India, Australia and Singapore. 
One other thing that stroke us was a sense of fashion in KL. For men, it’s pretty much similar to the Western standards, but most women wear black gowns showing only their eyes. Some other show also their faces, but tourist women are somehow a subject of interest for local men and women alike, as they do look different. Although both, myself and Dorota, we wore more conservative clothes there, we still felt we were looked at constantly… In the afternoon we went back to the airport, as our KL weekend was coming to an end. There were no major surprises on the KL side this time, but when we arrived in Singapore, we learned we couldn’t purchase alcohol in duty free, as all Malaysia flight passengers are not allowed to buy liquors, according to the local law! I wondered, although Singapore and Malaysia are neighbors and close trade partners, there are still things like this where you can feel there is tension between those two countries! Singapore was formerly part of Malaysia but was separated in 1965 due to political differences and racial tension, so even as a foreigner who might not be aware of the historical background, one can experience some of this tension while travelling!
The weekend in KL was a great learning experience for all of us. It is incredible how different 2 neighboring countries could be. I saw differences between certain European countries before, but never to such a big extent as between Singapore and Malaysia... I am glad I experienced KL, but I was definitely happy to be back in Singapore where I can drink water from the tap, wear what I like and enjoy clean city with safe public transport…
