Sara's project

From a tourist map full of information, I figured out that Sara's project was KL118, a 118 story building that will be finished in 2020.

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Jalan Bukit Bintang

Bukit Bintang

Jim and I have been astonished by Kuala Lampur. It is mile after mile of newly erected high rise buildings , like Singapore, only with more space.
Tonight, Saturday night, we ventured out after dark to Bukit Bintang, center of the golden triangle. It is like Michigan Avenue and Las Vegas rolled together. This is the interior of one mall celebrating Chinese New Year.

Sri Lankan Hindu temple

Surrounded by high rises.
Our guide gave us a little background on Malaysian prosperity. Basically it's about oil and gas. They were discovered off the coast of Malaysia in 1970. The money started flowing in the 80s. The high rises started going up in the 90s. Petronas Towers were opened in 1999. It's is stunning how built up Kuala Lumpur is. And more going up everywhere. Sara is working on a project here.

Brickfields

We took a tourist office tour of Brickfields, a largely Indian area of KL. It started under Vivekanada's statue. The British decided that buildings should be built of bricks to prevent fires. Brickfields was where the bricks were made. The workers were mostly Tamil, from Tamil Nadu in India and also from Sri Lanka. The buildings behind Vivekanada are called the Hundred Quarters,built to house civil servants. They are about to be demolished.
The tour was great. It started out with the tour leader taking us to street food vendors and describing the food and how it was made. Samosas, dosas, satay, with peanut sauce, nasi lemak, the Malaysian breakfast, milk tea. Fabulous.

Vivekananda

Really got around. He visited Chicago and got a street named after him (honorary). He visits Kuala Lampur and gets an ashram and school named after him.

Merdeka Square

Or Independence Square. Originally the cricket pitch for the British Royal Selangor Club.

Sultan Abdul Samad building

Originally the administrative center for the British, taken over by the Japanese during WWII.

Masjid Jamek

A mosque designed by a British architect in Mughal style.

Sri Mahamariamman Temple

A Hindu Temple in Chinatown.

Burning of offerings

These guys were burning a huge bag of gold colored paper offerings for New Year at Guandi Temple.

Guandi Temple

This is a Chinese Tao temple.

Guan Yin Temple

A more modern temple. You can see the New Year's offerings.

Chinatown

We took a walk through Chinatown which was all decked out for New Years. This is Chan See Shu Yuen Buddhist temple.

Petronas Towers

From our hotel room. They really are splendid.

Noodles and broth

Condiments for noodle soup

Breakfast

As I have frequently stated, the best part of travel is breakfast and the Renaissance in Kuala Lumpur really delivered.
Kuala has Chinese, Indian, Malay and British influences and all were represented on the buffet.
Chicken and lentil/ chickpea curries, with rice cooked in coconut milk and roti bread; noodle soup (three different noodles-two different broths): miso soup with 3 different Asian crackers); eggs made to order; fruit, cereal, yogurt, selection of breads and sweetbreads, selection if cod cuts and vegetables, 5 different juices, pancakes, waffles, and the British breakfast, bacon (beef), stewed tomatoes, fried potatoes, rice porridge , oatmeal and the local breakfast, Nasi lemak, rice coconut milk with onion , ginger and pandanus leaves, which colors a bright green. Heaven.

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Note to Dan

Our flight from Hong Kong had 3 numbers: one for Cathay Pacific, one for American Airlines and one for Malaysian Airlines. So technically we have taken a Malaysia Airlines flight, right across the South China Sea.

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Arrived Kuala Lumpur

Customs

Dragon

Adorning the departure gate at Hong Kong Airport for Chinese New Year.
I left Jim with the luggage cart while I filled my water bottle. When I returned, the cart was abandoned. Jim was out getting steps.

Chinese New Year

Arrived Hong Kong

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Weather

My iPad weather app reports that the temperature in Chicago today is 25 high, 10 low.  Hong Kong: high 70, low 66.  Kuala Lumpur:high 86, low 74.

I also have Boston, where they are predicting snow.