I arrived in Kuala Lumpur and managed to order an Uber using the free airport wifi. My driver was incredibly kind, telling me all about Malaysia and recommending things to do. I didn’t know how Malaysians’ English would be, but my driver knew it perfectly. He even sent me a summary of all the places we talked about in a Whatsapp message afterward, which was more helpful than you know considering the spelling of words you’ve never heard before. He dropped me off at an apartment building, which seemed to be all rentals. When I checked in, they immediately asked: “Jack’s friend?” I guess he told them I’d be coming. Key in hand, I made it to our room and reunited with long lost Jack. Who knew that when we said, “See you later,” in Taiwan, it would be this soon, and in Malaysia of all places? Not me. Life is always so unexpected. He was eager to get out and do things, especially since I arrived later than planned. So it wasn’t long before we were out the door on the way to Batu Caves.

The first thing you see when you approach Batu Caves is a massive, 140-foot golden statue of Murugan, the Hindu god of war. It was so tall, it was actually hard to take a photo with the whole thing in it. To the left of the world’s tallest statue of Murugan are 272 stairs leading up to the cave. The limestone forming the Batu Caves is approximately 400 million years old. Bats flew around the very tall cave ceiling.

Tucked along the sides of Temple Cave, the largest of the Batu Caves complex, were several Hindu shrines. Aptly named, there was also a Hindu Temple inside Temple Cave. We walked around the interior and looked at all of the statues of Hindu deities.

Hindu Temple inside Temple Cave… makes sense

That night, we went to Menara Tower, also called Kuala Lumpur Tower. It’s the seventh tallest tower in the world standing at 1,381 feet. It was built in 1995 as a communications tower. At the top is a fantastic aerial view of Kuala Lumpur. From the tower, we could look down on the Petronas Twin Towers, which are the tallest twin towers in the world. They also held the world record for tallest building in the world from 1998 to 2004. Now it’s twelfth on the list. It was cool to see the city lit up at night, although they didn’t have the lights dimmed inside the lookout area, so there was a lot of reflection off of the glass.

Because Kuala Lumpur is just another city, much like many other cities, we decided to head out to a different part of Malaysia the next day. You can do that when you show up in a country with no plan and the flights are super cheap. We decided to head to Penang, a Malaysian island known for its food, culture, and street art.

Travel buddies on the way to the airport

The KL airport bathrooms were simultaneously comical and kind

At the airport, there were a lot of Muslims, especially women wearing niqabs (a garment that covers Muslim women from head to toe, with an opening for their eyes). Apparently August is the hottest time of the year in the Middle East and they all go on vacation in Malaysia, where more than 60 percent of people practice Islam.

We took Malindo Air to Penang, a flight on which we both had a minor heart attack. While we were descending, we hit some turbulence. I guess a lot of airlines have switched to pre-recorded/robotic voices for their overhead announcement. But when we hit the turbulence, loud, alarming beeps and a stern “ATTENTION!” came over the speakers, followed by a dramatic pause.

Then the speakers just instructed us to stay seated, and everything was fine. But the way they put on that announcement so abruptly was pretty concerning. I was pretending to be calm, and then Jack turned to me and went, “Well shit, that was scary,” so I knew it wasn’t just me freaking out inside. More on Penang in the next post.