Solo Travel Day 4 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 🇲🇾

08/01/2024

Today was a great day!!!! I had my first day completely by myself since being in Malaysia and I wholeheartedly embraced it!!! Go me!! I had a slow start this morning because I was so exhausted last night that I let myself sleep in for as long as I needed (and it was a long sleep lol). But once up and ready I made a detailed plan for the whole day based on opening times and locations so that I knew I'd get to see absolutely everything I wanted!! Ready to gooooo

My first stop of the day was the National Mosque of Malaysia! The mosque was beautiful with lots of big open spaces, large water fountains and features, flowers and plants everywhere and also amazing views of the city from the balconies. I realised while I was there that that was my first time going inside a mosque, mainly because they made me cover up more than I've had to before. When I've been inside temples I've made sure to be respectful and cover my knees and shoulders (as I did going to the mosque,) and this has always been ok. Before going into the mosque I had to cover up more than my tshirt and trousers as they wanted the whole of my arms and hair to be covered too (they provide these cloak-type dresses.) This made me realise all the temples I've been to before have mainly been Buddhist, Taoist or Hindu. Inside the mosque there is also a small gallery with an interesting model showing you the ways the mosque has grown and been extended over the years. I'm glad I visited the mosque as I learnt on my first day in Kuala Lumpur that Islam is actually the predominant religion in Malaysia (I think I thought Buddhism was the main religion having been to Thailand and knowing they are neighbours.)

I headed to Nu Sentral, a nearby shopping mall for some food (and AC) before my next destination. I thought a food court would be an easier place to quickly find veggie food than trying to navigate street stalls, but no. My favourite thing here is when you ask a restaurant if they have any vegetarian options and they just say "no." It's such a shock as I'm not used to this at home anymore!! "Do you have anything I can order and you remove the meat/fish?"

"No." 😂 I finally found a restaurant that had clearly marked vegetarian options on their menu (which was a beautiful sight) so I had a meat free substitute roti wrap and it was very very nice ! Shout out Rollti! Thean Hou Temple was my next port of call and it couldn't have been better!!! I had almost considered not coming here at times as it was a little out of the way to walk to it but I'm so glad I did! It's a six-tiered Chinese temple and it is absolutely stunning ! Especially as I went as the sun was setting over the skyline ! There's tonnes of extremely intricate detail at this temple which I love, as well as all the brightest colours! As it's one of the biggest Chinese temples in South East Asia there is lots to explore (which I also love) as I even managed to find a Chinese herb garden with small ponds and fountains down the side of the temple! The temple is on a hill so you have an amazing view of the whole city too! It's one of my favourite views from my entire time in Kuala Lumpur so far ! It was so unexpected and the sun setting too made it extra good!!! 😍 It's nearly the Chinese/ Lunar New Year (Feb 10th) and it'll be the year of the dragon so unsurprisingly the presence of dragons is strong here and it's really cool to see! As I was leaving the temple and waiting for my grab the sun had set enough for all the lanterns to light up which made the temple even more stunning ! ✨ It's really hard to show the pure size and beauty of this temple in my pics so you'll just have to trust me! Or take a visit!!

My grab was taking me from one side of the city centre to the other and by this point it was dark which was very good timing for my next bit of sightseeing: Saloma Bridge! I'd seen lots of pics of this bridge and kinda thought 'it can't really look like that' 'it can't really be that cool' BUT IT WAS!!!! Omg it was sick!!! Like everything else so far today: I'm soo glad I went!! Saloma Bridge is a footbridge over a busy road behind the Twin Towers that is covered over the top and it lights up!! It sounds cool but it looks even cooler! When I got there it was greeny blue and as I started taking pictures it slowly changed through colours of the rainbow. When I'd seen pics online it had been lit up with the Malaysian flag but I thought this was maybe just a NYE special or something. Thank god I was wrong! When I was taking pics at the top with the Twin Towers lit up in the back it changed to show the flag and it was soooo cool !!!!! So happy I got to see this! As I was so close I crossed the bridge to go and see the Twin Towers in all their glory again! I was watching people stand in the road trying to get a good pic with the whole length of the towers in the back and really thought 'not them risking their lives for a twin towers pic.' Cut to 5 mins later and I'd asked a stranger to take the same pic of me 😂 I'm sorry I couldn't not take one they are so cool!!! And so is my picture !!!!

My final (kinda) stop of the day was like the cherry on top! I walked to KL Tower so I could go up it and have a view of the whole city lit up at night !! It was a bit of a trek uphill to get to the tower but it was worth it! It cost me £10 and I wasn't mad at this at all ! It was an extra that I guess I didn't really need to do as I had had lots of amazing views over the city and done lots of cool things but I just kinda wanted to! It probably would have been better around sunset on the outside deck so you didn't have glass window reflections but it was still really cool to see everything at night! I could spot all the places I'd visited so far and that was fun! I'm a sucker for a viewpoint and going to the top of tall buildings lol what can I say! On the way back to my hostel I walked via Jalan Alor Food Street just to see what it was like at night and it was SO much better than during the day! It was soo busy with people the atmosphere was great, the lanterns hanging across the street were lit up and there was food everywhere! I even found a restaurant that had a whole page of their menu dedicated to tofu (😍) and they were happy to make meat noodle and rice dishes veggie!!! I had a garlic tofu dish and then veggie mee goreng and it was absolutely amazing!! Again, I'm very very happy I stopped by here on my way back as I got to see the street in all its nighttime glory and have a 10/10 dinner! Starting my day off a little late really didn't matter AT ALL today because I still got to see everything I wanted and it was all so sick at night!! Maybe even better at night!! Super super proud of myself today, I DID IT!!!! A full solo day!! Woop woop! I have an exciting day planned for tomorrow too! Stay tuned blog see ya tomoz xxx

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