While we were in KL we took a couple trips just outside of the city to Selangor, Malaysia’s most populous state. To be fair, it completely surrounds Kuala Lumpur. Now, KL is its own state, but had previously been a part of Selangor. We scheduled a tour to visit a few places that looked interesting; stopping at a couple spots and then taking a boat trip to see the “blue tears,” eagle feeding, and the fireflies.
Our first stop was the Sri Shakti Dhevasthanam Bukit Rotan Hindu Temple. It is devoted to the Goddess Shakti, the divine female energy. While it was very cool from the outside, it was closed for remodeling, so we could not visit the inside. We walked around it, and really appreciated the detail and the peach/tan and grey color, especially when many of the Hindu temples we have seen are quite colorful. Though I was bit by some mosquitos when traversing the tall grass around the temple complex.
Next stop was the the Bukit Melawati, or Melawati Hill, which is a hilltop with nice views of the Strait of Malacca. There is also a lighthouse, an old fort, a tram (that we didn’t take as we drove to the top) and a museum. We took in the views and the lighthouse first.
The most popular spot here for tourists are the silvered leaf monkeys. Jessica is not a huge fan of monkeys, and I am indifferent, so we didn’t feed them, but there were a lot of people who did. These monkeys were not really aggressive and their orange babies were cute.
We wanted to eat dinner as it was dinnertime and hoped there would be time before the boat trip. We arrived early at the dock, but the dock restaurant was closed. So no food (which was probably better as we were on the boat for a while).
Instead of eating walked around the Penambang Wan Fo Shih Chinese Buddist Temple located next to the dock. It was quite colorful.
The Monkey God Temple was certainly something new.
We are always glad to see a Guanyin Bodhisattva statue.
Finally it was boat time; we were on a small boat that could seat about 20 people, with 12 or so temporary companions. Once we put on our (smelly) life jackets we were off, speeding down the Selangor River, out toward the Straits of Malacca (Melaka). First was the eagle feeding, where the ship captain threw some chum in the water, and it brought hundreds of birds, including many eagles. There were a few other boats out there watching this as well, as its the popular thing to do.
We stayed out until nearly sunset, and it was very cool to be out on the water.
We returned to the dock, dropped off some people and picked up some; then we were off to see the fireflies, which are lighting bugs that come out after dark, found in great numbers in the mangrove trees along the river. We were joined by a group of ten women from China, and hearing them “ooh” and aahh” was more fun than seeing the fireflies after a while.
We returned to the dock and they left and a couple families boarded, and we went to see the “blue tears,” which are bioluminescent fish. We were given a fishing net and tried to catch them as the boat raced back out toward open water. It wasn’t the best time of year for them, so we only saw a handful, but my favorite part was, once we reached the open water, sitting on the front part of the boat and taking in the stars and quiet. We returned for the final time to dock and finished the boat trip. The Guanyin Bodhisattva and Temple Gate were all lit up in the evening.
The drive back to Kuala Lumpur was about 45 minutes and when we returned, we ate snacks for dinner as we were starving. It was not the best tour we had been on, as a night tour should have the option for dinner we thought and the fireflies and blue tears were underwhelming. We also had told the driver that we weren’t interested in seeing monkeys, and the first temple was closed. Overall, it was more money than we wanted to spend for the experience we had, and not all tours can be winners. We still had fun as being on a boat on a lake was something we missed. So, we decided to try Selangor again, and went to visit the capital, Klang, on a different day.
We took a Grab taxi to Klang, and the 45 minute trip was made much more enjoyable by our driver being a Chinese Malaysian man who we were able to ask questions and he told us a lot about KL and Malaysia life in general. He also had a good sense of humor, so we did a lot of laughing on the ride. In no time we arrived at the Kwan Yin (or Guanyin) Buddhist Temple, dating back to 1892. The beautiful complex had multiple shrines and temples and the sun was shining, so fun to explore. There were many Guanyin Bodhisattva statues and shrines, and also some of the folk deities too.
The detail on the below roof top figure amazed me, as there is so much that is easy to miss.
Directly next door was the Justice of Bao Temple. Bao was a Chinese civil servant during the Song Dynasty in the 11th century, known for fairness and honesty. The temple was quite new and had no visitors except us when we entered the main temple.
All the deities and their altars were so bright and beautiful, with the backgrounds carved out of wood. We even saw a small shrine devoted to a Datuk Gong, or ancestor, across from the main temple, near the entrance.
We then took a Grab taxi into Klang proper and visited the Sultan Abdul Aziz Royal Gallery, which was devoted to the former Sultan of Selangor. His son, the current Sultan, built it for his father. We learned that every state has a Sultan, and they rotate being the head Sultan of Malaysia, which is an honorary title without governing responsibilities.
Inside the historic building built in 1909, were many of the gifts the Sultan had been given, including Japanese shogun helmets, furniture, paintings, bird cages, clocks and even an elephant foot!
Directly across the street from the museum was the Laman Seni Safari, which was a pedestrian street where the walls were painted with animals. Jessica quite enjoyed it, as you can see.
We found an art cafe to eat lunch that had a shop with handmade crafts, and after walked a few more streets in Klang to view more street art.
We could tell the sky above was getting ready for rain, as it usually rained in the afternoon, so we headed toward the Klang train station, with the current station house dating back to 1890 (and the trains had been running through Klang since 1875).
We had checked googlemaps and saw the train took about an hour or so to reach KL Sentral, the Kuala Lumpur main train station. We went inside looking to buy tickets, but the ticket agent told us the next train wouldn’t be for five hours. It was a Saturday, so perhaps it ran different hours? Still, we were confused. As we left the train station, preparing to book a Grab taxi back to our rental, a young man asked us, in good English, if the train was leaving soon. We told him what we were told, but he went and asked to confirm (which is fair, we would have done the same).
When he came back outside, we asked where he was from, and he said Spain! He seemed harmless, and we offered to give him a ride back to KL in our taxi. He accepted, and we learned his name was Miguel (he looked like McLovin from Superbad) and he was a school teacher. He was attending a wedding for a Malaysian college classmate and the wedding had ended earlier than expected, so he was heading back to KL. We wound up talking for the whole hour ride as it downpoured, about Spain and school teaching and all kinds of topics. Once we arrived back in KL we said goodbye to Miguel, happy that we made the trip out to Selangor to have another adventure, where we never know what we may see or who we may meet and share time with.
