Kuala Lumpur: City of Green
On our way home from Thailand at the beginning of the new year, we decided to embark on a short detour and finally check out Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We had frequented the KL airport on the way to numerous destinations, but had never taken the time to scope out the city. For our short near week of exploration, we stayed in the luxurious Hotel Istana in the downtown part of Malaysia's capital city. It was time to earn our many Malaysian passport stamps. The Hotel Istana's lobby featured a fancy bar area and music each evening. Kuala Lumpur shares a similar colonial past as most other major cities of SE Asia, subjected to British rule well into the 1950's, and also a Japanese occupancy during WW2 like Jakarta. The hotel also featured a very nice courtyard, an excellent place to share our breakfasts together. One of the more delightful architectural achievements to gaze upon in KL are the sky-high Petronas Towers. For six years after their construction i