The first stop in Malaysia was Kuala Lumpur (known locally as KL) – the capital and biggest city – population about 1.8 million.

Petronas Towers. From 1998 to 2004 they were the tallest buildings in the world. 88 floors.

Here’s our tour guide. She prefers being a tour guide rather than her law career. She’s Muslim, like all Malays, but opts to not wear a hijab and settles for a lesser place in the Muslim hierarchy. Lots of good info on the culture and history.

Here’s the current 2nd tallest building in the world – recently completed and still not occupied with nobody currently moving in because its Ramadan so no action.

Here’s some of the KL buildings.

The National Mosque of Malaysia – capacity for 15,000

And the Malaysian flag flying in Independence Square

The Museum tour was very interesting. The colonial history sequence has the Portuguese in control from about 1510 until the Dutch got control in 1641 for the next 100 years or so. Then it was the British from about 1755 until the Japanese took over in WW2 and did some ugly things like killing a bunch of Chinese schoolkids. Then back to the British until Malaysian independence in 1957. They had a communist insurgency problem from 1968 until 1989 but apparently have that under control now.

An interesting feature to their government is that they have a ruling monarch on a rotating basis with 5-year terms for each of the 8 sultans in the country.

Lots of big buildings in KL

Next stop was at Langkawi – an island on the north portion of the Malaysian west coast. Apparently this local eagle is special for them – similar to a bald eagle but not quite the same. We saw some cruising around our ship.

Our excursion included a visit to some demo rice paddies with a rice museum and a demonstration of rice and coconut shucking.

Needless to say – hard work. After one month, they pick up the rice by the roots and plant it in a drier paddy for the final few months of growing.

They get the husk off the coconut in short order – about five swipes on this fixed blade.

Nice “marina” near our dock.

Here’s a parting shot from Langkawi and sunset while en route to George Town.

George Town is on the island of Penang and is the 2nd biggest city in Malaysia – population about 220,000. Once a colonial trading hub established by the British. Recent years have made it the “Silicon Valley” of SE Asia. Intel has about 100,000 employees in the neighborhood in about 10 factories making chips in the area. Many other high-tech companies there as well.

The old part of town has been preserved and warrants UNESCO credits.

The shops sell the durian fruit which is very “stinky” and disallowed in some establishments.

A big Buddhist Temple complex up on the hills behind town. I think he said the biggest in SE Asia – surprisingly big for an Islamist country.

And here’s an everyday corner Chinese Temple.

Another UNESCO heritage site is this collection of Clan Jetty’s that are wooden stilt houses built by Chinese immigrants over the water for housing and shops. 19th century action.

Penang Island is connected to the mainland by an 8-mile bridge.

Next stop is Phuket, Thailand which is just north of Malaysia. From a Muslim country to a Buddhist country.

We were anchored off of Patong Beach (pic below) which bustles with action and night life. The next beach to the south, Karon Beach, seems a bit more relaxed for a return visit from folks like us.

Our excursion took us to the south end of the island where they have a Buddha shrine, protected by elephants, at the top of the view hill.

Next stop was a big Buddhist Temple complex. Several buildings, lots of places to worship or whatever. Impressive.

Final stop was at a cashew nut “factory”. Here’s what the nut looks like on the tree. The nut is tucked inside this fruitlike structure.

Then some serious manual labor to get the nut out of the shell. The two baskets separate the whole nuts (like we buy) from the busted up ones that have a different market.

And now we’re off to Sri Lanka and Cochin, India which is a few sea days away and will make the next page. Cheers!