Kuala Lumpur 9 - Sunday Trip to Klang

Sunday we went to Klang, a small town along the railroad line to the port on the coast. Why? Well, when I first started blogging and was checking out random blogs on blogspot, I happened to hit on Josh's blog. (It's also linked on the right under blog friends.) (Ropi, one day we'll make it to Budapest, or you to Alaska.) It was a post where he was in class waiting for his boring stats class to be over. I made some comment about the importance of stat and not to let a bad teacher get in the way. Since then I've checked his blog regularly and we became blog friends. So I emailed him when I realized we were headed to KL and he invited us to visit Klang.


Here's the train ride to Klang. There was a big Indian festival this weekend and I think these folks were coming back from celebrating. The paper today says that over one million people went out to the caves for the festivities.

Well, there's Klang and the Port of Klang. In my mind, he lived at the port. Maybe because that was on the map I looked at to find out where Klang was when we first connected. Then we realized on the train there was also a plain Klang. He said it would take over an hour to get there and it was only about 40 minutes. Should we get out in Klang or go to the port? We stayed on, but then decided to get off at the next stop. Now what? I saw a lady coming into the station talking on her cell phone. So I asked if she could call Josh's number. He said no problem, he'd be by to pick us up shortly. So, this is the lady who lent us her phone. Then we didn't know what to do about the tickets. They were the electronic kind you put into the entrance and exit. We were further than Klang. She laughed and said, "No problem" and showed us that the gate next to the ticket exit wasn't locked and we could just walk through. There was no staff at the station.

vHere is where we waited, under the road bridge that crosses the RR lines. That's the end of the station where we went through the open gate to get out.

oAnd this is the Chinese temple across the street from the exit.

They came to pick us up real quick and took us to a restaurant for the local speciality - Bah Kut Teh. This is Josh and his Mom. He had two friends along too - Mervin (sp?) and XinXin. They had been teaching Sunday school, gone home to change and pick us up. It was sort of strange - the idea that we were meeting this person we knew from the internet, but he said "Your personality is exactly what I expected." I felt the same.

We dropped Josh's mom off at home and then Mervin and Josh took us around to see a bit of Klang. It was sort of strange because about a week after I 'met' Josh online, I met a Philosophy professor at UAA who was also from Klang. So there was a greater meaning to this town.

Josh kept apologizing that there was nothing in Klang to do. That they would go to KL to do things. He was only home for the weekend from school. Both Josh and Mervin are looking to go overseas to school. Mervin probably to Australia - though Canada also calls him. His parents met in Alberta while students there. Josh is hoping to go to the US. Both are interested in journalism and mass communications. So they took us where they would go - to Baskin Robbins.

I asked the server what the most popular flavor was. Jamoca Almond Fudge. So I had that in my cone.

And this certificate guaranteed it was halal.
(you can double click the pictures to enlarge them. This one isn't too clear.)

Here's a very nice housing estate in Klang, near the Sultan's palace.

And here's the Sultan's palace. each of the 14 provinces of Malaysia has a Sultan, I think. I don't know enough to say too much here. But the newspaper the last couple of days has been full of news because the Sultan in Perak has fired the head of the government there and appointed someone else. The first guy says he's still the head since he wasn't voted out with a vote of no confidence. The paper must have had 10 different articles on the topic. I asked one person who just shook her head and said she was embarrassed.


Here we are at the gate to the Sultan's palace. If I understood correctly, he doesn't live here, but they do have ceremonies.

We left from the proper Klang station after a delightful afternoon, meeting in person some interesting people. We had no problem communicating - Josh said English is his first language, then there's Cantonese, and Malaysian. I'd like to put in some links to explain more about Sultans and Klang, but I don't know when they're going to tell us to board. The windows are all fogged up. Don't think it is raining quite so hard any more.