The Chinese New Year celebrations continue to haunt us. From the time we moved out of Singapore – first to Malacca, then in Kuala Lumpur, now in Ipoh – most everything has been closed. It’s getting better; yesterday it seemed as though maybe 60 percent of stuff was open, but it’s been a challenge finding interesting stuff when things are shut up tight.

We went to a bird park in KL where there were lots and lots of peacocks and other beautiful birds. For me, though, this Scarlet Ibis stole the show.

We spent three days in Kuala Lumpur (known to all as KL), the capital of Malaysia. We stayed at a nice hotel with a great view of the Petronas Towers, from 1998 to 2004 the tallest buildings in the world (and still the tallest twin towers in the world). And then for some seemingly random reason we got upgraded to the “Club Floor” or whatever it’s called, where you can get free drinks in the early evening with even better views of the Towers. But while we loved the hotel, the city was a little hard to enjoy with so much stuff closed.

From there we moved up further to Ipoh where, contrary to legend, Steve Jobs did not invent and name the first iPod. Supposed to be a great old colonial town with great food … but a little hard to tell when most things were closed. We couldn’t quite figure out why people say it’s such a good place to stop for a while.

So today we’re moving further north to George Town on Panang island. This should be the highlight of our Malaysian trip; a UNESCO World Heritage Site, cultural center, and most things are opening back up. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, here are some pictures of KL and Ipoh, all courtesy of John P. Sullivan. When you’re traveling with an expert, no need to take your own pictures! Sadly, though, there are no pictures of Lidd’s pork knuckle that made up dinner last night. I mean, when you’re in Malaysia you should always go to an Irish Pub that serves German food, right? That’s what we did, but we forgot to memorialize it. Sad.

The architectural highlight of KL is the Petronas Towers. Designed by César Pelli to reflect Islamic art, they’re stunning. This was the view from the lounge at the hotel.

As evening rolled in, the sky changed and the towers changed. Amazing.

Lots of street food in KL

…and more street food

And lots of colorful nightlife in one neighborhood. I know this doesn’t look as though everything was shut down but take my word – this was the exception, not the rule.

This is a memorial in Ipoh to the first British resident. The amusing thing is that the British built it with 44 historic figures, like Shakespeare, Moses, and Mohammad. When the Malaysians got independence, though, they whited out the picture of Mohammad, since you’re not supposed to draw pictures of him! You can see over on the left side the now-blank space where he had been.

John and I took a walk in the afternoon heat along a small river in Ipoh. To our surprise and delight, it was a pretty little park along the river.

Flash alert! John just posted a picture of Lidd and his pork knuckle. Here it is!

Lidd and the famous pork knuckle!

The Sullivans along the river walk in Malacca

The first stop on our 10-day Malaysian extravaganza with Mark’s Dad & brother was Malacca City, capital of Malacca Province, right on the historic Straits of Malacca. For many centuries and right up to the current time, the Straits of Malacca, separating the Malay Peninsula from Indonesia’s Sumatra, has been among the most important waterways in the world; going through the Straits cuts hundreds of miles off the distance between India or the Middle East to China & Japan.

During the Age of Discovery all the European colonial powers fought over control of the region. Malacca was first colonized by the Portuguese in 1511, who lost it to the Dutch in 1641. The Dutch, who were more interested in their colony centered in Jakarta, traded it to the British in 1824 who then ruled until Malaysian independence in 1946. That melange of colonialism shows up in a variety of ways – the food, the architecture, the language, and more, I’m certain. Just last night, for instance, we ate at a great Portuguese restaurant, pretty unexpected after our three-plus months in Southeast Asia so far.

One of the first things you notice are these crazy trishaws – bicycles attached to carts for schlepping tourists around. Not only are they decorated with zillions of flowers and major lights, but at night at least they’re blasting out pop music. We’re walkers, though, and never tried them out.

How can you not love a city where you notice a small car that’s *really* pink? We started to take a picture and noticed the driver was sitting there. Then he hopped out and I saw he was wearing a pink shirt and pink shoes, and that the upholstery in the car was pink, too. My new best friend!

Just six years ago UNESCO named the historic city center a World Heritage Site; tourism is booming and it’s easy to understand why. We found great food, interesting buildings, a great little Chinatown, a beautiful little river walk, and the most unusual trishaws we’ve ever seen. The only downside was that we were there over celebrations for Chinese New Years and as a result a lot of the city – or at least the central part of the city where tourists like us hang out – was closed. Not all, certainly, but apparently a lot of people were home celebrating with family instead of serving us, as they should have been. Someday I’d love to go back when everything is open and people are out and about.

Buildings along the river walk have all been painted and highly decorated.

Chinese New Years is a colorful event

Art on a wall in the city reminding us it’s now the Year of the Horse

Mark was pretty happy riding an elephant statue

Sadly, though, we have no photos of the Straits. I walked down there our first day, and ran along the water’s edge a couple times, but basically the view is really pretty boring, just unattractive rocks and industrial wasteland. Too bad, since I was hoping for some great historic revelation.

Malaysia is a Moslem country, and a lot of places neither serve nor sell liquor. This place found a reasonable solution – I can buy it, but the locals can’t.

Lidd obviously doesn’t look Moslem

And one more picture of the crazy, colorful trishaws