Muddy City

Kuala Lumpur from our hotel room

Sri Mahamariamman temple

And they say that Calgary has urban sprawl... Kuala Lumpur, translated roughly as "muddy estuary" or "muddy city", is immense.  From the LCCT Airport, it was a 45 minute shuttle ride to the downtown bus station in the middle of the night.  Then a taxi ride, mercifully short, at that hour, to our hotel.  It's not the easiest city to navigate, especially for pedestrians, yet Aron ensured we were strategically based out of the Chinatown district, close to the LRT.  We're a hop, skip and a jump from the well-known Petaling Street, with its markets where you can buy everything from DVD's to kitschy souvenirs to fruit (more on that later).  Of course, there is an unending selection of cheap and amazing street food - the confluence of Indian, Chinese & Malay means it's easy to satisfy any craving.  From our hotel room on the 12th floor, we can see the Masjid Negara (the National Mosque), and the impressive Sri Mahamariamman Temple.

A beautiful and unique house of worship, founded in 1873, it's the oldest functioning temple in Malaysia.  The 75 ft. tall Raja Gopuram tower is detailed with 228 colorful sculptures of Hindu gods.  Anytime we look out of our hotel window we see dozens of flip flops scattered at the threshold.  This temple seems to never sleep with a constant procession of people flocking to pray. Garlands of daisies and chrysanthemums are being woven just outside, and devotees buy these along with dipa lights (votive candles) for offerings.  

Petronas Twin Towers

Of course, a visit to KL would not be complete without seeing the Petronas Towers.  The famous twin towers of concrete and glass are 88 stories tall, and even more spectacular in real life than in the movies (remember "Entrapment" with Sean Connery & Catherine Zeta-Jones?). They were designed to represent strength and grace and use geometric principles typified in Islamic architecture.  At the base is Suria KLCC, a posh retail shopping mall, along with the city's Philharmonic Orchestra, an art gallery, and a science center.  Only a limited number of people are permitted to ascend to the Skybridge each day, about halfway up the towers at the 41st floor.  By the time we arrived at noon, we were too late!  Not to be thwarted, we decided to head to the 421 meter high KL Tower and in the end, we figured this was the best way to see the Petronas Towers and the city itself.  We had a 360 degree panoramic view at over 300 meters instead of the two directional 170 meter view we would have had from the Petronas Skybridge.

*********************************************************************

 "...A rich custard highly flavoured with almonds gives the best general idea of it, but there are occasional wafts of flavour that call to mind cream-cheese, onion-sauce, sherry-wine, and other incongruous dishes. Then there is a rich glutinous smoothness in the pulp which nothing else possesses, but which adds to its delicacy. It is neither acid nor sweet nor juicy; yet it wants neither of these qualities, for it is in itself perfect...." 

Durian fruit stand

The above was written in 1856 by British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace in reference to durian.  After all the crazy things we've tried (ok, especially me), it was time to bite the bullet and sample some of this notorious fruit.  Like cilantro, we had heard there is no middle ground; you either adore it or despise it.  What would it smell like?  Taste like?  Would we love it or hate it?  There had been fruit stalls all over Asia, but the fruit was usually sold whole.  Have you ever seen a durian with it's dinosaur-like spikes?  It would be pretty challenging to cut into one with the small pocket knife Aron brought with him.  Then there's the consideration that most hotels don't permit the offensive fruit on their premises.   We found our chance on Petaling Street in Chinatown - there was a guy cutting it up and portioning the edible bits onto square styrofoam dishes.  

chunks of durian

durian in the husk

We braced ourselves as we peeled back the saran wrap and Aron watched as I apprehensively picked up the cream colored hunk of fruit.  (Yeah, I had to go first!)  But where was the overpowering odor, the fetid stench?  I had visions of dry heaving, or possibly even sustaining a whiplash injury induced by blind revulsion.  But.... nothing, really.  An initial onion taste, which inexplicably melts away into a plain custard flavor.  As Mr. Wallace stated many years ago, this is not a sweet fruit, nor is it bitter or sour.  There was a slight gym sock smell that quickly fades and a strange, persistent whiff of alcohol (ever had a carton of apple juice turn into "wine" in the fridge?)  The texture reminded me of softened cream cheese.  The pieces are fairly large, with a pit in the center, and on one end the flesh was a little dried out and more fibrous.  It's possible that the fruit was over ripe, but this was our first try, so we wouldn't really know.  The best part was soft and velvety, almost like whipped butter.   

Yet when you're describing something as being similar to whipped butter, it begs the question:  how many calories?  1 cup of chopped durian weighs in at 357 calories.  Forget the durian - might as well have a small piece of cheesecake!  Aron's verdict in his own words "... I wouldn't go out of my way, but it's not bad."  For myself, I'm mildly interested in trying some of the different varieties, but I wouldn't say I'm an aficionado.  I'd like to taste the cultivar with the turpentine odor and the rich caramel flavor.  Or the red fleshed durian with a perfume of toasted almonds.  A recently created hybrid only develops the odor about three days after the fruit is picked.  This enables odorless transport, yet at the same time, satisfies consumers who have a predilection for the pungent stench.