After a little research in the books we found out, that the Malaysia in the 1st century was the main shipping route between India and China, so the Hindu and Buddhist practices were first introduced. Until the 13th century Malaysia had developed one of the biggest harbors for trades between the far East and Europe. Ships from all over the world had to stay there for sometimes several months on the docks while waiting for the Monsoon winds to change, so they could continue sailing.

The Malay peninsula became so important for the traders that Portuguese conquerors took it over in the 16th century. And then the Dutch. And then the British. And then the Japanese. And then the British again. And then finally after 12 years of emergency (civil war) because of the large number of immigrated Chinese, Malaysia is a peaceful federation since 1960, built as an institutional monarchy. Today Malaysia is a safe and inviting place for many travelers from all over the world.

When we arrived we found a nice hotel close to a city district, where most of the people have their roots in India - hence its name: "The Little India". It is in walking distance from a small forest, in which the Tower of Kuala Lumpur is located. High up over the roofs of the city our guide (an MP3 player that was handed out down at the reception) gave us a 45 minute introduction to the city - a very nice starting point for the unprepared visitor :-)

Our top 3 activities in this city were definitely shopping, sight seeing and eating.

About the shopping: In Malaysia especially the electronic equipment is remarkably cheap. A lot of big brands are available for half (or even less) of their prices in Europe. So it came that we were looking for mobile phones. But while checking out the different models we spotted a shop fully stuffed with Nikon photo equipment - also for half price. And so it came that I ended up (after a sleepless night thinking about it) buying the photo camera I have been talking about for the last 18 months. My dream camera: The Nikon D-100. Digital SLR, 6 mega pixels, CF-II cards, support for all lenses of my old analogue Nikon F-60 (I know, I am a geek...). A really nice camera, but my heart was bleeding! But I knew that if I would not have bought it now, I would have regretted it until the end of my days.

About the sight seeing: Along the big parks and besides the numberless temples, mosques and churches developed an eye for the local modern architecture. The local architects love to build high up to the sky, and then use a lot of space around the buildings for green area. A lot of care is always taken about how the buildings look. There is for example a high building which aims to look like a bamboo shoot, while another one looks like a giant mosque. The state theater reminds a little bit of the opera house in Sidney. But what fascinated me were the Petronas Towers (Twin Towers). These are currently with a height of 490 meters the worlds tallest buildings. At floor 41 there is a bridge (Sky Bridge) which connects the two buildings in a height of around 230 meters. On this bridge you can go up (no admission) and once again enjoy the nice view. Quite impressive, these two towers!

About the eating: As mentioned earlier, Kuala Lumpur is a place where many cultures meet. And this is not least visible in the broad variety of available restaurants. These restaurants serve very authenti c high quality meals. Seeing all these different restaurants, we had almost no time to try the original Malaysian cuisine. But being honest, after one month traveling in Asia we welcomed the tastes from more west oriented cultures :-) We were especially impressed by one Italian and one Lebanese restaurant.

Facit: Kuala Lumpur is definitely worth a trip, if you are in the area. If you intend to buy expensive electronics, buy it here. The money you save then already pays for the flight.