Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia VI

This was my first time to a Hindu temple. People were generally quite welcoming at Hindu temples throughout Kuala Lumpur. The same cannot be said for mosques. On several occasions, I was barked at by angry men at the front gates about what to do and not to do. By the end of my trip, I found myself replying to these "gatekeepers" in elementary school French or Japanese. They were clueless and waived me through. The goal of these men -- yes, I stress the men part here -- was clearly to intimidate foreigners. Congratulations on your success!

Outside each Hindu temple, stalls sold fresh flowers wrapped with twine to form colorful necklaces. These weren't for humans to wear, however. People would buy them and place on statues inside the temple.

Having come this far in my tour, I realized you, the reader, may not know about the ethnic make-up of Malaysia. Indians and Chinese arrived here during the British colonial era, pre-World World II. They were used initially for hard labor. Upon the formation of the Malaysian Republic, all ethnicities were eligible for citizenship. What distinguishes Malaysia from its multicultural neighbors -- Singapore and Indonesia -- is that non-Malay children learn their mother tongue at home and school first, and Bahasa Melayu as a second language. Usually, this is a southern Chinese dialect for the Chinese (Hokkien, Cantonese, or Hakka), and usually Tamil for Indians. As a second or third language, people learn English. Language-specific schools for the Chinese and Indians dot the landscape in Malaysia. Finally, non-Malays were not forced to take Malaysian names, as was the case in Indonesia. I will write more about this mix of cultures and people when relevant later.