The name of the capital city of Malaysia certainly is exotic, but it is a city of 1.6 million in an urban area of almost 7 million. We stayed in what might be called the “historic downtown area,” but there has been so much renovation and construction, only a small slice of “history” remains. The city wants to be, and is on the way to become, the Islamic banking capital of the world. Tourism also is important and it is the sixth most visited city in the world. The net result is that there are a lot of banks and bank buildings, and even more shopping malls. The “Central Market,” like those in many 3rd World cities, features mostly low-priced food, dry goods, and tourist trinkets. High priced items are in familiar-named stores along the main boulevards. As we found in most of our travels, there is no middle–just rich and poor. The photos in this post are of the city, but not really representative. We only had one full day in town and saw the biggest tourist attractions. Most of Kuala Lumpur looks similar to Hong Kong, New York, and Chicago. But, here and there, rainforest green catches your eye and the outskirts of the city is dense and overgrown jungle.