Christmas and New Year’s Eve for the first time in Kuala Lumpur
It’s the last day of 2019 and this year has flown by! Last year we visited seven countries and the first six countries/islands are already planned for 2020. This means that we have experienced almost everything here in Malaysia for the first time, including Christmas and New Year’s Eve today.
Christmas
This year’s Christmas is very different than we’re used to. Not surrounded by family, food, and gifts, but just the two of us. And in Asia, Christmas looks a bit different than in the Netherlands. First of all, it’s still more than 30 degrees here every day. Everyone walks around in their summer clothes and has to take shelter inside from the sun instead of the rain or cold weather in Europe. So we are not warming up in front of the fireplace, but are sweating in the sun.
Shopping malls
Although not everyone here celebrates Christmas and everything is open, we still got quite well in the Christmas sphere. This was partly due to the decorations in the shopping malls. Some of them are even more elaborate than others. Huge Christmas trees, reindeer, performances of dressed up elves, fake snow (of course) and the Christmas music echoing through the speakers brought us in the Christmas mood.
Netflix
The last thing that helped was that we had already set up the Christmas tree (also fake) on December 1st. Sinterklaas, unfortunately, did not come to Malaysia, so we might as well start with Christmas. With the new Christmas movies on Netflix, we got through this December month without a problem. We had a nice dinner in The Saujana on Christmas Eve and cooked ourselves on Christmas Day. That was quite a job, with a small stove where you can hardly put two pans next to each other.
Holiday
Also, not everyone celebrates Christmas in Malaysia. A large part of the population is Muslim or Chinese. For them, Christmas is a normal day on which they are free. That is an advantage of all holidays that are celebrated in this country. On Christmas Day all shops, restaurants, supermarkets and shopping malls are open.
Chinese New Year
Today we’ll experience a lot of fireworks, at least that’s what we expect. First, we have dinner at Joloko’s and then we take the subway to the center of Kuala Lumpur, KLCC. Roads are closed and it is such a chaos in the city that it is better to take the subway. Also, NYE is not celebrated by everyone in Malaysia. The Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year, which this year falls on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of January.
‘Oliebollen’
We are now going to bake the amazing Dutch ‘oliebollen’ (yes we have Koopmans!) and will let the Malaysians in our apartment complex taste what they have been missing all this time. We count down seven hours earlier than the Netherlands, so to everyone a Happy New Year or how we say it here Selamat tahun Baru!
Christmas and New Year’s Eve for the first time in Kuala Lumpur
It’s the last day of 2019 and this year has flown by! Last year we visited seven countries and the first six countries/islands are already planned for 2020. This means that we have experienced almost everything here in Malaysia for the first time, including Christmas and New Year’s Eve today.
Christmas
This year’s Christmas is very different than we’re used to. Not surrounded by family, food, and gifts, but just the two of us. And in Asia, Christmas looks a bit different than in the Netherlands. First of all, it’s still more than 30 degrees here every day. Everyone walks around in their summer clothes and has to take shelter inside from the sun instead of the rain or cold weather in Europe. So we are not warming up in front of the fireplace, but are sweating in the sun.
Holiday
Also, not everyone celebrates Christmas in Malaysia. A large part of the population is Muslim or Chinese. For them, Christmas is a normal day on which they are free. That is an advantage of all holidays that are celebrated in this country. On Christmas Day all shops, restaurants, supermarkets and shopping malls are open.
Shopping malls
Although not everyone here celebrates Christmas and everything is open, we still got quite well in the Christmas sphere. This was partly due to the decorations in the shopping malls. Some of them are even more elaborate than others. Huge Christmas trees, reindeer, performances of dressed up elves, fake snow (of course) and the Christmas music echoing through the speakers brought us in the Christmas mood.
Netflix
The last thing that helped was that we had already set up the Christmas tree (also fake) on December 1st. Sinterklaas, unfortunately, did not come to Malaysia, so we might as well start with Christmas. With the new Christmas movies on Netflix, we got through this December month without a problem. We had a nice dinner in The Saujana on Christmas Eve and cooked ourselves on Christmas Day. That was quite a job, with a small stove where you can hardly put two pans next to each other.
Chinese New Year
Today we’ll experience a lot of fireworks, at least that’s what we expect. First, we have dinner at Joloko’s and then we take the subway to the center of Kuala Lumpur, KLCC. Roads are closed and it is such a chaos in the city that it is better to take the subway. Also, NYE is not celebrated by everyone in Malaysia. The Chinese celebrate Chinese New Year, which this year falls on the 25th, 26th, and 27th of January.
‘Oliebollen’
We are now going to bake the amazing Dutch ‘oliebollen’ (yes we have Koopmans!) and will let the Malaysians in our apartment complex taste what they have been missing all this time. We count down seven hours earlier than the Netherlands, so to everyone a Happy New Year or how we say it here Selamat tahun Baru!
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