Visiting - Traveling Thru History

Things to Do in Indonesia

Erin — Sat, 23 May 2020 07:34:03 +0000

Looking for things to do on your next trip to Indonesia? Check out the activities recommended by travel bloggers for the best things to do in Indonesia. #TBIN

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Putra Mosque

Erin — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 08:39:40 +0000

Putra Mosque is an beautiful rose-tinted granite modern mosque in Putrajaya that boasts Middle Eastern, Persian, and Malay architectural styles.

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Visiting Kuala Lumpur’s National Mosque

Erin — Tue, 03 May 2016 02:26:59 +0000

HISTORICAL TIDBIT Masjid Negara is what the locals call the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur. This mosque was built in 1965 in honor of Malaysia gaining independence from Great Britain without any bloodshed in 1957. It was originally to be named Masjid Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj in honor of Yang Teramat Mulia Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, who was the Chief Minister of Malaysia during British rule and the first Prime Minister after the Malaysians began ruling themselves, but he declined the honor and instead chose Masjid Negara as the name. OUR VISIT Visiting the National Mosque was a nice experience. I had been a bit nervous about visiting because I wasn’t sure how welcoming they would be to non-Muslims, but it was a needless worry. We’d heard a few unfortunate stories about visiting mosques in Kuala Lumpur, which was the basis of our (my) worry. Our experience was quite lovely one I’m glad we had the opportunity to have. One of the things everyone needs to consider before visiting a mosque is attire. I’d visited a mosque before in a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, but had been given a robe to wear anyways, so I was a little confused about what was appropriate for women to wear. A Muslim friend later told me that pants and shirts have to be loose and not form-fitting, so it’s possible the person who’d given me a robe at Putra Mosque thought either my jeans or shirt were too tight or perhaps they were of a more strict mind and didn’t approve of women wearing pants to a mosque or it could have been that I didn’t have my scarf tied properly around my head. *shrug* This time, though, I avoided that issue entirely by wearing a long skirt, a loose t-shirt, some arm sleeves and a hijab I picked up in Langkawi. Troy wore a dress shirt with his nice pants. When we arrived at the mosque, I was soooooooo happy I’d opted to wear what I did. We arrived shortly after a tour group and were towards the end of a rather long line of visitors to get into the mosque, but a woman who was giving people robes and signing them in came over to us and told us we could go right in. Yay! It was nice to be able to walk right past all the people who had to wait to borrow a robe. There were a limited number of robes, so people were having to wait quite a while until others finished their visit and returned the robes before they could go in. Of the other visitors we saw, most were not dressed appropriately for visiting a mosque, but the greeters did not harass or make disparaging comments to anyone. They just handed the visitors a robe and requested they put it on before entering the mosque. It was a very quick and smooth process. The only delay was due there being more visitors than robes. Of course, before we even got in line, we did the requisite photo in front of the building. While this mosque isn’t as ornate as other mosques around the world, Masjid Negara is quite beautiful. The architecture and design are open and inviting. We really enjoyed wandering the halls and seeing the different areas. It’s interesting to note that this mosque pays homage to the Prophet Muhammad’s home from 7th century Saudi Arabia. The Prophet’s home consisted of a large courtyard surrounded by long rooms supported by columns. Columns are very common in mosques and this one has plenty. Another thing I enjoyed was how peaceful the mosque was and how we were allowed to roam freely in most places. There were a few areas that we weren’t allowed to enter, mainly just the offices and the prayer hall, but for the most part we could wander the halls and the grounds at our leisure. I had partly expected people to be passing out flyers about Islam, but the only flyers we saw were on a table for people to take if they wished. There were docents there to answer questions, but they weren’t pushy. Most just said hello and asked if we had any questions. Another talked to us more and I’ll tell you about that down below. Other mosques we’ve been to have quite a bit of mosaic-work or Islamic verses carved into the walls, but this one doesn’t have any of that. The halls are very open and are designed beautifully, there just isn’t a lot of adornment or excess. But even without the extra frills and ornamentation that is common in Christian churches or other mosques, I think the design, architecture and layout are marvelous. One of the most prominent features of the mosque is the roof, which is green and blue. Originally, the roof was pink concrete, but in 1987 the mosque was renovated and the concrete was replaced with reflective tiles. I think it looks quite nice. The roof was designed to be a 16-pointed star that is over the prayer hall like an umbrella. The ground area in the above picture is called a sahn. It’s part of the overflow area that is normally utilized for Friday prayer services. The fountain (it wasn’t running when we were there 🙁 ) is used for the ritual cleansing, known as ablution. Another interesting feature of the mosque is the tower, or minaret. The minaret is 239.5 feet high and is topped with a folded umbrella. The use of umbrellas in the design is an homage to the tropical area in which they live. Every mosque you visit will have a minaret, though it will be in a different style. The minaret is the tallest part of any mosque and is used to issue the call to prayer. Back in the day the muezzin used to ascend the inner stairs to perform the Adhan (call to prayer), but nowadays it’s more common for a speaker to be mounted near the top of the minaret to issue the call. The main room in the mosque, the prayer room, was absolutely breathtaking. Say whatever you want about Muslims and how they choose to live, but one thing that is indisputable is the beauty of their mosques. Masjid Negara is one of the more plain mosques, but it is still beautiful. The prayer room is just absolutely beautiful. The stained glass, the use of the lighting, the openness of the space. I really enjoyed this room. We weren’t allowed to enter it since it is a sanctified room set aside for Muslims to pray in, but even just looking around at the room is worth the visit. I’m kinda kicking myself for not taking zoomed in pictures because the design on the walls is just beautiful and the stained glass is quite intricate. *sigh* I guess that means I have to go back to Malaysia. When we were waiting in line to get a picture of the prayer room, a man walked over to us and asked if we were Muslims. When we told him we were Christians, he was shocked. Seriously, he did the whole opened-mouth staring thing for a few seconds. He asked what I was doing dressed as a Muslim if I was Christian. We explained to him that we wanted to be respectful of their holy place by wearing what they are required to wear. He shook both our hands and told us he really appreciated our respect. He said most people come to mosques wearing inappropriate clothing and some argue about needing to cover up before coming inside. We didn’t see any of that while we were there, but I don’t doubt it. We saw many people argue about needing to cover up when visiting Buddhist temples. I don’t understand why it’s so hard to respect other cultures, but I won’t get into that here. After thanking us for respecting his religion he went into a long discussion with us about the misinformation about Muslims and what they believe. He explained how Islam is a peaceful religion and then went on to start talking about how the US needs to stop meddling in the Israel and Palestine dispute. Well, he wasn’t really talking to me. He was mostly talking to Troy, so I listened for a few minutes and then wandered around taking pictures. I felt bad ditching Troy like that, but they weren’t even talking to me and Troy thinks that whenever I talk politics with people that an argument is going to begin, so I don’t think he minded too much. Troy has a fairly diplomatic temperament when he wants, so he maintained a neutral and non-committal response to our new friend’s commentary. By the time I wandered back over a few minutes later, the guy and Troy were back to talking about the general misunderstand of Muslims and Islam. We agreed with him because after having lived in a Muslim nation for a year, we have grown to understand that most Muslims are quite nice, peaceful people. After speaking for a few more minutes, we indicated that we needed to be going. We didn’t want to be rude, but we were both kinda hungry since it was about dinnertime. He didn’t seem to mind that we wanted to get going. Earlier he’d told us he was a volunteer who spends his free time at the mosque talking to visitors and answering any questions they had about Islam, so he was probably used to people chatting for a few minutes and then saying goodbye. Before he would let us walk off, though, he requested a picture with us. He said he wanted to show his friends that he had met some Christians who dressed as Muslims to visit a mosque and to prove to his friends that not all Christians hate or fear Islam. And he thanked us again for showing respect to his religion. It was touching how much my wearing a hijab and being dressed appropriately meant to him. It also makes me sad that so many people think Islam is a violent, hate-filled religion. Just because some members of a religion act a certain way does not mean the entire religion is so. If you want to put things into perspective, look at the Westboro Baptists or those Catholic clergymen who hurt children. We all know that not all Baptists agree with the actions of those from the Westboro congregation. We also know that the Catholic church does not teach priests to act as those errant clergymen have been. Since we are willing to give these religions the benefit of the doubt, maybe we should also do so when it comes to those of the Islamic faith. Not all Muslims are bad and to be feared. The actions of a few do not define the whole. Anyways, back to our visit to the mosque. If you want to read more about my opinions on the above subject, check out this post. During our wanderings around the complex, we discovered a pathway that leads a little ways past and behind the mosque. In it we found a beautiful room with headstones. This room is called Makam Pahlawan, or Heroes’ Mausoleum. This is where some of the most prominent leaders and politicians in Malaysia are buried. This section of the mosque complex was started in 1963 and completed in 1965. Like the mosque, the mausoleum is is covered by a star-shaped concrete roof, though this one has 7 points instead of 16. Aside from the space inside, there are several tombs on the grounds surrounding the main mausoleum. We didn’t go see those because it was raining outside. Aside from the beautiful architecture inside the mosque buildings, there are also lovely grounds surrounding it. It was raining almost the entire time we were at the mosque, so we didn’t venture around the grounds very much, but we did see some of it from inside the mosque. When we left the mosque, it was raining quite heavily, as you can see in the picture above. We waited by...

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Visiting the Great Wall of China

Erin — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 00:50:24 +0000

I’ll tell you now, before I get into my post, that this post has a LOT of pictures. I hope you enjoy my journey along the top of the Great Wall of China! To pick up where my last post left off, after we hung up with Kevin we wandered around the Beijing Olympic Stadium for a while. The tour company called us several times, asking if we wanted them to come get us, where we were, what had upset us (haha, that one was funny) and if we could work out a deal. We weren’t about to tell them where we were and we definitely didn’t want to attempt another ride with them, so we just kept waiting on Kevin to call us back. And goofing off. I mean, even if we’re somewhat stranded in the middle of Beijing and a bit stressed out from our day going so crazy, we can still have fun, right? After about an hour Kevin called us and said he’d found someone who could take us to the Great Wall. The price would be 600RMB and there would be no superfluous stops along the way. We were ecstatic to have a ride to the Wall, regardless of the price increase, and quickly went to where he said his friend would meet us. He was there when we got there and within minutes we were on our way. I feel terrible that none of us remember his name, but I think part of it was that we were all so frazzled and stressed about the morning’s events. He was really nice, so I’m sure he will forgive us. From this point on, though, almost everything went just the way we wanted it to. Kevin’s friend was really great. He drove us straight to the Great Wall and chatting with us along the way. He was very nice and very friendly and, most importantly, didn’t try to con us out of any money. After an hour of driving and feeling more relaxed than we had all day, we arrived at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall. While the Great Wall was first begun around 700 BC, the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall was built during the 6th century AD. After a few hundred years it began to crumble and in 1569 this section of the wall was repaired with some parts being entirely rebuilt. On the east lies the Gubeikou section and on the west is the Juyongguan Pass. Of all the sections of the Great Wall, the Mutianyu section is the best-preserved, most unique and had the largest scale of construction, though it is one of the lesser-visited areas. After a quick lunch and figuring out a game plan, we took off to ascend the Great Wall. We’d considered climbing the stairs up to the top, but there are over 4,000 of them. As in-shape as we are, 4,000 steps in a row is a lot and we didn’t want to wear ourselves out before we’d seen anything. What’s the point of using all of our energy getting up the wall and then not having any left to explore it? So, up the chair lift we went and got to see our first view of the Wall. The first thing I noticed about the wall when we got to the top is how level it is not. You’d think the Great Wall would be flat with gentle grades, but it’s really quite steep at some parts. Honestly, by the end of the day I was thinking they should change the name from The Great Wall of China to The Great Staircase of China. Seems more fitting, considering how many steps you have to climb.The entirety of the Great Wall, including branch-offs, spans roughly 13,171 miles. The Mutianyu section is the longest section of the Great Wall and runs about 14 miles in length. No, we did not walk the entire thing. lol. The section we visited is flanked by two “no-tourist” areas, so it is only 1.5 miles in length. But that’s a little misleading because if you take the chairlift up, it deposits you a little over a quarter of a mile from the end. If you want to walk the entire thing, you have to go all the way to the right for about .3 miles and then go the full 1.5 miles the way to the other end. If you choose to go down the tobaggan ride just past the end (the tower just before the wall cuts left and goes straight up), that’s another .06 miles, so in reality you end up doing 1.86 miles if you go from one end to the other. We decided to go back down where we came up, so including the 1.2 mile backtracking, we did about 3 miles overall. It wasn’t too bad. A bit hot, but we had hats and plenty of water, so we were fine. In addition to the main wall, there are various offshoot sections that have not been repaired and are off limits to tourists. Some you can walk down and others you can’t. Someone wanted to make sure the world knew they were here. Vandalism? Or a 6th century version of writing your name in cement?Overall there are 23 watchtowers that dot the top of the Wall. They are spaced roughly 328 feet (100 meters) apart. The interior of the watchtowers seems sparse now, but I imagine there were tables, wall hangings, cots, a warm fire, maybe a rug or two and other bits of comfort for those who had to live here.The neverending stairs of the Great Wall of China. Seriously. There were more stair sections than flat sections on the wall.When I see how dense the forest is around the Wall, it makes me wonder why anyone would want to attack through this area and how people on the wall could see the attackers in the forest. Maybe that’s why this section is the best preserved? It had the fewest number of attackers and therefore the least damage?Getting to the top of the watchtowers isn’t too hard. While it’s possible to walk across the slant to get up there, they’ve blocked that part off so you can only go up via the stairs inside the watchtower.This is Zheng Guan Tai Pass. This layout of three towers, as well as the interior connection of the towers, is something that is only seen at this section of the wall. For some reason, I didn’t get any shots of the actual pass itself, just shots with the pass off to the side. Oh well. It’s not a terrible shot.The hidden red door! We climbed down an area that I don’t think we were supposed to and found this red door. Not sure where it goes, but I thought it was kinda cool. Perhaps it’s a magical door that takes people to Narnia! Now I’m sad we didn’t try to open it. 🙁 One thing I found curious about the wall was the shift and tilt. It would be flat one moment and then sharply angled within a few steps. With as masterful as the Chinese are with their buildings, I’m sure this wasn’t an accident or the result of careless construction. Can’t find anything about it online, so I’m curious about why the level of the wall changes so much.Looking back at where we started. We began at a landing just to the right of where I took this picture and then climbed up to the watchtower at the top of the hill before turning around and coming back towards the opposite end. It’s about .3 miles from this point to the far tower.Far off remnants of fortification branches.One of the interesting facts I learned about the Great Wall is that the Mutianyu section was designed with defensive fortifications on both sides of the wall. The battlements have merlons (crenellated parapets) and arrow loops on both the interior and exterior of the watchtowers and the ramparts.Signal towers dot the mountains near the wall.Seeing the views from the watchtowers, I think I would have been okay with living there.The Mutianyu section of the Great Wall was built mainly with granite instead of the brick, tile, limestone and rammed earth that make up other parts of the wall. This is one of the reasons that it is the best-preserved section of the Wall.This is more of what I had imagined the top of the wall to be like: smooth and flat with sloping curves. Not the mountain of stairs we ended up climbing. Interestingly, the Wall varies between 23-26 feet high and 13-17 feet wide. I had expected it to be tall (which it is), but hadn’t expected it to be so wide. It’s wide enough that two small cars could drive past each other in some parts! Almost to the end! The tower in the upper left corner is where we turned around and went back. We could have gotten down off the wall by that watchtower, but we wanted to go back down by where our driver was waiting for us. Sometimes it felt like the Wall was never going to end. lol The mountains in this area are just beautiful. I would love to go back in the fall and see how fiery the mountains become when the leaves change colors. So close! And this was the end. The last tower of our journey. If we pressed on and went through the tower, we would have ended up at an area where people could ride down to the bottom of the mountain. But that’s not what we wanted to do, so we turned around and trekked back to where we started. With all of our stops for pictures and such, it took us about two and a half hours from the time we got off the chair lifts until we reached this tower. On the way back to the start, we came across this sign. It reads: Founded in 1404, number 14 tower was [a] border command post at that time. Though these tower[s] were in different shapes, such as a broad bedroom in the middle, its circumference was surrounded by corridors–. gyrus shaped is the common feature.” According to Miriam-Webster online, a gyrus is “a convoluted ridge between anatomical grooves”. Anyone want to take a guess at what the sign is trying to say? We also went down to explore this tower. It looked like all the rest of them. lol No clue what this sign means. Google has come up empty.Almost back to the beginning. In the cradle of the mountains you can see a valley with a small village in it. That is Mutianyu Village and before the Wall became a popular tourist destination, this village was struggling. Even though the Mutianyu section is one of the lesser-visited sections, there are enough tourists here each year to keep the village solvent. There’s even a resort there now. I can’t find anything out about this guy, but he is pretty cool. And, of course, while we were there we had to have photos of us at the Wall. This one was at the beginning when we walked to the end closest to where the chair lifts dropped us off. I’m only a little bit sweaty at this point. Gah. I am SOOOOOO glad Troy doesn’t have this awful goatee anymore. The one he has now is trimmed and well-kept. This was about halfway from the end where our first picture was taken to the far peak where we could go no further. As you can see, I’m very VERY sweaty. lol. It was August and very hot with high humidity. We were very happy we had lots of water in our backpacks.Getting up the Wall we rode a chair lift. We could have done that on the way down, but decided it would be so much more fun if we rode the tobagan! I took this video of my ride down the slide. Towards the end you can hear me yell at someone to slow down....

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