Last week we had a visit from K. She was in KL on a stopover back to Australia, after her tour of Europe. Her enthusiastic accounts of visits and experiences to many famous sites in Europe inspired us to drag her off to see one of Malaysia’s famed sights-the Blue Mosque. We hopped on a train out to Shah Alam to visit the state mosque of Selangor.
Officially known as the the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Mosque, (its easy to see why it's simply called the Blue Mosque!) it's the second largest mosque in Southeast Asia, crowned by a 51.2m-diameter blue and silver dome sitting majestically at a height of 106.7m above the ground. Here 24 thousand gather to express their faith.
Four minarets rising 142.2m, the second tallest in the world, carry reverberations of the call to prayer for miles around.
Towering columns and archways accentuate the feeling of lightness and openness. Light and silence surge in to fill every corner.
The elevated inner courtyard, held up by pillars and arches, a typical architectural feature of mosques, stand mute in hushed quietness- a space separated from the world outside.
Only the whisper of the winds stir through the corridors. White marble floor and walls, cool to the touch, reflect everything.
The achromatic architecture changes its mood by the moment, finding life in reflections captured. Storm clouds moving in dim and paint the passages grey, glaring bone-bleached white hurts the eyes where sun rays break through, verdant green peeps through the latticework. 
The main prayer hall where only a Muslim may enter, softly lit by sunlight filtered through stained glass.
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