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Published: November 13th 2006
Back from the wilderness and straight to Malaysia's capital city, Kuala Lumpur. On arrival we booked into a pretty claustrophobic, but friendly guesthouse in the Chinatown area and to be honest we were feeling a bit like we'd been thrust back into Bangkok, surrounded by hawkers and touts, bombarded by the sound of motorbikes and buses (frequently backfiring!). But as we are begining to discover, first impressions are always misleading when travelling - just two stops away on the LRT (KL's answer to Tokyo's advanced subway system) lies the glittering KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre). Here's the modern heart of KL, skyscrapers and landscaped parks, from which the Petronas Twin Towers rise - Malaysia's 'vision realised' as the promotional video calls it!
As we leant from our visit to the 'skybridge' which connects the two towers, Petronas is the oil company which financed and now occupies the buildings which bear its name. At the bottom lies a spectacular shopping complex which seems to be the place to be for the KL youth, Malaysia's MTV generation. We were so taken with the place we spent two days exploring it! Sadly, the only thing we could afford in the mall was the
food, which was actually pretty amazing - forget your preconceptions of the food in British shopping centres (fast food junk) here we found everything from freshly cooked Teppanyaki to Malaysian curry.
In fact, the KLCC complex is so fast and all incompassing that it also has a medical centre, with a dentist! Joanna had her final appointment to fix her damaged tooth and although it cost the same as five appointments in Thailand, you do get the best view from any dentist's chair, anywhere in the world - looking over Kuala Lumpur's central parkland (and it was still cheaper than England!).
We spent the rest of our time doing Lonley Planet's suggested walking tour - which was more like a chicken run across the eight-lane highways, taking in the amazing colonial buildings of the British administration. We resisted the assult of the Subway and McDonalds adverts, plastered all over the LRT (including a women who came over the loud speaker, to inform you whether there was a McDonalds at the next station!!). Instead treating ourselves to a gormet feast at Hard Rock Cafe, which cost us four times more than our room rate at the guesthouse (hey, still
under twenty pounds!). Unfortunately, we were severly affected by such an enormous meal and we had to stagger home at a pathetic pace, before rolling around in agony with cries of "I feel fat, the nachos did it!" - still we didn't need to eat much the following day!
Oops, I forgot to mention, James did a classic by breaking the guesthouse toilet (ie the cistern completely fell off the wall and water was flying everywhere) and had a major panic about whether to admit to the owner or not. In the end he said 'he found it like that' and someone must have 'broke your toilet'. They fixed it, but we stayed well clear for fear of breaking it again.
After a period of recovery we're now heading for Pangkor island, off the west coast Malaysia for a few days - but we'll be back in KL for more fun soon, stay tuned! Guesthouse owners, beware!
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Sarah Doneghan
non-member comment
How could you resist Subway?
Just found out some devastating news from my James today. Joanna, can you remember PC Greenfield and his whole if you got run over by some large truck speech and he would splat one hand with the other and then take a look and say eugh. Well it transpires that at Blue Coates in Newton Hall they also had the same speil. Aha me thinks you had the same policeman as us. BUT NO!! They had some other policeman. I feel let down, they obviously had some community policeman style training camps possibly with t'shirts saying trainee on the front. Anyway rant over. Looks like more fun from your travels, did you not try to steal millions of pounds from a bank like in that film with Catherine Zeta Jones and Sean Connery? With the only way of escaping bu abseiling down the side of the tall buidings? Would you be able to ask your dad if by any small chance he happens to have a copy of the recorder music for "It was on a starry night" I have insisted we sing it in nativity but the music we have is some sort of jazz flute version of it. Give me time and they'll be singing little donkey. It's only a matter of time before Cheveley kids take over the world