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Published: November 15th 2006
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For the past few days we've been residing in Kuala Lumpur. We caught a flight to KL from Chiang Mai with Air Asia. Air Asia, reputedly the Ryanair of Asia, offered an impressive service but also with a sense of humour. One of the air stewards, hilariously tried to flog off the tasty onboard meals. We were politely offered umbrellas, to protect us from the welcoming rain, as we walked to the terminal. Hope Michael O'Leary is taking note. Our air coach was very modern as we boomed along the 4 lane express highways. Malaysia is the most modern country we've visited in Asia and the transport facilities are excellent. Easy access is aided by modern trains, monorails and state of the art train-stations.
It's difficult for me to describe our feelings for the city, maybe it's indifferent. We won't be sorry to move on. Fabulous sky scrapers tower above delapidated buildings and the streets are quite dirty, Amy spotted a few rats amongst the rubbish. The roads are full of brimming traffic and there are few pedestrains crossings. The pollution makes your eyes water and your throat hurt. We've spent alot of time in shopping malls escaping the humidity
Kenny Rogers Country Food (Especially for Sheila)
There is a story...we recently read Julian Clarys book and in it he says he interviewed Kenny Roger and asked him if he knew what Kenny "rogers" roosters means in the UK? I wonder did the question inspire a slight name change to Roasters? and enjoying basking in the cool air-con. Hence the title, we go from sweltering and sweating while outdoors to freezing when inside. So, I guess the city is lacking a certain charm for Amy and I.
The Malaysian population is a mixture of different cultures. Throughout Kuala Lumpur you can see the influence of many different cultures from India, China and European. The Malaysians are very helpful if a little abrupt, often asking you what country you're from but smiling and happy none the less. In fact, taxi drivers aside, they are the most friendly and helpful people we have come across on our travels. The vast majority of Malaysians are Islamic. Malayisa is the first Islamic country we've visited on this trip. They have strict laws in relation to alchohol and many women are covered with head scarves limiting the flesh exposure factor. It's amusing for Amy and I to see travellers and westerners walking around in mini skirts and boob tubes but maybe not for the locals.
We stayed in a hostel near Chinatown for the first three days before we moved out to a quieter area. We got sick of the fire alarm mistakenly going
off in the middle of the night. We checked out a few places in the guide book but they turned out to be slums. Sometimes you wonder why certain places are recommended. The quality of accomodation in Kuala Lumpur, is less value for money compared to the rest of countries we have visited, so we're hoping the rest of Malaysia will be kinder on the pocket. The shopping malls have proved to be the best means of grabbing a cheap meal with a wide variety of cusine on offer.
On our second day we decided to see the Petronas Towers, one of the tallest buildings in the world. You're only allowed access to the skybridge linking the two towers on the 41st floor which was enough for me with my fondness to heights. The view is fantastic, if you want further extremity the Kuala Lumpur Tower allows you to the summit. The only drawback with Petronas is that there is a funny queuing policy. We started queuing up at 9 o' clock and ended up with a view time for 4.15. Our afternoon was spoilt with our visit to the Philippines embassy who quite rightly wouldn't allow us access
due to our dress sense. Our shorts and tank tops had to be exchanged for slacks, shoes and t-shirts. We cheered ourselves up with discovering cheap local food in the big malls. You can get various sorts of tasty and cheap cuisine in the many malls dotted around the city. Our meal the previous night in the lively China town was disappointing, touristy and expensive. We found Chinatown a little bit false trying to suit western tastes, we noticed that mostly westernes ate here which begs the question where do the local Chinese eat.
The next morning we went sightseeing checking out Merdeka square, the railway station and the national mosque. Amy had to cover up with a head scarf and was glad when our tour was finished. It must be really hard on the local Islam women to remain cool as the humidity is quite intense. We finished the day with a trip to the local Planatarium which was great fun. The best bit, the gravity cabin. We were like like two drunkards trying to walk a straight line as we staggered about.
On Monday we visited the Batu caves situated outside the city. They were magnificent
due to their vast size. The most memorable part was trying to avoid the monkeys jumping on top of you as you climbed the steps. There were loads of them and they kept appearing from nowhere. Since an incident which invloved a large male monkey in India baring his teeth, we have tried to avoid the criters at all costs. We sought comfort in a coffee afterwards only to be harrassed by an Indian fortune-teller. In general it was like a day back in India!
Today we checked out of the nice hotel to return to basic accomadation, ah well it had to end. We went to the Petronsains centre which is an educational science centre. It was really good fun as well as been educational. Amy whipped me in the goal-keeper simulator and the reflex game and also more surprsingly, at the stress game (hard to believe I could be more stressed than her???). I tried the soccer ball game where they tested to see how hard you can kick a football. I only managed 53km/hr. David Beckham holds the record with 150km/hr, I must be getting soft.
So goodbye Kuala Lumpur, hello seaside. It has been
nearly two months since we have been on a beach...hooray!
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