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Published: June 16th 2007
KL at night
One of my favourite shots from the trip! Look at the gridlock, even at night! I have some sad news for faithful blog readers. Since my digital camera was broken, I could only bring my film camera on this trip. I was going to get the pictures put on CD when I got them developed, but I forgot, so only 1 roll was put on a CD. So a lot of my stories are picture-less until I get home and show you all my photo albums.
Thursday: The Departure I left for Kuala Lumpur in the late afternoon on Thursday. I was flying on the luxurious Malaysian Airlines where you not only get your own TV set, you get movies and TV shows on demand! So I watched a Bollywood movie which cut out at the intermission and Happy Feet and an episode of Arrested Development. The flight itself was worth the money I'd spent on this trip!
We cabbed it to our hotel in Kuala Lumpur. The airport is actually not in the city but about 2 hours outside of it, so we rode along in the dark. The hotel had been recommended to me by the travel agent at my campus, and it did not disapoint! A Malaysian tourism movie on
the airplane had shown doormen opening doors to a hotel, and I had asked my Mom if they would do that for us. She doubted it, but they did! Almost every time we went through the doors, in fact! Sometimes it pays to be a rich Westerner...
Anyways, Thursday was a write-off since we arrived so late. So we just ate some food in the hotel and went to bed.
Friday: KL Tower and Gods of the World Friday morning we headed off to the KL Tower, which is basically what you'd think it is: a tower in KL. When we arrived we decided to go on a rainforest tour which was starting just a few minutes after our arrival. There is a small area of land just next to the KL Tower which has been preserved in its natural rainforest form, and a very enthusiastic man of Indian decent took us on a very informative and engaging tour of the area. It was an excellent example of Nature-Based Tourism. And the guide was really funny.
After that, we stood outside the tower and watched a free music performance of traditional Malaysian music. Then we headed up
the tower.
KL is a really huge, sprawling city. The view from up top is quite spectacular, and goes on for miles. Far in the distance you can see the moutains and lush tropical environment. And there are quite a few green patches in the city. (Unfortunately there aren't enough green patches to save KL's air - my lungs were coated with soot almost immediately).
After our visit to the Tower, we headed to another part of town where we could really go on a Gods of the World tour. We were dropped off at Masjid Jamek, a 100-year-old mosque. We arrived right in the middle of Friday prayers, which was quite a spectacular sight - hundreds (thousands?) of men gathered in this open concept mosque (no walls, just some columns holding up the roof) and the sound of the Imam singing out his prayers. We decided to head into a couple of shops to wait for prayers to be done. One place we went to was an Indian sari shop which had incredible fabric.
When we went to visit the mosque, we covered our heads as is custom. However, the guy pulled us to the side
and made us put on long robes. This mosque is much more conservative than the ones in Turkey! I don't want to make any negative comments about such a widely-followed religion, but it is incredibly awkward being a woman in a mosque. The men were lounging about, even taking naps in the mosque after prayers. Meanwhile I had to be covered from head to toe and was stared at everywhere I went. We didn't stay too long, it was too hot in those robes and it was incredibly awkward being there.
The next stop was a small Buddhist temple which ran into on our walk. We took a quick stroll through, but it was just a standard temple. We then kept walking to our next destination of Sri Maha Mariamman Hindu Temple (try saying that 10 times fast!) The temple was stunning, and a stark contrast to the mosque where, of course, no holy figures can be depicted. On the contrary, every God you can name was displayed in the Hindu temple. Also in stark contrast to the mosque, we were actually asked to remove clothing (well, our shoes) to enter the temple. After that we were left to
wander alone, without the staring. The temple was just so incredible, I wish I could show pictures! If you're interested, I'm sure a Google search would turn up some pictures.
We kept walking past the temple and found ourselves in Chinatown. It was the usual stall after stall of fake stuff. We did stop to get some freshly squeezed pineapple juice from a fruit stall. At the end of Chinatown was this HUGE gold-coloured shopping centre. Inside was mostly cheap crap, so we left quickly.
We hopped in a cab and headed back to the hotel. A few minutes later we passed by a church. So all within walking distance of eachother, we had 4 of the major world religions. I'd say that's a pretty successful Gods of the World tour!
We ate dinner at a nice Indian place near our hotel. The food was AMAZING and the service top-notch since we were the only ones in the place. I think we were eating earlier than most KL-ians.
Saturday: Giant Gods of the World and KL Parks In the morning, we headed to the Batu Caves, which are these amazing caves turned Hindu Temple. This is
Dafne with the parrots
Those are real! Isn't that cool? stop number 2 for me on my Giant Gods of the World tour, stop number 1 being the giant Buddha near Hong Kong. Next stop: the giant Jesus in Brazil?
The Batu Caves are a little bit outside of the city. When you arrive you are immediately shadowed by a HUGE golden...Hindu God. I'm no theologist or religious studies major, I have no clue who was looking out over KL. But he/she/it was HUGE. Next to the God were a bunch of stairs (272, according to my guide book) to get up to the cave. We climbed the stairs and before us was a HUGE cave. There were monkeys galore, and we had been warned to keep our purses close cause they'll steal them. Inside the cave there were all sorts of Hindu shrines and prayer areas. While the site was spectacular, I was disapointed with the lack of environmental management. Since a natural feature played such a huge role in the attraction, it would be nice if there was better natural area management.
Our cab driver convinced us to stop in at a Pewter factory on our way back to the city. We learned how Pewter products
Uniforms include Hijabs!
I thought that was really cute that they had matching hijabs with their uniforms are manufactured, and got to see the world's largest beer mug. That's right folks, it's in Malaysia. Countries known for their beer (Germany, Canada, Australia, etc.) should be outraged. Especially considering how conservative this country is!
The traffic in KL was TERRIBLE on the way back into town (the traffic in KL was ALWAYS terrible, but this was exceptionally bad). We got sick of it, so we had our cab driver drop us off in a shopping area within walking distance of our hotel. We wandered around an Asian megamall, trying not to get lost. We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant which was really good.
In the afternoon, we went on a tour of KL's parks, including a huge butterfly park, the world's largest covered aviary, an orchid and hibiscuss garden and KL Lake Gardens. Unfortunately, it poured rain for the majority of the afternoon, and we spent over an hour huddled on the porch of a bathroom with a friendly Indian couple and their young daughter.
The butterfly park was bigger than the one I saw in Queensland, but for some reason I wasn't as impressed by it. It felt...less well taken care of. The
Biking...on a tightrope!
I ain't never seen anything like this before! aviary was AMAZING though. We got to see a Parrot show where they did all these amazing tricks, including riding a bike on a tight rope! I also got my picture taken with some parrots on my arms. It was really spectacular, too bad about the weather! The orchid and hibiscus gardens were pretty, and had a nice view of the KL Tower. We didn't spend much time in the Lake Gardens. They would be a nice spot to go if you lived in KL, but really it was just another city park.
We headed back to the random mall and ate dinner at a Japanese place which really wasn't very good. Fukui sushi in Toronto is heaps better.
Sunday: Petronas Towers and the Departure Alright, this blog entry is getting reeeally long so if you're still reading, I'm impressed.
Sunday morning we headed to the Petronas Twin Towers, probably the most recognizable KL icon. The two towers have a bridge linking them together which is a public observatory deck. Only a limited number of tickets are available each day to go up to the deck, and the method of getting a ticket is to get up
Parrot teaches about environmentalism
This parrot picked up pieces of rubbish and put them in a little bin! So cute! early in the morning and stand in a long line. It's a really stupid system, and since we didn't arrive early enough, the only tickets we could get were for after my plane was due to depart from the airport. Which is not good news.
So we went by the mantra "when in KL" and decided to pester and hover around the people working at the tower until we got our way. And if you think it's racist of me to say that Asians like to pester until they get there way, here me out - my Mom witnessed a Malaysian couple pester with the check-in counter in Paris about two HUGE boxes of Parisian cookies. Apparently the couple wanted to bring them back as gifts, and wanted them to be brought on the plane. Of course they were WAY over the limit. But they pestered and PRESTO, they got to bring their cookies.
And you know what? It worked for us too. We go to go up at 10AM with a group of German tourists. Their tour guide had reserved a bunch of tickets (tour guides can book in advance, how unfair is that?) but some people
hadn't shown up. So we got to go up! The view wasn't as good as at the KL Tower, since you were much lower, but it was cool being between the two tall office towers. And the Germans were pretty hilarious.
After that we headed to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and headed to the airport. Our cab driver to the airport was interested in immigrating to Canada, and was asking us how. It was quite funny. My flight was at 5pm, but my Mom's wasn't until midnight. She didn't really want to stay in the city alone, though, so she came to the airport extremely early with me. We said our goodbyes at security, and I headed to my flight back to Perth, getting slightly lost along the way. The KL airport is confusing! BUT I did get to fill out a customer survey form while waiting for my flight, and in thanks I got a free pen and keychain! To remind me of the few hours I spent in the KL airport. Awww...
My plane back to Perth was not nearly as swanky as the first one. NO TVs in front of you! So I had
to watch the one movie that was playing overhead, "Because I Said So", which had a good cast of Dianne Keaton, Mandy Moore, and the mom from the Gilmore Girls - but was absolutely terrible. Like not even laugh at it terrible, just terrible. I think I laughed once, and it was in response to a random sub-character, not due to anything any of the main characters said or did. MAN it was TERRIBLE! I arrived back in Perth where I breathed in the nice, fresh air and put on a sweater (KL was over 30 and humid).
KL was alright, but more than a few days there might seriously impact on your life expectancy. The air is the dirtiest air I have EVER experienced and the gridlock makes Toronto look like a driver's paradise. Even on a Sunday afternoon, the traffic was like Toronto during rush hour. As an amateur urban planner, I have much to say on the matter. But I'll spare you.
On the plus side, KL is incredibly international and multicultural. If you want to go to China, India, and the Middle East, but don't have time to do it all - go to
KL. I actually don't even feel like I've been to Malaysia, KL is so taken over by the Chinese and Indians.
All in all, it was a good weekend.
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