Advertisement
Published: October 7th 2005
Asia's most famous skybridge
It links the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. You wouldn't have guessed, would you?Malaysia’s capital is an important transport hub in Southeast Asia and we had used it several times, mostly to or from Indonesia. Up to now, we have been in
Kuala Lumpur four times, twice only at the airport and twice we stayed in the city. This is mainly due to Asia’s first low-cost airline, Air Asia, which is based in Kuala Lumpur. The airport is very modern, filled with light and convenient, it has only one serious drawback: it is 72 km from the city centre. There is a fast express train to the centre but this is very expensive (RM 65 = EUR 13), for travellers who are not in a big rush, there are slower but much cheaper alternatives. The cheapest way is to take a local bus which stops every few metres, that brings you to the Komuter (=commuter, note the phonetic transcription) train at Nilai station. Both trains lead to KL Sentral, from where you can jump into a local train or taxi, depending on your budget. We chose the middle way, i.e. an airport coach (RM 10 per person) that terminates at Chan Sow Lin station, where we changed to a metro (LRT=Light Rail Transit) running
Petronas Towers
Situated in the core of Kuala Lumpur's Golden Triangle, the famous towers of Malaysia's oil company also harbour a posh shopping mall close to the Pudu Raya bus station, to the east of Chinatown, where we had decided to abide. This bus terminal for overland buses is huge but seems quite well organised at first glance. An incredible amount of AC buses leave every minute, it is not possible to buy tickets on the bus, we had grown rather used to this system and regretted its absence a bit. People with walkie-talkies run around frenetically, communicating with others sitting in tiny stalls selling the tickets. They are meant to coordinate the free seats, when we were heading to Singapore we were happy to find seats very quickly, but the system did not work properly. Twice we had bought tickets, but twice the bus was already full, the free seats probably filled up by the walkie-talkie men on their account. Thus our departure was delayed and we found seats only in a bus leaving almost one hour later.
Kuala Lumpur is a big, bustling modern Asian city, chaotic and organised at the same time. It is relatively easy to get around by public transport though we decided not to make use of the comprehensive bus system, it was simply too difficult to
Menara KL
The top of the communication tower was brightly illuminated in the night fathom. Since we did not live there but stayed only for a couple of days, we decided not to bother. When we used public transport, we mostly chose the metro network consisting of three lines, which is quick, relatively cheap and efficient. The other means of transport we were fond of was the Monorail, brightly painted trains which are easy to spot, as the trains are obviously wider than the guideway. They are gorgeous to look at and almost a tourist attraction but the trains are too small to be a means of mass transport, and furthermore there is no direct connection at the KL Sentral (the last stop is some hundred metres short of the railway station and you have to cross a busy street to get there). We preferred to walk, which sometimes bordered on the impossible, Kuala Lumpur being laid out for motorised vehicles. We had to cross big three-lane arteries, where there was no underpass or pedestrian bridge, and on our way to KL Sentral we once came across a highly frequented exit street, we had to give up and find another way. Whatever way you choose to move around in KL (that’s how everybody calls
Another tower in KL
The city was nicely lit up in the evening and night hours the city), people are extremely helpful, so you needn’t worry if you lose your way. And everybody speaks excellent English, which makes communication really easy.
Both times during our stay in Kuala Lumpur we chose the same guesthouse close to the Pudu Raya bus station, though quiet because situated on a back lane. It certainly was below our normal standard but we wanted to save some money in expensive Malaysia. It was very cheap, only RM 25, but this sort of rooms did not have a private bath. For our convenience we twice were in the same room very close to the toilets and showers which were kept squeaky clean. It was a typical abode that backpackers love, with very friendly and helpful staff, a large entrance hall with a TV and an adjacent computer room with low internet rates and, for the first time on our trip, a kitchen on a nice terrace. This was the feature we loved most about the guesthouse, so we could eat our beloved cereals and fresh fruit every single morning. It gave us a bit of this ‘at home’ feeling that we sometimes miss very much on a long trip.
Unfortunately
KL Monorail
Very cute to look at, but not a means of mass transport yet, as it consist only of two small carriages Stephan developed serious problems with diarrhoea, it was very painful and would not stop in spite of the strong drugs he took. As we later found out, this had only been aggravated by eating milk and dairy products, and he had to do without this sort of breakfast. We were worried about his health, so when we passed a doctor’s practice close to KL Sentral, we stepped in. The doctor was of Chinese origin and had a diploma from an Irish university. One of the first things he did was to measure Stephan’s weight and establish his body mass index (BMI). Stephan was shattered when the doctor declared with a benevolent smile that he should lose five more kilos. After he had already lost 25 kilos on the trip and was so proud of that! We later found out that there is a different BMI for Asian people, namely a lower one. The doctor then prescribed plenty of medicine, but only the quantity Stephan was supposed to take. This is such an intelligent system, why can they not adopt it in Europe as well? It would save so much money to the social security and furthermore avoid medicine being thrown
Petronas Towers panorama
The twin towers are only the most famous building in an area of recent economic development away. The result showed itself within a couple of days and since then
Stephan has had no more digestion problems at all. After carrying out his medical duty, the doctor turned into a real chatterbox, in the end we had stayed in his room for more than an hour, whereas the examination had only taken a couple of minutes. He was not in a hurry, no other patients were waiting, and obviously pleased to talk to foreigners and discuss about Malaysia and Asia. We proclaimed our view of Malaysia as a multi-cultural society (the doctor himself was a good example), where the different ethnicities and religions seemed to live together without major problems.
Another enriching encounter took place in the park close to the Petronas Towers in the heart of the business district, also nicknamed KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Centre). As we love walking in the cities, we always enjoy a refreshing break in a park away from the noise and the exhaustion fumes. This park was brand new like the whole area, where a lot of construction is still going on, and nicely laid out with a huge children’s playground in the centre. When we sat down on
Top of Petronas Towers
They are absolutely fascinating, no doubt a bench in the shade we stroke up a conversation with a businessman of Indian origin sitting close to us. He eagerly took up the talk as he was sweating all over and had to dry before returning to his office. So we chatted about climate, the drawbacks of air condition (he was just experiencing one), KL and Malaysia, business and many other topics. He gave us some interesting tips about Kuala Lumpur and reluctantly left us when he had grown presentable again. From the park we walked to the famous Petronas Towers, which are really a remarkable architectural feat apart from being the headquarters of Malaysia’s petroleum company. The evening was already advanced and this gave us the chance to admire the towers both at daylight and in the dark. You can enter the Petronas Towers without any problems and roam freely in the parts accessible to the public. Inside there is also a concert hall and an exclusive shopping mall, reflecting the business people’s level of income. Around the KLCC spreads Kuala Lumpur’s Golden Triangle, an amusement area with expensive restaurants and bars, which render the business district lively also at night.
From our guesthouse we had
Shopping mall
Situated inside one of the Petronas Towers, quite a luxury place a nice view on another of Kuala Lumpur’s landmarks, the tall communication tower or KL Menara. When we were on our way to it and further on to the Petronas Towers, we came to a densely forested hill and were fascinated by this abundance of nature in the middle of concrete and big streets. How happy we were when we could enter it and found out that it was the Bukit Nanas (‘pineapple hill’) Forest Reserve. All of a sudden we were in the middle of a small piece of rain forest in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, an incredible experience! We walked around taking the longest path possible and enjoyed the green landscape and huge butterflies surrounding us, though we less appreciated the numerous mosquitoes. Not far from the natural reserve Klaudia spotted a flowering tree which displayed huge beautiful blossoms, after long examination she found out that it was the cannonball tree. A species we had for the first time seen in the Singapore zoo, but there it was not blooming. This is Klaudia, everywhere she goes she sees animals or plants that others - Stephan included - simply overlooked.
Once we had used the overland bus
KL cityscape
A well-equipped playground woth more high-rising buildings in the background station to move on from KL, the second time we went by train from the Sentral station. Although Malaysia does not have a very extensive train network, its capital does have a big and modern train station. You can buy everything you want before your departure, the trains run on time and are very comfortable, though more expensive and slower than the bus. This time we planned to cover a considerable distance to the north, so we opted for a night train.
KL is a big city, no doubt, but not an anonymous one. It is bustling and chaotic, otherwise it would not be Asian, but tinged with the Malay sense of discipline (the Malays are the most disciplined Asian people we have met so far). It is modern, but not overly ugly, there are some fine examples of modern architecture, of which the Petronas Towers are only the best-known landmark. It is certainly polluted, but a green place at the same time. It is Malaysia’s capital but also home to a multi-cultural and multi-religious population and many foreign business people. Although we are not very fond of big Asian cities, we liked it a lot and felt at
Modern building
Kuala Lumpur is a modern city, but not an overly ugly one ease there.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.239s; Tpl: 0.027s; cc: 13; qc: 19; dbt: 0.2014s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
