Tourism 101.1 -- Kuala Lumpur -- Travelin' Dog

"The sun shines
People forget
The spray flies as the speedboat glides
People forget
Forget they're hiding
The girls smile
People forget
The snow packs as the skier tracks
People forget
Forget they're hiding.

Behind an eminence front
Eminence front - It's a put-on.
It’s an eminence front
It’s an eminence front - It’s a put-on"

Peter Townshend used to introduce The Who song, Eminence Front in live performances with the words, "this song is about what happens when you take too much white powder." wiki_it

I'd like to think the rock-n-rollers of the world, (and me, too), have grown up a bit since this song was released 1981. Besides, I never did anything like that, especially when I was 23! Ski tracks...sheeesh...

You ask, what does a 25 year old Who song have to do with a trip to Kuala Lumpur?...not much, really, but it did make it as a single to #68 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982!

Kuala Lumpur...KL...the political, geographic and cultural heart of diverse Malaysia...the center of SE Asia's Muslim world...a truly great city with world class architecture, amazing parks, progressive public transportation, tasty food, cheap luxury hotels, and cool graffiti...just the ticket for a travel adventure we will call Tourism 101.1.

KL is...a mosaic of many peoples...Malay, Chinese, South Asian, Thai, farang! Duang really liked the fact that many people spoke English...a keen and insightful observation from a person who mainly speaks paasa Thai!

KL is...a laboratory of good city planning with vertical living, linked public transit, incredible architecture, trash filled back alleys, and broken sidewalks! An interesting exercise in fast-moving urban redevelopment...just like most cities in SE Asia!

KL is...the Petronas Towers...a big, big monument to corporate excess!

Petronas is...88 floors towers of reinforced concrete, steel, and glass..."designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art, a reflection of Malaysia's Muslim religion."

Tower tenants include a laundry list of corporate giants: Petronas Oil, Accenture, Al Jazeera English, Bloomberg, Boeing, IBM, Khazanah Nasional Berhad, McKinsey & Co, Krawler Networks (?), Microsoft, Newfield Exploration and Reuters...and or course, there's a Starbuck's or three somewhere in there! For more info see: wiki_petronas

Here's a rather deep quote by the Tower's main architect, Cesar Pelli:

"According to Lao Tse, the reality of a hollow object is in the void and not in the walls that define

Sometimes it rains...
in the Tropics!

it. He was speaking, of course, of spiritual realities. These are the realities also of the Petronas Towers. The power of the void is increased and made more explicit by the pedestrian bridge that ... with its supporting structure creates a portal to the sky ... a door to the infinite."

Just for you Petronas Tower fetish types out there in cyber world, I've included this link:great_buildings_petronas

OK, OK, OK...as you can possibly tell, I like the buildings a lot. So much so that we stayed at a swanky hotel right across the way just for the view! I took about 500 pictures! They sure are attention hogs, and I love great buildings, but alas, Tourism 101.1 waits for nothing....we move on....

One aspect of traveling south toward the Equator this time of year is the increase in heat and humidity...April and May are summertime and it rains quite a bit.

Put it this way...if you like the feeling of a steam bath, you will enjoy KL in late March...just bring a lot of fresh shirts and an umbrella! Tropical humidity is an acquired taste, but it does beat 1 degree Celsius in Seattle right about now!

Or possibly, just do like one European tourist we saw, take off your clothes and lay down on the pathway in the park! Nothing like a half naked woman out in public in the heart of Muslim SE Asia! I bet she is proud of her tan (and tattoo), though,..."and I got it in KL....!

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More fun assignments completed for Tourism 101.1:

...sampling bitter Malaysian tea with a local tout (yeech!) Supposedly good for virility!

...a visit to Chinatown for a good lunch and bad Jello...I should have known better!

...a trip up the big Menara KL Tower to survey the view of KL from 335 meters...wow! (link: wiki_kl_tower)

...Duang shopping for (and buying) cheap (but practical) shoes...9 ringit buys a lot!

...inspecting city planning graffiti along the concrete river channel...they must have a lot of unemployed city planners!

...checking out the fine work of local architects (or possibly consultants from other places?)...these guys are great!

...riding the commuter train around town...beats haggling with the taxi drivers!

...Dog not shopping due to a very weak US Dollar...thank you George & Dick...'nough said!

...excellent room service at the hotel and dining with a view of the Towers...local delicacies, too!

...not meeting any local dogs...never even saw one? hmmmph...where do they hang?

All in all, a fun-filled, action-packed, first field trip for Tourism 101.1! I believe we both got "A's"

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I highly recommend a trip to Kl with eyes wide open! You might surprise yourself with what you find!

What's next up on the travel syllabus?

Tourism 101.2: Field Trip to Singapore!

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