A Weekend in KL

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Malaysia has a goal to be a first world nation by 2020; and one look at its capital, Kuala Lumpur and you will see it is well on the way. Kuala Lumpur is different to any Asian city I have even been to.

I stayed at the Maytower Hotel, in the city, and it took me an hour and a half to get there from the airport. A shuttle from the airport is about half the price of cab, but both are inexpensive and it is probably easier to get a cab, as the shuttle ride seems to take forever. It doesn’t help that airports don’t get much further away from the city than in Kuala Lumpur.

The Maytree was a lovely hotel, located in the Little India part of town; it was a high rise with a fantastic view of the Kuala Lumpur skyline. Apparently HI5 had stayed at the same hotel a week earlier. Malaysia is an Islamic country, and I was there during Ramadan so each morning there was a buffet in the restaurant before sunrise.

The Petronas Towers dominate the skyline and are the image people have of Kuala Lumpur. From completion in 1998 until the Taipei 101 was finished in 2004, they were the tallest buildings in the world. The iconic skybridge, still the highest in the world, in between the 41st and 42nd floor is a sightseeing must and is free to visit. It does however only allow a limited number of people on per day so you are advised to get there well before opening or you will miss out on a spot. It was before sunrise when we woke and walked to the towers, which took about half and hour, and stood in line.

We stood there for two hours, from 7.00am and were able to secure a spot on the second viewing, which was at 9.15am. You have to go through security checks before watching a ten-minute video on the towers. You then get elevated up to the skybridge and have ten minutes to look around. This will give your camera a work out.

After viewing we went down the bottom of the towers where they have a department store, Suria KLCC, and restaurants. We had breakfast and I sat there constantly amazed at how modern Kuala Lumpur was. It was, I felt, very Western, and living here would be easy.

We got a cab to Chinatown, which most people consider to be the highest quality markets in Asia. We all made a few purchases and then went into a massage parlour. This was no ordinary beauty parlour – you get a massage and put your feet in a fish tank. There are fish which nibble on your dead skin. I don’t like my feet being touched and this was the most uncomfortable thing I think I had ever done.

Officially known as Resorts World Genting and a self-proclaimed City of Entertainment, Genting is Malaysia’s low budget, family-friendly, sanitised attempt at Las Vegas. The primary draw is that Genting is the only place where you can gamble legally in Malaysia and on Saturday night we made the ninety-minute ride to the casino.

We had an interesting driver, from India, and he gave us a brief run down on Malaysia. Going up to Genting was amazingly scenic and apparently there are still some tribes living in the forest near here. I am not one to gamble but thought I would make the most of it. I used 10 Malaysian Ringgits (approx $3AUD) and kept winning money on the poker machine, aptly called one armed bandits. The drive back took over two hours as we hit traffic which meant that we got to the Kuala Lumpur tower about ten minutes too late to go up in the needle for dinner. We then went to a restaurant in the city for dinner.

We had a quick plane ride home to Coolangatta, mainly because I found three good movies and watched them back to back. Being the hub of Air Asia, Kuala Lumpur is set to increase its tourism market and the city is a great place for a stopover on your way somewhere. Such and easy city to navigate, it no doubt will be a first world place very soon.

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