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Note: I'm on a slow connection right now so I'll put the pictures up when I get a chance. Alex has some excellent ones on his blog
Shoppers delight.
Coming in directly from Cambodia, Malyasia feels like more like New Jersey than Southeast Asia. Kuala Lumpur, their "futuristic" capital city, is, like most capitals, not really intended for tourism. Nonetheless, we were able to get a cheap flight out of Siem Reap to Kuala Lumpur that saved us from spend 20 hours in a cramped bus traveling back to Bangkok.
As soon as we got through customs, we happily gorged ourselves on McDonald's, having spent the last week without any western food. Yes, we're soft. We decided to be adventurous and took a Gypsy cab from the airport, with a driver who called himself The Rock. He was a man of many interests, talking about everything from professional wrestling to Tom Jones. According to him, Malaysia is swimming in wealth from their cash crops rubber and palm oil. Luckily, the gypsy cab driver didn't kidnap us, and instead dropped us off at our hotel in Chinatown. My God! We could drink the water and didn't have to burn a
mosquito coil at night.
Chinatown is one the two main ethnic neighborhoods in KL-- the other is Little India, making up the most interesting parts of the city. I hesitate to call them ethnic neighborhoods, as Malaysia is itself is a collection of three distinct ethnic groups, the Ethnic Malays, Indians and Chinese. To quell tensions, a rather paternalistic government has been established with only five prime minsters, all of the same party, over its 50 year history. Chinatown is a collection of closed-off streets (the only pedestrian-friendly area in the city) occupied by stalls selling a whole range of counterfeit goods. Some excellent open-air food stall occupy a few street-corners.
Little India, on the other hand, is complete chaos. Music stores blast Bollywood hits from giant speakers, and there are all kinds of great restaurants. We decided to get some Indian food, and either received horrendously bad service or an authentic Indian meal. They brought us out big plates of rice, flanked by little plates of vegetables. They didn't, however, bring out silverware or napkins. We saw people eating the same thing as we were served with their fingers, and quickly asked for napkins and silverware. Having
just gotten in from Cambodia, we were still a bit nervous about bacteria, and thus wanted silverware, and, because the food was incredibly spicy, needed a bunch of napkins. They were understanding and brought us our western luxuries with no fuss.
Having survived little India, we went to see what put KL on the map: the Petronas Towers. At one point few years ago, these were the tallest buildings in the world, and have become kind of a tourist attraction. Obviously, Malaysia is very proud of the towers, and they should be. However, I found them to be architecturally confused. The lobbies, strangely enough, appear to be allusions to Boromini churches in Rome, with elliptical motifs resembling coffers and a similar pattern on the marble floor.
The concept of placing geographically appropriate symbolism seems slightly insulting to the host country, implying that they're not fully prepared for the avant garde and need to be coddled. A Tel Aviv sky scraper in the shape of the Star of David could only be imagined in a Mel Brooks movie. However, with the downfall of the International Style, propagandistic, high-tech architecture seems to be en vogue. The Freedom Tower isn't 1776
Alex getting out of a gypsy cab
License plate has been obscured to protect the guilty.
feet for no reason.
One of the issues with modern sky scrapers is that they're the same from a half-mile away as they are from a few feet. The facade of the Petronas towers doesn't seem to scale down to where they're interesting to look at from the KLCC park. In fact, the towers step back so that one doesn't have the thrilling sense of vertigo when viewing them from up close. Instead, they appear to be standard office buildings. The surrounding park offers a gigantic shopping mall and a view of the neighboring, generic office buildings. I was approached by a monk who pulled me aside and, before I knew it, gave me an amulet and bracelet. This city is just not atheist friendly. He had me say some prayers and give him some money.
Further downtown, Merdeka Square seemed to be Malaysia's National Mall. It was a large green, flanked by government buildings, mosques, and museums, and featured a giant flag pole. Next to a sign asserting the 95 meter structure was the largest in the world, commemorating the country's decolonization, was a giant list of rules for the lawn. Apparently, I'd have to save my
public, political rant for the next block.
On our last night in KL, we decided to go out partying. After an endless walk to the bar district, we were found $6 beers and $30 cover charges. Perhaps I was overcharged because I was dressed to enter a malaria ridden jungle and not a night club. However, I suspect I was charged standard prices. The area was infested with rich Chinese and gypsy cab drivers asking if we wanted "nice lady." I quickly discovered that we different definitions of the term.
KL is a fun city, but it doesn't have a whole lot to do for someone who can't drop $100 on a night out. It has some great neighborhoods and good food. However, there's no backpacker center in Kuala Lumpur, so you miss out on the traditional travelers' bars but are forced to actually do the Malaysian thing.
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Kuala Lumpur Backpackers
Nice write on your experiences in Kuala Lumpur. There are backpackers joints in Kuala Lumpur. It's just that it takes a little bit more effort to discover them. http://www.backpackerskl.com/