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Published: November 7th 2005
Hi all
We’ve been in Kuala Lumpur (KL) for about 1 week now, and under normal circumstances that’d probably be a couple of days too long. However, we had a few matters to sort out which took longer than we thought (rescheduling flights to Aus was one thing) and given that we had found an excellent 5 star hotel for only 25 pounds a night - and the weather was behaving itself - we agreed to hang around here and do what we needed to do in this relaxed environment. We are also right across the road from a shopping centre which has a Delifrance with free Wifi connection - ideal given our latest gadgetry purchase of a new laptop. Well, you know how it is when your husband is a tech head - it would be cruel to separate him for too long from the other women in his life (Miss Internet, Mademoiselle Software installation and Mrs MeltyourbrainwithotherultracomplicatedITcomputerstuff). Breakfast doesn’t come with hotel price, however we’ve been tucking into lovely croissants with jam and a freshly brewed coffee each morning over the road, while we check our email and see to our business.
While we’ve been here
KL's answer to Kylie
... performing at the Open House in the World Trade Centrethere has been a week long Public Holiday, covering two significant religious occasions for both Hindus and Muslims; Deepavali and Muslim end of Ramadan. DEEPAVALI is an annual celebration of the success of good over evil, and this is marked by three days holiday. After this, the Muslim end of Ramadan (month of fasting during daylight hours) occurs and another three days holiday are granted. Both these holidays are marked by what they refer to as ‘Open Houses’ which are organised by the King and the Prime Minister, and other dignitaries and Malaysian VIPs. There was one of these Open Houses happening on the 3rd Nov in the World Trade Center, which is right next door to our hotel, and despite feeling like a couple of fraudsters, we decided to go and check out what it was all about. We really didn’t know what to expect, but as soon as we were inside the building we quickly realized that its basically a big free dinner, with the vague possibility of meeting someone important. There was a convoluted walkway to the food marked out over a series of floors and the crowd-flow was controlled by security guards with walkie talkies. We
were getting a bit bored as there was such a lot of stopping & starting and hanging around, and were actually just thinking of jacking the whole thing in, when our group were ushered through to meet the local equivalent of our own Two Jab Johnny Prescott - deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia!! (cant remember his name) As we approached, we were busy getting our camera’s ready and Alan jumped out the line to pap Malasian 2 Jabs - meanwhile, I ended up having a wee chat with him that went something like this:
Shaz Hello Sir, very nice to meet you
DPM Hello there, very nice to meet you - are you a member of the press?
Shaz No, we’re here on wur holidays
DPM Ahh, that’s very good, are you enjoying KL?
Shaz Yes it’s fab and we’re having a good time - were staying in the hotel next door
DPM Excellent. Which country are you from?
Shaz (All the while nodding and smiling like an eejit trying to catch Alan’s eye to get him to pap us both) ahh, uhm, …..Scotland
DPM Ah yes, I know Scotland very well, it is very cold there - are
you from Aberdeen?
Shaz Aberdeen?????????????????? No, we live in Edinburgh….
DPM Edinburgh, yes, I know Edinburgh well - Princes Street!!
Shaz Yes, that’s right…. Can we have a photo of you and I? My husband can take it.
DPM Yes that is fine - why don’t you both come into the photo?
Shaz OK. Alan, c’mre into the photo … (forgetting momentarily that we needed to reallocate the task of taking the photo to someone else)
Alan Hi, nice to meet you (nestles into the other side of the DPM, waving and grinning maniacally like myself )
Random photographers of the press …….snap ,pap, snap, pap, snap, snap snap etc etc etc…
Shaz / Alan Right’o then, see you later and have a nice day!
DPM Nice to meet you, now you must go and eat!
Shaz / Alan OK, cheerio then…
And that was that. Since then we’ve been scouring the papers to see if we are in there - but so far we haven’t seen anything about two scary wavy folk from Scotland bugging the senior officials of Malaysia into getting their picture taken.
The Chinese have a massive presence here. Although Chinatown officially occupies a
...what have you got in yours???
A group of girlies eagerly open their goodie bags which they received on the way out of the Open House at World Trade Centre. We got one too, and they contained a box of biscuits, a car sticker and a badge. How useful! small corner of the centre, no matter where you go in the city, you’ll find yourself passing through streets filled with stalls and stores, all bearing Chinese symbols and writing. There’s the famous Petaling Street with its abundance of ‘same same’ stalls covering, more or less, brand name trainers, posh perfumes (are they fake?) designer bags and wallets, el cheapo DVDs and CDs and Rolex watches. All for ten pence (or thereabouts). Also in the surrounding locale, there are food hawkers galore and makeshift crowded ‘restorans’ operating out of vans and shacks, where the drinks come from somewhere else across the road, the service is ‘beyond rude’ yet strangely charming, and families and tourists alike perch eagerly on plastic & round wonky garden furniture that’s seen better days. Bright neon signs illuminate the night time, and rows of foot massage / reflexology shops compete for your business by placing convincing touts on the street with flyers and promises of relaxation and well being. Cops patrol in their cars, lights flashing, with megaphones advising double parked drivers to move on … or else! Smoke fills the air every few moments as yet another mini-stall cremates chicken wings and pork kebabs doused
in soy, or BBQ sauce! Outside China town, there is an area called Bintang which is great to head for nightlife, and incorporates a mini China Town on a street opposite Bukit Bintang shopping mall. You’ll find bars here, and Western food too.
The KL city vibe is, we imagine, probably similar in some ways to America, in that there is a real ‘drive’ culture. There is a dearth of pedestrians, probably because of the heat, and big freeway type roads sweep through the city centre. It’s not that easy to walk right across town, as at some point you need to negotiate these big roads (some of them have paths to walk along, which can be worrying at times). Also, away form the Chinese areas, and other Market stalls, there are limited stores, bars and young restaurants, which can make the place feel a bit ‘soul-less’. Instead, there are numerous Malls housing lot’s of Big Western names like, Top Shop, Mango, Zara, Crabtree & Evelyn, Tony & Guy, and even Marks & Spencers. I could go on - there are loads. Some of these Malls are enormous and you just couldn’t get round them in one day. They
Hindu deities at Sri Mahamariamman Temple
Try saying that after a couple of Carlsbergs... mostly all have massive food halls - which although cheap and tasty, don’t make you feel like you are having an ‘experience’ in another country.
Some of the sights we’ve seen are:
*Petronas Towers. Night or day, the twin tower office blocks are a sight to behold. For modern architecture, they are beautiful, all stainless steel and glass, with plenty of curves and shiny bits to keep you gazing for ages at their spectacle. Although identical, the building of the Towers was project managed by two different guys, who were instructed to ‘race’ to complete the build. At 88 floors high, they exceed 1,500ft and are currently one, sorry… two… of the tallest structures in the world. You can buy a ticket to go up to the 42nd floor to a viewing bridge, however we didn’t bother as we’d been staying on the 48th floor in BK and we felt that couldn’t be topped.
*KL Tower - Another mega sky scraper - and if you’re keen to get a bird’s eye view of KL then this is a much better bet than Petronas as you get to go right to the top. However, if you’re looking to take
some shots it’s not ideal, as you don’t get to go outside, and there’s no panoramic view due to the many steel joins on the viewing windows. There was this really nippy woman in the queue behind us, totally invading my body space. I thought she was a lemon the way she seemed to be rubbing herself up and down against me, but these thoughts were quashed when I saw all her ‘screamin ‘weans’ and Alan told me later she was doing the same to him. All the same, it was freakin’ me out a bit!!!
* BATU Caves (Hindu shrine set in a cavernous space inside a big limestone rock, just outside the city centre) are alright, however the climb up to the shrine at the top is exhausting - 272 steps in 90 degree heat is not a good idea. Once you get up there, the Hindu shrine itself is a touch disappointing, however the monkeys that live there are entertaining enough. I nearly had a heart attack when a man with a big mean looking snake tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I wanted my picture taken with the monster. Eh…. No danger!!!
* Colonial
Petronas Towers
View of the Twin Towers from the ground architecture - Established in the Victorian era, there are a few interesting Colonial buildings in the city including the old Railway station and its administrative offices across the road. These look great and have all the allure of typical Moorish / Arabic architecture minarets and domes of shining metal. Because of the progress of the Business sector however, these are juxtaposed with the many, many cloud-kissing offices of the big financial players which make up the majority of the skyline of KL. It’s hard to see past any quaint historical sight without also taking in an HSBC or Asia Bank logo at the same time..
*Chinese Temple - this was great - highly decorative, with golden roof, and red, green and blue painted balconies and stairways in the outer grounds, alongside a tired row of plaster animals of the Chinese zodiac. The temple itself is brilliant. Loved it. The inner temple is really cozy with its sparkling gold and mirror alters and spinning colonies, and a funny Fortune Telling barrel. What you do is pick up a bunch of plastic sticks which have numbers on them and throw them down into a pot. You take the number from the one
Altar top inside of Sri Mahamariammaman
There were a number of variations of these throughout the temple. that sticks up above the others, and then open a corresponding drawer on the side of the barrel and take out a wee leaflet with your ‘fortune’ on it. Truth be told, the fortunes were a load of rubbish, but it was fun to do.
*National Mosque - has a gorgeous blue tiled roof in the shape of an 18 pointed star representing the 13 states of Malaysia (you do the math coz I can’t work that one out) which, when the sun shines, looks amazing. As tourists we were’t allowed inside though because of the holiday.
*Bird Park - wouldn’t recommend if you haven’t got kids.
*Science Museum - totally awesome ………………..if you are eight years old, and maybe doing a school project. We got it mixed up with the planetarium and thought it was going to be about space travel. Just shows how wrong you can be if you don’t read your guide book properly!!!
* Sri Mahamariamman - Hindu Temple in China Town. Had the potential to be fab, but was ‘tired’ and seemed to need a bit of a paint job. Didn’t stay here long, but would be worth a visit t see the entrance gate
Hindu garlands
.. these were made by hand and for sale outside the temple. They were really beautiful and the guy making them was double quick at knocking them together. and some of the cool and highly kitsch statues of the various Hindu gods.
It’s our last night here in KL. Tomorrow we are heading down the coast to a town called Malacca. The winds are picking up a fair bit here today, and it’s been raining all afternoon, so fingers crossed that Malacca won’t be like our experience on Ko Tao!!
One piece of bad news is that we’ve had a bit of an accident with our i-pod. We deleted all the songs from it by mistake on day and now we are tuneless. Alan’s on the case however, and has been trying to get us sorted out by working his technological jiggery pokery wizardry on the laptop, so I’m sure we’ll be back to swingin with the hits of today any time soon. The thing is, that its fairly urgent now because there is a restaurant in the Mall where we have breakfast called ‘Kenny Rogers Roasters’- it does roast chicken American style - that sort of thing. Anyway, when Alan saw this he started singing ‘You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille, four thousand children and a pram with no wheel’. Now, as
Pretty water lillies at Tugu Kebangsaan.
Tugu Kebangsaan is the local name for the National Monument which gives thanks to those who lost their lives against the fight against the communists during the 1950s. Kylie Magoo says, … I just can’t get it out of my head!!!!!! Nightmare.
Anyway, that’s about it from us today. Off now to do some packing and have our tea (probably a lovely Malay curry!).
Shaz & Al. xxxx
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Gaz
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Ipod recovery
http://www.copypod.net/product.php