I
was surprised to see that, as in Thailand, they drive on the left in
Malaysia. I had thought all this area
was “French Indo-China” so would follow French rules. Oh well.
Also
like Thailand, the Malaysians don’t have electrical outlets in the bathroom--annoying! Now that I think about it, though, that’s probably
a relatively recent phenomenon in the states.
Back in the day, there were no such things as electric toothbrushes,
hair dryers, shavers, etc., so why would
you need an outlet in the bathroom? So I
would end up shaving in the living room/main room of wherever I was
staying. Honestly they don’t have as
many outlets, period, in other parts of the world. They just don’t have as much STUFF as
Americans do. I mean, when I left
Oklahoma, in my living room I had plugged in a TV, DVD player, Cable/DVR box,
Wii console, printer, a floor lamp, and my computer. And then once Christmas came along…..
The
Malaysians are even friendlier than the Thais.
I felt bad coz after living for a year in China, I generally shut down
around people in public. And in Kuala
Lumpur (KL), people were smiling and saying goodbye to me even as they got off
the elevator.
I
don’t know if I mentioned this in any of my China blog entries, but all
throughout Asia (at least so far in China, Thailand, and Malaysia), the KFCs,
McDonald’s, etc. all deliver. That
continues to weird me out, I don’t know why.
Although
tourism is a fairly big industry in Malaysia – at least/especially in KL – I saw
a LOT fewer whites/westerners than in Bangkok or Guangzhou. In fact, I had a couple of locals ask to take
my picture with each of them (individually) when I was sitting on the steps in
front of the Petronas Towers. This is
kind of weird considering most everyone speaks English, you see English
everywhere, etc. It’s truly the
international language (better it than German! Ha!)
As
for Petronas, they are pretty awesome to see – esp. at night. They are still the tallest twin towers in the
world, and were the tallest buildings in the world period for six years (1998 –
2004). Fun fact: try to guess which
structure was tallest in the world for the longest period of time? Half of you will give up and the other half
will say, “Duh! The Great Pyramid of
Giza!” which was tallest for a shade less than 4,000 years until being surpassed
by the Lincoln Cathedral in England.
Another fun fact: the world’s currently highest observation deck is in….Guangzhou! The Canton Tower. It has held that distinction for a whole 3
years since its completion, so some time to go before topping the record of 42
years, which is jointly held by the Eiffel Tower, and then the Empire State
Building. Unfortunately, it turns out
you need to snag tickets DAYS in advance to go up to the Petronas observation
deck. But I wasn’t TOO put out – it looks
better from below/outside, and KL also has a very high observation deck on
their KL Tower—including an outdoor one.
I
have to say, my vertigo was kicking in a bit at the outdoor observation deck of
the KL tower, but then when I went to the lower level enclosed observation deck and saw
the comparison with The Canton Tower, I am amazed I was able to survive the
“bubble car” ride around the outside top edge of the Canton Tower’s outdoor observation
deck. I WAS borderline freaked out, and
clutched pitifully at the railing inside the bubble car for the whole, tortuously
slow crawl around the tower. Hey, Mindy
Harris, that reminds me: you never shared your pics from that! L
Of
course Malaysia was ungodly hot and humid, too – duh, it’s even closer to the
equator than Bangkok! But, on the plus
side, they have a VERY long elevated, enclosed, air-conditioned walkway that
branches out a bit through their downtown area, and I was able to walk from the
main shopping area of Bukit Bintang (which was not too very far from the condo
I was staying in) all the way to the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center/Mall/Park,
which then deposited me into an underground mall/walkway to get the rest of the
way to Petronas. Sweet! J
Speaking
of the condo I stayed in, it was pretty nice, basically a large studio, with
sliding doors to separate the living area and bedroom. I was up on the 19th (of 20)
floors with a nice city view—unfortunately on the opposite side of the building
facing Petronas/the KL tower, BUT the rooftop pool faced that way and I did get
some awesome pics. I think I spent like
$35 a night, so as you can see KL is still pretty cheap. On the whole, I‘d say it was close to
Bangkok. Some things were cheaper, some
things were a little more expensive.
They did also have a Krispy Kreme, though, so bonus!
And,
like Thailand, some of their malls are pretty amazing. The one closest to me, Berjaya Times Square, is
the 8th largest building in the world in terms of floor space, and
has an indoor amusement park. Beyond the
above, and some general other misc. sightseeing, I got my requisite Christmas
ornament and Hard Rock Hurricane glass and felt pretty satisfied with what I
saw. I would think you could do KL very
well in 3 full days (I was there just a shade under that).
I
would wait until 2016, though, when their Metro system is finished/updated. They do have a monorail system, but
unfortunately it was useless for me, as the two stops nearest the condo I was
staying in were closed because of construction or a sinkhole(!) or
something. One more KL bonus: no China
smell! J
Of course I did spend a lot of my time scurrying between a/c’d malls,
but I did also take a stroll through their Chinatown, and did a fair amount of
walking in general and was never blasted by an “OMG, the smell!” like I was in
GZ or sometimes in Bangkok.
As
I readied myself to move on/leave KL, I came across a pack of gum in my
backpack with one piece left, thank god, that I could finish before having it whipped/caned
out of my mouth upon arrival in Singapore. J
To
save a little money, and partly for the “experience,” I decided to take the bus
from KL to Singapore. It was about $15 for a 5+ hour ride. The seats
were supposed to be “massage” seats but they weren’t, and the personal
entertainment centers in the seatbacks weren’t working, but I had my Kindle,
the seats were good sized/comfortable enough, the bus was A/C’d, etc., so it
was worth saving almost $100, IMHO. And
as far as time, once you factor in the time to get to and from the airport, the
fact that you need to be there at least an hour before your flight departs,
blah blah blah, it was probably only a couple of hours longer overall.
At
the end of the day, while I wouldn’t say KL is a “destination city” unto
itself, I would definitely recommend setting aside a few days of part of a trip
to SE Asia in general.
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