Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 07/03/08-07/14/08

Overall Impressions of Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia

From the moment I landed in Kuala Lumpur, I could feel the difference. It was much less hassle and seemed much more developed. This feeling would continue to grow as I saw more of the city. Compared to most of southeast Asia (Singapore excluded), Malaysia seemed more developed. Kuala Lumpur was a very easy city to get around as a visitor. It has a good, modern transit system making it easy to get from place to place. (I was told by one person that it is good for tourists but not so good for people who live there.) Another convenience for me was that it seemed that everyone spoke English. Not just in Kuala Lumpur but wherever I went in Malaysia.

Malaysia seemed like a very pleasant place but didn't seem too exciting to me. I should add that I did not go to the east coast of Malaysia which is supposedly where it is really shines. Kuala Lumpur has plenty of nightlife, but it did not seem like the kind I tend to enjoy. It seemed a bit pretentious. (When I later told someone in Penang that Kuala Lumpur seemed a little pretentious, his response was, "Aren't all big cities?")

Kuala Lumpur seemed nice and orderly and civilized, but not so much so that you couldn't find markets and street food. I would liken it to Singapore but without the stick shoved quite so far up its butt.

I met several people in Kuala Lumpur, and all of them were nice enough, but none seemed to stick. When comparing Kuala Lumpur with Jakarta, I would say that Kuala Lumpur is a much nicer city, but I had a whole lot more fun in Jakarta. It was easy to make friends in Jakarta and Bangkok, and while it was easy to meet people in Kuala Lumpur, it was not so easy to make friends. Some would say that it's a lot like San Francisco that way.

Arrival

I flew from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur on Air Asia--a discount airline. As such, I landed in the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) instead of the usual international airport. It was the most hassle-free airport arrival experience that I have ever had in Asia. I zipped through immigration and got waved through customs. I didn't even have to fill out a landing card or customs form. When I got through customs, there was no one. No hordes of touts trying to get me to go to their hotels. No taxi drivers trying to get me into their scam cabs! I could not believe it. Not a single person came up to me. I asked the information desk where I could get a SIM card for my phone, got cash at an ATM, got my SIM card (a couple of dollars), got a taxi voucher into town (US$15-20), and was out of the airport in a few minutes. I could get used to that.

Even the taxi ride into town was pleasant. I had nice chat with the driver who used to work for an airline doing the KL-Tokyo-LA route, so he knew California.

While I was waiting at the baggage carousel in the airport, someone came up to me and asked if my name was Steve. I said, no, but it was close. (People often remember my name as Steve or Scott or some other name that begins with S.) I told him my name, and he recalled it. He said that we had met at Red Dragon (a club in Jakarta) twice. "Ian?" I asked. It was him. He was an acquaintance of Pavis's. He was on the same plane as me, visiting a friend in KL. We chit chatted briefly before he headed to customs. Small world.

The Neighborhoods

Kuala Lumpur has several notable neighborhoods. My logding for the first few days was in Little India. I stayed in the Coliseum hotel. It was an old building with a great facade, but as a logding, it was pretty dumpy. Definitely budget digs--shared bath, no A/C, constant traffic noise. The room was open at the top of the wall for ventilation, meaning every sound in the hall was transmitted into the room. What do you expect for less than US$10? My room did have some interesting old furnishings and a private wash basin. In spite of its shortcomings, I felt pretty happy there.

After I checked-in to the hotel, I went out in search of dinner. It was pretty cool to turn a corner and see the Petronus towers glowing in the distance or the the Kuala Lumpur tower lit up around another corner.

Little India was a pleasant enough neighborhood, if a bit noisy. Some tasty Indian food. It took me a while to find an internet cafe and a carton of milk, though. I never did find a place to have my laundry done.

A few days later, I moved to Chinatown. Chinatown was much more busy and crowded and rough around the edges. There is a street that becomes a night market when the sun goes down. My hotel, Chinatown Inn, was in the middle of that street. It took a while to get in and out of the hotel because I had to wade through the market to get anywhere.

One of the other neighborhoods of note is Bukit Bintang. This is an area of nice restaurants, clubs, and megamalls full of posh designer stores. I ended up going to a couple of clubs here. Not my cup of tea. I can't say that I enjoyed going out in Kuala Lumpur. Granted, I only went to a couple of places. One problem with going to a bar in Malaysia is that the sin tax makes liquor very expensive. Expect something like $9 for a cocktail. I was a bit pissed that the first place I went (Blue Boy--not a posh place at all) charged prices like that and then watered down my drink so much that it was essentially water. You can either charge outrageous prices or water down the drinks, but not both.

The Sights

I met up with someone and went to the Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC) which has a huge, expensive mall and is also where the twin towers are located. There is a pleasant park setting outside with fountains and a small pool for kids. The Petronus towers (referred to as "the twin towers" in KL) are pretty impressive. It doesn't seem like one of the tallest buildings in the world when you are next to it.

After lunch at KLCC, we headed to the KL tower--a communications tower a few blocks from the twin towers. We took the elevator to the observation deck for a bird's-eye view of Kuala Lumpur. It also offered great views of the twin towers. I have heard that the view is better here than in the twin towers, and I believe it. For one, you can see the twin towers. For another, the observation bridge on the twin towers is nowhere near the top. It is also kind of hard to get tickets to the twin towers--they are first come first served and go quickly in the morning. I never did get up the twin towers.

I spent a day walking around Kuala Lumpur's colonial sections. I walked from my hotel in Chinatown past the cool old train station with tons of spires. It looked more like a mosque than a train station. I walked past the Masjid Negara (National Mosque), but could not go in because I was not muslim. I walked past the independence square--a large open space surrounded by well-preserved colonial buildings. Then I went over to the Masjid Jamek near where I stayed in Little India. I could have gone in, but I think it might have required some extra clothes.

An Exodus of Sisters

Near Masjid Jamek, I took a picture of the big fountain statue of what looked like pitcher plants. While taking photos, a guy asked if I wanted him to take my picture with the fountain. I declined, since it wasn't all that interesting. I ran into him again a few moments later as we waited for the street crossing light. He started talking to me. He asked where I was from and told me that he was from Indonesia near Ubud. He said his sister was going to Florida for her final year of college. He asked me stuff about costs in the US and the like. Then he asked if I could spend some time talking with his sister and his grandmother--to give them more information and calm his grandmother's concerns. I was suspicious. Not only am I suspicious when a stranger on the street asks me to come to his home, it sounded eerily like the story that a guy in Bangkok gave me which seemed to be totally a scam. I told the guy that I had stuff to do that day and in the end came clean that I was not comfortable with going home with someone I just met in the street. He did not push it and I went on. He seemed honest enough, but then, if it was a scam, it wouldn't work very well if he seemed suspicious.

But wait, there's more. On my way into KLCC the next day, a woman stopped me and complimented me on my earring. This seemed like a contrived reason to talk to me. Then she asked where I was from. When I told her, she asked if it was near Santa Clara. I said yes. She said her sister was moving there very soon. This was sounding familiar. She was with a couple of other women and they seemed to have just been shopping. She asked if I could spend some time with her sister today. I said I was kind of busy today. She asked about tomorrow. I came clean with her and told her that I just didn't feel comfortable going with people that come up to me in the street. She said something to the effect that not all Malaysians are scum. I told her that I would give her my number, and I would be happy to give any information that I can over the phone. Needless to say, I never got a phone call.

I am really curious to know what the deal is. In each case, I was in tourist-heavy areas. Each person seemed to start talking with me by intent, rather than by chance. Unlike most scammers, they did not set off the "Watch out for this person" alarm. (Well, neither of the ones in KL--the guy in Bangkok a few years ago totally did.) I find it hard to imagine that as soon as someone (always a sister) finds out that they are going to America, their siblings scour the streets for American tourists to get more information. I mentioned these incidents to Malaysians that I was hanging out with and they were very surprised.

Holy Hindus, Batman! (No, wait, that would be the "bat cave".)

I took a bus trip a little way outside of KL to visit the Batu Caves. These are a series of caverns containing Hindu temples. Not as impressive as the Buddhist temples in the Marble Mountains in Vietnam, but still pretty cool.

Switch to Liquid Detergent!

I was having trouble finding a good place to get my laundry done. I ended up taking it to a nearyby hostel (the Red Dragon Backpacker's Hostel) to be cleaned so I would have clothes for the weekend. It came back covered with streaks of undissolved laundry detergent. Surely, the person folding the clothes had to see it. I took it back. The young Malay guy at the desk did exactly what he should have: apologized, sympathized, and offered to rewash the clothes. Then his manager came in and got all Indian on me. He decided it was more important to start an argument and deny responsibility than to resolve the situation. The situation that had already been resolved by his underling got unresolved, and he ended up giving me my money back. If he hadn't insisted on being difficult, he would have kept the money and just rewashed half a load of laundry. I really wish self-service laundries were popular in Asia. It would be so much simpler to just spend a couple of hours doing it myself than dropping it off and waiting a day.

I Guess You Can't Be a Backpacker Without a Scruffy Beard

I went to trim my beard and fried my beard trimmer because I forgot to use the voltage converter. I looked in a lot of places and asked around, but there don't seem to be beard trimmers anywhere in Malaysia. (I might think that this was related to the whole Muslim facial hair thing, but there were plenty of razors and electric shavers.) If I had been looking for a pair of Bruno Mali shoes, a Prada bag, or some Fendi sunglasses, I could have found them in 5 minutes. Useful things are much harder.

Travel Hints from Helois

I did add one useful item to my travel arsenal: a small squeegee. One thing that has always annoyed me about Asia is the idea that bathrooms are expected to be puddles of water. The bathroom is the shower stall. Anytime you set foot in the bathroom, you come out with wet feet. By squeegeeing the bathroom floor after showering, I mostly eliminated this peeve.