The Trouble With Kuala Lumpur, or Trying to Find Something Interesting There

Kuala Lumpur is quite boring. I remembered it differently from the last time I was here. Perhaps it was because I was so impressed with Cambodia that I transferred that impression to Kuala Lumpur as well. Maybe it was because I only had a few hours in the city at that time and so I got to see the towers and that was about it. In any case, this time around it was difficult to find much of real interest in the city.

I started out by going to Batu Caves. The name of the place sounded intriguing. It was also just outside the central area of Kuala Lumpur and was at the end of one of the LRT lines. So I thought I would head there, thinking that could take a couple of hours of my time. Off I went, with the fare only costing 1 Ringgit.

The caves are in a limestone formation that just rises out of the landscape. Much of the surrounding area is flat, and then this small limestone 'mountain' appears. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had reached the destination. I got out and headed into the area. There was no entrance fee to the caves themselves. There was, however, a Hindu place of worship at the base. It did have an entrance fee. I didn't bother entering. The main attraction of the temple seemed to be the hordes of monkeys around the area. They weren't particularly aggressive, which I found a bit surprising as people were doing what people always seem to do when there are cute little animals about; they were feeding them chips and fruit and all sorts of processed crap that monkeys are not really supposed to be eating. (And I suppose if one really wants to get technical, we oughtn't to be eating so much of that stuff ourselves.) In other areas where the local animals get fed, they seem to get quite aggressive, but that didn't seem to be the case here.

Then I faced the mountain with the cave. Outside there was a big statue, apparently the biggest of whatever god was depicted in the world.

Then it was the daunting stairway to the cave. I didn't count the steps on the way up, but I did on the way down. There were 255. Then at the top there 43 that went down a little bit.

And then a final set of 66 steps to the temple area at the top. In a tropical climate, I'm not sure the devout do it, going up and down those steps to make their observances. I was bushed after the one time.

But then, the view out over the city is quite nice from the top of the first set of steps.

On the whole, though, the cave left me underwhelmed. It seemed a bit tacky. So I headed back down to try again to find something of interest. I got back on the train and headed to a stop that was one stop closer than my original starting point. The fare? 2 Ringgit. Hmmm. One stop shorter, and double the price. I couldn't quite figure that one out.

The reason I got out at that station is that it was the former Kuala Lumpur train station, from the colonial times. Its architecture was quite impressive. It was also at the entrance to the central government building area and celebration area for Malaysian independence.

Across the street from the station was the National Mosque. It was visiting time and I would have liked to go in and look around, but in my shorts, I wasn't appropriately dressed. So I had to make do with some photos from outside. It's quite a nice structure. But because I was unable to enter, it didn't really count as something interesting about Kuala Lumpur. I forged ahead.

Beyond the mosque is a huge park area, at the end of which is the national parliament and a monument to Malaysian independence as well as all those who gave their lives fighting in the various wars and other conflicts of the last century. Along the way though was the former residence of the second prime minister of the country. I would have thought the first prime minister would have been viewed as more important, given that he was the one who declared independence, but the second one gets all the attention and has all sorts of stuff named after him. Go figure. However, as it was a Monday and Monday is something of a universal day for museums and museum-like structures to be closed, it was closed. Insufficiently dressed and the wrong day. I was on a roll.

So I continued along and reached the Independence Monument. It is quite elaborate. I quite liked it.

Alongside the monument is a sculpture garden representing artists from the Association of South-East Asian Nations, or ASEAN. I found this one sculpture to be a bit strange. The description said that it was to convey how stainless steel, while functional, could also be turned into something of beauty. I wondered where the beauty was.

By this time, I was getting tired and so I didn't bother trying to find the parliament buildings. Actually, truth be told, I had forgotten about them being nearby. But I was tired and getting hungry. The previous day, I had seen an A&W in town. This was likely going to be my last chance to have A&W root beer in a frosty mug (something which I have found a lot of in Indonesia and Malaysia, which is weird), so I figured I would go and have some lunch there. When I got there, they had a new sort of menu, just starting that day. It was August 1^st, the beginning of the Muslim holiday month of Ramadan. The owner of the restaurant had worked a new menu meal in honour of the holiday. There was fried chicken, rice, curry, some kind of vegetable, some soup, root beer jello, and of course, root beer as well. It sounded good, so I ordered it. And I was the first one to do so. So the owner gave me two mugs of root beer to celebrate my being the first one to order the set. Bonus!!!! And it was delicious. I really enjoyed the meal. While I was eating the proprietor came out to find out how I liked the meal. And we got to talking. I was curious about Ramadan. I knew that Ramadan is a time of fasting for Muslims. And I know it's month long 'holiday.' I was curious if they fast for the entire month or if they get to eat at all. (And I am not a complete idiot. I knew that a month of not eating would have dire consequences, but I just didn't know how they managed it.) The woman explained that for 29 days, Muslims fast from dawn until dusk. The fast includes water, so for the entire day they cannot even drink any water. Nothing. In a tropical climate, I think that must be especially difficult. I don't know that I would be able to do it. I would make a lousy Muslim, I think. She told me that as a Muslim, you get used to it. It's what you do. I suppose so, but still...

And there, in the end, I found something interesting about Kuala Lumpur. Even though it had nothing in particular to do with Kuala Lumpur itself. And it was in a restaurant that comes from North America. But I guess I have to take it. Nothing else about the city seemed to be that interesting.

Kuala Lumpur

My first order of business in Kuala Lumpur was to take in a screening of Harry Potter. So, bright and early on the second day of my stay in Kuala Lumpur, I got up and headed off to the city center. I decided to stop at the Malaysia Tourism Centre on the way, since it wasn't too far away from the Petronas Towers.

Malaysia has been undergoing a massive effort to modernize. They also have been trying very hard to minimize impact on the environment. One of the projects that has been in the works is the public transportation network in Kuala Lumpur. There is a huge amount of work being done in the capital to not just improve the transportation network, but really to make a public transport network. There are two LRT lines, two commuter train lines, and a monorail line. These are all fairly new. And they are all separate at this time. If a person is going on a journey that will, for some reason, require two changes, it will require three fares. At the transfer points it is necessary to exit the system, go to the next line, buy a ticket and then enter the system again. At one station, there are two entrances, two ticket booths and two separate ways up to catch the train, depending on which direction you are going. (Luckily I picked the correct direction.) I presume this will change at some point in the near future. They seem to be building interchange corridors to get from one line to another, thus allowing a passenger to stay in the system. I would have thought it would be easier to build it all that way in the first place.

I got off at the appropriate spot and headed to the Malaysia Tourism Centre. This is one nice looking tourist information center. I was very impressed. Until I got inside. On Wikitravel, they say that it is a good place to get information, but the staff are surly. Normally, I have found that Wikitravel articles are way too hard on places. But in this one case, they were right on target. I walked up to the information desk and barely tore the woman's attention from her phone. She really didn't seem like she could be bothered to give me anything really helpful. She just handed me a brochure for a travel agent and told me to talk to them about my plans. I got a far more enthusiastic response just outside the building from the girls who were getting people set up for the Hop On Hop Off tourist bus for the city. It was a bit odd.

After getting a bit of information, from the information racks in the center, I headed off to see Harry Potter. It was good. I enjoyed it.

After the movie, I walked back to the spot where I was staying. I passed by the Kuala Lumpur Tower, where I learned that in order to preserve an old tree, during the building phase the city moved the location of the tower a few feet away, then set up barriers to protect the tree while the tower was being built. This was at a cost of about 150 thousand dollars. This was the tree.

Then it was back to the hotel to plan the next day.

Kuala Lumpur – The Second Time Around

I visited Kuala Lumpur about ten years ago. It was only a very brief visit. I was on my way into and out of Cambodia, but my tickets had me going though Kuala Lumpur. On my in, I had only overnight, enough time to get to my transit hotel, check-in, sleep, get up and go to the airport for my onward flight. But on my way back home, I had about 18 hours and I was able to spend a few hours in the city. I went in and spent some time around the Petronas Towers, at one time the tallest building in the world. I was awed. I was impressed. I was happy to be in Kuala Lumpur and I have had good memories of the city.

From Yogyakarta, I headed early to the airport to catch my flight. I had forgotten what an airport in a smaller, touristy area is like, even if it is called an 'international' airport. This airport was more of a domestic, small area airport with international functions added on. In one room. Off to the side of the domestic portion. That can only handle one flight at a time.

So, my great rush to be at the airport in plenty of time proved to be a bit of a mistake. I had gotten up at 5:30, and had been on a bus at 6:00 in order to be at the airport 2 hours before my flight. Because it was so early, I ended up being there 2 and half hours early. I was able to check in, but I couldn't go through immigration and security until about an hour before the flight was scheduled to depart. Hmmm... Good thing I had a book. And despite having to wait before getting to clear customs and all of that, it's still better to have been early than to have to rebook because I was late.

Eventually, I headed off into the wild blue yonder and headed to Malaysia for my second visit to that country. This time I was headed to the peninsular part of Malaysia, starting in Kuala Lumpur for my second visit, as already mentioned.

On the way, we passed over Jakarta. It is really quite neat when I pass over somewhere I have stayed in long enough to be able to pick out landmarks from the air. For instance, I was able to find the Independence Monument as we passed over the north part of Jakarta.

I arrived and found a place to stay, then I headed off to find out if Harry Potter was still playing. I have watched almost all of the movies in the theater, and I wanted to see this one in the theater as well, but Indonesia has been having a problem. There was some issue of fees that Hollywood had to pay to have their films in Indonesian theaters. Hollywood fought back by not showing their movies in Indonesia. Since January, there have been no blockbuster movies shown. They have had to make do with second run movies and second-rate movies from other countries. (Apparently this included a lot of Thai horror films that were the subject of lots of talk on internet discussion sites.) This was finally resolved just as I was about to leave Indonesia, and Harry Potter was one of the first movies that was to be screened in Indonesia following the resolution of the dispute. Unfortunately, this was going to mean that there would be huge line-ups to see the movie. I didn't want to deal with that, so I decided to wait until Malaysia and hope it was still playing. It was, but I had arrived too late to catch a screening at a good time. So I hung around the Petronas Twin Towers for a while to see them at night.

I really like how they light them up, even though I do realize that it is a terrible waste of energy.