Onwards and Upwards
I awoke from a fitful sleep initially unaware of where I was. Uncomfortable bus seats? Bumpy road? Dark outside? Of course, I was on a full overnight bus. Gazing outside I could make out that we were traveling through a built up area. I was trying to figure out whether we were just passing through another Malaysian town or was this the city of Kuala Lumpur?
It was still dark when the bus made some stops to let some of the passengers off. Now I realized that we were in fact entering into the outskirts of the capital. When traveling into a big major city you are often able to draw in the knowledge of fellow travel companions or you might have the benefit of making a repeat visit to the town. I find rarely do you enter a city “cold” i.e. with no knowledge of what to do or where to go. On entering Malaysia’s capital, I had no idea and my South-East Asia “shoestring” Lonely Planet was proving to be of little help.
Suddenly the bus pulled into a busy bus station. In the dark I could see no signs of being in the centre of the city. To top it all I was bursting for the toilet (#2 et al). This particular bus station had placed the men’s toilet in the hardest place to find and I think every other male passenger was queuing for a cubicle.
I eventually worked out from my guidebook that I was at the Putra Bus Station in the northern part of town. By now, the dawn was breaking, bathing the surrounding buildings in an eerie light. I could make out train station a short walk away with early morning commuters trundling towards it. I headed in the same direction carry all my bags; thankfully, there was no heat in the early morning air.
Kuala Lumpur had a very modern rail system. Although not extensive it is still being developed. After being initially confused I managed to work it out and made my way towards the centre of town on a monorail which offered good views of the high-rise Kuala Lumpur skyline. I headed towards the Chinatown district where according to the guidebook cheap accommodation can be found.
It was daylight by now but still very early. It was Saturday and although not many people were about the traffic in the streets was building up. I asked for rooms at a few poxy looking hotels, they all seemed relatively expensive, and surprisingly many were full. I found a shoebox of a room with no windows in a dive of a hotel. But it was clean and the air-conditioning worked well, giving relief from the oppressive heat outside. I am sure the establishment hired out rooms for more than just overnight accommodation. It cost 55 Ringgit per night and it was terrible.
The previous Saturday I was lying sick in a hospital bed in Thailand. Due to this I had unfortunately missed the opening match of this year’s Tri-Nations rugby tournament. The New Zealand All Blacks had won a dire rugby match 12-6 against Australia. One week later, it was the South African Springboks turn to take on the All Blacks, and I was not missing this game.
I rested in my horrible hotel room, trying to catch up on some sleep. In the afternoon I wondered around the city. Of course, as sod’s law would have it I couldn’t easily find a bar with a satellite feed to watch the game. Eventually I settled on catching a cab to the up market “Golden Triangle” where I knew I would find the Hard Rock Caf�.
Inside there were 4-5 other people (damn kiwi supporters) keen to watch the game. We did have a wee scare when it looked like the management would not change the TV channel and turn up the sound. Eventually sense prevailed and our pleas were heeded. The South African were demolished 41-20 by New Zealand.
Sulking, I went back to my hotel. It was early evening but Chinatown had been transformed. There were no longer cars whizzing up and down the streets. Instead, every square inch of road and pavement was covered with market stalls. Granted it was the normal stall you get throughout the region, things like cheap clothing knock offs and bootleg CD’s and DVD copies.
That evening I again was not up to making the effort of going out so I had an early night listening to the goings on in the various rooms around me.
Although I woke feeling lethargic around mid-morning, I decided to take myself sight seeing.
Kuala Lumpur or to use its colloquial name, KL, is the nation’s principal economic, administrative, and cultural center. It is located in the hills of the southern Malay Peninsula where the main industries include tin, rubber, and machinery and food products. Chinese settlers founded KL in 1857 as a tin-mining camp. Under British rule from 1873 to 1957, it was expanded as a center of tin and rubber production. In 1895, it became the capital of the British-protected Federated Malay States. In 1957 it became the capital of the newly independent Federation of Malaya and remained the national capital when Malaysia was founded in 1963.
Today that little tin-mining camp is home to the world’s tallest buildings. Tallest is the twin 1,483-foot high Petronas Towers. These tapering twin towers share an Islamic-influenced geometrically polygonal plan, an 8-point star formed by intersecting squares is an obvious reference to Islamic design. Each of the twin Petronas Towers is 88 stories plus an additional architectural point (at 1242 feet), plus a tall spire to 1483 feet. Compare this to the Sears Tower in Chicago, which is 110 stories, and the twin World Trade Center towers in New York, which were each 110 stories. Although these other skyscrapers were created with higher occupied floors, they are not considered as tall under the arcane rules used for rating the world’s tallest, according to which architectural spires count towards building height, but antennas atop a building do not. You decide! The identical towers are linked by a sky bridge at the 41st floor, creating a dramatic gateway to the city. The building was featured extensively in the movie Entrapment.
I caught the efficient metro train to the far side of the Golden Triangle where the station leads directly into the buildings’ mixed-use basement, which features a concert hall and shopping center enveloped by nearly seventy acres of public parks and plazas.
Now there are organized tours up the Petronas Towers. The tour does not ascend to the very top of the building but only to the walkway at just under halfway up. The best news is these tours are free. The bad news is that tickets for the tours are snapped up very quickly first thing in the morning. So by the time I reached the reception hall all tickets for the day were gone. As luck would have it there are no tours the following day, Monday, and my plan was to catch a train to Singapore on Monday night. I guess I was SOL (go figure).
I spent over an hour taking shots of this very impressive skyscraper. Very pleasant are the parks where a large fountain system and children’s paddling pool give relief from the heat.
Views of KL are also good (if not better) from the KL telecommunications tower. I walked the short distance through modern office blocks and entertainment malls. The KL tower is given an uplifting start by being perched atop Bukit Nanas, 94m above sea level. It was a sweaty hike up the short road. Thia tower rises to a height of 421m (1403 ft), which makes a highly visible and prestigious landmark.
Menara KL is the fourth tallest communication tower in the world behind the CN Tower (553m) in Toronto, the Ostankino Tower (537m) in Moscow, and the Shanghai Tower (450m) in Shanghai. No mention is made in the top 10 of the Hillbrow Tower in Johannesburg, South Africa. Is it that small? The architecture again reflects the country’s Islamic heritage with the construction detailing Arabic Scripts, Islamic tiles, classic Islamic floral and abstract motifs and soothing color combinations.
At the base, I found beautiful cascading pools leading to a restaurant, shop and a small theatre. I joined the queue of both local and foreign tourists. It cost 30 Ringit to ascend KL Tower, but this does include a personal audio tour.
Once you ascend one of the four lifts, you arrive at the public viewing deck. If you ever wanted to see the whole of Kuala Lumpur in an instant this is the place to come. The tour is very informative and explains the history of the various sites in and around KL. The Petronas Towers can be seen a short distance away in all their glory. You even get the illusion of dwarfing the world’s tallest building, if that is at all possible. For those with deeper pockets, there is a plush revolving restaurant above where you can dine in the evening whilst taking in a bird’s eye view of the CITY OF LIGHTS.
On Monday, 22 July, I had booked a train ticket from KL to Singapore. It was an overnight train so I spent the whole day wandering around shopping plazas. I did manage to update my CD collection with some knock-offs from the market stalls in Chinatown. I really slashed out and bought a few DVD’s and updated computer software. Overall, the quality of these copies seems to be of a higher standard in Malaysia.
The train departed late from KL central train station. By the time we were let onto the platform a large crowd of impatient Malaysians locals had formed. All affluent executives on shopping expeditions with their wives, not a fellow traveler in sight. Why do Asians feel the need to push and shove instead of queuing orderly. Is it some face saving custom to be able to barge ahead of your fellow man?
The train ride was what I had come to expect, comfortable but noisy. Inexplicably there was not an inch of space for luggage so you had to make do with piling it in the passageway and hoping it would be safe (I fastened my pack straps around the bunk bed steps).
Early the next morning the train was stopped once we had crossed over the bridge onto the small island of Singapore. Everyone had to alight, with bags and be processed through immigration. Then it was back to your assigned bed on the train. It was a short ride into the Singapore city centre. So that was my whistle-stop tour through the Malaysian Peninsula.