Saturday 8 October 2011

A crazy KL, September 2011

At first glance, KL is dirty, sweaty, chaotic and just crazy in the eyes of the Western traveller, so unused to the smells of drains and sights of outlet water from the skyrises. It’s my third time here and I fluctuate between loving KL and really just wanting to get out of here. I’m feeling disappointed with the Lonely Planet’s lack of descriptions of KL sights and their maps pinpointing incorrect addresses and pathways. I’m sure there’s so much to see in KL that just isn’t mentioned in the LP. So, we’ve walked and walked to uncover KL and even thought about buying another guidebook just for Malaysia.

Road congestion is everywhere, on every road. Crossing them creates a small panic for someone who will only cross roads if the green man definitely says so, of course I’m not referring to anyone in particular here. However, I think KL is merely a mild introduction to even crazier Vietnam pedestrian crossings or no crossings as I suspect the case may be. Beeping of horns is definitely a pastime here, we watched one guy merrily chuckling as he beeped his horn all the way down the road.

Chinatown is fake goods galore with a splattering of food stalls and temples breaking up the endless piles of plastic toys, t-shirts, dvds, sunglasses and numerous Manchester United ‘shirts’. Lunch was eaten at a lovely Indian joint where I enjoyed more rice and lentil pancakes – loving the Southern Indian food. To escape the heat (and a pounding humidity headache) a quick train ride took us to KLCC, a shopping centre within the infamous Petronas towers formerly of ‘World’s Tallest Building’ glory. The beauty of the towers still amazes me, they are such imposing structures. The surrounding gardens are a peaceful timeout and feature a running track, though funnily enough we didn’t see anyone going for a run. Inside KLCC is consumer heaven with all the big brands including Topshop and M&S. This is the place to shop if you’ve some serious dough; I’ve never seen so many people looking at and buying Tag Heuer watches. So many of the shops were advertising for vacant positions – about 5-8RM a hour, about 1 GBP an hour. Two chicken rice (with soy sauce – boo) later and it was back to our hostel.

Reggae Mansion is the somewhat comedy name of our brilliant hostel. It’s the third in a chain of ‘Reggaes’ and the owner must have spent a fortune kitting it out. I’ve never stayed in a hostel where your room has a large plasma TV with sky channels or where you get a daily delicious hot complimentary breakfast. Dinner here was nouveau cuisine and Alf, our friendly restaurant manager, ensured nothing with gluten dared enter anything I was to eat. The whole hostel is really impressive and that’s before you discover the roof terrace with views of the KL and Petronas towers from cushioned sun loungers. ‘Flash-packing’ (backpacking in upmarket hostels) can be such a dirty word among some travellers but to have an accommodation experience like this is worth the couple of extra ringgits that’s actually only a couple of extra pounds a night.

Next on the to do list: the Batu caves, extraordinary limestone caves as a backdrop to one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India and the living quarters of long-tailed macaque monkeys. It was impossible to get any sort of guide about the place and the ever disappointing LP had limited information, a quick google search has filled in the gaps of our, I’m ashamed to say, very bad knowledge of Hinduism and the importance of this cave. The huge golden statue of Lord Muruga guards the opening of the caves which is a 272 step climb and dodging of curious monkeys (I gained comfort stroking my rabies injected arm). The caves are awesome in height with openings to the sky in some of the chambers, adorned by Hindu paintings and statue. We were invited to be blessed ‘for luck’. I’m still trying to find somewhere to tell me the significance of the blessing (apart from a tourist experience) but as you’ll see from the pictures, we were painted with a red and white dot on our forehead. A couple of friendly Indian-Malaysians tried to explain to us the significance but we got lost in their explanation and had a photo session with them instead.

Ignoring the LP, we followed the Guardian’s recommendation of dining at Precious in Central Market, the old ‘wet’ market of KL, now an art deco conversion into a fairly touristy but pleasant market. Nonya Malay food is a Malay-Chinese mix of food and I enjoyed delicious coconut overload including a tapioca coconut pudding which was amazing.

Lake Gardens, the peaceful green area of KL, was slightly more complicated to get to than expected but once arrived, it was a welcome, quiet and relaxing relief on a hot day. A visit to the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia was insightful, informative and well curated for a varied audience. Between us, we learnt a fair bit about Islam from the basics to the differences throughout Asia: Dependent on the region and country, Islam can differ aesthetically and incorporate local customs and culture; aspects of Buddhism and Hinduism from a pre-Islamic era were incorporated into a Malay Islamic culture if it didn’t directly conflict with Islamic teachings. The textiles exhibited were exquisite and left me wanting a beautifully pattern shawl of some kind. It’s a bit of a realisation when you visit somewhere like this and you realise how much you don’t really know about a religion and culture that has so much attention within the UK media.

Final thoughts on KL: it’s just so friendly and I always feel safe here no matter what time of day or night we’re walking round. KL is my most visited city outside of the UK and I just don’t mind coming here and probably will do again in the future, but I’ll definitely do my research and seek out the hidden parts that I’m sure exist. Of course it’s chaos and I’ll be glad when my lungs can breathe clean air again but I don’t think that will happen for a while yet seeing as Hanoi is the next stop.

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