8 November 2010Found it first off!
Places like Kuala Lumpur have become so developed, civilized and, saddest of all, sophisticated, that it is becoming difficult to find 'Old Asia'. In Istanbul a year or so ago, we had enormous difficulty finding 'Old Turkey'.
Tonight, after a fairly uneventful flight, we jumped an airport shuttle bus and a suburban monorail to our hotel in the district of Chow Kit. We'd chanced on Old Asia! - complete with narrow streets, footpath businesses, ramshackle housing that probably survived the Japanese occupation, even rubbish in the streets being torn apart by scrawny, scavenging cats. Evening bought the complex aromas of Indian, Malay, Chinese and Thai food cooked at stalls strung out along the narrow, car-clogged streets. Fantastic!
From our hotel window we can see the glittering face of 'New Asia' – New Malaysia. KL is more like Singapore than Saigon with a highly developed freeway system, well-groomed parks and all the trimmings of the new wealth of Asia. But here in the back streets of Chow Kit, the mosque booms out at sunset, kids play in the streets and families eat out in the local open area stalls. This is a predominantly Malay/Muslim suburb. 90% of females wear the simple scarf and the multi-coloured long skirts and tunics so favoured by these women. On our wanderings before and after dinner, we didn't see one European face. And the prices! Dinner for two with a couple of enormous orange drinks, $6 AUS – all up.
Kuala Lumpur
9 November 2010
As the story goes, if KL were left unattended for a year, it would never be found again. It would be lost to the jungle. Some parts of the city have already fallen back into the jungle, even while awaiting the inevitable new high rise towers to be built.
This is a surprisingly 'spacey' city. From our hotel window, no more than a kilometre, as the crow flies, from the city, we look over a mix of medium density housing, 'up-market' inner city slums, lots of open space. And carparks. Heaps of carparks. But there is greenery everywhere This IS the tropics, just a few hundred kms north of the equator. So you can cut the air with a knife, even though it is technically winter. Great growing weather.
In a couple of days, we pick up a hire car from virtually the centre of the city and head off north to Penang. Now, we have driven in some crazy places - Istanbul, Fez, and Marrakesh, not to mention Paris, Rome and our personal favourite, Messina (Sicily). But we must admit that we had had some reservations about driving in central KL. All the stories we had heard had us imagining the sort of chaos that is Saigon or Hanoi. Nothing could be further from the truth. A system of freeways moves traffic efficiently around the city and the major ground level Jalan (streets) are well regulated and fairly lightly trafficked. Even the city's excellent monorail and light-rail services are not overly taxed. This morning about 10am, we made an inner city connection between the monorail and LRT arriving at an underground station concourse with not a soul in sight. Even in the connecting tunnel we passed only one fellow traveller. Where is everybody?
Later in the day we found a fair portion of them in the enormous six level shopping mall at the base of the iconic Petronas Towers.
Notwithstanding previous comments about the attractions of the 'Old Asia', parts of the city have a major problem with garbage disposal and general public hygiene. While the CBD is very Singapore like in its cleanliness, turn down any side street elsewhere in KL and the stench of rotting garbage and piles of litter in the streets may well deter some travellers.
Chinatown, on the fringes of the city centre, was our first stop today. In a way, this part of the city typifies the dilemma we face in loving and 'hating' the rundown 'Old Asian' parts of cities like KL. The character of this part of the city is an enormous attraction. Closely-packed shops, crowded streets, noise and the chance of a bargain, keep drawing us in. Picking your way through wet, steaming refuse is challenging. But we keep coming back and as long as we have our hand sanitizer, we'll be fine??
Late in the day today, we eventually found (yes lost again!) a restored traditional Malay Village Headman's house. The ornate timber house was rescued from the jungle in 1996 to preserve one of the last remaining homes of this type. In itself, the building would have normally only drawn a glance from us. However, curious souls that we are, we went in and got the full individual tour. Our guide was a young Malay girl who was doing a student placement with the Heritage of Malaysia Trust. Her telling of the story of the house and the cultural importance of such places in the Kampong culture of old Malaya was the highlight of our day.
Kuala Lumpur
10 November 2010
Sometimes you've just got to wonder. In this amazingly complex and sophisticated city, today we saw a young guy 'mowing' a soccer field with a whipper-snipper. Well, we've seen stranger things but we really can't remember when.
We had what could be described as an aimless day of wandering today. Except that we did have a few plans. The National Museum of Malaysia was to be our first stop. On the map, it was an easy walk from KL-Sentral. On the ground, not quite so. Construction works at the station had closed many surrounding roads and signage, of course, is non-existent. After a few harsh words and a lot of sweat in the 30+ tropical heat, we finally found a special secret back entrance to the museum, via Singapore. The museum itself was just as the Lonely Planet had put it, 'worth a visit'. (Read -“Ok but not spectacular”).
Lunch time was scheduled for the Imbi Markets. Early afternoon heat had us walking what we call the 'Asian walk'. More like a genteel stroll, really. With the help of yet another friendly local, we discovered that the markets only open in the early morning. Oh well! There was a nice, air-conditioned mega-mall just a km or so away. Not the same atmosphere, but very cool!
Finally, our plans called for a well-structured walk through Little India. Here is the point where we must mention street signs in KL. There never seem to be any on your chosen path! (Lots when you don't need them, of course!) So, fit as we are, we were flagging a little once we had meandered aimlessly, rather than 'guided' through little India. Some features of the areas we were shuffling through seemed familiar, so we pressed on home to Chow Kit, discovering our local suburban markets on the way. The markets were amazing – fruit, veges, fish, beef and chicken are all well-presented, cheap – and CLEAN! Nary a fly – even around the complete cow's heads! So being lost can be fun, once you have washed the frustrations of the day away with a few beers.
Tomorrow we hit the road towards Penang.
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