Kuala Lumpur

By: Matt

Okay, so I lied at the end of my last post. Emily deferred and I will be telling you about our time in Kuala Lumpur (known throughout Malaysia as 'KL'). Part of the reason that Emily told me to do this blog post was that I totally fell in love with KL immediately, and Emily more or less thought it was a cool and livable city but was not completely enamored with it.

Getting from Penang to KL proved to be somewhat of an ordeal. We tried to get a train ticket, but with the weekend and the Indian holiday (Thaipusam) we couldn't get a ticket on the day that we needed. So, with limited options, we bought a bus ticket knowing that the bus companies in Malaysia don't have the best reputation. As it turns out, that reputation is based on truth.

On the day of our departure to KL, we arrived at the bus terminal (also the Penang Mall that we visited two days before) and were directed to where our bus would arrive. There was an office there for Newsia Bus Company, featuring an overweight balding Chinese man that could aptly be described as the most apathetic person ever to work for a transit company. When we asked where the bus would pick us up, he bluntly grunted and pointed to a lonely and shabby bench.

When the bus finally arrived to pick us up, it looked nice but we immediately did not get a good feeling about it. Unlike Thailand – the land of easy tourist transit – no employee showed up near the luggage storage compartments to open them or help us with our bags. When we boarded the bus, it was obvious that it hadn't been cleaned since the early 1990s and was probably a super deluxe bus in its heyday, but now has fallen into disrepair like an aging heavy metal rocker still holding on to former glory. For some reason, the bus was full of mosquitos and as we waiting to get going, a cockroach skirted across the bus curtains. Awesome.

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, our lovely bus decided that it wasn't going to make it all the way to KL. We pulled over several times on our way out of Butterworth (the city across the Strait of Malacca from the island of Penang) and the bus driver – who looked to be all of 16 years old – kept checking something in the engine bay. Eventually, with no explanation, we pulled into a gas station/travel center and stopped. At first, everyone on the bus thought this was a routine bathroom break/refreshment stop, although this seemed strange only about 20 minutes into the trip. Eventually, the bus became stifling without A/C and everyone exited and sat in the shade of a few trees. It immediately became apparent that not all was well with our crap-tacular bus. The engine compartment was fully open and the bus driver was across the road smoking and talking on his mobile phone. Through the bus passenger gossip, I heard mention that the engine was overheating.

And so we waited.

Typical in these situations, there was no communication between the bus personnel and its passengers. We just waiting in the shade and watched with annoyance and absurdity as they tried to fix the bus. A maintenance van had showed up and some 'technicians' were fiddling with the engine. They tried to start the engine again after doing some 'maintenance' and, at this moment, our predicament became more hilarious than annoying. For it was at the moment of turning on the engine that a viscus black liquid began pouring out of the engine compartment and onto the pavement. I don't mean a slow trickle of liquid either, I mean a geyser of water and oil and engine grime erupting from inside of the bus.

Of course this meant a new bus was going to be sent to us. The bus driver and the maintenance people essentially gave up after the eruption and resigned themselves to smoking on a bench in the shade. Eventually, a bus did show up, and it was shiny and new and everyone had a good feeling about it. We boarded the bus, although a few did not and I had a feeling that the new bus did not have the capacity for everyone from the old bus. As we pulled away, the few stragglers left behind looked forlorn and I felt sorry for them.

The new bus was leaps and bounds better than the old one, but the new bus driver was not. This man, a middle-aged Indian man with slick hair and a gold chain, was not a model of good driver behavior. We careened down the Malay highway, not really staying in any lanes. The driver did everything he could to distract himself, including recharging his mobile minutes while he was driving. Eventually, we made it to KL after a few hours, and the bus driver unceremoniously dropped us off while stopped at a red light and no where near where we were supposed to get dropped off. Our bus ticket told us that we were supposed to be dropped off at the KL Central Train Station ('KL Sentral') that is a major transit hub of almost all of the metro lines. Instead, we were deposited in the middle of the city with no reference points and no direction. Awesome. Again.

Somehow, we did find out that we were near a metro stop and figured out from there how to get to our hotel. When we finally got to the Royale Chulan Hotel, it was about two hours laters than expected and we were tired. We checked in, made it to our rooms, tried to shed some of the grumpiness of travel, and decided that we would just eat dinner at the hotel.

The Royale Chulan is a five-star hotel, but it is independent of the major international hoteliers. We also got a great deal on agoda.com and so this hotel was appealing. It was nice, although probably still overpriced. What was interesting was that the entire hotel – all 300+ rooms – felt quite empty. When we went to dinner at the restaurant, we were the only ones dining. This is sad, when you realize that, like many 5-stars, the dinner was a huge buffet consisting of gourmet food from around the world. The food was good (especially after our annoying day of travel), but I suppose in a city like KL there are always better dining options just around the corner. It was just depressing because there was an over-abundance of staff at this place just kind of standing around, and all of the food had been prepared ahead of time, and you realize that if this was what it was like everyday the whole venture is a huge waste of food. Hopefully they at least let the staff eat the leftovers.

The next day we were more refreshed and eager to get out and explore KL. We started our day at a cafe called The Loaf that was located in the glitzy shopping area known as The Pavilion. We were surrounded by stores like Fendi, Bulgari, D&G, Armani, Prada, etc. Being in these areas are still a little surreal for me, especially after living in Bhutan.

The view of the Petronas Towers from out hotel.

Hanging out in places we don't belong.

One thing that makes KL a wonderful city is the Lake Gardens – 92 hectares of green tropical gardens and lakes with lots of wildlife and walking trails. It reminded me of Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. In fact, KL is known as the 'greenest city in Asia' and there are green spaces like this in small scale all over the city. Emily and I stopped by KL Sentral on the edge of the Lake Gardens to purchase train tickets to Melaka and Singapore (we were determined not to have to take another bus in Malaysia) and then we were strolling through the park. It was a beautiful tropical day – hot and humid, but breezy and cooler in the shade.

The Lake Gardens.

The beautiful helconia garden.

The hibiscus garden.

On another edge of the park was the wonderful Islamic Arts Museum, which is widely recognized as one of the best of its kind in the world. It is located near the National Mosque, which is another beautiful building. As I mentioned earlier, Malaysia is majority Muslim, although KL was easily one of the most diverse cities I have ever been in (even more than New York City). Emily and I had lunch in the Islamic Arts Museum, which has a good Lebanese restaurant but terrible service. While experiencing this service, Emily and I reflected that all throughout our trip we have received mostly poor to terrible service. Since there is no tipping in Malaysia, this might explain somewhat the phenomenon. Mostly, waiters and waitresses were indifferent and inattentive, which could also be a matter of training and reflect the cultural expectations around food service. It's a small matter, really, and I don't really let these things influence my feelings about a place.

Detail of the wall at the Islamic Arts Museum.

Inverted dome.

The National Mosque.

After spending an afternoon at the Museum, we walked back through the Lake Gardens and stopped at the beautiful orchid garden. By late afternoon, we were getting tired of walking and standing and traveled back to the area around our hotel. We ended up having dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in the Pavilion Mall and then going to see Life of Pi at the cinema complex there. (As I explained earlier, getting to see a Western movie in a cinema is a real treat for us coming from Bhutan.) We both really liked the movie.

Exquisite orchid garden.

Our second day in KL was spent mostly in the City Center area around our hotel. We had brunch at the excellent Antipodean Cafe – a place I found while looking around in the local Arts & Entertainment publications online. From there, we walked to the KLCC Park (another excellent green space). Looming over the park are the amazing Petronas towers – once the tallest in the world. The unique feature of the towers is that there is a skybridge on the 41st floor that connects them. Since tickets were about $30 each, we didn't pay to go up to the skybridge, since that's the highest you can get as a tourist (there are still over 50 floors above it). Instead, we walked around the bottom floor which featured a nice interactive display with architectural information. The bottom of the Petronas Towers is also the highly-rated KL Symphony Hall and, of course, a huge mall.

Delicious banana pancakes with butterscotch syrup at the Antipodean Cafe.

From KLCC, we walked back to the Pavilion Mall and spent most of the rest of the day there. As mentioned previously, neither Emily nor I are 'mall people' but we enjoy the experience here because it is both unique to our normal lives in Bhutan and the malls in Asia are much classier than the ones in the United States. At the Pavilion Mall there was even an Aveda (which is a Minneapolis-based salon and body product store), so I bought a few of my normal hair products to bring back to Bhutan. We had lunch at a Chinese dumpling place, and in the late afternoon we went to the cinema again to see Les Miserables (which we also liked, although I don't think it is Best Picture nomination-worthy). For dinner we were both a little tired of making choices (in these kinds of malls there are at least 100 restaurants that are not chains) and the over-abundance of choice can put you in a malaise sometimes, so we just wanted something simple and went to a decent, if mediocre, sushi place where you take the sushi from a rotating conveyor belt and pay-by-plate at the end. For a sushi lover like me, mediocre sushi is better than no sushi, as is the case in Bhutan.

Everywhere in Malaysia is decked out for Chinese New Year.

From the Pavilion Mall, we walked back up to KLCC to get a drink at SkyBar, which is located in the Traders Hotel across the park from the Petronas Towers. The Traders Hotel turns its pool-deck area on the 50 floor into a swanky nightclub in the evenings, and it is a popular place to go because of its superior view of the Towers.

SkyBar.

The next day found us back at the Antipodean Cafe before heading to the train station and south to Melaka.

So, you're probably asking yourself, why does Matt love KL so much? Granted, we only spent two full days there, but sometimes you can just pick up an immediate vibe when you visit a city. This was the case with KL. First of all, the greenery in KL is appealing, and reminded me of San Francisco or Seattle or Minneapolis. Second, KL is an extremely diverse city and this means both interesting people and amazing food options. Third, KL is a city much on-the-rise and is the fastest growing city in Asia. While this means a lot of growing pains, it also means a lot of opportunities. Like Helsinki, KL is a city that oozes design, art, music, and innovation. It's vibrancy is very attractive to me. The public transportation system, while not being as amazing as Bangkok, is very comprehensive and functions quite smoothly.

I'm not going to lie with you, I have already done some preliminary looking for job opportunities in KL and found a few things that are enticing (The University of Nottingham operates a branch in KL that is a sizable School of Education here). I also think that Singapore will be quite enticing as well, although as I write this I am merely on the train to Singapore and not quite there yet.) In any event, I am completely open to finding employment in SE Asia and would welcome the opportunity if the right one came along. Emily feels similarly, since there will no doubt be good job opportunities for nursing here in modern and efficient hospitals.

It's hard to believe, but our travels are almost to a close and soon we will be returning to Bhutan to ease back into our Bhutanese lives. It will feel good to be 'home' again and not living out of – and hauling around – a heavy suitcase. However, more than ever, I have come to the realization that Bhutan is not for me as a long-term option. Several of my expat friends love living in Bhutan exactly for its simpleness and isolation, but for me I am much more drawn to complexity and connectivity. This is why cities like KL appeal to me.

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