May 5, 2007

Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia)

Kuala Lumpur: A City with an Identity of Its Own

Today's post will have to begin with the bats that made sleep hard to come by last night. The first sighting came as I was walking to the shower: I nearly stepped on a baby bat hopping along the floor, unable to fly. I scooped him up with a magazine and laid him on the outside porch, but after lying down in bed for the night I heard the rest of the family above me. And they could fly.

An elderly woman who was also sleeping in the dormitory told me not to turn on the lights because it scares the bats down and they circle the room. She also advised me to switch beds because, apparently, a bat hit the overhead fan and fell onto the face of a Japanese tourist some years back. You don't have to tell me twice.

So, all night I laid in bed listening to the bats flapping their wings in the upper tier of the attic, praying I wouldn't have a bloodied bat come crashing down on me. Sleep is supposed to be relaxing, but looking up into a black void waiting for a bat to shatter my inner peace is not my idea of relaxing.

Anyway, things did not get any better in the morning, and I rose early - partially because the mattress I was sleeping on had bed bugs and partially because, well, the mattress I was sleeping on had bed bugs. At $1.50USD for the night, I felt overcharged.

By 8am I was standing alongside a main road waiting for a public bus headed for the interstate bus terminal. By 9am I had reached the terminal and was boarding a bus bound for Kuala Lumpur. By 11am I was checking into a dormitory, but this one had low ceilings without bats. And hopefully no bed bugs.

My hostel is located in the heart of Chinatown, so that is where I began my tour of Kuala Lumpur (literally: "Confluence of Muddy Waters"). Like Chinatowns all over the world, the district is a tourist hotspot with entire streets devoted to selling knock-off goods on the cheap. I wandered around a bit, but since I don't have room in my pack it always feels pointless looking at the same knick-knacks that are sold in every other big city.

I next moved on to the Petronas Towers by catching the efficient Light Rail Transit (LRT). Unfortunately, one must queue at 8am to have any chance of walking the sky bridge (there is a daily quota), so I contented myself with looking around the 7 story shopping mall at its base and ate lunch at the cafeteria. I don't mind not going up because the building is the most impressive sight in Kuala Lumpur, so it doesn't make sense to take an aerial photo of the city without its inclusion. Besides, there is a higher vantage point I would visit later in the day.

Many of my friends have visited Kuala Lumpur, or KL for short, and they emphasized there is nothing to do except eat and shop. Naturally, I set out to prove them wrong by visiting places off the beaten path. I wanted to find a more rewarding version of KL, which turned out to be a lot easier than I anticipated.

I visited an out-of-the-way Chinese temple that is one of the more impressive I have seen. Personally, I find the gold and red paint, dragons, and oversized incarnations of deities to be somewhat gaudy, but this temple took things so far beyond the realm of normalcy that they managed to pull it off.

The real excitement came as I wandered around behind the temple where a small turtle pond is located. In Chinese Feng Shui, turtles are very auspicious animals that are supposed to bring good fortune and longevity to their owners. Joining me at the pond were two young kids who could only speak Chinese. I had fun practicing my Mandarin with them because it is not as embarrassing making mistakes in front of a child.

Back to the exciting part, though: the Chinese boy hopped over the small enclosure housing the turtles and began playing with them. It wasn't long before tapping them on the shell became boring, and he found it more exciting flinging them across the rock surface into the water. I took video of this because I found it hilarious, and his parents were nowhere to be seen. It is easy to imagine the cracking of shells as the turtles were banged into one another. I have posted the video on youTube.com, but the video can also be found at the end of this post. (Technology is really cool).

** For any who may be worried about the turtles, as indeed I was, none of the turtles were seriously hurt. Most were in their shells by the time he flung them, and I stopped him when he decided to take them airborne. **

As I mentioned, this temple was somewhat out of the way, and the taxi drivers wanted to charge me a lot of money for a ride back into town, so I decided to walk back based on memory. The first 30 minutes went just fine, but then I came across a small river with the nearest bridge nearly a kilometer away. Rather than waste time walking to it, I decided to cross over a small cable wire enclosure.

I had to watch my step because there was only an aluminum cover between me and the high density electrical wires (and the water, for that matter). Other than bloodying my leg as I climbed over the metal fence, which was designed to prevent exactly this sort of activity, I cleared the river just fine.

I bet no tour package itinerary has ever included something like this before, and I must have made quite a sight for any who saw me scurrying across.

I found my way to another LRT station, and rode to the "cultural" section of the city. Kuala Lumpur has a lot to offer, and unlike Singapore it has enough of an edge to keep you on your toes.

At one point during the day I was walking among a group of Muslim woman, who were all fully adorned in traditional clothing, while a sound system was blaring "Move that ASS" from a park across the street.

Islam plays a dominant role in Malaysia, and roughly 50% of the women I passed were wearing traditional attire.

Also, much of the modern architecture embodies evident Islamic influence, which makes the buildings look even more avante guarde. Below are a few examples of KL's impressive structures.

After an afternoon snack, I spent an hour relaxing in the national park, which is directly across the street from the Supreme Court. The weather has been perfect for the second day running, so my ghost-like appearance is finally giving way to something that looks more humanly. Speaking of which, I was called David Beckham on three separate occasions today - usually by young "punks" sitting on railings watching passer-bys! I don't look at all like David Beckham, but similar to how all tall Chinese look like Yao Ming, all Westerners with converging hair look like David Beckham... I don't know if converging is the right word to use, but it has been a long day and it is the best I could come up with.

As the afternoon wore on, I worked my way through Little India and sampled the foods along the road. I still shy away from the smelly fruit, durian, but the Romley Burger I tried was akin to the $0.30 burgers MacDonald's used to offer on Wednesdays in the United States. I don't know if MacDonald's still runs the promotion.

By this time in the day the sun was running out of energy and looked like it was ready to retire for the day. I hurriedly made the two kilometer walk to the imposing KL Tower where I could take in an impressive aerial view for only 20 ringgit. The descending sun made the city more attractive because of the shadows cast, and as I had hoped the Petronas Towers are far better to look at than to climb. Below are some pictures I took of Kuala Lumpur (in case you are like me and never imagined the city was so highly developed).

For my last gasp of the day I decided to do something adventurous. With advice from locals, I rode the LRT into a traditional Malay section of the city. After walking 50 meters outside the LRT station, I realized I was nowhere near the KL most people know: this section of the city has not experienced the dramatic development, and still lives in dreadful public housing and sub-standard conditions. However, the people returned my smiles - even if it was more out of shock than friendliness - and I joined a large crowd at a hawker center serving traditional Malay food. After washing my hands, I joined the queue and scooped white rice, a curried fish, spiced eggplant, and a mystery meat onto my plate. Then, I took my seat amongst the locals and began shoveling the food in my mouth.

I cannot remember the last time so many eyes were on me at once.

After bringing me a few napkins, two of the waiters stood by to chat. Their English was every bit as bad as my Bahasa, but they understood when I told them United States, and they sure as hell understood when I told them (in Bahasa) that "I love Kuala Lumpur and the food is delicious!" This caused laughing from all the surrounding tables, and I felt a great deal of security in this "seedy" district of town. More specifically, I felt like a local.

In retrospect, I am not really sure what I was hoping to accomplish when I decided to visit this part of KL. I suppose part of me wanted to witness the kind of local lifestyle I wouldn't otherwise connect with, and another part of me wanted to feel at home in an environment that is entirely foreign to me. Whatever it was, I found what I was looking for.

By the time I caught the LRT back to Chinatown it was dark out. No matter, my final view of the Petronas Towers was memorable.

I will catch a bus to the airport at 5am tomorrow morning, and by noon I should touch down in Kuching on the western end of Borneo. I don't know what kind of internet connection will be available, so it may be several days before I can post again. If that is the case, you are free to rent the movie Apocalypse Now because the river Charlie Sheen boats up is the same one I will be taking to reach central Borneo. God knows what I will find when I get there, but then, that is exactly why I am going.

Here is the video, as promised. And NO HATE MAIL over the abuse!

** As a small side note, I miss all you friends back in Singapore. For all of you who have written me over the past two days, thank you, it means a lot. **

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