KL

Summing up our impressions of KL: some worthwhile sights/sites for the tourist and a gentle introduction for Asia virgins like us but a city that has grown so fast that any unified city centre has been sacrificed to the motor car.  Highways carve up the city and it's hard for pedestrians to find their way via under and overpasses walking on pavements which are frequently uneven or broken.  That said ,there is a very efficient and "human" hop-on, hop-off tourist bus (it even waited for us for several minutes when the driver saw us hurrying towards a stop) and taxis are plentiful and very cheap.

Apart from the famous Petronas towers  there are many skyscrapers, some of very striking design and all built in the past 20 years. There are pockets of "authentic" ethnic neighbourhoods which have been preserved:Chinatown, Little India and Kampung Baru (Malay) but they almost seem artificial tourist attractions as they are so small and sectioned off from the rest of the city by highways and new developments. 



Giant bamboo



Despite the impression I seem to have been giving of a modern city "work in progress" it is very green with luxuriant trees everywhere and lots of green spaces including a massive park right in the city and a hill covered with rain forest where we walked this morning.  So there is evidence of some town planning alongside the race for growth.

 

It is a wealthy place with countless shopping malls selling designer goods.  These are always thronged with people who are toting lots of bags.  This seemed a bit of a mystery to us as the prices are high relative to the weak £ and € and the average wage is about £7k pa.  Of course there is a huge gap between those at the top and those at the bottom of society.  These seem to be largely imported workers (1.8 million pa -and that's just the legal ones) as there is a chronic shortage of workers in every sector.

OK the details:  we loved the Craft and Cultural Centre where we saw many traditional and often beautiful objects and people making them.  The other standout for us was the Museum of Islamic Art.  This latter housed in a gorgeous building and displaying exquisite objects from all over the Moslem world from across the centuries.



A 14th century Q'ran



Petronas- sometimes has clouds at top

The other ingredient to making KL worth visiting is definitely the people who, almost without exception, are smiling and helpful- from the ubiquitous sweeping ladies to the waiters and hotel staff.  There is absolutely no problem asking anyone for directions and you are never made to feel you are a nuisance.

Later:  Back from dinner in the KLCC under the Towers...decided to go western for a change and had best steaks we've had for ages- Australian beef.  Sipped our holiday cocktails as the muezzen called the faithful to evening prayer.  A strange experience  .The PM of Malaysia is in our hotel tonight for dinner at a convemtion so the red carpet was out

KL sling