Kuala Lumpar is a really beautiful city and is very different from Indian cities. It is very clean and doesn't have too much pollution. The streets aren't lined with beggars, emaciated cows, dumped piles of litter etc. It has proper pavements to walk on and really good 3-lane highways. Although the roads are busy they are not completely congested with big trucks, rickshaws and pushbikes carrying large loads that are so big that they should really be transproted in a van. It doesn't though have too much evidence of it's own culture though, but instead is made up of very modern high rise buildings and huge shopping malls.
You can't walk more than a few minutes without coming across a massive shopping mall. These shopping malls make Buchanan Galleries look like a corner shop. In fact, Buchanan Galleries, is probably the size of the foodcourt in one of these malls. For example, one mall we went into was 7 stories high and only sold electronic gadgets - computers, mobile phones etc.. It doesn't have shops running either side of the mall, as we know a shopping centre but instead is crammed full of small stalls, several hundred per floor. It is quite mind blowing. Colin, the hi-fi boffin, found a place selling Chinese hi-fi equipment which he had only ever read about and never actually seen, as it is not sold in the UK. He had to be dragged out of the shop before he spent every penny we had.
The food is fantastic but the only problem is that there is not enough hours in the day to eat as much as you want to. There was one really fantastic food court to eat in. A food well known food critic had trawled the streets sampling people selling food in little street stalls. Most of these had been selling the same food, in the same stall for generations. He choose the best 20 he could find and set them up in a food mall, in the ground floor of a large central shopping mall. The only problem was choosing which stall to buy your food from as they were all brilliant. Then, when you sat down content with your choice you would see someone else's plate and wish you had ordered that. Several times I had to ask strangers what stall they had got there plate of food from so that next time we would go there. All the menus have pictures of all the dishes that they sell. This is not like in Spain when you see pictures of the food on a menu, you order it and what you get is nothing like the picture. Here, what you see is exactly what you get, which is great when you don't speak the language. Statistics say that there are 1.5 million people live in Kuala Lumpar but I am sure there are more than 1.5 million eateries!
If you are a shopaholic Kuala Lumpar is the place to be, if you are a foodaholic it is definately the place be but if you are an alcoholic it is the place to avoid as alcohol is very expensive.
Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country but this is not evidenced in Kuala Lumpar where short skirts, tight fitting jeans and skimpy tops are the clothes of choice for most. There are Muslims and dressed accordingly, but they seem to be in the minority. After having lived in the Middle East for 10 years I find it strange to see young Muslim girls wearing a headscarf alongside tight jeans and tight t-shirt.
Even crossing the road is relatively simple as there are zebra crossings which some drivers even stop for. Not like in India where you take your life in your hands when crossing the road. Colin's theory in India when crossing the road is find a Local who is also crossing and, as soon as they step out into the traffic, you also step out, look straight ahead and just keep walking - despite the fact that cars and trucks are still ploughing forward. He believes that the cars will swerve round the Local hence miss you as well. He doesn't take into account that the Local might just have a death wish and want to be rammed by on-coming vehicles, hitting you in the process. I must say though, it does seem to work - or has done up til now!
Our main aim in Kuala Lumpar was to re-new my passport. Unfortunately passport re-newal has now become centralised and the British Embassy there no longer deals with this. So we had to print off renewal forms from the internet, fill them in and courier them to Hong Kong along with my old passport. It is then processed and sent to the UK. It will then be returned to the British Embassy in Malaysia, where I can collect it. It will take 4 weeks, so now I am in a foreign country without a passport. This means that we cannot leave Malaysia for 4 weeks but we are still able to travel around the country so not too much of a hardship. Fortunately most hotels only ask for 1 passport when you check in and if you are booking trains etc and you need to give passport details, you can do this on-line. Then they don't know that you don't have a passport and I just give my old passport details.
It was difficult to capture the city on film as it was so vast with all the high-rise buildings and activity happening around you. Will post some photos though.
You can't walk more than a few minutes without coming across a massive shopping mall. These shopping malls make Buchanan Galleries look like a corner shop. In fact, Buchanan Galleries, is probably the size of the foodcourt in one of these malls. For example, one mall we went into was 7 stories high and only sold electronic gadgets - computers, mobile phones etc.. It doesn't have shops running either side of the mall, as we know a shopping centre but instead is crammed full of small stalls, several hundred per floor. It is quite mind blowing. Colin, the hi-fi boffin, found a place selling Chinese hi-fi equipment which he had only ever read about and never actually seen, as it is not sold in the UK. He had to be dragged out of the shop before he spent every penny we had.
The food is fantastic but the only problem is that there is not enough hours in the day to eat as much as you want to. There was one really fantastic food court to eat in. A food well known food critic had trawled the streets sampling people selling food in little street stalls. Most of these had been selling the same food, in the same stall for generations. He choose the best 20 he could find and set them up in a food mall, in the ground floor of a large central shopping mall. The only problem was choosing which stall to buy your food from as they were all brilliant. Then, when you sat down content with your choice you would see someone else's plate and wish you had ordered that. Several times I had to ask strangers what stall they had got there plate of food from so that next time we would go there. All the menus have pictures of all the dishes that they sell. This is not like in Spain when you see pictures of the food on a menu, you order it and what you get is nothing like the picture. Here, what you see is exactly what you get, which is great when you don't speak the language. Statistics say that there are 1.5 million people live in Kuala Lumpar but I am sure there are more than 1.5 million eateries!
If you are a shopaholic Kuala Lumpar is the place to be, if you are a foodaholic it is definately the place be but if you are an alcoholic it is the place to avoid as alcohol is very expensive.
Malaysia is a predominately Muslim country but this is not evidenced in Kuala Lumpar where short skirts, tight fitting jeans and skimpy tops are the clothes of choice for most. There are Muslims and dressed accordingly, but they seem to be in the minority. After having lived in the Middle East for 10 years I find it strange to see young Muslim girls wearing a headscarf alongside tight jeans and tight t-shirt.
Even crossing the road is relatively simple as there are zebra crossings which some drivers even stop for. Not like in India where you take your life in your hands when crossing the road. Colin's theory in India when crossing the road is find a Local who is also crossing and, as soon as they step out into the traffic, you also step out, look straight ahead and just keep walking - despite the fact that cars and trucks are still ploughing forward. He believes that the cars will swerve round the Local hence miss you as well. He doesn't take into account that the Local might just have a death wish and want to be rammed by on-coming vehicles, hitting you in the process. I must say though, it does seem to work - or has done up til now!
Our main aim in Kuala Lumpar was to re-new my passport. Unfortunately passport re-newal has now become centralised and the British Embassy there no longer deals with this. So we had to print off renewal forms from the internet, fill them in and courier them to Hong Kong along with my old passport. It is then processed and sent to the UK. It will then be returned to the British Embassy in Malaysia, where I can collect it. It will take 4 weeks, so now I am in a foreign country without a passport. This means that we cannot leave Malaysia for 4 weeks but we are still able to travel around the country so not too much of a hardship. Fortunately most hotels only ask for 1 passport when you check in and if you are booking trains etc and you need to give passport details, you can do this on-line. Then they don't know that you don't have a passport and I just give my old passport details.
It was difficult to capture the city on film as it was so vast with all the high-rise buildings and activity happening around you. Will post some photos though.
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