Saturday - wandering aimlessly my first day in Kuala Lumpur
Saturday morning I meandered out of my guesthouse to see KL. My thoughts were to figure out where the monorail picked up and take it around. A taxi driver was waiting at the bottom of the street and he asked where I wanted to go. I told him I would probably take the monorail and go site seeing, perhaps to Batu Caves. He said, Come on, I’ll take you there and then I’ll bring you back to the monorail station. I was easy to convince. He proceeded to give me the landmarks I would need to get home later, the monorail information, etc. He waited for me at the caves and brought me back as promised. All for about $20. (The tours that you can sign up for online to take you out to Batu Caves are more than that.) We had a wonderful conversation about the country and his life and my children and his daughter and the value of money and what is important in various religions. He and I both decided that Christians and Muslims have more in common than they have in difference. He wasn’t pitching – I doubt it had occurred to him to compare before. We were just chatting. The economy everywhere, the US President, the weather in Florida v. the weather in KL. Oh, and the Indians are lazy drunks. They just want to come here and they don’t want to work. (Does this sound familiar?)
The caves themselves are a giant Hindu temple. And monkeys! Everywhere! The taxi driver said that the minute you have a space with a few trees in the city, you are going to have monkeys. I don’t think I had really equated the word “jungle” with this place as firmly in my mind as I should have. It is incredibly hot and muggy and jungle-like. The minute I stepped out of the cab I witnessed a monkey jumping into the arms of a toddler with a popsicle – and then taking off with the popsicle. The child laughed. I witnessed the monkeys doing lots of things. Pretty much everything you can imagine. I took pictures (see Facebook album) but the ones where you could see a whole wall full of monkeys climbing around didn’t come out well. The cave was large and amazing – and then temples have been built inside. Literally buildings inside. The whole cave has a concrete floor. The Hindus have their shoes off (everyone must take their shoes off to go inside the temples themselves – I did not go). One woman that I saw was clearly of Chinese decent but dressed in Hindu style garments complete with the “dot”. I saw three catholic nuns wandering around. The stairs were quite a hike up – but the view was nice looking back out over KL.
My new best friend the taxi driver dropped me in China town after much discussion about how I should spend my day. I wandered through China town but I’m going to be honest with you, it was no different from any China town anywhere and there were moments when I could have sworn I was on Canal St. in New York. I bought nothing. Then I wandered over to the central market – but similarly did not remain interested for long because I’m not in the buying mode. So I bought a ticket to the hop-on/hop-off bus and hopped on.
My malaria tablets make me nauseous, so after about a 1/3 of the circuit I got out and walked for awhile. Just a business district part of town, no tourists. I got a slurpee at 7-11 (yep, you read that right) and it was just the refreshment I needed. After my no-agenda wandering for a couple of miles I flagged a cab and asked him to take me to Petronas towers.
Petronas towers are the twin towers that are the icon of KL. You can go up an elevator and walk across the glass skybridge between the two buildings. It’s free but there is a line. I couldn’t be bothered. But the bottom few stories of the tower buildings are a fabulous modern mall. I was feeling quite hungry by then but was intimidated by the food places in the non-touristy areas, so eating at a restaurant in the mall felt like the right compromise – stick my toe in the water. The girl who waited on me was amused by my (pantomimed) questions – and everyone in the little eating area seemed to enjoy watching the steam coming out of my ears while I ate the spicy soup. When you order something here, you always say how many, even if it is only one. So I am learning to say “one more” about cold drinks when I am eating, here!
Even in the most touristy sections of this city you don’t see very many Westerners. When you do, they are more often non-native-English speakers. I’ve met Danish, German, French and others. English is the common language even among the natives sometimes (between Malaysian, Arabic and Indian) – but you hear it with every accent imaginable. When your ear does pick up a native English speaker, the accent will be Australian/New Zealand or British. I have picked up the American or Canadian accent one time in the entire time I have been here.
After wandering the shopping mall and having my dinner/lunch, I caught back up with the hop-on/hop-off bus. I watched in fascination out the window and listened to the commentary. Finally exiting at my home stop. I knew my home stop because of the words that my first taxi-driver had made me repeat until I had memorized.
The walk back was when I began to realize why all the reviews on Trip Advisor raved about the location of my guesthouse. Tucked on a quiet cul-de-sac it is short blocks away from the most happening parts of the city. Best of both worlds! I took a few pictures of the walk home and the street outside the guest house. See Facebook album “A random day in KL”.
It wasn’t very late but I was tired. I had been fighting the nausea all day and everything was so foreign and just a little scary. I was ready for some quiet relaxation. Unfortunately – while I did remain in my room – it was some time before I had quiet relaxation because while I was wandering around this day a life-changing drama was unfolding back home. But I got to spend some time Skyping with family.
My new best friend the taxi driver dropped me in China town after much discussion about how I should spend my day. I wandered through China town but I’m going to be honest with you, it was no different from any China town anywhere and there were moments when I could have sworn I was on Canal St. in New York. I bought nothing. Then I wandered over to the central market – but similarly did not remain interested for long because I’m not in the buying mode. So I bought a ticket to the hop-on/hop-off bus and hopped on.
My malaria tablets make me nauseous, so after about a 1/3 of the circuit I got out and walked for awhile. Just a business district part of town, no tourists. I got a slurpee at 7-11 (yep, you read that right) and it was just the refreshment I needed. After my no-agenda wandering for a couple of miles I flagged a cab and asked him to take me to Petronas towers.
Petronas towers are the twin towers that are the icon of KL. You can go up an elevator and walk across the glass skybridge between the two buildings. It’s free but there is a line. I couldn’t be bothered. But the bottom few stories of the tower buildings are a fabulous modern mall. I was feeling quite hungry by then but was intimidated by the food places in the non-touristy areas, so eating at a restaurant in the mall felt like the right compromise – stick my toe in the water. The girl who waited on me was amused by my (pantomimed) questions – and everyone in the little eating area seemed to enjoy watching the steam coming out of my ears while I ate the spicy soup. When you order something here, you always say how many, even if it is only one. So I am learning to say “one more” about cold drinks when I am eating, here!
Even in the most touristy sections of this city you don’t see very many Westerners. When you do, they are more often non-native-English speakers. I’ve met Danish, German, French and others. English is the common language even among the natives sometimes (between Malaysian, Arabic and Indian) – but you hear it with every accent imaginable. When your ear does pick up a native English speaker, the accent will be Australian/New Zealand or British. I have picked up the American or Canadian accent one time in the entire time I have been here.
After wandering the shopping mall and having my dinner/lunch, I caught back up with the hop-on/hop-off bus. I watched in fascination out the window and listened to the commentary. Finally exiting at my home stop. I knew my home stop because of the words that my first taxi-driver had made me repeat until I had memorized.
The walk back was when I began to realize why all the reviews on Trip Advisor raved about the location of my guesthouse. Tucked on a quiet cul-de-sac it is short blocks away from the most happening parts of the city. Best of both worlds! I took a few pictures of the walk home and the street outside the guest house. See Facebook album “A random day in KL”.
It wasn’t very late but I was tired. I had been fighting the nausea all day and everything was so foreign and just a little scary. I was ready for some quiet relaxation. Unfortunately – while I did remain in my room – it was some time before I had quiet relaxation because while I was wandering around this day a life-changing drama was unfolding back home. But I got to spend some time Skyping with family.
