The last two and a half days I spent in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Currently, I’m already on the onward journey to the Cameron Highlands, for two and a half days in KL also suffice.
KL – so called Kuala Lumpur from virtually any. Almost everyone has already given me on the way to KL on the Council not to spend too much time. The Guides do not give much.
Even though I often reckon with exaggeration, I have to give this time right people. The city really is not one of my best travel experiences and ranks among my advice pretty far behind a. Of course – that it should be said – there is the experience of a city also always depends on what you want in it and where is the base (property), because from there you have to start over again yes and sets a corresponding amount of distance in this area back.
My Hotel (Classic Inn) I found pretty good. My room was quiet, well air-conditioned, fairly clean (clean in developing countries has nothing to clean to do in Germany), the people were friendly, the wifi was as good as rare and even had breakfast. Located on the edge of the “in-district” Bukit Bintang right next to the so-called Times Square Shopping Center. All the attractions are about 20-30 minutes walk away and so I also put everything back on foot. Although there are some possibilities of public transport, but it would have been only 1-2 stations and was not worth it.
With buses and taxis I wanted to deliberately not be traveling because KL is completely blocked in the downtown area. One might even say, it did not even take a lot of cars on the streets, because they are all stuck in traffic. There are many sites that help in the short term the situation is not just traffic, but hopefully in the long term.
Despite everything, KL is not just a paradise for pedestrians. Sidewalks are here known but nevertheless often non-existent or too narrow or cluttered or non-continuous (but that does not only Kuala Lumpur). Pedestrian traffic lights are often switched off and even if they work, you can not seriously waiting for “green” because the response times are strange. So everyone is running back and forth across the streets (there is a traffic jam for pedestrians naturally helpful) and the experience in all those countries shows: You have to join simple, otherwise nothing.
If you walk on a sidewalk times, that does not mean that one does not come to meet a number of mopeds, who want to avoid traffic jams. Somewhat annoying it is when the nerve to go through with standing in a traffic jam and suddenly people honk all together. As if that would change anything. Even taxi drivers honking as a precaution when they see walking along the road a foreigner, as if one could want impossible run seriously, instead of going in a taxi. Actually amazing that annoys me still a bit, even though I was a few times in Central and South America, where the road is directly connected to honking horns (in Asia there is a lot less).
And otherwise? KL is not my favorite city, which is likely to be so far clear. But it obviously also has better sides. Temperatures have been here a little more pleasant, so I felt it at least. But there were not so much sun in recent days, but every now and rain that has me but not impaired (usually only short showers).
Even moderate temperatures keep the operators of museums, cafes and buses not depend on to turn the air conditioning. In the bus I’m sitting with sweater and closed cafes I’m not going to have without a sweater here. Yesterday I had one and a half hours in a beautiful café accomplish a few tasks and sat at the end with freezing hands and feet there.
This can be experienced but everywhere. I can still remember a theater in Havana, where we have two hours just frozen. I’ll probably never understand. Maybe it’s the pride of the new “wealth”: We now have air conditioning, so it should be pretty cool. Just as we can afford meat us now and that’s why meat should be eaten (though sometimes only cartilage and bone ;-)).
What to do in KL now? Also called Golden Triangle – – So in addition to the mentioned Bukit Bitang area with many shops and restaurants you can, of course, the Petronas Twin Towers View (see article from yesterday). There is also an in KL Chinatown and a small Colonial District. There I took part in the “Malaysian Heritage Tour”, which is carried out free of a small agency. This leads primarily through the Colonial District, Merdeka Square and ends in the brand new Kuala Lumpur Gallery.
West of Chinatown also hosts the Lake Gardens – a fairly large park surrounding a small lake. The area is very nice and very quiet. Here you get good times out of the transport stress. Unfortunately I could not stay long because just teased a thunderstorm.
That’s basically already. If I really should come again, I would still make the Batu Caves. One well very religious place with temples, caves and monkeys quite a bit outside of downtown.
Worth mentioning, I think otherwise still a conversation with a student who was collecting donations for a children’s hospital (in the shopping center of the Petronas Towers). He does all this very officially done with multiple cards, receipt and a small catalog with photos. In addition, he has repeatedly apologized to bother me. It has already noticed that he probably encounters a lot of rejection. He then told me that a lot of people are upset when it coming to them, and he was seriously confused about. I explained to him that you will be constantly addressed as “white Tourist” in countries such as Malaysia and everyone wants to have some form of money from wealthy foreigners. If you are just on vacation and experienced every day several times, which can be annoying times and the first reflex is rejection. In addition, you will be – whether intentionally or not – driven to guilt, because of course I, as Europeans have much more money and can make a difference for single people – but not for all. But he could really understand it’s not (that people react angrily, but I also have no understanding). As fate would confirm my point, it took less than two minutes: When he was gone, the next Malaysian came up to me and wanted to make a donation for the deaf.
Even fewer had understanding of student that I travel alone, have no wife and – even worse! – Not looking / wants. We nevertheless well understood and maintained nicely. His English was really good. In conclusion, he wished me to find a good wife 😉
Yes, that was Kuala Lumpur. A rather long article for a city where not much was going on for me. But it is also a long bus ride 🙂